The starting position for this method of going from toeside rail to casper involves being at one end of the board; normally I move to here with a little hop, putting my front foot on the wheel and my back foot on the side of the tail.

Here’s what it looks like from behind; all my weight is on my front leg, with my body centred over that back wheel. This is where you’ll struggle if your board isn’t set up very well – tighter trucks, risers and freestyle wheels will help.

As I begin the trick, I start pushing downwards on the tail, lifting the nose slightly as the board rocks onto the tapered side of the tail. You can barely see the shift here, but it’s happening.

Now I have to control the board as it rolls across the tail. If you’re not careful it’ll snap back towards the wheels, so give it a little push forwards with your back foot as you hop upwards and move your front foot out of the way.

This is the key moment. My front foot skims very near to the board and front truck as it passes over the deck – you don’t want to move too far, or you won’t be able to catch it, but if you don’t move enough, you’ll kick the board to the ground.

My back foot falls onto the tail, stopping the board from rolling further over, and the nose is still stupidly high in the air. I always find this amazing considering I don’t have to pop the board for this trick – it’s a very small press on the tail.

And now the board just falls into place, landing on the waiting front foot. If you’ve already learned the regular casper you’ll know the drill – keep the back leg straight and shift your hips back slightly to balance.

Now to get out, we’re going to pull the board end-over-end, as the board should have fallen in a fairly straight line. We begin by pulling the front foot upwards, raising the nose.

Here’s the start of the scissor motion. Unlike the rolling casper, we don’t have momentum to help us, so we have to push into the tail slightly on the back foot as we take off.

The front foot continues to stay glued to the griptape as it pulls the board over, levelling the board out as it goes.

Like most caspers, you’re going to land with the front foot down first. The back foot should swing in once the board has finished its flip back to the wheels.

There we go – another solid landing, ready to move off into the next trick.

Additional Notes

The board I’m using here is a double-kick deck I designed with caspers in mind. It has low kicktail angles to make it easier to stand on, and absolutely no concave, reducing the pain in the top of the foot. Because of the way the board rolls into the casper, a tapered or slightly rounded tail is something to aim for with this one.

As with everything involving a railstand, you really want to pick up some freestyle wheels for this one. Not only will they protect your axles from damage, but they’ll make it much more comfortable to stand on. It’s also worth making sure your trucks aren’t too loose; wobbly trucks mean wobbly railstands.

If you plan on doing a lot of caspers, it’s worth putting some griptape on the underside of the tail to make it a bit easier to stand on, especially if you’re using a street board with steep kicktails. Having half of your back foot on the floor is not a good look.