Pop shove it on a fingerboard is a trick done by scooping when popping the tail while lifting up the front finger, making the board spin. Let the board complete the spin and catch the board to stop the rotation. Typically, a pop shove it is considered a backside 180 spin of the board, but many versions of pop shove its can be done. Some examples are 360 pop shove its and frontside pop shove its.
The easiest type of pop shove it to learn at first with is a 180 degree backside (bs) rotation of the board.
1. Finger placement: Start off by placing the front-finger between the middle and front truck bolts of the deck. Back-finger centered on the tip of the tail for a solid pop and scoop.
2. Pop and scoop the tail: Push down with the back-finger on the tail while scooping it “in towards your hand” for the backside spinning while lifting up the front-finger.
3. Complete the full spin: Give the board enough time to finish the full rotation by keeping both fingers off the board.
4. Catching the board to stop the spin: Use your front-finger to catch the board stopping the rotation. Depending on how fast the spin is, your back-finger should land back on the board almost simultaneously, or slightly after the front-finger makes contact with the board.
5. Landing: After catching the board to stop the spin, land with both fingers to finish the trick.
Pop shove its can require practice to learn consistently and with practice you will slowly build “muscle memory” for it. The timing of the 5 steps above is key, all coming together in one movement to do the pop shove it.
Common challenges when learning pop shove it
Over or under rotating the board
If the board is over-rotating more than 180 degrees, try to scoop less with the back-finger when popping the tail, while being ready to catch the board again to stop the spin.
If the board is under-rotating it means that there is too much focus on the pop of the tail alone and not the scoop motion which causes the board to spin. Try to pop more “sideways” instead of “straight down” with the back-finger when popping the tail.
Board flipping when spinning
It can sometimes happen that the board beings to flip when trying to pop shove it and there is two ways to prevent this. First, make sure that the back-finger is placed in the center of the tail, and not hanging off to either side too much. Secondly, it can be the front-finger getting “in the way” of the board to spin. Make sure to lift up the front-finger as you pop and scoop the tail so it does not make contact with the edges of the deck, which can cause it to flip.
More variations of pop shove its
After learning the basic (bs 180) pop shove it, more variations can be done for example by adding more spin or spinning the board “the other way”, frontside.
360 pop shove it
By scooping a little extra and leaving the board spinning for a moment more, you can do a 360 pop shove it. So this time, the board spins a full 360 degree rotation (instead of 180) before catching it again.
Frontside pop shove it
Frontside (fs) pop shove it is a bit different. It spins the opposite direction. The scoop is performed more with a pushing flick motion of the wrist while straightening the back-finger in the for the fs spin. Having the back-finger slightly tucked when popping the tail can increase the scoop for a better fs spin.
After learning pop shove its
Pop shove its are often considered a very stylish trick and can easily be added into different combos such as manuals, grinds and slides. To start off with, I would recommend practicing on something like a small box such as a book. A low height helps to get the feel of it before trying bigger obstacles. Mentioning bigger obstacles, you can ofcourse try pop shove its from big gaps and drops!
Increasing the height of pop shove its
There is a certain method to increase the height of the pop shove it, however it is recommended to know the two tricks: Ollie and Frontside & Backside 180 Ollie before trying it the following way. So, instead of only using the pop of the tail to get the height of the pop shove it, you can add in a forward flick with front and back finger – almost like doing a frontside/backside 180 Ollie, but not turning your hand with it. This will give the board a slow spinning rotation and increase height due to the added “Ollie motion” which “lifts” up the board with it. This alternative method can be used when needed to go over large gaps or up on tall obstacles.
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