Originally invented by Rodney Mullen, the Ollie Impossible is an advanced skateboarding trick that, despite its name, is certainly possible to land. We’re here to teach YOU how to do the Ollie Impossible!

There are many variations of this trick, including the Front Foot Impossible, which has been popularized in recent years by Skateboarding phenom Andy Anderson. Before you get into those (or any variation of the trick), it’s important to first know your basics.

You should have all the tricks from Skateboarding Made Simple Volume 1 down! These tricks are:

• Ollie
• Frontside 180
• Backside 180
• Pop Shove It
• Frontside Shove It
• Heelflip
• Kickflip

Some skateboarders will tell you that knowing how to Pressure Flip will help with the Ollie Impossible. Although there is some truth to that, if you don’t know how to Pressure Flip, you will still be able to learn the Ollie Impossible.

As with any trick, it’s important to know what you’re actually learning. So, let’s start by looking at the definition of the trick.

Ollie Impossible Definition

Ollie Impossibles, also known simply as Impossibles, are similar to 360 Shove-Its in that the board rotates 360-degrees. However, Ollie Impossibles are performed when the skateboard is wrapped almost vertically over the back foot while in the air, resulting in a 360-degree rotation of the board. 

Included below are two helpful tutorials that show different styles of Ollie Impossibles. The first video features Braille Skateboarding’s Aaron Kyro, and the second video features Professional Skateboarder, Jonny Giger, who is a beloved friend to us here at Braille! We recommend that you watch both of these videos before trying to get out there and learn Impossibles by yourself!

After you’ve watched the video tutorials, read the information that follows for an in-depth analysis of the trick and before you know it, you’ll be landing Impossibles…FIRST TRY!

Ollie Impossible Tutorials

We hope you enjoyed the video tutorials and that you now have a clear idea of how to do Ollie Impossibles. We know you must be eager to, but before you start practicing them you should read over the information on this page to really familiarize yourself with the trick.

Knowing all the steps will help you learn the trick fast and you’ll be giving all your friends a letter during games of S.K.A.T.E in no time! Now, let’s review what we learned from these video tutorials and break this trick down!

1. Foot Position
2. Wrapping the Back Foot
3. Wrapping the Back Foot While Riding
4. Assisted-Impossible Practice Step
5. Putting It All Together

Foot Position

For the Ollie Impossible, place your front foot near the middle of the board, just below the front bolts. Slightly angle your foot, similar to the front foot position of a Kickflip or Pop Shove-It. The front foot’s only job is to stay out of the way of the board. This allows the board to wrap around the back foot, then stomp the bolts for the landing.

Your back foot’s position on the skateboard is much more important for the Ollie Impossible since it will be doing most of the work. Place your back foot near the middle of the tail, with your toes hanging over the edge quite a bit. Your back foot’s heel shouldn’t be hanging off the board too much, if at all. That heel should almost be lined up flush with the heel-side edge of the tail.

Wrapping the Back Foot

For this practice step, stand still on flat ground with your front foot off of the skateboard. With your back foot in the Ollie Impossible position, scoop the board down and wrap it around your back foot. The board should stay attached to the back foot as it wraps around, and you’ll land with your back foot on the bolts near the tail.

Your front foot is planted on the ground behind the board for the entire duration of this practice step, so don’t worry about trying to get your front foot on the board. This step is designed to get your back foot used to the motion of wrapping the board around your foot, which will develop your muscle memory for the Ollie Impossible. 

Wrapping the foot while riding

Naturally, the second practice step builds off of the first practice step for the Ollie Impossible. For this practice step, set up in the Ollie Impossible position and ride with a little speed. While riding, pop the board down and scoop the Impossible with your back foot while stepping off and planting your front foot safely on the ground.

Wrap the board around your back foot, land on the bolts, then quickly step back on with your front foot to continue riding forward. Remember to keep your back foot attached to the skateboard as much as possible during the wrap, because the back foot is the point of control for the board.

You’re going to use your back foot to put your board where you want it to go! Once you’re really comfortable popping the trick while riding and stepping off with your front foot, there is one last practice step you can use to dial in the back foot wrap and keeping your front foot in the air before landing back on the board.

Assisted-Impossible

For this practice step you’ll stay stationary. You will need something at about chest height or slightly lower to hang on to. Place your feet in the Ollie Impossible position, but hold on to whatever is in front of you, like a railing. From here, perform the Impossible, wrapping the board around your back foot while jumping in the air. Keep your front foot out of the way, then get it back on the board once it has wrapped around your back foot and landed back on the ground.

Holding on to the railing in front of you allows you to float in the air above to board for a bit longer than you would when popping the trick without any assistance. This will get your front foot used to staying above the board rather than planting down while your back foot does the work.

Once you can land some Impossibles while holding on to a railing, barrier, etc, you’ll be ready to perform the Ollie Impossible while rolling unassisted! 

Putting it all together

You’ve mastered the practice steps, you can land Assisted-Impossibles, so there’s only one thing left to do! It’s time to commit.

It may feel quite a bit different when you don’t have something to hold on to, and you may not know exactly how to distribute your weight.  The majority of your weight needs to be on the back foot. Your front foot should only be weighted enough to keep your front wheels on the ground.

A common mistake people make when trying to learn Impossibles is scooping the board backward. You will need to scoop the board toward the direction that you’re rolling. If you scoop the board backward, the board will end up doing a 360 Pop Shove-It.

With your back foot really weighted, you’re going to elevate your front foot and scoop forward with your back foot. The board will begin to wrap around your foot, your front foot will stay up and out of the way, then you’ll pull your foot back.

Make sure your front foot doesn’t interrupt the Impossible, and place it back on the board once it wraps all the way around. Bend your knees to absorb the impact and roll away clean!

If you find yourself landing with both feet near the nose, you aren’t pulling back enough with your back foot to complete the wrap. Pull your back foot back enough to get it on the bolts near the tail of the board.

Overview

To recap: Scoop forward, wrap, pull back, put your front foot on, then roll away clean. If you’ve learned the Ollie Impossible step by step, with some practice and perseverance you’ll be able to combine the steps and land proper Ollie Impossibles confidently and consistently. 

And that’s all there is to it! Finally, we want to see YOU land this classic trick! Film a quick clip of you doing your best Ollie Impossible and 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 and we can get more people landing Impossibles. Now get out there, keep progressing, and have fun!