The forward flip, is one of the more unusual flips you see and always looks and feels awesome to do. It is best described as an ollie, late front footed hardflip, as it flips over end between your legs, this trick is very versatile and can be done on banks, flatland, hips, down drops/stairs and even on quarter pipes to lip tricks(for example to blunt over a spine)
If your into your flip tricks this is definately a powerful flip to have in your arsenal, and surprisingly isnt as hard as people seem to think.
You should know kickflips before you even attempt the forward flip, being comfortable landing simple flips is a must have, before attempting this
Ollie north's help quite a bit, the whole situation of kicking forwards instead of off to the side is strange for a lot of people, so ollie north's are advantageous
Other Skills:
Having a really good ollie would be helpful, as when you do this trick you will need to jump high to allow it to flip under you.
What You May Find Useful:
This may sound a little strange but imagine a line running down the centre of your board, right down the length, the way this trick flips your gonna be flicking to the immediate left or right of that imaginary central line.
Doing The Trick
Positioning:
- For the front foot, I find the best position is directly behind the bolts, with your toes angled forward, however this may not work for you, so experiment, a little, the key is to find a comfortable position, however having the front foot further down the board will make the trick harder to flick
- Your back foot needs to be in the best, most comfortable ollie position for you
- I find leaning forwards over the front of the board more to be the best option, it allows me to remain balanced, and ensures the board flips under me instead of in front of me
Motion:
RIght so youve set up in a comfortable position, and your ready to go:
1. Pop your ollie, drag your front foot up the board as normal, towards the nose, as your foot reaches the nose flick off the end, remembering that imaginary line, if your regs, hit directly to the left of it, if your goofs, hit directly to the right, tuck that back leg up to get it out of the way.
2. Get that front foot out of the way after the flick, as you would for a kickflip, and bring it back round whilst in the air ready to catch it.
3. keep your back foot tucked up until the board has flipped and rotated properly, aim for the bolts to catch it cleanly.
4. Catch it, and land over the bolts, Roll away like it was nothing, now go and land 10 more.
Video Trick Tips:
Troubleshooting
There are various problems you can have with this trick:
You do a varial flip
The trouble here is your flicking too far away from the very end of the nose, its literately gotta be directly to the left or right of that imaginary line.
The board rotates and flips but lands upside down
This is all timing of the catch as with any flip trick, if you try to catch a little early or a little late most of the time it will be upside down.
You sack yourself
Unlucky, your not kicking off the end hard enough, kick harder, you really cannot flick this trick hard enough as the harder you flick it, the easier it is to land as it will find your back foot
Perfection... but its in front of me
This is one of the main reasons I prefer putting my weight over the front of the board, as I had this problem when I was learning them, lean forwards more, so ensure that it flips under you. It doesn't flip just goes forwards away from me
The trouble here most of the time is where your flicking, if your regular and you kick off on the right hand side of the old imaginary line, then it wont flip and you will probably sack yourself I do an ollie north
your not flicking at the end of the nose, your just flicking off the end. aim to flick off yes, but aim to flick so your connecting with the end of the nose.
Where Do I Go From Here?
Take it down a stairset, off a loading dock, over a funbox, over a hip, into grinds, on banks etc etc, get creative, go switch, do nollie backwards flips or fakie backwards flips, the choices can be endless with this trick, or just do it in games of skate as your ace in the hole to piss people off :)
Im not gonna lie to you, I'm so scared of this trick.
I've been sacked REALLY badly doing it on the trampoline, and now I have a bad fear of the trick. The thing I cant work out, how do you make them not as vertical.
Like when Jimmy Carlin does them they dont go completely end over end.
And you know how you said "you can never kick the nose too hard"
Well thats how I sacked myself. I kicked it too hard, and so the board went straight down into the ground rather than popping and so it just stood completely upright on the ground and blam!
Haha suprisingly its only happened to me twice, once on the dolphin and once on a switch hard. But I've had many more close calls.
But I love trampboarding, it is seriously the best thing ever.
There are endless possiblities, and no joke (not claiming either) I can just do any trick I want to (hard gazelle flips yew!).
My love is probably because I used to do serious competitive trampolining
I do forward flip rotations all the time(though I do not land them) they are much easier than kickflips or any other flip trick for me. Though I do perform them slightly different from your guide here Zibfu. Its really well put together, the end of how to do the motion seems a like its missing something or theres not enough detail. Just my thoughts on it. But everything else was great! Good work
why what do you think is missing scoffman, I can edit it again and again you see so anything people think is missing I can add in if I think its relevant
miller, if your nose hit the floor then your kicking down more instead of forwards, if you kick it forwards then you cant hit it to hard because it will just flip faster
i tried this before and got racked, but it was a light one. still, not worth even 1 rack to land those. its cool if someone pulls it out in a line, but tbh i'd rather see the cliche'd tre than this
why what do you think is missing scoffman, I can edit it again and again you see so anything people think is missing I can add in if I think its relevant
miller, if your nose hit the floor then your kicking down more instead of forwards, if you kick it forwards then you cant hit it to hard because it will just flip faster
Ohh, so you kick forwards past the nose, not kick down on the nose?
I think it was the wording at first that sorta tripped me (grammar)
Mainly I would just suggest a more forward step by step instructions. This would make it easier to comprehend the flick and foot movement over the deck.
Example:
1. Assume the foot position(make some recap note)
2. Slide your front foot forward (up the imaginary line) followed with a small flick when your foot reaches the tip of the nose.
3. Foot continues sliding off the nose and land
ahh I see what you mean, however the whole point in the positioning and motion sections of the trick tip are designed to offer step by step, instead of just the typical one whole paragraph with how to, what to and when to in said paragraph, however, I will change it and basically bullet point each step, each little paragraph to make it an easier read and mebbe reword some stuff as I did do this at something like 2am haha, atm one of the priorities is getting the 3 vid clips Ive uploaded to work, for some reason they should be working within the tip as examples but they arent there :s
I've been sacked REALLY badly doing it on the trampoline, and now I have a bad fear of the trick. The thing I cant work out, how do you make them not as vertical.
Like when Jimmy Carlin does them they dont go completely end over end.
And you know how you said "you can never kick the nose too hard"
Well thats how I sacked myself. I kicked it too hard, and so the board went straight down into the ground rather than popping and so it just stood completely upright on the ground and blam!
I dont know if I'll ever be able to commit
But I love trampboarding, it is seriously the best thing ever.
There are endless possiblities, and no joke (not claiming either) I can just do any trick I want to (hard gazelle flips yew!).
My love is probably because I used to do serious competitive trampolining
miller, if your nose hit the floor then your kicking down more instead of forwards, if you kick it forwards then you cant hit it to hard because it will just flip faster
miller, if your nose hit the floor then your kicking down more instead of forwards, if you kick it forwards then you cant hit it to hard because it will just flip faster
Mainly I would just suggest a more forward step by step instructions. This would make it easier to comprehend the flick and foot movement over the deck.
Example:
1. Assume the foot position(make some recap note)
2. Slide your front foot forward (up the imaginary line) followed with a small flick when your foot reaches the tip of the nose.
3. Foot continues sliding off the nose and land