The crew at Braille thinks it’s fantastic that you’re progressing on your skateboard. You’ve mastered riding, and you’ve got your ollies down, so let’s get into some more tricks! One of the first tricks to learn after learning how to ride your skateboard and ollie comfortably is the Frontside 180. What exactly is a Frontside 180, you may ask? Well, let’s take a look at the definition.

Frontside 180 Definition

Frontside 180’s are ollies, combined with a half spin turning towards the heel-side of the skateboard.

It seems simple enough, right? Though it can be tricky at first, once you learn the Frontside 180 (FS 180 for short) it will quickly become the easiest trick you know.

This is a great trick to do on flat ground, over obstacles, or down stair sets. Start out slow before taking it down that 4 stair, though. The key is to start out simple, and then you can take it bigger and bigger.

Check out the video tutorial below and read the information that follows to get your Frontside 180s down, FIRST TRY.

Frontside 180 Tutorial

We hope you learned something from that tutorial! If you still have some unanswered questions about the Frontside 180, don’t fret! We’re here to walk you through it, step by step. Allow us to break this down for you to help you get your Frontside 180s clean and consistent.

Remember, before trying this trick, you should be very comfortable with riding and landing ollies. Since you’ll be landing switch, you should be comfortable enough riding switch to at least roll away from the trick.

You don’t have to be bombing hills switch or anything like that, but do keep it in mind that when you land the Frontside 180 you’ll be rolling switch. Practice riding around switch and you’ll be well prepared for landing the Frontside 180.

The following points will provide you with all the information and tips you’ll need to land the Frontside 180.

1. Foot Position
2. Body Position
3. Practice Steps
4. Popping and Turning
5. Landing

Foot Position

The foot position for the Frontside 180 is very similar to ollie. Your back foot should be on the tail with the ball of your foot at the very tip of the board. 

Your front foot should be close to the front bolts of your skateboard. It will be positioned very similar to the ollie. You may feel more comfortable with the foot slightly higher up than your ollie position, or with the toes just slightly hanging off. Play around with the front foot position until you find something comfortable and that works for you. 

Body Position

This is the most important part of the Frontside 180. Before you even pop this trick, your body should be beginning to turn frontside (towards your heels). As you pop this trick, your body being halfway rotated will force your hips and legs to follow you to complete the 180-degree rotation. It is extremely important to follow through with this motion to ensure you fully rotate and roll away upon landing.

Practice Steps

The best way to begin practicing this trick is to first practice your ollie steps. Start with practicing popping your tail down as you would for an ollie.

The second step is sliding the front foot up the board. The difference between this Frontside 180 practice step and the ollie practice step is that you’ll be turning your head and shoulders towards your heel side as you slide your foot up the board for the Frontside 180. So pop your tail down, and turn your head and shoulders to the side as you slide your foot. Practice this motion until it feels natural. 

At first sight, it looks like all you’re doing is moving your feet. In reality, this doesn’t work out that well as you saw in the video above. The secret to this trick is pivoting your upper body right before you pop. This will help ensure your feet follow and pivot underneath you.

Below is a photo of Aaron Kyro using the final FS 180 practice step. As you can see, his body is already pivoting as his foot is almost all the way up the board. If you’re having trouble landing this trick, this could very well be why!

Popping and Turning

This part of the trick often works itself out if you’ve paid attention to the practice steps and have your ollies down. Simply pop your ollie, slightly turned already as you pop. As your front foot slides up the board and your head and shoulders turn towards your heels, your hips will follow through with this motion and bring your legs around 180-degrees with the board.

Sometimes if you aren’t able to complete the full rotation, you will be able to land the trick more on the nose end of your board and pivot the final few degrees of the rotation. Eventually, though, you’ll be able to pop with enough height to fully rotate and land switch without any pivots or tic-tacs. 

Landing

Almost there! The final part of this trick, and perhaps the most awkward aspect is landing. Upon landing, you’ll be rolling away switch, so it’s important that you are somewhat comfortable riding switch. Remember to have your knees bent for landing and to compress any impact you may feel.

Often times this trick will be landed with the front trucks touching down first, as you pivot the rest of the rotation before your back trucks touch down. You may find yourself landing this way more often than not when you are first beginning to learn FS 180s.

However, over time or with enough pop, you will be able to fully rotate in the air, and landing will be as simple as bending your knees, bracing for the impact, and rolling away switch. To have that smooth rollaway it’s important to FULLY COMMIT TO TURNING YOUR SHOULDERS. If you are having trouble with the full commitment, try this trick while riding fakie.

Use the exact same principles you would with a regular FS 180, only this time you’ll be landing and riding away in your regular foot position, instead of switch. This may help give you the confidence to fully commit to a regular Frontside 180 where you will land switch. 

With the video tutorial and the information above, Braille Skateboarding is confident you can learn this trick. This is an awesome trick to start to do over obstacles because this trick is essentially just like an Ollie. If you can Ollie over something, most times you can 180 it!

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In Conclusion

We are really pumped to see that so many of you guys are learning how to skate and we want the best tips for you guys. If you’d like some tips for skating definitely check out Skateboarding Made Simple. This trick is covered in more detail in Skateboarding Made Simple Volume 1. Aaron Kyro put his heart and soul into this video and promises it will make learning how to skate easier!

We also have the Braille Starter Package that gets you a very high-quality complete skateboard, helmet, skate tool and Skateboarding Made Simple Volumes 1-6 on DVD!

Once you’ve landed the Frontside 180, don’t forget to show us! Film a quick clip of you doing your best Frontside 180. Post it on Instagram tagging @brailleskate, #brailleskate, and #brailleskateboarding. Let us know which piece of advice helped you the most so we can highlight that part and get more people landing FS 180s…FIRST TRY!