Your First Backside 360s

The Backside 360 oozes style when it's done right. It's also an essential fundamental trick to know if you're wanting to learn bigger spins.

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(Narrating/Riding: Nev Lapwood. Riding: Jordan Decker Film/Edit: Adison MacDonald. Filmed At: Whistler Blackcomb & Whistler Bounce)

Fundamentals Of Spinning

Spinning on a snowboard has two main components. The first is popping. Popping is an ollie or a jump to get your snowboard off the ground and is predominantly done with your legs.

Bending at the knees then extending will give you pop.

The second component is rotation. Which is adding momentum to create a spin movement and is started with your upper body.

Rotating with your upper body will give you rotation.

The difficult part of learning a 360 is timing these two movements together. 

Break It Down

On the mountain, jump some Backside 360s with your board off. You’ll have to put in more effort but the timing and skills are the exact same.

Try just jumpin' around like a bloody lunatic.

Engaging That Edge

The most important aspect of spinning on a snowboard is to initiate from your edge. Being on edge gives you grip with the snow and something to push away from into your spin.

Traverse across a run on your toe edge. When you feel a solid edge position, wind up and jump a Backside 180. Now do the same but put more effort in. Wind up a little more, pop harder with your legs and release faster with your upper body. If all goes well you’ll spin a Backside 270 and end up riding down hill.

If you can get good at your Backside 270s while traversing on your toe edge then you’ll quickly be able to learn Back 3s on a jump.

The Side Hit

A toe edge side hit is a jump that forces you to approach on your toes.

PSA: You’ll often be crossing a run for a side hit, so be very careful that you’re not cutting anyone off and that people can see you. The important thing is to find a jump that helps assist your pop but gives you room to ride in with a solid position over your toe edge.

Start with a toe edge straight jump and focus on getting a strong pop. It’s ideal to get at least 1 foot into the air.

Hit the same jump with the same speed and pop, but this time add a small amount of wind up to perform a Backside 180. Once this is easy, the only difference is to create more tension using your upper body. Make sure to get good pop off your toe edge, combined with a faster release of your wind up to create enough momentum for a 360.

You may only get 270 a few times which is good enough at this stage. Focus on smooth movements. Try going a little faster until you can get it all the way around.

There you go! Now you have the progression to do your first Backside 360s, it's now time to give them a go on snow. Oh, and stay tuned for the upcoming release of How To Backside 360 On Park Jumps!

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Alex McCann
Snowboard Addiction
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