The 180 is your first step in learning how to spin on a snowboard. You will want to give yourself a solid foundation for spinning in all directions. Start by improving your switch riding. Swith riding is key to gaining balance and confidence in your spins and advancing your riding level. Also, how the heck can you ride away from a frontside 180 if you can’t ride switch?

How to 180 On A Snowboard (Regular)

 

How to 180 On A Snowboard (Goofy)

There are four kinds of 180 spins that you can do:

Frontside – front of your body faces downhill as you rotate. Easiest to perform
Backside – back of your body faces downhill as you rotate.
Switch Frontside (AKA Cab)
Switch Backside

Learn all four to be able to constantly change your direction while riding.

Spinning is a mixture of rotation combined with pop to lift you in the air. You want to focus on popping with weight distributed evenly over both feet to stay balanced. Popping off a flat base while going straight can be much more difficult to perform. Start by popping off of one edge (heel or toe side) by carving.

Begin by mastering the frontside 180 as they are the easiest spin to learn. In a frontside 180 your head never rotates but your body does. Backside spins require you to rotate your head to spot the landing adding a degree of difficulty (AKA landing blind).

How To Do A Frontside 180 On A Snowboard

Step 1
Start on the ground with your board off. Wind up and crouch down to initiate your spin. Pop up and release into the spin in the desired direction.

Step 2
Next grab your board and strap it on in a flat area where you can stand still. Wind up and crouch down to initiate your spin. Pop up and release into the spin in the desired direction.

Step 3
Find a gentle slope to practice on. Start on your heel edge moving down and across the hill. Pop and release into a frontside 180. Your using your heel edge to spin frontside and rotating up the hill.

Remember to windup, pop and release with your head pointed exactly to where you want to go!

Step 4
Add more and more pop to increase the difficulty. Look for little side hits all over the runs at your local mountain and get practicing. Side hits are great at automatically putting you on an edge to rotate from.

Step 5
Bigger park jumps can seem intimidating at first. Be sure to make a small setup turn to get you onto an edge before hitting straight off the jump. Make sure you land on the sweet spot of the landing (transition). It can be very painful to land flat.

Step 6
Add some flair to your spins with various grabs off various jump sizes.

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How To Do A Backside 180 On A Snowboard

Step 1
Start on the ground with your board off. Wind up and crouch down to initiate your spin. Pop up and release into the spin in the desired direction.

Step 2
Next grab your board and strap it on in a flat area where you can stand still. Wind up and crouch down to initiate your spin. Pop up and release into the spin in the desired direction.

Step 3
Find a gentle slope to practice on. Start on your toe edge moving down and across the hill. Pop and release into a backside 180. Your using your toe edge to spin backside and rotating up the hill.

Remember to windup, pop and release with your head pointed exactly to where you want to go!

Step 4
Add more and more pop to increase the difficulty. Look for little side hits all over the runs at your local mountain and get practicing. Side hits that set you up on your toe edge are great at automatically putting you into a spin ready position.

Step 5
Bigger park jumps can seem intimidating at first. Be sure to make a small setup turn to get you onto your toe edge before hitting straight off the jump. Make sure you land on the sweet spot of the landing (transition). It can be very painful to land flat. Spot your landing blind by looking at the knuckle (top of transition).

Step 6
Add some flair to your spins with various grabs off various jump sizes.

Want to really improve your riding by learning 360′s and more?

Head over to Snowboard Addiction and get all the best instruction videos from world class coaching on how to snowboard.

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