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Slide Walking
W alk to Backside Nose Slide pg 3
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Walk to tail
Here is the first cross step to the tail. Notice the board is moving tail first. The walk is done from the stance I ended up in from the 180 slide, hence it's switch stance. You will probably feel awkward walking to the tail switch. The first cross step may be especially hard, because you never balance on that leg in your normal pushing motion. If you practice switch pushing, this one leg balancing should get easier. Also practice cross pushes from both stances. The cross push is explained in the Lines section of Reef.
After the cross step, the next step puts me on the tail in fakey stance. It feels like I'm on the nose in switch, but since it's the tail, the footing feels familiar. My right foot feels like my back foot, my pivot foot in this stance. It will be easy to pivot into a kickturn.
Fakey frontside slide to kickturn ending
The exit from this tail first ride is going to be a 270 turn, a combination slide and kickturn.
My right arm is placed across my chest, hand pointing backwards. My weight is shifted onto my right leg. This maneuver is done much the same way as the backside 180 slide. It's different, because it's fakey, so the footwork will feel reversed. But the shoulder rotation should feel the same. It has a more frontside feel, because you can see where the turn is going.
I rotate my shoulders firmly clockwise, leading with my right arm. I weight the tail with my right foot and press on the rail with my left foot. The nose (to my left) starts to come around.
As the nose comes around, at first the wheels are sliding. Notice my weight is pressing down on the heelside rail. This gives me some angle to push the board with my feet.
The front wheels come up and it's a kick turn now. I start my checking motion now, reversing my shoulder direction, turning them counter clockwise. My right hand now moves in front of me.
I set the front wheels down and roll forward. The board has come 270 deg around.
Relating two or three similar maneuvers can make the one that's more uncomfortable seem easier. It will always feel strange to perform a switch trick. But if you try to think of the way the similar regular trick feels, you can train your mind to ignore the awkwardness. In this case, when you're doing the fakey frontside slide, don't focus too much on the feet being pointed to the switch side. Think of the motion of the backside 180 in your shoulders, and the motion of the basic toeside kickturn in your feet, and it will seem easy.
