How to 50-50 Stand (Truckstand)

A quick note about the name. In freestyle, this trick was called a 50-50 before 50-50 grinds were invented, so two tricks share a name. That’s just something we have to live with. If you want to be completely clear, call it a 50-50 stand. It’s one of the building blocks of freestyle.

The version I’m teaching starts with the nose on the ground. You hook your foot under, flip the board over, land on the truck and grab the nose.

Setup

Tilt the board a little frontside. If it’s completely parallel to your shoulders, you might hit your knee when you pull the board up, and it’s a lot harder. Keep the board a little ahead of you, but keep your front foot straight. That way you can push down on that side and get a little extra flip if you need it.

Put your hooking foot right about the middle. If it’s really high, the board flips over easily, but the transfer down to the truck gets hard. Too low and it’s hard to flip over. The middle works fine.

How to do a 50-50

The whole trick is shifting your weight from one foot to the other as the board tips over.

1. Hook your foot under and tip the board over.
2. As it tips, shift your weight onto your foot on the truck and lean back a little.
3. Grab the nose. Aim for a straight line from your foot to the tail.
4. Keep all your weight on your foot. Your hand just keeps it steady.

Don’t dip it so far that there’s weight on your hand and you have to hold it in place. That makes flipping out a lot harder, and the board can rip out of your hand. Trust me, you don’t want that.

Hand position

Keep your thumb on top. The only exception is something like a triple fingerflip out, where your hand might be the other way. Otherwise always thumb on top. You can hurt your wrist with it the other way if you land with your foot on the wheel and it twists against your hand.

Where your foot lands

Where your foot lands on the truck is the main problem with this trick. It helps a lot to have it at an angle. That way there’s not too much weight on either wheel, which can roll and send your foot flying. If your foot is straight up against the deck, it’s a lot harder to control. At an angle, you can shift more weight to your toe or your heel and stay balanced. Straight across, you’re stuck with however you landed.

Getting out

• Tip it back. The easy way, if you’re having a lot of trouble. Your other foot is floating out there, so as it tips, bring it over and land.
• Flip out. Thumb on top, jump, and once you’re off the board, let it drop. If that doesn’t work for you, add a little spin as you flip it. Instead of a half flip, it does a little less and spins, which makes it easier.

You can roll the truck with your foot a little as you flip out, but it’s not really necessary.

What’s next

Once you have it, it’s really easy to go to railstand. You can also do Saran wraps, where your foot goes around, and switch-foots, where you jump and switch feet over and over. There’s a lot you can do from here.