Skimboarding Tricks: Flat Backside (BS) 180

How To Do A Flat Backside (BS) 180 Trick Tips

A flat backside 180 is where you and the board rotate 180 degrees while on the water. Backside in this case means that your back foot is going to rotate in the direction of your back.

To do a backside 180 rotate your hips and swing your back leg in the direction of your back. The board should rotate 180 degrees with you on it.

Tips

Hip Rotation 
Don’t let your feet do all the work. Rotation at the hips will help drive the board around.

Lead with your head 
One thing that a lot of people struggle with is getting the upper part of their body to rotate when they are first learning the backside 180. If this is a problem, practice leading with your head. Rotate your head towards your back shoulder and then the rest of the way around (remember to rotate your hips as well). Your shoulder will follow as well as the rest of your body. The exaggerated head turn should help you get the feel of the rotation. Eventually you’ll want to get in the habit of looking down so when you start to pop your 180s you can see your landing. You can begin to make this adjustment by looking at the back of your board and following it around…again…not the front but the back of the board. Eventually you just start to do backside 180s and not even think about where you’re looking.

Turn your upper body
Another thing you can do to help you get this trick down is to turn your upper body so that it is facing backwards, then do the trick. You will probably find it much easier, however, you don’t want to continue to do this forever. It’s ok at first to help you get the feel, but eventually you’ll want to set up normally to do this trick.

Do it quick
You really want to learn to do this trick quick. This trick will be built upon to do other more advanced tricks like popping BS 180s out of the water and BS bigspins. For it to help, this trick needs to be learned right. It needs to be quick. This trick can technically be done by leaning on the rails and “coxing” the board around, however, that usually takes most of the run to do it. Technically that is a flat 180, but that is not the spirit of the trick. This trick needs to be done quick and succinctly so that it can help you develop other tricks.