(Another) blog about skateboarding

Here are a few things about those trick-tips, on this blog:
-a frontside rotation is a counter clockwise rotation if you are in a regular stance and a clockwise rotation if you are in a goofy stance.
-a backside rotation is a clockwise rotation if you are in a regular stance and a counter clockwise rotation if you are in a goofy stance.
-fs means frontside
-bs means backside
-the heel side of the deck is the area close to the edge on which your heels usually are when you are standing on your skateboard, I may sometimes use "hs" for heel side.
-the toe side of the deck is the area close to the edge on which your toes usually are when you are standing on your skateboard, I may sometimes use "ts" for toe side.
-"forward" will be the direction your are rolling to when rolling regular or nollie.
-"backward" will be the direection you are coming from when rolling regular or nollie.
-"in front of you" will be the direction you are facing to when you are standing on your deck.
-"behind you" or "in your back" will be the direction your back is facing to.

A 360 double flip is a 360 varial double kickflip, it has been one of my favorite tricks for many years, to do them I use a technique based on impossible and double kickflip.

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Feet placement:
-the ball of the back foot should be on the toe side corner of the tail, this foot is ready to apply great pressure on the toe side.
-the front should be at the middle of the deck, on the heelside with the heel hanging from the board.

How to do the trick:
1/ scrape the tail hard with back foot like you would for a vertical/backside impossible, this will increase the pressure between the front foot and the deck.
2/ bend your front ankle then extend it as you flick forward, this will induce a very fast flipping and help with the 360. This ankle bending is very important, this is what allows you to do 360 double flip without much effort.
3/ let the board do two flip with a 360 varial then land.

slowmotion of the specific ankle bending at the start of the trick

Tips:
-really think about an impossible with a big front foot flick, don't try to pop them like regular a 360 flip, it works too but takes huge effort and it's dangerous for yourself and your skateboard.
-they are easier on slopes or down ledges.

Variations:
-I don't know many variations for this trick, it's possible to add a frontside bodyvarial, or a backside body varial to do a bigspin double flip, on a slope the bigspin double flip can also be done 540.
-off a ledge or a bank it's possible to add an extra flip to get a 360 triple flip.

A gazelle is 540 board spin with a 360 body follow, the nollie backside gazelle is the most common gazelle variation, it's a 540 varial with a 360 body follow, but most of the time it's done with a pivot to finish the spin. Before trying the nollie backside gazelle I recommend to learn the nollie backside bigspin and the helipop because to do a nollie bs gazelle you will have to do a kind of mix between those two tricks.

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Feet placement:
-put your feet as you would for the nollie bs bigspin, use the toes of your back foot to grip the edge of the board.

How to do the trick:
1/ prepare to spin fast by winding your shoulders and arms.
2/ do like a nollie bs bigspin with no pop but try to get more rotation, you have to land on the back truck like you would for a helipop, anyway try to do a 360 with your body.
3/ land on the back truck and finish the spin with a pivot.

Tips:
-this trick is all about commitment, you have to commit in the spin.
-some hard wheels and a good surface may help a lot.

Variations:
-you can add a front or back foot underflip or a kiwi flip to transform your gazelle in something sick like a gazelle underflip, a gazelle nerdflip or a siyoun spin.

The ollie late hardflip is a kind of hybrid between the ollie late flip and the ollie late frontside shuvit. It's a ollie with a late frontside varial kickflip.
I recommend to learn the ollie late frontside shuvit first, and ollie late flips can help too (but it isn't necessary).

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Feet placement:
-it's the ollie position except the back foot may be more on the heelside of the tail.

How to do it:
1/ Do an ollie.
2/ raise your back foot as soon as you have hit the tail.
3/ At the peak of the ollie use your front foot to make the board do a little bit of late frontside shuvit with a very small amount of kickflip, it will help the back foot's job.
4/ Hit the board with the tip of your back foot close to the heelside edge, you have to induce a late hardflip motion so you need to hit toward the floor and in front of you. As soon as you hit the board, raise your back foot so it stays above the board.
5/ Let the board spin and flip then land.

Tips:
-At first it will help to do quite a big ollie, but when you have the trick you can do it with small ones, which is useful because it allows to do them when you are tired.
-The board will usually flip and spin very fast, but if you did step 1-4 right then the landing should be almost automatic, you just need to commit a little.

Variations:
-Once you get them you can try them fakie with the same technique (but rolling fakie).
-Darran Nolan can do them 360, but I have no clue about how he does that ^^ I'll update this if I learn how to do them.
-The late hardflip part can be used to break some tricks, for example you can break a double kickflip halfway to get a kickflip late hardflip.

The zombie spin is a pressure flip and bubble variation, it's a 3/8 toe side pressure flip frontside body varial late backside varial 3/8 underflip, the name is complicated but the trick is not very hard. I suggest to learn the bubble first.

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Feet placement:
-the weird feet placement is what gave the name to this trick, because it reminds the zombified Tom Araya on Slayer's Live Undead album cover (this cover has quite a bad taste ^^ ), the back foot is on the toe side of the deck above the back truck, you won't use the tail for this trick, it's at least parallele with the board, you have to apply pressure with the ball of the foot.
-the front foot is somewhere close to the middle of the deck, ready to be removed.
-the upper body is already turned 90° frontside, ready to spin another 90°.

How to do the trick:
1/ Do a fs body varial with a straight 3/8 pressure flip, let your back foot under the board, the top of your toes stays in contact with the grip.
2/ Raise your back foot to do the backside varial 3/8 underflip, it's very similar to a bubble except it will spin backside/vertical because of the place where your back foot is.
3/ Land rolling fakie.

Tips:
-think about them as a bubble pressing the other side of the deck, the body varial just makes it easier.
-some people find them easier switch.

Variations:
-you can do them fakie, they look and feel even weirder than regular ones ^^
-you can add a flip in the last part to do a zombie flip.
-you can do them without the body varial to do toe side bubbles.
-you can replace the second part of the trick with an anticasper flip to do a frontside feather flip.