- 145 Page in depth guide of tricks
- Features how-to, troubleshooting, and other skate secrets
- Written by underground skater Tony Waters
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How to Hardflip
The Hardflip
The Hardflip
Hardflips are almost always every skater’s “goal trick”. Your flatground bag of tricks won’t be complete until the Hardflip is added to your arsenal. They are extremely stylish and look nice in every situation, whether you do them on flatground, down stairs or over gaps.
Requirements for Learning the Hardflip
Know the Frontside Shove-it, Kickflip, and Frontside Flip before learning the Hardflip. Although the Hardflip is a combination of the frontside Pop Shove-it and Kickflip, knowing the Frontside Flip will accelerate your learning of the Hardflip.
Foot Placement
Like many advanced flip tricks, your foot positioning is extremely vital to pulling off a clean Hardflip. You want to set your back
foot at a 30 degree angle on the middle of the tail. Moving your back foot a little more south can help you get the board spinning the full 180.
Your front foot should be 3-4 inches behind the front bolts, turned at a 50 degree angle. You want about half of your foot hanging off the board.
Pop
- The pop of the Hardflip is the toughest part of the trick. The board will flip vertically and go through your legs.
- At first, it will be very scary committing to this trick, so you may want to practice on a mini deck to build your confidence.
- As you prepare to pop, turn your upper body to face the nose. With your back foot, you are going to scoop, not pop, the tail in a Frontside Pop Shove-it motion. This will get the board rotating frontside. Make sure you give a powerful scoop so the board completes the full spin.
- After scooping, lift your back foot north and up so the board has room to spin freely. Remember to jump high and suck up your legs, since the board needs a lot of room to flip and spin.
Flick
- To get the board flipping, use your front foot and slide it diagonally off the board when the board has popped up about 45 degrees.
- Since the board is already rotating in the frontside direction, you only need a slight flick to get the board flipping. However, you need to kick your front foot out to give the board room to spin and flip.
Landing
Catching and landing are the toughest parts of this trick. After the board completes the flip and spin, focus on catching the board with your front foot first, to stop further flipping and spin.
Then, bring down your back foot and stomp it to the ground. I have seen some skaters catch the board with their back feet first, but you need to be careful when doing this, since the board will tend to shoot out.
Finally, land with your knees bent and a huge grin on your face.
Learning the Hardflip
It is best to learn the Hardflip rolling at a moderate…