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How to Kickflip on a Fingerboard? – A Beginner’s Guide

Fact checked by Michael Derosier

how to kickflip on a fingerboard

Playing with a fingerboard isn’t bland, not at all. It’s more than pushing your board with your hand back and forth. Realistically, what we do on skateboards also applies to these miniature items.

Can you execute tricks on a fingerboard the same as on a skateboard? Absolutely! Today, we are going to learn how to kickflip on a fingerboard. It will help you work with your hands better and achieve skills to learn other techniques.

What You Need

Doing kickflips on a fingerboard requires little preparation. Just be sure to have the following.

  • A quality fingerboard – Fingerboards come in sizes and parts suited to various user levels. For this tutorial, you can take a board for beginners, intermediate, advanced, or pro boarders.
  • A flat surface – Due to the nature of a kickflip, whether on skateboards or fingerboards, we should look for a flat surface to practice this trick.

Steps to Doing a Fingerboarding Kickflip

If a kickflip on a skateboard takes only a few weeks to master, how much quicker can you pull it off with a smaller fingerboard setup? Take note of the following steps.

Step 1: Finger positioning and basic pushing

kickflip-on-a-tech-deck

It all starts with the appropriate finger position. While there are tricks you can do with 3 fingers, kickflips are possible with only your pointer and middle fingers.

Whether you are a left or right-handed player, your index finger always sits near the nose of the deck at the back of the front wheels. Essentially, your middle finger will be on the tail.

Let’s start with the basic pushing technique. Push the fingerboard forward or toward the nose’s direction. Get a perfect feel of the board by moving it back and forth. You can start slow and then do it in a much snappier push.

Step 2: Adding the pop

tech-deck-kickflip

Now, you have better control of the fingerboard. Let’s add some pop to your routine. Here, we will raise the fingerboard’s nose through a snap.

So, begin by rolling the board back and forth. In one forward motion, snap on the deck’s tail. Such a move will lift the board’s nose.

Step 3: Flipping the fingerboard

fingerboarding-kickflip

So, after snapping the fingerboard’s tail and lifting its nose, what happens next? We rotate the board in the air.

To do that, we start by pushing the fingerboard and pressing its tail. These two actions will not only lift the nose but the entire board. And if that happens, make sure the fingerboard has enough space below it.

Once the fingerboard is in the air and traveling forward, move your index finger forward too. Your index tip should aim for that nose pocket closer to you. That’s where you will initiate the fingerboard’s rotation.

Again, when we kickflip a fingerboard, we flick the board to have it rotate sideways. So, as soon as your index finger finds the nose’s pocket, flick the deck to make it turn. Press it down as the whole fingerboard spins mid-air.

  • Friendly note: It’s not always about spinning hard or light. We should also master how much force to flick the board with. Otherwise, we’ll end up rotating the fingerboard too much or not spinning it.

Step 4: Landing

kickflip-a-fingerboard

The steps above happen in a few seconds that one hand can count. So, we should also pay attention to catch the board after the rotation.

So, how do we grab the fingerboard after it completes a spin in the air? It’s the same as the motions our feet execute during a skateboard trick. We find the stepping surface of the board.

As soon as the fingerboard completes its rotation, use your index and middle finger to aim for its grip tape or stepping surface. And once your fingers get a good grip on the board, press it back down. Continue by rolling the fingerboard forward to prepare for the same or a new trick.

  • Note: You can let the board rotate more than once before snapping it back down. But such a move will take more practice and better timing.

Power tips

  1. As many tutorials suggest, take things gradually. You don’t have to speed up after a few tries. Also, try not to rush to flip the fingerboard without getting a perfect feel of the popping motion of its tail.
  2. Mastery is the key. We have divided this tutorial into various phases so that you learn what’s vital in each step. Thus, aim to be confident doing one step before hopping to the next.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the easiest trick on a fingerboard?

If you are a beginner with fingerboards, you’d always want to know the easiest things to learn, and a kickflip on a tech deck is one of them. Here is a short fingerboard tricks list you should try.

  • Ollies – Like skateboarding, an ollie on a fingerboard is not only easy. It’s also fundamental to many other tricks.
  • Shuvit – The skateboard takes less flight when doing a shuvit. This move is more like a rotation than a spin and is also more straightforward than a kickflip.

How long does it take to kickflip on a fingerboard?

It depends on how efficiently you master each step of the tech deck kickflip. Some take only 14 days; others need a month; and some users refine their flips and landings in half a year.

Conclusion

Fingerboards aren’t objects for display. They are for having fun doing whatever we do with skateboards. And like their bigger counterpart, each skill we acquire demands sufficient knowledge and practice.

Kickflips are one of the things we should learn to get started with miniature decks. And now that you know how to kickflip on a fingerboard, you’re one step closer to mastering all tech deck tricks.

Remember to move through each phase slowly so that the succeeding steps can go as smoothly as expected.

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