180’s are the first spin you want to learn on your snowboard, and the best place to learn them is on side hits outside the park. Side hits are great because you determine the size of the jump, and they are everywhere so it gives you lots of places to practice.
There are three parts to a frontside 180: Your approach up to the hit, your wind up and rotation, and how you pop your snowboard into the air.
As you approach the hit, you want to be on your heel edge. For a frontside 180 you continue the spin in the same direction as the turn. Being on your heel edge also gives you a good base to pop and spin from.
The wind up and rotation is what gets the 180 spin around. You want to start winding your upper body back slightly before the hit. As you leave the hit you want to rotate your upper body forward, keeping your core stiff to bring your legs and board with you. You want to do the spin in the air, so time the rotation for when you are leaving the hit.
Jump even off your heel edge to get your snowboard into air. This will give you the time in the air to get the 180 around. Jumping even off your heels will also keep your snowboard level in the air, setting you up to land level on your toe edge.
To recap, approach the hit on you heel edge, wind your upper body back and rotate forward as you leave the hit to get the 180 around, jump even off you heel edge to get your board into the air, and setup to land level on your toes.
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