Heelflip

The heelflip (aka heel), is an aerial skateboarding trick where the skateboarder kicks his board in order to make it flip 360 degrees along the board's long axis.

A heelflip is executed similarly to the ollie, and like the Ollie has become a defining trick of "New School" skateboarding.

Execution

A heelflip is the opposite of a kickflip, the board spins toe-side (towards the toes). For a regular skater (left foot in front) the board spins clockwise from the perspective of one behind the skater. Again, there is a kick as part of the ollie but unlike the kickflip it is directed forward and outwards away from the rider's toe side (diagonal), so that the last part of the foot to leave the board is the heel, hence the name.

While the heelflip is similar to the ollie, it is not a direct variation of the ollie. In performing a standard heelflip, you must:

• Place the front foot safely behind the front bolts or onto and slightly towards the toe-side edge of the board.
• Place the ball of the back foot on the tail of the board slightly angled.
• Pop the tail by pushing down with the back foot while jumping into the air.
• Slide your front foot out diagonally in order to start the board rotating while you stay with your shoulders centered over the board. Put your front foot over the top bolts and kick.
• Lift both feet out of the way so that the board can spin properly.
• Catch the board and roll away. It is considered good style to stop the board's rotation with the feet in midair rather than to allow contact with the ground to stop the board.

Variations

Variations and extensions of the standard heelflip are very common - some of these are, but not limited to:

• The Kickflip has the same idea as a heelflip but the board flips in the opposite direction. They look similar to the untrained eye, but the technique for doing a kickflip is different, with the skater's toe kicking off the board to produce the flip.

• Double Heelflip, where the board flips twice before being caught.

• Triple Heelflip, where the board flips three times before being caught.

• Quad Heelflip, where the board flips four times before being caught.

• Varial Heelflip, where the board flips once and spins frontside 180 degrees (pop shove-it) at the same time.

• 360 Heelflip (aka Laser flip), where the board spins 360 degrees while also flipping.

• 180 Heelflip frontside or backside, where the skater flips the board and turns both his or her body and board 180 degrees and lands Fakie.

• The Heelflip Grab, a variation on grabs where the rider flips the board and catches it with his hand rather than the feet. It was first done on a vertical ramp but now is very commonly seen done on launch ramps or other surfaces which can generate sufficient air time.

• Heelflip sex-change or body varial is where the board spins a heelflip and the skater does a full 180 degree spin,lands on the board in switch stance.

• Inward Heelflip, a combination of the backside pop shove-it and the heelflip, the board does a flip while in the motion of a partial backflip,spinning halfway end over end , then flipping over.

• 540 flip, the board spins 540 clockwise (if skaters stance is regular, counterclockwise if goofy) while spinning a kickflip.

• Big-spin Heelflip, skaters body does a 180 while their board does a 360 Heelflip.

External links

• http://www.board-crazy.co.uk/tricksearch.php