Master the FS 180, Unlock Your Kickflip

You’ve been missing your kickflip for a month. You’ve got the pop, you’ve got the flick, but it goes to crap every other try. The problem isn’t your flick. It’s your rotation. And the trick that unlocks all of that is called the frontside 180.

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Why the FS 180 is a mandatory step

The frontside 180 is an ollie + a 180° rotation forward. On paper, it sounds easy. In real life, it’s the trick that forces you to finally engage your shoulders. And that’s exactly what you’re missing to land your flip tricks.

Aurelien Giraud pulls it off 80 cm high at the SLS without breaking a sweat. Your goal is to land it clean on flat ground, rolling smoothly. Once you’ve got that, your kickflip stops going haywire, and all frontside variations (heelflip, varial, hardflip) become achievable. It’s the investment that pays off the most in your progression.

The foot placement that works

Foot placement is almost identical to the ollie, with one crucial difference. Back foot: on the tail, heel slightly overhanging towards the outside — that overhang is what will give you the scoop to initiate the rotation.

Front foot: centered in the middle of the board, just behind the front bolts, parallel or very slightly angled towards the nose. Not too far forward, or you’ll get off the ground but lose the rotation. Not too far back, or you won’t get the pop. The simple test: if you can do a clean ollie from this position, you’re good.

The shoulder movement — they’re the ones that decide

The key to the FS 180 is right here. Your feet follow what your shoulders decide, never the other way around. Before the pop, you wind up: you turn your shoulders backward (towards the tail), as if you’re loading a spring. Knees bent, gaze on the ground in front of you.

At the moment of the snap, you pop your ollie AND you unwind your shoulders in the other direction, forward. Your hips follow, your knees follow, the board follows. You look over your back shoulder to spot your landing. If your shoulders rotate fully, your body does the 180° on its own. If your shoulders only do half the job, you land at 90° and you bail. Brutal but simple.

The 14-day program to nail your FS 180

Days 1-3: FS 180 stationary. No rolling. You set up, you wind up, you do the motion, you land at 180°. Until it comes out without thinking. Count 30 tries per day, no more. The motion needs to sink in without cramping.

Days 4-8: FS 180 rolling very slowly. Walking speed. You’ll tend to under-rotate — force yourself to over-rotate slightly; the rolling motion will correct it. If you bail 5 times in a row, go back to stationary for 10 minutes.

Days 9-14: normal speed, on clean flat ground. When you land 7/10 clean, you can move to a low curb (5-10 cm) — that forces you to really pop and rotate at the same time. The video below breaks down the motion frame by frame; watch it before each session.

The gear that changes everything during learning

You’re going to bail. A lot. Doing an FS 180 on a bad setup guarantees blown-out heels and your board slipping at the wrong moment. Here are the two pieces that make the difference between a week of progress and a month off due to injury.

First, the shoes. When you’re learning to rotate 180°, you often land crooked — vulcanized sole + heel cushioning is non-negotiable. Vans Old Skool have been the benchmark for 30 years for a reason: legendary canvas/suede grip, reinforced heel, accessible price.

Next, the board. If you’re still starting out with a toy board bought at a big box store, you’ll never land your FS 180 clean — the trucks turn poorly, the tail wears out in two days. A serious complete between 70 and 100€ changes everything. The Enuff Skateboards Complete ticks all the boxes: 7-ply maple, aluminum trucks, ABEC-7 bearings, at a reasonable price for parents sponsoring your progression.

What’s next — the variations it unlocks

Once your FS 180 comes out clean 8 out of 10 times, you unlock a whole universe. The BS 180 — same logic, inverted shoulders. The half-cab — an FS 180 starting fakie. And most importantly, the mind-blowing combo: varial flip, hardflip, and later the 360 flip, which is nothing more than a board FS 180 with a kickflip grafted onto it.

The FS 180 isn’t just a trick to check off a list. It’s the key that opens the door to street tech. Work on it properly, and the rest will follow. You’d miss your first 50-50 grind without the pop and rotation this trick demands. Everything is connected.