How to Switch Backside 540 on a Snowboard

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How to Switch Backside 540 on a Snowboard

Introduction

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It’s Christian from Shred School.

So you want to learn how to switch backside 540 on a snowboard?

DO you want to be an average shredder or the kind of ripper who goes where few men and women have gone before? That’s the question you have to ask yourself for today’s video, because sure, you could learn the tricks that everyone cares about…

The backflip…

The tamedog…

Maybe even a 360 or two.

But search almost any beginner to intermediate park trick on youtube, and there is an endless amount of tutorials promising to teach you how to do the trick… That is, except for this trick.

Today, we’re covering a trick that is a key trick to being a well-rounded rider who doesn’t ignore their weaknesses. It’s a trick that you’ll love once you learn it, and one that almost none of your friends will learn.

There are ZERO tutorials from the usual players on YouTube for this trick. The trick, is the switch backside 540.

If you want to learn ALL the pre-requisites, this week we’ve got 50% Off Shred School: https://www.edshreds.com/school

The Snowboard Switch BS 540

Ok, the switch backside 540, the last 540 I learned. I just woke up one day and realized my life was incomplete because I could only spin 3 out of 4 ways on a snowboard, so I finally decided to do something about it.

Like every trick, I’m going to be straight with you. This trick is very simple IF and only if you have mastered the fundamentals.

For this trick, you’ll want to know how to

Switch backside 180, as the approach and takeoff is exactly the same
Frontside 360 as the spin and the landing is exactly the same
Backside 540 so you understand the axis to spin on

This trick should feel exactly like a switch backside 180 into a frontside 360. If you can do those two tricks, you can do the swbs540.

The Switch Backside 540 Tutorial

We’re going to take a heel to toe approach in to the jump, coming in switch on our heels on the left side if we’re regular, and riding up the jump on our toes.

Open your shoulder up on the heelside carve for a counter rotation, and then swing your front shoulder closed as you go up the lip.

For most of us, this is going to feel extremely blind. You have to trust yourself on this one.

Look down at your toes, keep a straight line off the jump, maintain upright posture, and pop hard. As soon as I leave the lip, I like to pick my feet up into my chest a bit for the grab.

Remember not to grab too early or you’ll slow down the spin. I like to grab switch indy on this, but I initially learned it with a switch mute or a switch melon. Switch nose works well too, and so does switch stalefish. Pretty much all the grabs are great for backside 540s.

We’re going to keep our axis such that at 270 degrees, our weight is over our front foot to set ourselves up at the right angle for the landing. By front foot, I mean your switch front foot, this would be your back foot riding regular, so for me, halfway through the spin, my body weight is over my right foot since I’m regular.

At 270 you should be able to see the landing for the remainder of the trick, and coming down to stomp it will feel exactly like a frontside 360.

Put your tail down to land, look up the landing until you’re on the ground, then open up your shoulders to see where you’re riding out.

The most common thing that goes wrong on this trick is since you’re riding up the lip blind, some riders panic on the takeoff and prespin, or bend at the waist and put their hands in the snow. Just remember to hold a straight line, stand up tall and pop

You have to trust the blind takeoff, and you’ll be good.

Switch BS 540 Trick Tips

This trick is a favorite of backcountry riders all over the world, but it works great on park jumps, and even side hits.

If you’ve made it this far, seriously, I commend you. Most people will never learn the swbs540 in their lives.

But, it’s not that hard…

If Bob Burnquist can do this on a skateboard, you can do it on a snowboard with your feet attached. Just practice the basic building blocks, work your way up and you got this.

One more tip. We tend to avoid the tricks that we don’t practice, to think they’re harder than the other tricks. If you’ve struggled with the swbs 540, I would ask you, how many times have you tried?

Go find a small safe jump and try it 50 times in a row, and I can almost guarantee you’ll like the trick by the end. If you’ve tried it less than 10 times in the last year, this trick is going to feel super awkward and you’ll avoid it like the pandemic.

That’s it, the switch backside 540, it’s one and a half spins riding off the jump switch and landing regularly. It feels just like a switch backside 180 into a frontside 360.

Practice your fundamentals, take a heel to toe approach, wind up, stand up tall, pop, pick your legs up into your chest and spot the landing exactly like a frontside 360.

Ride away and go rub it in your friends faces that you can do a trick that they can’t.

That’s all for today.

Peace out shredder

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How to Frontside 540 on a Snowboard

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How to Frontside 540 on a Snowboard

Introduction

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It’s Christian from Shred School.

Once you start to learn one or two 540’s, you’re going to want to learn all of them. I made the mistake of only learning to spin one way for years. I would only do backside and cab 540s, pulling a real zoolander, and only spinning one way, and in doing so I was neglecting one of the most fun tricks, the fs 540.

It’s a great setup trick if you want to do a switch trick afterwards, and it’s the stepping stone to fs 720s and frontside 900s.

Let’s get into it.

If you want to learn ALL the pre-requisites, this week we’ve got 50% Off Shred School: https://www.edshreds.com/school

The Snowboard FS 540

Contrary to popular rhetoric on youtube, the fs 540 is not a frontside 360 with a frontside 180 at the end.

It’s more like a frontside 180 into a switch backside 360, which means, if you want to have great frontside 540s, you need to practice 3 tricks. The

Frontside 180
Frontside 360
Switch backside 360

If you have those three dialed in, you’re going to have no problem stomping fs 540s.

Meanwhile your friends will be washing out, unable to ride away switch, because they haven’t put the proper building blocks in place.

The Frontside 540 Tutorial

For the fs 540, you’re going to want to go a little bit faster than you would for a fs 360 so you can scrub some speed off the jump. We’re going to take a bit sharper toe to heel approach to build momentum, and at the same time, wind up our arms, pulling both arms back as we ride up the jump on our heels. Lean slightly harder on your heels than you would with a frontside 360, but be sure to keep your body weight over your board.

At the top of the lip, throw your arms around, and pop HARD off your back foot.

You’re going to see the same effect we see on a fs 360 where your shoulders will turn significantly before you take off…

But your legs stay straight off the lip. Do this by bending the back leg and straightening the front, and trying hard to hold it straight edge off the lip while your shoulders turn.

Once you’re in the air, your body weight is going to mimic that of a swbs 360.

You can see here that on a frontside 360, at 270 degrees your weight is going to be over your back foot to get ready to land.

The big difference is that on a frontside 540, your body weight will be over your front foot in the air at 270, so you can come around to land switch without going tail heavy.

I like to throw my body weight a bit more forward off the jump than I would on a 360 to achieve this weight distribution.

After you pop, Pull your board up to your grabbing hand. Indy, melon, stalefish and mute all work great for this trick.

Wait to grab your board until you’re at least 180, so you can get the spin around If you grab before that, it might stall you out before you have a chance to get your momentum in motion.

By now, you can see the landing.

This is an open landing, which means, as soon as you get to around 270 degrees and grab, you can see the full landing for the remainder of the trick. Tweak that grab and hold on.

Start to open up at around 450 degrees and extend your legs to land.

If you’ve practiced your swbs360s, this will be easy, If you haven’t you’ll probably wash out or under or over rotate.

Your shoulders will make it to 540 before your legs do, so simply let your legs unwind the rest of the way while coming down to the landing.

Try to land flat based or slightly toe edged here to keep your speed up for the next trick.

FS 540 Trick Tips

Once you get really good at these, Start to cork it out a bit after you get it down by dipping your shoulder. Corking the spin actually makes it easier to get around, it turns into one smooth motion.

That’s it, the frontside 540. One and a half spins, taking off regular, and landing switch. Take a toe to heel approach, wind up, pop off the back foot, get your body weight over your front foot in the air, lead with the shoulders, finish with the legs… and most of all. Practice those switch backside 360’s ahead of time!

Once you’ve got it dialed, cork it out and let us know how it goes.

That’s all for today.

Peace out shredder.

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How to Cab 540 on a Snowboard

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How to do a Cab 540 on a Snowboard

Introduction

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It’s Christian from Shred School.

There are certain jump tricks that are a staple of any park riders repertoire. These are tricks that can be done over any jump at any time, and are often used as a “setup” or safety trick.

It’s not that these tricks aren’t hard, or cool, it’s that they are on the easier side, offer you just enough adrenaline to get pumped up for the next jump, and also an easy landing to setup for your money trick.

Sometimes you’ll use these tricks to warm up on a really big jump.

One of those tricks, is the cab 540, and today, we’re going to break it down.

If you want to learn ALL the pre-requisites, this week we’ve got 50% Off Shred School: https://www.edshreds.com/school

The Beginner's Snowboard Cab 540

The cab 540, is a switch frontside 540, which means you take off backwards, spin 1 1/2 times and land regular.

Notice that this trick has an “open landing” where we can see the landing, almost for the entire trick. For that reason, some riders call this a safety trick or a setup trick, YOu can see where i use it here to setup for a backside 9.

Something I like to do is use tricks to build my confidence and adrenaline in a jump line so by the time I get to the hard trick I am at 100% charge mode.

This can help with that.

Now before you get started, you should learn half cabs, which are just switch frontside 180s, cab 360’s, at least off small jumps, and you should master backside 360s as this trick is essentially just a halfcab to a backside 360s.

I actually think cab 360s are harder than cab 5’s mostly because of the blind/switch landing. And I don’t know many people who can do cab 3’s over big jumps, so don’t worry too much about it.

Just make sure you have your half cabs and back 3’s dialed in and you can do a cab 5.

The Snowboard Cab 540 Tutorial

We’re going to Come in on your toes on the right side of the jump if you’re regular, and switch to your heels up themiddle of the jump.

Use a small windup depending on the size of the jump, and start to turn your shoulders as you go up the lip. Just like in the FS 3 tutorial, you’re going to keep your legs straight off the jump to avoid scrubbing speed.

It almost feels like you are straightening out your front leg and turning it the other way of your body.

Keep your body weight over the top of your board, not over your heel edge, Be patient when you pop , and when you reach the end of the lip, Pop off your heels as HARD as you can.

Your lower body should automatically follow your upper body which has already started turning.

Throw your head the whole way over your front shoulder so you’re at 270 right off the lip.

You can see the landing the whole second half of the trick.

If you cork your spin, so you come around 270 learning forward, your stomach almost facing the ground, you can essentially see the landing the entire trick.

Just dip your front shoulder off the lip to give this one some cork.

When you come around past 360, Spot the landing, let go of the grab, and come around just like you would on a backside 360.

Land slightly on your tail, flat base or slightly on your toe edge. I sometimes make the mistake of landing too heel heavy here, which can scrub your speed for the next jump.

Advanced Snowboard Cab 540 Trick Tips

You can do the cab 5 with all sorts of grabs. Indy, mute, melon and stalefish are all super easy with this trick.

You can even throw in a double shifty with a cast on your arm if you’re feeling it.

The most common thing that goes wrong with this trick is people either lean too hard in to their heels and don’t have their weight over the top of their board, or spin too early, and the scrub the speed off the lip.

Make sure you maintain upright posture, and take a straight line off the lip with your heels.

By using counter rotation between your uper body and lower body, you can start this spin on the lip without actually turning your board.

If you have a hard time scrubbing speed on this, go a little faster than usual, and remember, when we’re taking off on our heels, we have to pop with everything we’ve got.

That’s the cab 5, a common setup or safety truck, but also an awesome trick in it’s own right.

It feels super cool over big jumps and sets you up perfectly for what comes next. You can see the landing almost the entire time, and it works with almost any grab you can think of.

Take off with a toe to heel approach, pop hard, grab, spot the landing just like a backside 360 and stomp it.

Practice your half cabs and backsdie 360s and you’ll have no problem with the cab 5.

Go give it a shot and let us know how it goes. That’s all for today.

Peace out shredder

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How to Backside 540 on a Snowboard

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How to Backside 540 on a Snowboard

Introduction

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What up shredder?

It’s Christian from Shred School.

The backside 540 the very first 540 I learned, and what seemed to be the first “advanced” trick I knew, It was my go to for big air contests or video parts as a kid.

See, it’s one thing to know how to 360, pretty much anyone can learn that, but to step it up to the 540 brings you to a whole new rank of snowboarder.

Today, you’re going to learn the tried and true backside 540 and step up your game, and join the ranks of advanced snowboarders.

If you want to learn ALL the pre-requisites, this week we’ve got 50% Off Shred School: https://www.edshreds.com/school

The Snowboard Backside 540 for Beginners

The backside 540 is where you spin backside one and a half times, taking off regular and landing switch. It’s also a blind landing, which means it’s easier to get the last 180 around, and a little harder to land it.

Before you step to the backside 5, you should obviously have backside 360’s down, but also backside 180’s and… here’s the one everyone forgets and they wonder why they can’t backside 5…

Cab 360s. That’s a fakie, or switch frontside 360, which is just the last 2/3 of a backside 540.

See, a lot of people will explain the backside 5 as a backside 360 with another backside 180 at the end, but that’s not true…

The backside 540 is done on a different axis than the backside 360.

It’s more like a backside 180 to a cab 360, rather than a backside 360 to a backside 180.

Don’t let me lose you here.

See, on the backside 360 when you come around 180, your body weight is over your back foot, looking at the landing.

At this same spot in the backside 540, your weight is actually over your front foot. You are on a whole different axis. If you were to land the backside 540 early, at 360, you would be wayyyy in the backseat.

Understanding different axis of rotation is the key to getting bigger and better spins, and realizing that the backside 360 and 540 are not the same trick with just one more 180, is the key to stylish, corked spins.

So, take the time to go out and practice the cab 360… over and over again. Do it on the ground. Do it over jumps.

By the time you get to a backside 540, I promise if you’ve mastered the backsdie 360 and the cab 3 (which most people won’t do), you’re not going to have any problems.

How to BS 540 While Snowboarding

For the backside 540, we want to take a heel to toe approach, coming in on our heel on the side of the jump, and switching to our toes up the middle of the jump.

This is going to help us initiate the spin.

We can take a small windup, but if the jump is big, you don’t need much.

The challenge on this trick is standing up tall on the takeoffer without leaning over, or putting your hands in the snow.

Leaning too far into your toes is going to cause you to drift, which we definitely don’t want.

Go straight off the jump, dip your front shoulder and start to turn your shoulders backside.

On a backside 360, I typically throw my shoulders 90 degrees off the jump, and let the trick float around to the landing.

On a backside 540, I’m throwing my shoulders 270 off the jump, and floating the last 270.

See, 540s are all about getting the proper snap off the lip, and then just letting gravity do it’s work, floating yhou the rest of the way.

You don’t have to try to “spin” through the whole trick, just on the takeoff.

Now if you’ve done this right, you should come around 270 almost sitting back like you’re in a recling with your feet out in front of you.

At this point you can see the landing for the rest of the trick. Keep your shoulders and your head turning backside, and get ready to set your board down in the landing.

You want to land heavy on your nose (whcih will be your switch tail), with your weight leaning back towards your tail (switch nose). This will get you leaning at the angle of the landing, without going nose heavy and tumbling.

When you’re landing blind, remember that you want to stare straight down at your feet, almost looking UP the hill, and don’t look up to see where you’re going until you’ve stomped the trick.

If you come up short here, just lean in to your toes, and scrub it around. Be sure not to let your heel edge catch, because that could be very painful.

Remember, if you can’t seem to land at the proper angle on this trick, you need to go out and practice your cab 360s over and over again, and it will take care of itself.

BS 540 Jumps and Advanced Tricks

Where can you do this trick – You can do this trick on a side hit, but it’s a really good trick for park jumps.

So many grabs work well with the backside 540, the nose grab, indy, indy nosebone or tailbone, melon grab, stalefish is a great one.

So that’s it. The backside 540. Take a heel to toe approach, stand up tall off the takeoff, dip your shoulder to slightly cork the spin, keep your bodyweight over your front foot halfway through, spot the landing and bring it around to switch. Stare straight down at your feet until you’ve stomped it then look up to ride away.

Go give it a shot and join the ranks of advanced shredders who can 540 off a jump.

That’s all for today.

Peace out shredder