What’s up this is Tim with Tactics Boardshop, today I’m going to teach you how to tre flip.
To me, Tre flips or 360 flips have always felt like one of those milestone tricks,
where you finally start to feel like you’ve progressed beyond the basics.
It’s also just a really satisfying and good looking trick.
A treflip is a combination of a 360 shuvit and a kickflip.
Before attempting to learn them, I’d recommend being consistent with shuvits and pop shuvits
because the treflip heavily utilizes the backfoot scooping motion.
I’d also suggest being comfortable with kickflips and maybe varial flips and some other flip tricks
because you’ll have already done the mental conditioning necessary to commit to landing back on the board.
You don’t need to learn 360 shuvits first,
because that trick has a completely different technique that doesn’t really translate to treflips.
I recommend trying to learn this trick while rolling. You can learn them stationary if you want to, but I think they’re harder in place.
Plus if you’re at the point where you’re trying to learn treflips,
you should already be somewhat comfortable trying tricks while moving.
This trick can be difficult to learn at first because it takes quite a bit of effort to get the board to flip all the way.
So if you’re younger and don’t have a lot of leg strength built up, this trick can be tough to land the first time.
But it gradually gets easier as you grow stronger and dial in the foot motions.
There are a lot of different ways to do this trick, and everyone’s treflips look a little different.
Some people have vertical flipping treflips, and some are more flat.
It all depends on how you scoop the board with your back foot.
With that, let’s go over the foot placement.
The ball of your back foot should be right on the edge of the tail with your toes slightly hanging off the side of the deck.
This placement allows you to get leverage on the side of the tail as you pop and scoop the board.
You don’t need to have your toes hanging way off,
and if your foot is too much on the tail, it will be hard to get the proper leverage.
You want the ball of your foot to still be on the board so you can get a solid jump when you try the trick.
Putting your foot closer to the pocket will help you get a quicker scoop,
and putting your foot further back on the tail will help you get more pop.
So definitely experiment with different back foot positions to find what works best for you.
The front foot position is less critical and varies between skaters.
The most common positioning is,
somewhere near the center of the board with your toes near the side of the deck and pointed toward the nose.
A taller person with a wider stance might put their front foot closer to the bolts,
and a shorter person might have theirs further back.
Keep your front foot near the edge of the deck so it can counterbalance your back foot so you can roll straight when you’re set up for the trick.
Don’t stress too much about the front foot positioning because 90% of the treflip is done with the back foot.
Your center of gravity is going to be towards the back end of the board.
Having too much weight on your front foot will most likely make the board lag behind you,
and leaning too far back will send the board out in front of you.
Alright, let’s talk about the foot motions.
The 5 main events in a tre flip are: the jump, the scoop, the flick, the catch, and the landing.
Let’s break down each of those events before putting it all together.
You’ll need to get a good jump for the treflip, because you need enough airtime for the board to fully rotate.
To get the best jump, make sure you’re jumping off the balls of your feet.
Since this is a scooped trick, the board is going to have a bit of lateral motion,
so you’re going to have to jump with the board.
Watch how far the board travels to the side.
To help with this, right before your jump, lean in slightly to the toe side of your board.
This will naturally set you up to jump with the board and stay right above it.
Let’s talk about the scoop.
Scoop is the term used to describe the motion of the back ankle as it torques and shoves the board around for the 360 rotation,
and it’s indisputably the most important part of this trick.
It’s similar to the scoop for a shuv-it, in that it breaks the traction of the wheels,
but there’s a lot more force and pop needed to get the board off the ground and fully rotated.
Notice the way the ankle curls inward to give the board the propulsion it needs to finish the rotation.
As the tail is about to hit the ground, the ankle flicks it back and releases the board.
Practice that ankle motion for a second.
Let’s look at it from a couple different angles, and keep an eye on that back foot curl.
The direction of the scoop should be mostly backwards with a slight angle towards the nose.
Scooping the tail slightly forward will stop the board from lagging behind you and keep it under your torso.
As soon as your back foot finishes the scoop, lift it up out of the way and wait for the board to come around to land back on it.
Figuring out the scoop is the hardest part of learning treflips.
Focusing too much on the shuv will make the pop very scrapey, and the board will flip flat, and be hard to land on.
But, focusing too much pop won’t get you the full 360 rotation.
It’s all about finding the right balance of jumping, popping, and shoving the tail to get the right rotation, all while keeping it under your body.
Many times when people are learning this trick,
they will compensate for a lack of scoop by opening up their shoulders and turning them in the opposite direction of the board.
But this just makes it much more difficult to roll away from the trick.
I can’t emphasize enough keeping your shoulders straight through the whole trick.
Now let’s talk about the front foot flick.
The flicking motion for a treflip is actually pretty subtle.
When the front foot kicks out for a treflip, the toe just barely grazes the grip,
and sometimes seems like it doesn’t make contact at all.
Many skaters when they’re first learning treflips will try to flick the board really hard to compensate for a lack of scoop.
But it ends up messing up the rotation by flinging the board out in front of you or over flipping.
Watch the way the board tilts into the front foot from the scoop.
When the back foot presses down to scoop, the applied torque compresses the bushings on the toe side of the board,
tilting it into the front foot.
So when the scoop is released, the board is already gripped to the front foot, causing it to flip with little to no effort.
The motion and timing of the flick is very similar to a kickflip,
in that the foot tilts inward, drags up, and flicks just after the pop.
The direction however is about 20-30 degrees to the toe side and is more upward and uses less force.
Since the board is already rotating by the time you start the flick, the toe will go off the side of the deck rather than off the nose.
Definitely experiment with flicking your foot out a few different ways to find a flick that will keep the board under control.
Let’s try putting together the jump, scoop, and flick.
At first it’ll feel like you’re just flinging your board,
but try to slowly gain more control of how the board flips and where it goes.
After enough trial and error, you’ll figure out how to rotate the board while keeping it under your torso.
Try landing on it with just your front foot.
This will condition yourself to catch the board, and also help you build up your confidence so you can eventually commit to getting both feet on the deck.
But, don’t rely on this too much because you can develop a bad habit of bailing before giving the trick a shot.
It’s best to start trying to commit to the trick soon after figuring out the flip.
Most beginners won’t be able to pop them very high, and will just meet the board at the ground.
But when you start learning to pop it up higher or start trying it off of something,
you’re going to have to catch the board so it doesn’t over-rotate.
There’s a lot going on under your feet when you’re trying a treflip,
but spotting the catch isn’t too bad once you get a feel for what the board looks like when it’s completing the flip.
The catch generally happens with the front foot because of the way the trick rotates.
After the front foot does the flick, it’s already in the catching position and is just waiting for the board to wrap around and hit the underside of the foot.
But it’s completely fine to catch it with both feet at the same time.
Remember, catching the board is gentle and deliberate, not stomping it down.
If you get in the habit of stomping the board when you see it come around, you’ll end up cracking lots of decks
and make it more difficult for you to learn to catch tricks down gaps.
Simply extend your front foot enough to touch the top of the board to halt the rotation, and let gravity take care of the rest.
Alright, now that we’ve gone over all the individual parts, let’s put it together.
With your shoulders parallel with with board, feet in position,
weight on the balls of your feet and evenly distributed, lean into the toe side to initiate the jump.
Remember that the board shifts laterally from the scoop, so you have to jump in front of you slightly.
Just before your feet leave the board, your back foot does the scoop, curling the ankle to pop and shove the board around.
As the back foot is scooping, the front foot is starting to flick up and outwards.
While the front foot is flicking, the back foot is lifting up and getting out of the way to give the board room to rotate.
The front foot is still extended outward waiting to catch the board when it finishes flipping.
As soon as the grip comes around, lower your front foot to catch the board.
Your back foot should be on its way under your torso to land on the board.
Aim for the hardware bolts and land with your weight evenly distributed.
All of that takes place within half a second,
but after trying it enough times, it will feel like one fluid motion.
This is where having some experience with other tricks will come in handy
because you’ll have already gone through the mental conditioning that you need to commit to landing on the board.
Familiarize yourself with how it feels and what it looks like when the board flips correctly under you,
so you can make that split second decision to commit or not.
Visualize and mentally rehearse yourself landing the trick to give you that boost of confidence.
But be prepared to take a few falls and shinners trying to learn this trick.
Treflips are notorious for flinging around and whacking you in the shin.
As long as you can get in that commitment mindset, all you need is one good flip, and you’ll land a treflip.
Here’s a couple tips to help you learn it faster.
Tre flips are way easier on smooth ground because you don’t have to scoop it quite as hard to get it to rotate.
Although if the ground is too slippery, the wheels will slip out when you scoop, and the tail won’t get a chance to pop off the ground.
If your ground is a little rough,
a trick you can use is to put a little bit of wax on the edge of your tail, right on the spot that makes contact with the ground.
Don’t worry about trying to make it look stylized in the beginning.
Just focus on keeping the flip small and controlled until it becomes comfortable.
Then you can experiment with adding some flair once you’ve figured it out.
If you’re scared to commit on concrete, you can try on some carpet, but it’s a lot harder to roll on and get a proper scoop on carpet.
Be sure to practice this trick a lot.
There’s a pretty steep learning curve for this one and it’s going to take some real tenacity.
So try not to get discouraged.
But after putting in the work to get them down, there are few things more satisfying than rolling away from a buttery tre flip.
If you’ve got any questions or comments leave them in the box below, and good luck learning treflips.