Do a Tailwhip on a Scooter
Want to impress your friends with an acrobatic scooter move? The tailwhip is a good place to start. By jumping off your scooter in mid-air, whipping it around behind you, and landing on the scooter to continue moving, you'll drop jaws for sure. Read on to find out how to get started learning this great scooter trick.
Contents
Steps
Practicing Foot Placement
- Choose your riding foot and your pushing foot. To do tricks, you need to develop the right foot placement to ensure that the scooter will land where you want it to land. Typically, if you are right footed, your left foot will be your riding foot, placed forward on the scooter, and will not leave the scooter unless you're jumping to do a trick. The right foot will be used to push off and move the scooter, and will stand near the brake toward the back of the scooter when you're cruising.
- Practice riding your scooter around and do what feels comfortable. Even if you're right footed, the "fakie" placement, with your right foot as the riding foot, might feel more comfortable.
- Practice the tailwhip while standing. Before you start kicking the scooter out from under your feet while in motion, practice the basic "kick" while you're standing still on the ground. With your riding foot on the scooter, use your other foot to push the side of the scooter abruptly and firmly so it spins around under you and comes back to its original position.
- Practice jumping out of the way of the scooter as you kick it back behind and around your body with your pushing foot. When you can do this regularly, you're ready to start trying a tail whip in motion.
- Use your hands to control the height and motion of the scooter during the whip. It'll happen quickly, but you can lift the handle bar slightly with your hands to make sure the scooter raises off the ground. Try to keep the scooter as parallel to the ground as possible while you do this.
- Practice by picking up the scooter and getting a feel for its weight. As you practice, get a feel for how high you need to lift the scooter (if at all) and how much you'll need adjust the scooter so it stays level.
- Your hands should never leave the grips for this move.
Landing a Tailwhip
- Practice while in motion. Place your riding foot on the scooter and start pushing off until you maintain a good speed. Stay balanced without going too quickly. Put your riding foot forward and position your pedaling foot on the opposite side of the brake, slightly hanging over the edge.
- Jump into the air, and push the brake sideways with your pushing foot. This will cross your legs slightly, so the trick is to get them back uncrossed and land the trick at the same moment the scooter makes it's full rotation. When you first get started, practice your timing by landing on the ground and move on when you can do that regularly.
- Land the tail-whip. When the scooter comes around towards your riding foot, place your riding foot on it, and pull it the remainder of the 360 degree rotation to land straight, then position your pedaling foot in a comfortable position.
- This will take lots of practice. Steady the scooter and stop its rotation with your riding foot before planting the scooter back onto the ground with your pushing foot.
- Practice doing a heel whip. To do a heel whip, or a "opposite" tail whip, you'll do essentially the same move, but kick the scooter in the opposite direction. Push out with your pushing foot, using your heel to push the scooter forward, instead of behind you. Stop the rotation of the scooter with your riding foot and land the trick with your pushing foot like normal.
Tips
- Don't give up - it takes a lot of hard work, patience, and practice.
- Practice your jumping first, don't try to skip right to the tailwhip. To make sure you can get enough air, try to jump up some curbs. You can do it!
- Always land with 2 feet on the deck when landing the tail whip or any other jump.
- When doing it remember to keep the bar in tight to your body, don't let it swing out!
Warnings
- Do not wear low-cut socks and try to use ankle protection (ie, pants, etc) if you can. The scooter may hit your ankles and any padding helps.
- Always wear protective gear. A helmet, wrist, and ankle guards are appropriate for attempting this trick.
