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.

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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 FS Handplant or Frontside Invert on a Snowboard

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How to do a FS Handplant on a Snowboard

Introduction

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What up shredder…

One reason I got Oakley to fly me out to Mt. Hood, and pay for me to go snowboarding in the middle of summer, is because the team manager liked my handplants.

Specifically, my frontside inverts, which not a lot of people take the time to learn.

But you’re not like most people. Once you’ve mastered the backside handplant, it’s time to step to the frontside invert.

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

The FS Handplant Trick for Beginners

Ok, frontside handplant, also called a frontside invert. We’re taking another note out of skateboarding’s book here.

This trick was originally done as a “miller flip” invented by Darrel Miller where you bring it back to fakie in the vert ramp. In snowboarding, we tend to refer to a backflip over an obstacle with your front hand down in the middle as a miller flip, and a frontside handplant to regular on a quarter pipe or halfpipe as a frontside invert.

Again, like all handplants, The frontside invert is one of the most fun tricks EVER.

And they aren’t that hard, just a little scary at first, so even if you’re not a pro on the snowboard, as long as you can do a frontside air on a quarterpipe, you can try a handplant.

It might also make this trick easier if you learn a backflip, and maybe even a crippler on a quarter pipe before trying this trick. That being said, you don’t have to know how to do those tricks to handplant.

How to do a Frontside Invert While Snowboarding

Step 1 is to find the right feature. This is easiest on a small to medium quarter pipe with some vertical at the top, also called vert.

You can also do this in a halfpipe but it’s a lot harder because you have to stay on an edge, and the wall falls away down the slope, so if possible, try this on a quarter pipe where you can ride straight up the wall.

Now, contrary to popular opinion, the hardest part about this trick is NOT the handplant.

It’s getting the speed and pop right. If you do that, everything else is easy.

Before we start planting, let’s practice frontside airs on the quarter pipe to get comfortable with the speed.

We want the same speed as if we were going to air about 2 feet out of the quarter pipe. This is a little bit faster for this trick than most people would guess.

That’s because, we want to plant on the very top of the lip, and we want our feet to go above our heads, in an almost weightless manner.

If you go too slow, you’re not going to make it up the vert, and your full body weight will come crashing down.

If you go too fast, your hand will miss the plant and you might fly out of the quarter pipe.

If we get our speed JUST right, it’s the right amount to throw our feet over our head, and keep them weightless.

With the right speed, this trick feels weightless. That’s why you don’t need gymnast level strength to pull it off.

Advanced FS Handplants on a Snowboard

Ok, let’s talk about the approach. We’re going to come straight into the quarter pipe, and basically ride straight up the wall.

I like to take a slight toe edge, so I can really dig in to start turning my shoulders. It also makes it easier to get the pop to throw your feet over your head.

Unlike the backside handplant where we don’t want to turn our shoulders until we’re already in the plant, I turn my shoulders before I even pop on this one, as I’m riding up the wall.

To do this trick right, You’re going to pop at the very top of the quarter pipe and throw your feet straight back over your head. Look down over your front shoulder and spot the top of the quarter pipe to plant your front hand. Your eyes should be laser focused on where your hand is going to land.

It’s easiest if you grab indy at the same time your arm reaches the lip. Your feet are going to go more than over your head, almost like 3/4 of a flip. You can actually use your indy grab to pull your feet over your head.

Push off the snow with your front hand and look over your leading shoulder to get your feet to drop back in to the quarter pipe. Again, this is all about getting perfect speed. If you do that, you’ll fall right back to your feet.

When you come back in, you’re going to have to make some effort to lean toward your front foot to regain your balance.

Since your legs are going MORE than over your head, you’re going to pop out a little harder on this one. Just don’t pop out too hard and send it to the flats.

The big mistake people make on this one is not sending their feet far enough over their head. They want to hedge their bets and do 25%, but this is a lot easier if you really flip your feet over the head.

The fs invert is all about confidence and speed. I think I learned this one first or second try too.

Just pick a slushy day so the landing is soft, and go for it.

The worst case scenario is you slide down the QP on your back, which isn’t too bad as long as you land at the top. Don’t pop out super hard or you might fall to the bottom.

The Snowboarding Frontside Invert Trick

That’s it, the frontside invert. Ride straight up the wall of a QP slightly on your toes, with just enough speed to air two feet out. As your tail leaves the lip, throw your feet back over your head, and look down your front shoulder to spot the plant. Put your front hand on the lip, and Grab your toe edge with your back hand and pull to get your feet over your head.

Snap your feet back under you, lean forward and ride away clean. After you’ve got that, flip it the whole way over and take it to fakie next time.

And if you’re really a master, take it to fakie back the other way.

Find a slushy quarter pipe and Go give your first frontside invert a shot today.

That’s it.

Peace out shredder

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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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