Fingerflip

Both coaches agree the fingerflip is a hand trick with a feet problem: the hand supplies the rotation, and the job of the feet is to be out of the way and ready to find the bolts on the way down. They also agree that the rotation is driven by the wrist rather than finger strength alone, and that the catch feels like catching a kickflip. Beyond that they teach two genuinely different versions. Sarah PM teaches the freestyle tail-stop fingerflip, where you are standing on the tail, pinning it in the heel-side pocket while the thumb presses the toe-side nose, building tension that spins the board for you the instant you jump; her emphasis is on preloading, on stepping through five progressive drills, and on practising feet-together-to-feet-apart jumps so you land on the bolts. Josh Katz teaches the rolling version, where you pop the board into your front hand from a nose-grab and flick it around before catching it. His feet start in an ollie stance and get clear early, and his fixes for a slow flip are learning it off a ramp for a faster pop and reaching lower so the hand meets the nose sooner. The shared corrective across both is time: if the board is not coming all the way around, you either need a faster flip or more airtime, not more force through the arm.

• →The rotation comes from the wrist, not just the fingers; leaning the wrist into the motion recruits the whole arm and speeds the flip up dramatically
• →Get your feet clear early, whether that means pinning the heel-side pocket of the tail and jumping straight up or setting an ollie stance with the front foot back
• →Build the trick in stages rather than committing straight away: flip the board and land with one foot, or pop it into your hand without going for it, before trying the full version
• →Practise landing with your feet apart on the bolts; both a feet-together landing and leaning too far forward are common ways to end a good flip badly
• →If the board is not coming all the way around, buy time rather than forcing it, either by flipping faster or by jumping higher with the knees tucked
• →Catch it like a kickflip, feet over the bolts, and stomp it back down

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