How to 360 Air on a Snowboard
Here's a killer spinning maneuver with vast variations.
Steps:
1. Get comfortable with ollies, jumps and 180 airs before you attempt a 360 air.
2. Find a jump transition with good pitch and a soft powder landing.
3. Approach the jump on your uphill rail with moderate speed.
4. Crouch down and wind up your body to spin when you hit the lip.
5. Jump up and unwind to get your body spinning as you leave the jump.
6. Keep your upper body low and lead with your head. Try to keep an eye out for your landing ahead of you as you rotate a full circle in the air.
7. Land both feet at the same time, bending your knees to absorb the impact.
Tips:
Once you get consistent with 360 airs, many variations are possible. Try 360 grabs and 360 tweaks. Then try fakie to fakie 360s.
Warnings:
Attempt 360 airs only when you're ready. You must first be comfortable with jumping, landing and spinning.
You'll save yourself some pain by learning on a jump with plenty of powder to land on. You might want to find an empty field, build a jump, and just keep going off it until you get a trick or two dialed. Then take it up to the slopes.
Be sure your landing area will be free of your fellow boarders and skiers when you arrive.
Overall Warnings:
Snowboarding is an inherently dangerous activity that can result in serious injury or death. We recommend that you seek proper training and equipment before attempting this activity.
Tips from eHow Users:
360 Tips. by Cristian T.
The 360 is an intermediate trick. If you don't fully commit to it, you will never land it. The 360 trick is 85 percent commitment. The tip I will give below is to help with the lack of commitment problem.
The main problem for people in a 360 is that they freeze at 270, or even 180 (rarely 90). To help with this, I have noticed that visualizing the points in the 360 (when you're looking back up the hill for front side, or facing down the hill for backside) helped me. If you can't visualize it, try going on the jump. Stop right after the lip, before the knuckle of the tabletop (if you're using a tabletop), and stand at the point of 270. Remember how this looks. Think about getting to that point as your main goal in your 360. Doing this and getting to the point of 270 with enough momentum will minimize the chance of you freezing at 270. I think the main reason people freeze at 270 is that they are actually freezing around 180, and then forcing the 270 (after which they are unable to force another 90).
Another thing that helps with getting momentum for the front side 360 (other than visualizing the 270) is to have a planned run-up and one toe-side turned toward the tabletop. Once on the kicker (or a little before, depending on its size) do a heel side turn (if you're regular), and then spin on that edge frontside. For back side, it would be the opposite. This made 360's so much easier for me. It was almost effortless. Another thing to try is actually spinning 90 degrees on the lip, to get extra momentum. I did this the first couple of times, and it really helped to get the feel of doing a 360.
Front side 360:
1) Toe side turn coming down, then switch to heel side turn coming up the kicker, spinning around 45 degrees on the lip for extra momentum.
2) Visualize reaching the 270 point, looking back up the hill (after which the last 90 is very easy).
3) Don't even think about doing the first 180. Visualize the 270, and make that your goal. You will be less likely to turn your head back and freeze your rotation at 270. The added momentum from the smooth 270 will keep you going, as opposed to a forced 270 from a 180 position (which will never get you to 360, as the spin is completely dead).
Using this, I went in one day from barely being able to land an extremely sketchy 180 (usually freezing at 90) to being able to do 360's extremely easily and adding a melon grab. I ended up getting 6 feet of air and easily landing my 360. On the last run of the day I tried (and landed) a 540. |