How to Kickflip on a Fingerboard: From Ollie to Flip Trick

Do not start learning kickflips before you can consistently land clean ollies at a moderate height. The kickflip builds directly on the ollie's pop-and-lift motion — if your ollies are inconsistent, you'll be practising two things at once and both will suffer.

The threshold: you can land ten ollies in a row cleanly, at the same modest height, with the board landing flat both wheels down. If you can do that, you're ready.

The tail-pop is identical to the ollie. The middle finger snaps down on the tail exactly as before.

The front finger is where the difference lives. Instead of dragging forward across the top of the deck, the front finger flicks off the side of the deck — angled outward and down, across the deck's edge nearer the nose. That flick applies rotational force to the deck as it leaves the ground, which spins it under your fingers.

The flick happens at the same moment the drag would in an ollie. Same timing, different direction. Where an ollie drags forward, a kickflip flicks sideways-and-down.

The front finger sits in roughly the same place as an ollie — over the front truck bolts, one-third from the nose. But the angle of the finger matters more: instead of pressing flat against the top of the deck, the fingertip is angled slightly toward the far side of the deck, so it will flick outward when released.

The middle finger on the tail sits exactly as it does for an ollie — on the peak of the kick.

Test your placement without popping: press both fingers on the deck. Your front fingertip should be positioned so that a slight outward motion would carry it off the side of the deck. If it would slide straight forward, you're in ollie position, not kickflip position.

Pop the tail with the middle finger — same snap as an ollie. Simultaneously, the front finger flicks outward off the side of the deck. The two motions happen together, not sequentially.

As the deck rises, it will start spinning under your fingers. Your fingers rise slightly to give it room to rotate — this feels counterintuitive, because your instinct is to reach for the deck to catch it, but reaching too early stops the rotation.

Wait for the deck to complete one full rotation. You'll see the grip tape face upward again just before the deck starts falling.

As the deck falls back toward you, both fingers come down to meet it, landing on the top. Both wheels should touch the surface at the same moment.

The flick is too gentle. If your fingertip only barely brushes the deck's side, the rotation is weak and the deck either doesn't complete a full spin or wobbles instead of rotating cleanly. Flick harder.

The flick is in the wrong direction. If your finger slides forward instead of sideways-and-down, you're doing an ollie, not a kickflip. The direction matters — outward off the deck's side, not forward across the top.

You catch the deck too early. If your fingers come down while the deck is still rotating, you stop the spin and land on the trucks. Wait until you see the grip tape face upward again before reaching down.

The pop is too weak. If the deck doesn't get enough air to complete a rotation, the flick has no room to work. Make sure your pop is at the same height as your best ollies before adding the flick.

Drill 1: pop-and-flick with no attempt to land. Just pop the tail, flick the front finger, and let the deck spin off wherever it wants. Do this 20 times, focused only on the rotation. You'll feel when the flick is strong enough to complete a full spin.

Drill 2: pop, flick, catch late. Once the rotation is consistent, wait until the deck is well into its spin before catching it. Land on the trucks if the timing is wrong — that's fine at this stage, you're just learning when to catch.

Drill 3: kickflip and land flat. Combine the two — pop, flick, wait, catch. Aim for both wheels touching down at once. This is where hours are spent, and consistency comes with reps.

Drill 4: kickflip in sequence with an ollie. Alternate: ollie, kickflip, ollie, kickflip. This trains you to switch between drag and flick without confusion — the two motions live in your fingers together.