Bob's Trick Tips - skateboard trick archive -- Backside Ollie Kickflip

Backside Ollie Kickflip

Here's another newschool kickflip variation -- the Backside 180 Ollie Kickflip. In this move the board flips and does a backside 180, and your body also does a backside 180. So you start moving forward and end rolling fakie.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I let Fletcher watch the old Powell video, and the next thing I knew, he had learned this trick. I think the fact that he could already do frontside 180 nollies helped.

Notice throughout this move how Fletcher keeps his body centered over the board. This is the trick.

Another Note: This is a pretty old tip. It's not the strongest Backside Kickflip, but Fletch was only about 12 years old at the time, so I decided to keep this old version to show you little groms out there that you can do it.

Check out the video clip here.


In frame 1, Fletcher begins by rolling forward at medium speed. His feet are in position to ollie, but his rear foot is positioned a little more toward the toe side of the tail. In fact, if you look at his rear foot, you can tell the he is going to push the tail to his heel side when he pops it. In frame 2, you can see that as he pops the tail, a couple of things happen. First, he smacks the tail to his heel side. This is what makes the board do a 180. Second -- look at his front foot. See how even as he is dragging it up the board, he is also flicking the board into a flip. Look at what part of his shoe is doing the flick. That's important.

Frames 3 and 4 demonstrate more of that flick. Fletcher extends his front foot as he flicks. You can also see that his body is also doing a 180 -- following the board around. At each point in this trick, his body remains aligned with the board.

Now the board is almost through the 180. In frames 5 and 6, Fletcher is beginning to move his front foot back into a catch position. You can also see that he is going to really use his rear foot to trap the board. The rear foot is sort of tracking the tail.

Though frame 7 is a little blurry, you can see the he's almost landed the move. His rear foot has caught the board, his body has come around at the same time the board did, and his front foot is almost back on. Finally, in frame 8, Fletcher has landed the trick very solidly. Killer! From here you could do a quick backside 180 pivot and come out forward.