An
aerial skateboarding trick that involves a
kick to the
deck which causes it to
flip. Probably the most simple aerial trick after the
ollie, but for the
newbie it is still by no means necessarily easy. To understand the kickflip I recommend you read up on the
ollie and
basic skateboard terminology, if you'll excuse blatent but
necessary node-vertising.
In its most vague and general sense, the kickflip involves an ollie, except that the feet seperate from the board instead of sticking. The leading foot is used to 360-flip the board along the lengthwise axis, such that the edge behind you moves down initially (anti-clockwise for natural, clockwise for goofy).
True to general skateboarding form, the technique for flipping the board varies widely between two the main extremes:
Using the toe to push directly down on the back edge of the deck while in the air. This causes a fast flip.
Sliding the front foot on the deck, forwards and slightly to the back of the skater, but not pushing down. As well as causing the same drag effect as in teh ollie, when the foot hits the curved nose off-center, it causes an angiular spin to be applied.
Generally the second method is the most popular, and significantly harder, as it gains extra height - which is often the goal in aerial tricks. Usually however, a hybrid combination of both are used as it's fairly difficult to induce sufficient spin simply by dragging.
After the flip, the feet then 'catch' the board as it spins simply by allowing the top of the deck to hit the soles of the feet. Ideally the feet hit above the trucks with maximum contact between soles and deck. For kickflips that go for air, the deck is often 'caught' fairly high, but otherwise catch height varies.
A more difficult offshoot of the kickflip is the double kickflip - not easy at all. You need lots more air, and lots more kick, to get lots of flip - 720 degrees worth. Often it's done off stairs to get that extra height needed.
Oh and ads skates. badly.
Acknowledgements to my mate GaZ for teaching me all of this. I doubt he learned it all himself but this info isn't exactly the stuff that makes intellectual property.