Heelflip
The heelflip (aka heel), is an aerial skateboarding trick where the skateboarder kicks out in front of him/her flipping board 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 back bolts or onto and slightly towards the heel-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:
- Double Heelflip, where the board flips twice toe-sidebefore being caught.
- Triple Heelflip, where the board flips three toe-sidetimes before being caught.
- Quad Heelflip, where the board flips four times toe-sidebefore being caught. (Never landed)
- heelflip sex change,(otherwise known as a body varial or a disco flip), where the skater does a 180 turn while the board only does a heelflip.
- Varial Heelflip, where the board flips once toe-side and spins frontside 180 degrees (frontside pop shove-it) at the same time.
- 360 Heelflip (aka Laser flip), a combination of the Frontside 360 pop shove-it and the Heelflip.
- Frontside/Backside 180 Heelflip, where the skater flips the board and turns both his or her body and board 180 degreesFakie.
- Late Heelflip, in which the tail is snapped and the ollie is pursued but, at the peak of the ollie the heel of the front foot pushes downward on the toe-side edge of the board causing it to rotate once toe-side.
- Late Back-foot Heelflip, in which the tail is snapped and the ollie is pursued but, at the peak of the ollie the heel of the back foot pushes downward on the toe-side edge of the board causing it to rotate once toe-side.
- 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 Backside 180 sex change (Also known as a body varial or Disco Flip) is where the board spins a heelflip and the skater does a full 180 degree spin Backside, lands on the board in switch stance.
- Inward Heelflip, a combination of the backside pop shove-it and the Heelflip, this trick is usually awkwardly executed with the crossing of the skater's legs.
- Bigspin Heelflip, skaters body does a 180 Frontside while their board does a 360 frontside shuv it and a heelflip.
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