Surfing Kickflip

Leave it to Volcom to throw a $20,000 contest to get someone to land a surfing kickflip. This is what really began to put moving skateboard aerial maneuvers to surfing. There were a few people that experimented with rodeos and round houses but Volcom really blew the top off of it.

Flip tricks on skateboards are fairly simple but on a surfboard they proved to be more of a challenge. For one, surfboards do not have the same grip as a skateboard and you are dragging your foot instead of a shoe.

To begin flips obviously you need to get in the air. I cover how to do this in Surfing Airs but basically you need to air off the area of the wave where it is about to break and then do an Ollie maneuver on your board.

Once in the air you drag your forward foot at an angle up and in towards your body. Try to drag your foot off a curvature of the board to allow maximum speed and rotation of the board. Once you can accomplish this stomp the top side of the board as it comes around into the whitewash and ride away.

Now obviously on a surfboard this sounds a lot easier than it really is. As to date only one person has successfully landed one on tape. And this guy took home $20,000 for his exploits. Unfortunately the only picture available of a surfer trying this is not available for public distribution so I settled for the next best thing.

Practice this one and definitely post a video if you can stomp it. I have not even heard of a pro landing this one yet so I am sure in the months or years to come it will become a competition staple.

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