How To: Hospital Flip

What this video teaches

VLSkate describes the hospital flip as half a kickflip that gets whipped back around by the front foot, needing only an ollie and a kickflip as prerequisites. Foot placement is essentially a kickflip stance with the front foot angled a bit more toward the nose and sitting an inch or two below the front bolts, while the back foot just pops from the middle of the tail and then does nothing else. The front foot slides up toward the nose as if to flick but never follows through, so the board turns over only partway and rests upside down against the foot, at which point a light pull back with that same front foot swings it the rest of the way around. He builds it through standing drills, then standing pops, then rolling one-footed landings, and offers holding onto something as the fear-removal step.

Key tips

• 1Front foot goes in a kickflip position but angled more toward the nose, roughly an inch or two below the front bolts; the back foot just pops from the center of the tail and does nothing else
• 2The front foot slides up the nose as if to flick but never follows through, so it stays under the board and the flip stalls halfway
• 3Once the board is resting upside down on the front foot, pull back with that foot to swing it around; it takes surprisingly little force
• 4Standing drill: on the tail, slide your front foot up to the nose without flicking off the edge, then pull it back around, and only then add the pop
• 5If the board just kickflips away instead of scooping back, move the front foot further onto the board or angle it more
• 6If you land at 90 degrees, move the front foot slightly closer to the nose or wait a moment longer before pulling back
• 7Board shooting out in front means you are leaning too far back; board staying behind you means you are leaning too far over the nose

Summarized from the video transcript.