Nick starts with both feet right at one end of the board in heelside rail. How you get here is up to you – the fastest way is to bring your front foot to the back foot while standing on the back wheel and hop slightly as you swap over, but play around.

As Nick “winds up” for the butterflip, he really compresses quite low, ready for the jump. Notice his hands are both low down, too – he’s going to have to catch the board in a second.

Now Nick’s starting to take off, and his weight has shifted to the back foot, lifting the nose off the ground. His front hand is already getting into position to catch the nose with the palm facing the board.

The trick all comes from the back foot, which pushes forwards and down slightly as you jump. This starts the end of the tail rolling across the floor, bouncing the nose to the waiting hand.

This was a surprise to me – Nick catches the butterflip with his palm facing outwards, very early in the trick’s rotation, and guides it into place with his hand. He says you want to watch the nose as it comes up to make sure you get this catch right.

Here you can see Nick winding the flip round, placing the back truck underneath his back foot. Notice his front foot is lifted up, with the leg bent at the knee. That foot has to hang in the air, so getting it high will help it avoid hitting the floor.

This is basically a classic 50-50 position. It’s a solid catch, and assuming you’ve already learned the 50-50, you should be basically done now.

Obviously, because you’re catching it to the truck, sometimes the nose will dip a bit further than you’d like. This one dropped past the balance point slightly, but Nick still keeps it – and his front foot – in the air.

The exit is exactly the same as every other truck trick; Nick hops up off the back truck and starts pushing down with his thumb, letting the board roll round the end of the tail.

Here you can see the front hand grip, guiding the board through the half flip back to the wheels by pushing down with the thumb and up with the fingers. Nick describes it as “like clicking your fingers”, and he’s right.

Because your back foot started on the truck, as long as you’re not swinging your arm around as you flip out, the back foot should come down over the back truck bolts naturally. The front foot then just has to follow it into a natural riding position.

Look at that landing – perfectly on the bolts. At this point, Nick would probably pop up into rail and keep going through the stationary tricks until his foot falls off.

Additional Notes

I was once told by Callum Bowran that he preferred doing these on a single kick with a squarer tail; although the technique is much the same, a squarer tail tends to bounce more when you start the flip, and comes a bit higher and spins slower as a result. If you can, try this on a few boards and see what you prefer.

As mentioned above, it’s also worth picking up some skid plates before you start working on these. Razortail and truck tricks don’t mix; standing on the end of a razortailed deck is an easy way to totally ruin your board.