The Frontside Bigspin is often considered an intermediate or advanced trick, mostly done by the pros or sponsored skateboarders. Way too hard for a beginner or novice right? WRONG! We’re here to tell you that not only you but, anyone can learn how to Frontside Bigspin! All it takes is some practice and perseverance.

We can walk you through Frontside Bigspins to help you finally unlock them. Even if you only know your basic skateboarding tricks, you’ll be able to land them! All you’ll really need to know to be able to Frontside Bigspin is Frontside Pop Shove-Its and Frontside 180s. If you are pretty consistent with those two basic tricks, the Frontside Bigspin is well within your ability!

Having all the tricks from Skateboarding Made Simple Volume 1 mastered really helps. More than anything, you need to be completely comfortable on your board. By this point, you should have those tricks down and have a good feel for your board. So keep going, keep practicing and land this trick!

Before we go any further, let’s define the Frontside Bigspin. It’s important to know and understand the trick you’re attempting.

Frontside Bigspin Definition

Frontside Bigspins are achieved by combining the Frontside 180 and 360 Frontside Shove It as one spin trick.

Although the motion the board does during a Frontside Bigspin is a Frontside 360 Shove-It, you will not need to learn how to do Frontside 360 Shoves to be able to Frontside Bigspin. Think of this trick as if you were doing a Frontside Pop Shove It, catching it, then turning frontside 180. As long as you have solid Frontside Shove Its and Frontside 180s, you’ll be able to land this trick in no time. 

Frontside Big Spin Tutorial (from Ride)

We hope you enjoyed the brief video tutorial on Frontside Bigspins. We’re going to go over everything in greater detail for you to really understand how the Frontside Bigspin works. There are 4 crucial steps to the Frontside Bigspin:

1. Foot Position
2. Back Foot Snap
3. Turning Your Shoulders
4. Landing Switch

This trick takes a lot of practice and commitment. So when you’re out there skating, don’t give up! You’ll be able to land it soon enough. Now, let’s get into the trick!

Foot Position

The foot position for the Frontside Bigspin is very important. Your back foot is the most important one here. The power from your back foot is the most critical parts of performing a Frontside Bigspin.

For the FS Bigspin, place your front foot near the front bolts of the skateboard, just before the bolts but quite close to them. Your toes should be hanging off the edge slightly, almost like you would for a Heelflip. Place your back foot in the heel-side corner pocket of the tail. Your heel should be angled towards your front foot instead of pointing straight back. This should be at about a 45 degree angle.

Having your back foot angled in the heel-side corner pocket of the tail will allow you to snap the board down to pop the trick while still giving you the full 360-degree rotation required to be set up for a clean landing.

Back Foot Snap

When it comes to Frontside Bigspins, all the magic happens with the back foot. Your front foot does nothing but stay over the board waiting to catch it. It’s ALL in the back foot. With your back foot in the proper FS Bigspin position, snap the board down as hard as possible. If you scoop the board too much instead of snap, the board will likely flip on you and you won’t be able to land the trick.

When you’ve snapped the tail down for the FS Bigspin, give the board a small nudge forward with your back foot. This will keep the board from rotating behind you so you won’t land in front of the board.

Remember, it’s basically the same technique as the Frontside Pop Shove-It, just with a little more force. When you are first learning this trick, getting the full rotation will be the most difficult part. If this is the case, you can land on the nose of the board and pivot it around to complete the rotation.

Another helpful tip for achieving the full rotation when learning the FS Bigspin is to take the trick down a curb or small ledge. This will give you the extra hang-time needed to rotate the board and the full 360-degrees. Once you land those, it will give you a good basis to eventually get the full rotation on flat ground.

Turning Your Shoulders

While still looking forward (the direction you are traveling), before popping the FS Bigspin your shoulders should be turned slightly. This is to wind up for the Frontside 180 that your body will need to do. This technique is almost identical to the shoulder turning technique used for a regular Frontside 180.

Wind your shoulders and as you snap the board down and nudge it forward with your back foot, begin to turn your shoulders for a frontside 180. If you’ve popped the trick high enough you’ll be able to catch the board with your front foot as it comes around. Then, it should simply complete the rotation in the air.

If the trick is staying lower to the ground, you can turn with the board as it spins. Then pivot off the nose with your front foot once the board has come to about 270-degrees to finish the rotation.

Landing Switch

When you land a Frontside Bigspin, you’re going to be rolling away switch. Because of this, you should practice riding around switch as a warm up. This way, you won’t have the problem of being uncomfortable landing when you’ve got the whole rotation of the trick down.

It’s important to be comfortable with riding around switch for this reason. It will help make your Frontside Bigspins look cleaner and you’ll roll away from them more often. Again, if you’re having trouble landing Frontside Bigspins, you can take them off a curb for some extra hang-time.

Another way to make Frontside Bigspins a little easier to land is to try doing them over a hip. This will allow you to slightly under-rotate the FS Bigspin while still rolling away clean, and switch. This should help give you the confidence to commit to landing the Frontside Bigspin on flat ground. 

In Conclusion

If you want to learn other tricks like this, check out Skateboarding Made Simple Volume 5! SMS 5 covers intermediate flatground tricks and dives into deep detail into every trick. It covers other intermediate tricks like the Tre Flip, Hard Flip, Varial Heelflip and the Inward Flip. If you want to take your skateboarding to the next step, check out the Skateboarding Made Simple Series!

Finally, we want to see your best Frontside Bigspin! Film a quick clip of you landing a FS Bigspin then post it on Instagram, tagging @brailleskate, #brailleskate, and #brailleskateboarding. Let us know which part helped you the most so we can highlight that and get everyone landing Frontside Bigspins. Now get out there, master your FS Bigspins, and have fun!

Looking for other tricks to land? Check out our Skateboarding Trick Guide! This page has detailed blog posts for every trick on there, so you’ll know exactly how to do each and every trick. If you’re starting from the beginning, we have all the tricks from Skateboarding Made Simple Volume 1. If you’re looking for more advanced tricks, there are tricks from Skateboarding Made Simple Volume 5 as well. No matter what level you’re at in skateboarding, there’s something there for you. GO OUT AND SKATE!