- 145 Page in depth guide of tricks
- Features how-to, troubleshooting, and other skate secrets
- Written by underground skater Tony Waters
Navigation
- Home
- Introduction
- Beginner's Guide
- Flatground Tricks
- Grinds
- Common Mistakes
- Get Your Tricks Higher
- Guaranteeing Success
- Success Enhancers
- Skateboard Buying Guide
- Making a Skate Video
- Making a Skate Ramp
How to 360 Flip
The 360 Flip
The 360 Flip
(Tre Flip/ 3 Flip)
Invented by Rodney Mullen in the 1970’s, the 360 Flip has become the “king” of flatland tricks and is an instant crowd pleaser. Watch any skate video and you’ll see footage of Tre Flips down stairs and gaps.
The trick is actually a lot easier to learn than it seems. While practicing, the main thing to focus on is the scoop. You will hear me mention that a million times in this guide, but it truly is the most important technical part of the trick!
I will go into much more details later, but you want a clean, hard scoop that gets the board spinning. Add a light ankle flip and you got a stylish 360 flip!
Requirements for Learning the 360 Flip
Kickflips and Backside Pop Shove-its are must knows for learning the 360 flip. One very common misconception is you have to be able to 360 Shove-it or Varial Flip.
In fact, using 360 Shove-its or Varial Flips as templates for the 360 Flip may hinder your learning of the since they each spin differently. The only real requirement is being comfortable rotating and flipping the board before attempting 360 Flips.
Foot Positioning
Place your front foot as you would for a Kickflip, but at a sharper angle. The exact positioning of the front foot is not that important since the front foot only flips the board and guides the rotation.
The back foot is mainly responsible for the 360 degree rotation of the board. The ball of your foot should be in the northern edge of the tail, along the curvature. You may even want to hang your toe off.
The reason you have your foot so far up in the top right corner is that you need a lot of scoop in order to get the board rotating 360 degrees.
Pop
- With your back foot, pop hard (get the board as vertical as possible) and pull back with in a sweeping motion to get the full 360 degree rotation.
- This scoop is the most important part of the entire trick. Scoop the hell out of that board!
- You want to scoop in such a way that it feels like the board is spinning behind you. You do not want the board to spin in front of you.
- After popping and scooping immediately lift your back foot up so the board has room to rotate. Your back foot is what powers this trick- if you have a good amount of scoop you’re all set.
Flick
- With the front foot, just give a gentle forward flick towards the corner where the concave is to get the board flipping. Do not give a little backside “shove” with the front foot as you would with the Varial Flip.
- The front foot simply “gets in the way” and causes the board to flip. You do not need to worry much about exactly how to flick; just focus on the back foot scooping.
- Experiment with the timing of the front foot flick with the back foot scoop until the board flips and spins smoothly.
Landing
Landing is the most difficult part of the 360 Flip. Everyone lands them differently so you need to discover your own style of flipping and landing. You’ll want to stay over your board through out the entire trick, so lean forward a little to keep your board under you.
When first learning these, notice which way the board tends to go and jump in that direction. For example, if the board lands north and back, you need to jump in that direction in order to catch the board.
As you catch the board and land, you will most likely have a tendency to fall over forward. Overcome this by bending your knees…