Skateboarding - How to do a 360 Flip

So you recently got your kickflips and maybe your varial kickflips on lock, and you want to learn some more tricks. Well, if you're up for a more difficult trick, let's try the 360 flip.

The 360 flip is a kickflip that rotates three-hundred and sixty degrees underneath the skater's feet. It sounds difficult, but it's well worth the work.

Before you start, you definitely want to have your kickflips down. It's definitely helpful if you can also bigspin (360 pop-shuv with a body varial), however it's not needed. Varial flips are also helpful.

Let's start with foot placement. Foot placement is very important on this trick. Your back foot should be on the very edge of the tail, with your foot covering up the whole thing. Your toes should also be hanging off the board. Your front foot should be in the middle of the tail, slanted to about a 45 degree angle with your heel hanging off. Practice getting into this position while riding at a moderate amount of speed.

When you're going at a faster speed than normal, you'll find it easier to flip and spin the board. So when you're riding, put your feet into position, and scoop your back foot like a backside pop-shuvit. When the board hits 90 degrees, flick off the board with your front foot making it spin. As you scoop and flip, jump forward with the board, otherwise the board will just flip off in front of you and you won't be able to catch it.

It should all be one fluid motion. Pop, scoop, flick, jump, catch, roll away. When you can get all of this in one fluid motion, you need to work on style.

Common problems when learning these tricks are underflipping, overflipped, over rotating, under rotating and slipping out. These problems can be frustrating, but I'll try to give you some tips on how to overcome them.

Underflipping is where the board doesn't flip all the way and you land on the board upside down. To combat this problem, try putting your front foot more at an angle, but put it more on the board, as to get the problem flick of the front foot. Overflipping it is another problem, just put your front foot less on the board or just don't flick or kick as hard.

Over rotation and under rotation are a couple of other problems, however fixing them is pretty simple and self-explanatory. If you over-rotate the board, stop scooping your back foot as hard. If it under-rotates, just scoop a little more. It's alright to land in a 270 when you first land them and pivot the rest of the way.

Slipping out is the most frustrating part. Nobody likes to slip out and fall. Fixing it is actually very simple though. All you need to do is lean forward more towards the nose. You pretty much want to try and keep your weight evenly distributed on the board though when you land. If you lean too much on the tail, you'll slip on the tail. If you lean too much on the nose, you'll slip on the nose and fall. Both aren't very fun, so just try to keep your weight even on both feet, and try to land on the bolts.

That's pretty much it. The trick takes a lot of dedication. It will take you a while to learn, but don't get frustrated, just have fun.