Do a Frontside 360 on a Snowboard

After reading this step by step guide on how to perform a frontside 360 on a snowboard (if regular footed spinning a full circle counter-clockwise, goofy footed a full circle clockwise), you should easily be able to try the trick on any size of a jump. While this article explains how to do the trick over a very large jump, the same steps apply for jumps of any size.

Steps

  1. Know your abilities. Before attempting this trick, you should be at least an intermediate level rider. If you are not comfortable riding fast and in varied conditions, both forward and switch stances, you should work on your riding skills first. Learn to walk before you learn to fly.
  2. Inspect and pick your jump. Before attempting any trick over any jump, you should ride through the park inspecting all the jumps. Choose a jump within your ability range that will allow you to complete the frontside with confidence. After riding through the park and choosing a jump that you would feel comfortable trying the trick on you should go through the mental process of the trick.
  3. Visualize completing the jump. During the mental process, you have to visualize every aspect of doing the trick, the ride up to the jump, the take off of the jump, what you are going to see in the air, and the landing. If you can mentally picture all of these aspects then all that's really left is trying it.
  4. Ride up to the jump from the drop in. First make sure that there are no other riders trying to do the same jump as you. Keep the board flat by staying off your edges. This helps you maintain the speed you will need to make it to the landing of the jump.
  5. Approach the beginning of the jump. At this point shift your weight to your toe side edge, which should send you into a small toeside carve. Don't let this slight toeside carve slow you down, it is intended to keep you balanced as you approach the lip of the jump.
  6. Reach the lip. This is the most crucial point of the jump, if you catch your edge or don't have enough speed to clear the jump the landing is going to be a long painful fall. When you reach the lip, get good pop into your rotation by shifting your weight to the heel side edge before reaching the end of the jump. Your weight should be equal on both feet, and you should be compressing into the transition of the jump. Think of standing and jumping off the ground - before you leap, you crouch - this point of the snowboard trick is the crouch.
  7. Pop off the jump. When the nose of the board is at the end of the take off you will want to pop off the jump. Do this by lifting up your front leg first then following with the back leg. Do this quickly, just like an ollie on a skateboard, you lift both legs almost at the same time, but lead with the front leg.
  8. Start the spin. While popping you want to throw both your arms in the direction of your rotation(regular footed counterclockwise, goofy footed clockwise), putting you into a frontside spin. *CRUCIAL* look over your leading shoulder to look where you are going! If you keep looking down the hill instead of in the direction of your spin, your body will not rotate, and you are going to land sideways on the snow - a prelude to a lot of pain.
  9. Follow through with the rotation as you are in the air. As you pass the first 90 degrees of the rotation (facing completely forward) grab your snowboard. An easy first grab to do is a frontside, indy grab (back hand grabs board between both of you legs), your hands should already be in place to grab the board if you throw your arms in front of you to initiate the rotation. When you grab, it allows you to have better control and style. You should be able to do different grabs once the indy becomes easy.
  10. Keep looking over your leading shoulder in the direction of the spin. Hold the grab and keep following through with the rotation about another 180 degrees (facing the take off of the jump.) At this point let go of the grab and start to look for the landing.
  11. Keep your eyes on the landing as you complete the last 90 degrees of the rotation.
  12. Prepare for the landing as you are almost facing forward again. Suck up your knees to absorb the impact of the landing.
  13. Try to land flat based and really try to power through the impact with your legs, do this by attacking the landing with your legs aggressively.
  14. Ride away and just wait for praise from all your buddies.
  15. Remember to visualize the trick throughout the takeoff to the landing.
  16. Don't be scared and try a new trick after you master this one.

Video: The below video explains tips and tricks to improve your frontside 360's and land them every time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb5LHuZGXi0

Tips

  • Be confident and trust your own mind, if you can really visualize the trick it should be pretty simple.
  • Watch others hit the feature to gauge the speed needed to clear the landing.
  • Frontside 360's have a blind landing. Remember not to try to spot your landing while in the air, or you will over rotate and spin out.
  • A common mistake is to start spinning while still on the feature, thus losing stability in the air. Make sure that when you take off of the lip straight.

Warnings

  • Stay within your ability range, you do not want to hit jumps or try this trick before you learn the basics. You can get seriously hurt on some of those big jumps, so take it easy if you're new to the sport. Everyone has to start from somewhere, so just use your head.
  • The importance of safety gear, in particular headgear, should be well stated. Regardless of skill level of the boarder the whole idea of protective gear is to mitigate the risk involved in the sport to push one's limit to the next level. Besides, it’s a total bummer to end a day early due to a concussion or worse.

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