Wednesday, 3 June 2009

How to Heelflip

Heelflip: A heelflip is a trick similar to an ollie, but is somewhat more complicated. The skateboarder ollies off the ground, and once the board is in the air, flips the skateboard with their heel, so that the skateboard rotates around completely, and then the skateboarder lands on the board again, and continues on. (The heelflip is much like a kickflip, but the board is rotating in the opposite direction.) In the heelflip, your skateboard flips away from you as you jump. It spins in the opposite direction as a kickflip. Many feel that learning how to heelflip is much easier than learning how to kickflip, but learning how to heelflip also takes some time. You can learn how to do a heelflip while stationary at first and as you get more comfortable, you can try them while moving. After you learn how to heelflip and kickflip, you have mastered the two basic flip tricks and can now combine them with spins to get backside flips, varial flips, 360 flips and more!

How to Heelflip

1. Before you learn how to heelflip, you’ll want to know how to ollie at least a foot, since you need some height for the trick. Set up your feet with the ball of your back foot on the tail. You want to place your front foot just behind the front bolts with your toes hanging off the edge
2. As you prepare to pop, make sure your body is straight and you are balanced. Keep your head directly above the center point above between your two feet. Make sure you’re not leaning forward too much. Just give a slight squat. The positioning may seem awkward at first, but you have to practice this positioning to get a feel for the balance of the trick.

3. Pop the tail straight down with your back foot and start to jump up. Do not jump forward, just jump straight up.

4. As soon as the tail hits the ground, flick your front foot up and out, towards upper concave of the board. You also want to suck up your legs to get the board to flip higher.

4. Keep your front foot up so that the board has room to spin under you. Stay over your board through out the heelflip.

5. When you see the board come back around, stomp down with your feet to catch it. Aim to land on top of the two sets of bolts.

6. Ride away smoothly with a smile on your face!

How to Heelflip Tips

1. The hardest thing when learning how to heelflip is keeping your balance after you pop. As you flip the board, you’ll feel a tendency to jump forward, but be sure to just stay over the board.

2. If the board is hitting your legs, be sure to suck up your feet high to give the board some room to spin!

How to Heelflip Video Tutorial:


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