How to Do an Impossible on a Skateboard

The impossible is definitely an advanced skateboarding trick. This trick originated back in the early days of freestyle skateboarding, but has since been popularized in street skateboarding and incorporated into skating ledges and gaps.

Do not be fooled by the name of this trick - I assure you that, although it is a difficult trick, it is possible to master with a lot of practice. This article is meant as a guide for you to understand what an impossible is, and how to do an impossible on a skateboard.

The impossible is essentially done by popping the board with your back foot and making the board wrap around your back foot. Sometimes if an impossible is done incorrectly, it will be mistaken for a 360 shove it. The reason it may look like a 360 shove it is due to the board not properly wrapping around the back foot, which results in a horizontal spin - not what we're going for, although the two tricks are kind of similar.

For foot positioning, place your back foot right over the bolts on the back of the skateboard. Have your front foot positioned like you were attempting a 360 flip. That means your front foot is in the middle of the board angled towards the nose - think kickflip positioning.

For executing the trick, pop the board with your back foot like you would for an ollie and scoop forward with your back foot. Again, scoop forward with your back foot - I am emphasizing this because the scoop is what it's all about. This will cause the board to wrap around your back foot.

When you are scooping the board to wrap it around your foot, you want to get your front foot out of the way, like you would for a kickflip. Let's think about this - the board is going to do a complete rotation around your back foot.

To get the hang of this awkward and difficult trick, I suggest setting the board down stationary on the ground. With your back foot only, practice the scooping motion. Slam down the board like you would for an ollie, scoop your foot forward and slightly guide the board into the rotation. Keep doing this until you get comfortable with how the trick works.

You really don't need to ollie to do this trick, so keep that in mind. Once again, it is all about the scoop. Pop the skateboard with your back foot, scoop it, get your front foot out of the way, catch the board, land, and roll away.

This will probably take you a bit of practice to get used to - remember to stay patient and not get too flustered with yourself. If you get it on the first few tries, that is excellent and you should be totally stoked as this is one of the harder tricks to get comfortable with. I hope you learned a little bit about how to do an impossible on a skateboard, now it's time for you to hit the streets and show the world how it's done.