When you are into skateboarding, you always want to learn more skills and techniques to show your abilities. The skateboarding tricks vary in difficulty levels. For us, mastering the easy before the difficult ones is a wise choice.
What Is a Backside 180?
A backside 180 is a trick in which a skateboarder performs the ollie and rotates his body around for 180 degrees. It is basically like a front side 180, but the main difference is that you will turn your back around while spinning the board. This is why people name it “back side”.
Though this is an essential trick that every player should learn, not all can do it 100% correctly and it is true for me. Honestly, I used to backside 180 but didn’t get the full 180 degrees rotation. My rotation was around 120 to 160 degrees and that’s why I said: “not all can do it 100% correctly”.
To perform the backside 180 comfortably, you should at least get used to the ollie first. This technique is a base trick that helps you develop and learn other tricks more easily.
How to Backside 180 Like Pro
Step 1: Get Your Feet in the Right Position on the Board
Place your front foot near the middle of the board. Why? Because your front foot will be the center of balance. There are now two options: the front foot near the back foot, or the front foot far from the back foot.
If you put your front foot further, you can make a high jump more easily than the other position. However, it will be harder to pull off and catch the board when you land on the ground.
Put your back foot on the tail of the board. Now, the mission of the back foot is to push the tail to pop the board up in the air just like in ollie. For some skaters, they just place half of their back feet on the tail of the board. Anyway, you must choose your comfortable stance to make the backside 180.
Step 2: Make a Move/ Momentum with Enough Speed
However, you shouldn’t ride too fast because the board will go, spin, or flip far away from your desired direction. Riding too fast can also result in bad landing and injuries. Feel the speed which is the most suitable for you.
Step 3: Lower Your Body to Prepare for a Jump
In this trick, you don’t have to pop the board up as high as you can because the board doesn’t flip or spin.
Step 4: Use Your Back Foot to Pop the Board up
Bend your knees, lower your body, prepare for a jump. Just after popping up the deck, slightly turn your hip and your shoulders around. Try to twist gently so that you won’t lose control of the board. You will use your back foot mainly to make a rotation.
Step 5: Slide Your Front Foot Alongside the Board when You Start Jumping
When sliding your front foot upward, use the side of your shoe, not the whole shoe. Make sure the sole of your shoe doesn’t touch the board, while keeping your ankle flexible. Sliding the front foot alongside the deck is an essential part of skateboarding that everyone should practice before performing other tricks.
Step 6: Try to Land with Your Slide Foot
When you finish jumping up and spinning your shoulders and body, immediately think of your sliding foot. This foot is the pivot foot which decides the degrees of rotation. Meanwhile, lighten your back foot so that you will not fall backward when landing.
Step 7: Straight up Your Body Gradually after Bending down Your Knees
However, do not try to stand up immediately after landing down. You will be pushed away by the inertia, so stay in low position for a steady stance, otherwise, you will fall off the board. Gradually straight up your body when you get the balance back and now you can perform another trick.
Step 8: Practice More and More
This is not a very easy trick in skateboarding, but it’s one of the most common tricks that every skater should learn and get familiar with. Before learning this trick, you had better know and excel in ollie because the backside 180 is based on that technique.
At the beginning, it is easy to fall off. But do not give up easily. Patience and hard work are the keys in this game. Keep doing again and again until you master the trick.
Besides, try different speed levels to find your comfortable one because people feel the speed in different ways. Some players find this level too fast, while others think it is fine for them.
*Note: Don’t have to turn a full 180 degrees
Here I tell you a truth: I have never got a full 180 degrees rotation in backside 180. Honestly, the rotation is just around 170 to 175 degrees but it looks like a full 180 degrees. Am I doing the trick wrong?
No, I am not. 180 is just a number. As long as you can pop up, spin back side and still run toward, it is backside 180. You don’t have to take the exact number too serious. Master the skills, techniques, and movement, then you can perform the trick excellently.
In Conclusion
Above are the steps for performing backside 180 effortlessly. As you can see, it is not difficult if you have already known the ollie. This trick just adds the spinning motion at the back side to make it a backside 180.
Now you have the answer to the question: how to backside 180. Please comment below if you find any difficulty during the training.