Frontside 180 Ollie
Performed by Joe Pino-filmed by Dorian Tucker
Needless to say, it is necessary to learn to ollie first. The frontside 180 ollie is basically an ollie with a 180 turn in mid-air. Setting up for it is essentially the same as for an ollie, but as you crouch down for the "pop"", wind up your body a little by turning your torso backside (your leading hand should "reach" across your stomach). As you hop into the ollie, unwind by twisting your torso frontside. By the time your tail smacks the ground, your torso should be "ahead" of your legs; when the board lifts into the air, your body is already turning frontside, pulling your legs along. Your legs, in turn, are pulling your feet along, which are guiding your board around. Voila! You're on your way. The board should remain directly beneath you the entire time. When you've turned all the way around and the board is lined up and drifting fakie, extend your legs and land. You will now be rolling backwards. It may seem strange to land this way, but get used to it. You will soon learn many tricks that will require landing backwards or switch-stance. One way to learn to land backwards is to try a rolling 180 body varial (jump and turn your body 180 degrees, landing on the board switch-stance). You will find that the frontside 180 ollie is a good set-up trick and that many variations are possible.
The ollie manual is a good trick to help develop your balance and ollie control. The idea is to ollie and land on your back wheels, riding a "wheelie" for a distance before setting the front wheels down. It can be done on the flat ground or over an object, but is most commonly done up onto an element, like a curb or block. It requires a fair sense of balance, and you should be comfortable ollieing. It might be good to get accustomed to manualling on flat ground before ollieing onto something, but a curb is a good element on which to learn the ollie manual. Ride at the curb at a normal ollie speed - you'll want to go fast enough to get up onto the curb and still have momentum for the manual. Pop into an ollie and get up over the curb. Instead of levelling the board in the air beneath you, keep your leading foot up and your weight centered over the back wheels. The lower you pop your ollie, still clearing the element of course, the smoother you will land on your back wheels and the easier it will be to gain balance once on those wheels. Once on them there back wheels, you'll notice your body arched forward over your board as you ride the manual. This is how you keep your weight balanced on the back wheels. It is useful to try and manual a set distance, like to a line on the sidewalk or off the curb again. This will give you something specific to strive for until you've got the ollie manual so wired that you can just ride it for days. Then you can try variations like the ollie manual to kickflip off of an element, or even the ollie flip to manual. The options are endless.
With both your feet on the board, lift up the heel of your back foot so your weight is on the ball of your foot and your toes. That part of your foot should be centered at the tip of the tail. Your front foot should be about 2/3 of the way up the board, angled slightly forward. Your toes should be near the toe edge of the board and, depending on shoe size, your heel may be hanging off of the heel edge. Smack the tail to the ground with your back foot and jump off of that back foot--getting the timing down is probably the hardest part. As you jump, your front foot slides up to your nose, pulling the board into the air. At the peak of your ollie, level out your board, then wait for the landing. Always land with your knees bent. When ollieing a gap, try not to think about clearing it; instead, think about popping a nice big ollie. The hardest part about ollieing most gaps is getting in the committed mindset. When you're in the air, spot your landing and keep those shoes on that grip tape until you roll away.
