360 Kickflip
Technique
1. Push a few times to get rolling at a comfortable speed.
2. Put your back foot flat across the tail. Place your front foot similar to a kickflip position, but with your toes pointing more towards the nose at about a 45 degree angle.
3. Bend your knees, but try and keep your shoulders and upper body facing the direction your riding. If you let your shoulders dip forward too much you are going to end up chasing the board.
360 kickflips are all in the legs. I see a lot of kids who try to force this trick by using their upper body and front foot to huck the board. It flies out in front of them and they try catch up to it by jumping forward. Avoid doing this! If you’re scooping and kicking right, the board will spin under you. No need to chase it.
4. Pop the tail. While doing this pull your back foot towards you. This makes the board rotate 360. People often describe this as scooping your back foot.
5. Your front foot should gently kick straight out. This makes the board flip and helps it rotate the 360. Watch the slow motion part of the video clip and focus on his front foot. It’s barely even kicking. The front foot is like a guide for the board. Watch the slow motion part again and focus on his back foot. It’s moving a lot faster and doing most of the work.
6. Now that you’ve got the board spinning and flipping, bring up your back foot.
7. When the board comes around get your back foot on it.
8. Make sure your feet are spread out properly. A common problem when first learning to 360 kickflip is landing with your feet together, or landing too close to the nose. It helps to visualize yourself landing with the proper foot placement before you try the trick. Think about bringing you back foot towards the back bolts.
9. Get your front foot back on and take it down for the landing.
Additional Help:
Problem: I can’t rotate the board a full 360.
Reason: This trick takes a lot of power to learn.
Solution: If you don’t have enough power to rotate the board completely, then you’ll have to make sure that you really fine tune your technique. A clean pop and a good scoop with your back foot will take you a long way.
