Cross Academy basic variations
B ack Crollie
Ollie to Back Cross Step
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The back crollie, or ollie to back cross step is a variation on the crollie. In order to do this step you need to perfect the back cross step while rolling, which is a much harder bit of footwork than the front cross step. Aside from being a harder step, the landing of this trick is harder than the crollie, because you are turned almost backwards so it's a "blind" landing. If you're working on the crollie and nailing it, and practicing your back cross on a bigger board or your street board, you'll start to get the elements of the back crollie. I think it's a really fun trick, and when you land it right, it's just as stable as the front crollie version. It leads into a walk to hang heel(s) position on the nose.
As far as describing, this routine is tricky because the flow starts forward, but I turn around and I'm literally walking backward, but moving up the board to the nose. Sorry if it's confusing. I'll refer to the nose and tail to define the direction of movement. The foot closest to the nose at any time is the front foot. The foot that started front is the original front foot. A foot that comes down closest to the nose after a cross step I call the new front foot.
I start in a similar stance as the other ollie basics. My stance on this one looks narrower than on the front crollie. I'm leaving myself lots of room at the nose for my back cross landing.
The position on the snap is different than on the crollie. I turn my front foot in, pointing my toe slightly toward the tail. At the same time I rotate my shoulders clockwise, turning my body position slightly backwards.
If you've looked at the back cross steps from the Footplex section, you might notice I do the step differently there. I turn my front foot way out as I cross behind to make the step, using a pivot over my planted foot while turning my shoulders late. But that's very technical dance style footwork. The back crollie is a jump so I cut out the pivot. Here I point my front foot backwards first and turn my shoulders early. It ollies better and it's easier on the knees with less stretch.
After the snap I start to bring my back foot up the board. Notice my toes are pointed in roughly the same direction. I want to keep my original back toe pointed the same way through the landing, so it fits behind my front foot when I make the cross step.
As with the crollie, the landing at first is extremely one footed. This is a good illustration of a stable one foot landing. My foot is diagonal and sits lengthwise on the board. In the slightly wild start of the landing I keep my arms up for balance. The original back foot brushes by as the back cross step continues. It will become the new front foot.
My arms come down and even though I'm still on one foot I'm very in control now. Although I'm turned backwards, this is actually very stable and the board won't fly out from under. As I set my new front foot down, I keep it turned in so I can hook it behind my original front foot.
Even though I'm walking up the board the whole time, I've turned backwards so it looks like I'm backpedaling. That's what gives the trick its unusual look and feel, you're backpedaling up the board.
I set my toe down near the toeside edge of the board. Once I've got my toe touching down in the right spot, I've pretty much nailed the landing.
A common mistake would be to put your foot down too much to heelside, then you wouldn't have room and your foot would hang off the heelside rail. The correct landing is to deliberately reach around your new back foot with your new front toe. The result of doing it right is that my feet are nested together and parallel, with a nice cross backpedal look.
The shoulder rotation is a smooth 180 turn through the back crollie. At this point I've turned completely backwards. From the back cross landing I want to uncross step in a backwards walk to the nose. I didn't leave much room at the nose so I'm going to make an adjustment step.
I used the same adjustment step in a routine on Cruise Power. I use a small step to tighten my cross stance to give me a little room to walk back (toward the nose) more. I lift my front heel and slide my foot forward (toward the tail), closer to my back foot.
The adjustment step is complete, and now I'm going to take an uncross step to the nose.
I pick up my back heel, maintaining toe contact as long as possible for control.
I pass my back foot by my front foot and set it on the nose, toe first.
I lower the heel of my new front foot. Now the position is a hang one heel on the nose. I keep my arms up and try to look relaxed while standing facing backwards on the nose.
I prefer to hang one heel or the side of my foot because I like the stability. Hanging both heels off the tip might be more "cool", especially if you threw in an arch of the back. It puts a lot of weight on the nose and it's likely to go into a nose wheelie, which would a whole other part of the trick to practice.
One last point. I've been rolling a while and haven't looked where I'm going once. I can last a while without looking if I checked what was in front before I turned. Eventually I will look over my shoulder or just stop the board with my foot. When doing these "blind" tricks, make sure all's clear in front before turning your back on the direction of travel. A low speed makes blind tricks safer.
