Skimboarding Tricks: Frontside (FS) 360 shuvit

How To Do A Frontside 360 Shuvit Trick Tips

Frontside 360 Shuvit is similar to a frontside shuvit, but this time you’re going to be sending the board in a 360 degrees spin rather than a 180. A 360 shuvit is performed by "shuving" the board around 360 degrees while you are in the air. Frontside in this case means that the front of the board is going to rotate towards your back.

To do a frontside 360 shuvit, as you jump into the air, push your back foot out in front of you to get the board rotating. Getting the board around 360 degrees is a bit tricky, but we’ll address that later. Watch the board as it completes it’s 360 degree rotation. Once the board has completed it’s rotation, catch it with your feet and land it. Absorb the landing by bending your knees and ride it out.

Tips

Get your 180 shuvits down
You definitely want to practice a regular 180 shuvit and get it down.

Frontside leg strength
Most people find the motion of kicking your foot behind you for a backside shuvit much easy than pushing your back foot out in front of you. At first, it is usually quite difficult to get enough spin on the board to make it the full 360. Lots of practice is most likely going to be required to build up strength in the leg for that particular motion. To help with this you can practice over and over again on carpet. That way you can practice the frontside spinning motion over and over again, without wearing out from all the running you would normally be doing if you were actually skimming.

Jump higher
Jumping higher will give more time for the board to rotate the full 360 degrees.

Complete the rotation
After you jump in the air, rotate your hips a bit so you can catch the board a little early, maybe around the 270 degree mark and then finish the rotation on the water.

Get your knees up
 The higher you lift your knees towards your chest, the longer the board will have to spin underneath you. You will not have to try to spin the board so fast if the board has more time to spin underneath you. This will allow you to put less effort into the spin and it will become a more relaxed fluid motion rather than a quick jerky motion that can throw off your balance and make it difficult to complete the trick.

Be confident
You need to commit fully to the trick. Get your feet off the board and get your knees up. Watch the board spin around underneath you, catch it with your feet, and stick it.

 Stay over the top of the board
This is key in most tricks. Lots of times as people begin to try the 360 shuvit they end up "shuving" the board right out from underneath them. This usually happens for a couple of reasons. One, the skimboarder has leaned back too far. Often, particularly when trying to get some "pop", there is a tendency to lean back. This puts your center of gravity too far back. You want to keep your center of gravity between your legs. For more discussion on this see the ollie tutorial. When leaning back, most of the time the board will shoot out from underneath the skimboarder, but even if the skimboarder manages to keep the board in close vicinity, they will find it near impossible to land the trick. The second reason the board ends up flying away from the rider is that they have tried to “shuv” the board too hard with a quick jerky motion as opposed to a more smooth relaxed fluid motion. By gaining leg strength and getting your knees up, you will be able to make the shuving motion much more fluid. Again, it is important to keep the board underneath you.

Try to land "softly" on the board
Don’t land straight legged. Make sure that your knees are bent when you land. This will do two things. One, it will keep your center of gravity lower which will make it easier for you to stay in control. Second, by landing with your knees bent, you can absorb the impact of the landing and make it much more smooth.

Practice in shallow water
When trying to get down the 360 shuvit, practice in very shallow water; as shallow as you can get it. 360 shuvits are easier in more shallow water. Don’t worry about pop at first. Just get use to getting the board around and landing them every time. Once you get them down, then you can start working on getting some pop.

Getting Pop 
To get some pop in your 360 shuvit, you are going to need to push down on the back of the board while simultaneously "shuving" it. Here is the deal though, while learning to get some pop, don't focus much on "popping" the board. Focus on bending your knees and then exploding into the air. What you will find is the board will naturally follow you into the air. As you get a feel for this, you can then begin to focus on getting more pop by "popping" that back foot harder. (See the ollie tutorial for more discussion on "popping" the board.)

 Forget everything you have just read
All the things that you have read are good tips but sometimes you can over think things. Now I don’t want you to literally go and forget everything, but my point is, make sure you RELAX. Be smooth. Don't over think it.