How to Switch BS 180 on a Snowboard

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How to Switch BS 180 on a Snowboard

Introduction

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It’s Christian from Shred School.

You know those things you know you’re supposed to be doing, because they’re good for you… but you just can’t get yourself to do them… like eating vegetables at every meal, putting away your phone a couple hours before bed… or practicing your switch backside 180’s.

Yes, that’s right, the switch backside 180 is the “Eating vegetables” of snowboard training. It’s a foundational move that is the key to amazing frontside 360’s, 720’s and switch backside 5’s, yet almost no shredder consistently practices the trick.

The good news is, just like vegetables, it’s an acquired taste, and once you start to dial in your switch backside 180, you’ll love doing it, and the rest of your riding will get so much better. It’s even been described as “the gateway trick”

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The Snowboard Switch Backside 180

Switch backside 180. I bet some of you are going to tune out right now. I don’t know why more people don’t love the sw backside 180.

It’s one of the most fun tricks ever. Since the day I saw Devon Walsh float one of a whistler cliff in Forum’s first movie, The Resistance, one of the greatest videos ever made, it’s been talked about in my group of friends as a trick that commands respect.

Before you get started on this one, you should be able to ride a switch, and have your backside 180’s dialed in.

How to do a BS 180 While Riding Switch

To do the swbs 180, take a heel to toe approach up to the jump. As you’re riding up the jump, stare straight down at your toes, and keep your edge straight. Focus on getting a good pop, and standing up tall as you takeoff. Don’t bend over at the waist.

You want to favor your back foot here. The #1 mistake I see people make it to put their body weight over their front foot, which is usually their back foot riding regular.

Practice your switch ollies, and make sure you use your tail to pop.

Pop off your toes as you take off and turn your shoulders backside, staring straight down at the ground.

It helps to reach down and grab indy. Remember, your body weight stays over the back foot, not the front.

If you lean too far in to your front foot, you’ll wash out in the backseat when you land.

Focus on landing just like you would a fs 360, staring straight down at your tail, looking up the mountain.

Once you stomp the trick open your shoulders to the landing so you can see.

You’ll notice that pretty much this entire trick is blind.

I stare at my feet the entire time and just focus on maintaining upright posture.

It’s really a pretty simple trick. It doesn’t even feel like you’re spinning. It almost feels like a blind straight air once you take off.

Switch BS 180 Trick Tips

This is a great trick to try on a side hit before taking it to a jump.

You can also do this with pretty much any grab you want. I like indy nosebone, but you can do switch melon, switch method, really whatever you want.

Use a heel to toe approach, stare straight down at your feet the entire time, focus on a straight line off the takeoff, keep upright posture, and stare straight down at your back foot to land. Once you’re on the ground, look up, ride away and go eat your vegetables.

That’s the swbs 180, a super fun trick that you should do every time you go to the mountain if you want amazing frontside 360s, swbs 540s and the admiration of your friends.

That’s all for today.

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How to Switch BS 180 on a Snowboard

July 28, 2020 No Comments

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How to Frontside 180 on a Snowboard (FS 180)

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How to Frontside 180 on a Snowboard

Introduction

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It’s Christian from Shred School.

I remember that glorious day back in 1997, shredding down the Pennsylvania hill on my Burton Chopper 122, launching off a mogul, spinning frontside 180 and landing switch.

It was my first spin ever, and one of the easiest spins to do on flat ground, moguls or a small jump.

The easiest spin trick on a snowboard – the first spin most people learn.

Today, we’re going to talk about the frontside 180 which could be your first time spinning on a snowboard.

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What is a Snowboard Frontside 180?

The frontside 180 is a 180 degree spin where you take off regular, spin with your front facing down the mountain, and land switch. It’s a 180 to the left for regular riders and to the right for goofy riders.

For those of you that are new, a 180 is a half of 360, or half of a full spin, which means, whichever stance you take off with, will not be the same stance you land with.

Yes, that means landing switch.

Before you learn the frontside 180, make sure to practice your ollies, and riding switch. It doesn’t do anyone any good to learn a 180 if they haven’t practiced riding switch in order to ride away from the trick.

If you’re pretty sketchy riding switch, take a few more switch runs before going for the 180.

Ok, now you’re ready to get started

How to FS 180 on a Snowboard

It helps if we start on an edge. We’re going to Ride across the slope on your heel edge, and swivel around 180, so you’re riding switch on your toe edge.

Practice this a couple of times, and then we’re ready to add a small ollie.

Lean in to your heels, give a small windup with your arms, and use the power of your tail to pop, spin and land on your nose to bring the trick around.

The key here is to spin with your shoulders, and your board will naturally follow. You can start turning your shoulders frontside 180 before you’ve even left the ground, open up your chest to face down the hill, and you can use your nose to pivot around.

You can see this clearly on a skateboard.

If you’re having trouble getting this around, it may help to Pull your front arm behind you.

How to do a FS 180 Jump

Once you’ve got the 180 dialed on flat ground and on the slope, it’s time to take it to a jump.

We’re going to use a light toe to heel approach, coming up the jump on the left side (if we’re regular) on our toes, and switching to our heels as we come up the ramp.

You can also use a heel side side hit as a substitute for a jump here.

We don’t want to lean too far into our heels, because this is only a 180. If we cut too hard, we’ll go off axis, or spin too much. Keep your posture straight, stand up tall, and keep your body weight above your board, with just a slight heel edge.

Keep your weight centered over your back foot, but land nose heavy (that means your switch tail), with a flat base or slightly on your toe edge.

That’s going to make sure we land leaning down the landing, without going over the tip of our board.

Ride out of this trick switch, and hit the next feature switch.

Let me repeat that. Get in the habit of hitting the next feature with the same stance as you land. Nothing says amateur more than someone who reverts as soon as they land, because they can’t ride out switch.

Advanced Snowboarding Frontside Spins

That’s the fs 180. It’s super fun, incredibly easy to do on a small jump or side hit, but quite a bit harder to do over bigger jumps. The challenge is not to spin too much as the jump gets bigger.

You can do fs 180’s out of 50-50s, you can frontside 180 on to a grind.

I like to tailpress 180 out.

Remember, It’s all in the shoulders.

You can do this trick switch, also called a half cab, so that we’re landing regular, although I recommend you start with the regular frontside 180 and learn the half cab next.

You’ll want to master this trick as it’s the exact motion you use to land switch backside 360’s, frontside 540’s, switch backside 720’s and frontside 900’s.

That’s it, the frontside 180. The first spin I learned. A 180 degree spin with your front facing down the mountain. Take off on your heels, give it a little wind up, ollie, and come around to switch. Ride out switch and hit the next feature switch.

Go give the frotnside 180 a shot and let us know how it goes.

That’s all for today.

Peace out shredder

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How To Fall or Wreck Safely On A Snowboard

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How to Backside 180 on a Snowboard

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How to Backside 180 on a Snowboard

Introduction

50% Off Online Snowboard School: https://www.edshreds.com/school

It’s Christian from Shred School.

There’s something about landing blind that’s just so fun.

It’s a full body commitment to whatever comes next.

A complete leap of faith into the unknown.

Today, we’re talking about one of the most blind tricks that exists. And also one of the coolest tricks, both the way it looks and the way it feels, to ever be done on a snowboard.

We’re talking about the backside 180, also called a “back 1”

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The Snowboard BS 180

I remember one Vail pow day morning I eagerly headed up the gondola, excited to shred the white fluffy stuff that had fallen overnight. I bounded out of the Gondola, strapped in, and launched a backside 180 off the next cat track I found into a great wide open slope below.

Only I had made a huge mistake. Really, it had only snowed about 4 inches on the front of the mountain, which was just enough to hide the massive mogul field on the slope below. Since I was doing a backside 180, even as I flew through the air, I had no idea what awaited me. When I landed, it’s like my body was in a washing machine, having hit a mogul going backwards, and catapulted through the air, tumbling over moguls, and basically ruining my day.

That’s probably the least fun backside 180 I've ever done, because it turns out that when you KNOW what is in the landing, backside 180’s are very, very fun. I just recommend you do it on a jump where you know what comes next.

A backside 180 is a 180 degree spin where you take off regular, and land switch, spinning with your back facing down the mountain.

As opposed to a frontside 180, which your front would turn down the mountain, and you would be able to see the landing the whole time.

It’s this blind landing that makes the backside 180 a bit harder than open tricks, but also one of my absolute top 3 favorite tricks on a snowboard.

How to Backside 180 on a Snowboard

Now, there are some prerequisites to this trick.

The first is that you can ride, and ollie at least on the flat ground, as this is technically an “ollie backside 180”

That’s important, because in order to use proper form, we need to actually ollie on this trick.

Next, you should be able to ride switch. So many people try to learn tricks with a switch landing before they can actually ride switch, and it’s just a huge mistake. Take the time to practice your switch riding first, and this is going to be so much easier.

Now that you have the basics, it’s time to practice.

Snowboard Backside 180 Tutorial

The first thing we want to do is just ride across the fall line on our tow edge, our front facing up the mountain, and do a backside revert on the ground, coming to a stop on our switch heelside edge. Make sure when you spin, you transition from the toeside to the heelside edge, or else you’ll catch your toe edge and fall face first down the mountain.

This is good practice, because once we take this to the air, we want to avoid catching a toeside edge on the landing.

To make the turn, simply turn your shoulders backside 180 degrees, and push out your back foot to get your feet to follow. You can wind up a little bit with your shoulders if needed, but the bigger the jump, the less wind up is needed. It’s only 180 after all.

Remember, the shoulders always turn first. Don’t try to do the 180 with only your legs.

It helps to stare straight down at your feet on this trick, and actually get around 180 before looking up at the slope.

After you can do this on the ground, try the same exact movement with a slight ollie. You can even do this off a mogul, or a bump in the snow while cutting across the slope.

Once you’re comfortable on the ground, it’s time to take it to a jump.

The easiest jump to learn on is a toeside side hit, which will naturally throw you backside into the main run.

We’re going to do the same motion, but with an ollie this time. Come in on your toes, and as you’re taking off, pop an ollie, and turn your shoulders backside.

Your board should naturally follow. Stare down at your front foot, with your body weight slightly over the back of the board.

If you keep your weight over the front foot in the air, you might slide out when you land.

That being said, I like to land slightly nose heavy over the front of my board, with my weight falling towards the back and on a very slight toe edge though I prefer to land completely flat base off of big jumps as I think it’s safer at higher speeds.

While coming down, Stare at the ground until you’ve made contact, and THEN look up and see where you’re going. If you look up too soon, you risk catching the toeside edge when you land.

Ride away switch, and afterbang the trick. Claim it, you’re steezy.

Advanced Backside 180 Snowboarding

As we get more advanced, it helps to use almost a frontside shifty on this trick. That means our legs stay straight for the majority of the trick, while our shoulders go backside 180.

This ensures we have a proper ollie. If you’ve done this trick on a skateboard, you’ll know this is really the only way it will work. Late backside 180

Doing this also allows you to do backside 180’s over obstacles like this cone. Notice how straight my board stays until I clear the cone.

Straight ollie, turned shoulders, then bring the feet around.

Once you’re ready for a park jump, approach the jump with a mellow heel to toe approach, coming in on the right side of the jump on your heels, if you’re regular, and switching to your toes as you go up the lip. Start to turn your shoulders, pop, grab, and stare straight down at your feet for the landing.

If you have to wreck on the landing, try to wash out on your heels like this, rather than wrecking towards your toes. The chances of getting hurt are much lower.

Make sure you carry enough speed, because if you do knuckle on a bs 180, it tends to be a bit of a surprise, which is no fun.

Once you have the backside 180 dialed, get creative, and try some butters and grabs.

This is one trick that really works well with any grab. Some cool ones are Japan and indy nosebone.

Snowboard Backside 180 Rails

You can also do this trick on to rails and boxes, off side hits, down gaps and over the biggest of jumps. I just wouldn’t recommend it for your first hit on something… you know, in case there’s a mogul field below or something.

That’s the backside 180. It’s a toeside takeoff, ollie straight with your legs while your shoulders spin backside, stare straight down at your front foot until you land, and look up to see where you’re going.

The backside 180, one of the coolest tricks to ever exist. GO give it a shot, that’s all for today.

Peace out shredder