Snowboarding Tricks: Flips

Flips can be thought of as inverted spins. The following are some of the commonly used flips for snowboarding tricks.

Barrelrolls

Approach the jump with a decent speed while keeping your knees bent. As you hit the lip, jump off with your toes, arch your back and flip your heads backwards.

This motion, when executed correctly, will throw your legs over you. You can also do this the other way round by throwing your head towards your feet for a frontal spin.

While you are inverted, spot your landing. Landing is the most difficult part of this maneuver. You'll usually want to land on the opposite edge of your rotation e.g. for a backward barrelroll, land on your toe-side edge.

Backflips

Riders usually find backflips easier to perform than 360s although it probably takes more guts to perform because of the fact that you'll be inverted.

When trying this maneuver make sure that you're fully committed because you don't want to be second-guessing yourself while hanging upside down in the air with your snowboard.

To start with, find a steep launch so that you can build up enough speed. Having a decent amount of speed will make the flip easier and safer compared to having insufficient speed.

When you pop off the jump, throw your hips straight towards the nose of your board with enough force so that you'll complete the rotation. You can also do this the other way by throwing your head towards the tail of your board.

While in the air, make sure that you make yourself compact by reaching towards or grabbing your ankles to help with the rotation. Do not worry about over-rotating since this it will still hurt a lot less than under-rotating.

When you've completed the full rotation, stretch out to prevent over-rotating and to prepare yourself for landing.

Safety Measures

When performing flips, there is a potential for serious snowboarding injury so always wear a helmet for safety. For beginners, practice on diving boards and tramps first or make sure there is a huge pile of soft snow where you will be landing.