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When I miss on this trick it is because I am leaning too far back and my board will shoot out. I expect this to happen warming up and will eventually find the right amount of pressure. If you just Ollie to tail you will stop dead.
The push is where your back foot gets slightly out ahead of your body. You are not 90 degrees your front foot is in back of your front foot.
I will try to find a picture that illustrates my point.
Look at the action on the back foot. See the heal lift and the back leg angle. That’s that PUSH...
Great explanation and the pic.
You’re welcome.
Editors note: it is impossible for ones front foot to be in back of ones front foot. I meant back foot but I am sure you interpreted that.
Skating is so weird that I look at people who FS tail slide like why do you look so good on that I suck and then BSTS and the other guy thinks the same thing. My body just moves backside so much easier. Front side I always open up or something. Maybe I just need to find the right ledge/high curb. I don’t get any enjoyment skating boxes anymore. Feels like practice and the ones and the park use aluminum edging which sucks to grind.
Have a good day...
Some observations from today:
"The Push" works - 1st one I tried today I got a decent slide and exited forward, the 2nd one I tried I slid got out fakie, then nothing in between for around 20 tries till my last 4 in the session where I got a solid lock and exited fakie with a proper pop out instead of slipping out.
1) It's counter-intuitive because you would think that the added push would cause over-rotation and the deck slipping out. But "The Push" helps to get the baseplate slotted into the ledge perfectly while overcoming the inertia from the initial lock of the tail.
2) I still got stuck on a lot of the attempts but I attribute that to under-rotation from not committing, not looking back or smashing my tail from above the ledge and not staying on my toes.
3) The ledge I'm working on is tiny (6-7" max), a taller ledge like 10-12" seems ideal
4) Slight angle to parallel worked best for me, too much angle caused me to under-rotate my board and "The Push" couldn't compensate for it. While rolling up my front shoulder was pointing into the ledge slightly, that helped with opening up the shoulders to aid the rotation.
I visualized Josh Kalis' Backside Tailslides (and 360 flips) when I attempted the trick because he exaggerates "The Push". After sifting through his Memory Screen and IG but couldn't find the specific clip.
This one was the closest I came up with, in one of the last few trick you can seem him really jamming / slotting his tail into the ledge with his back foot. I guess that's where the hip rotation really makes the different - rotation of the board under foot with while maintaining the upper body parallel to the ledge.
Overall not a bad day, landed 6 (1 regular, 5 fakie) out of 20-ish tries. I was locking in a lot more consistently but sticking and the times I did lock in I could actually feel the baseplate slide instead of gliding haphazardly across the ledge. I still need to work on my hip rotation. "The Push" is scary and counter-intuitive - it definitely takes commitment to allow yourself to over-rotate so you actually rotate sufficiently.
Shoutout to @GardenSkater77, @jerrygurneyscream and @Billy Bitchcakes for your secret sauce.
I know it's a sin to quote yourself but a year after battling this trick i'm finally confident to say I have it consistently in my bag.
Over the 1 year of doing them I've made the following adjustments:
1) Approach with a mellower angle - less drastic rotation into the slide so I don't force myself out to Fakie prematurely
2) Separated by hips and shoulders during the slide - hips and lower body are perpendicular to the ledge for the lock, shoulders parallel to the ledge to continue to forward momentum and exit out both regular and Fakie
3) Popping lighter so I don't slam my tail onto the ledge - still get a solid pop so my tail actually leaves the ground but gently placing it on the ledge so stick way less
4) Being less reliant on the "slotting / pushing" technique - I skate smooth ledges with loads of wax so less need to push through the inertia, also less slamming my tail on the ledge (see point 3)
Taller ledges still need a few attempts to get used to the height, but I'm not spending 30 minutes fruitlessly rolling up and not popping at all.
Had a personal breakthrough today. What made em work today is I pretended I was doing them switch so I set up my feet and body that way - foot instead of pointed to the side, I had it perpendicular to the board And hips squared off. If my explanation makes nonsense just watch people doing them switch.
Any videos of skaters doing a solid switch one to illustrate?