900

also known as: The 900

air vert difficulty 10/10

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roll yaw pitch body

Shown for a regular-footed rider. Teal ring + arrow = the rider's facing direction; teal band = the tail; a dot is where a hand holds the board - bright yellow for the front hand, amber for the back one, which is the whole difference between a mute and an indy. Board and rider rotate independently - each follows its own component. Drag to orbit.

How it works

Two and a half rotations from a forward takeoff, landing forward - the trick that closed the twentieth century. The 900 stacks a second full spin onto the McTwist's off-axis corkscrew: the rider goes inverted through the middle rotations with the grab welding the board on, and the final half-spin must decode into an upright, forward re-entry with almost no altitude left. The margin between make and slam is the timing of a single head-turn at rotation two-and-a-quarter.

Step by step

  1. Build maximum speed over several walls and boost the biggest backside air you own.
  2. Throw the rotation from the hips and shoulders at takeoff, grabbing mute and tipping hard off-axis.
  3. Corkscrew inverted through the first two rotations, tucked to the absolute minimum.
  4. At roughly two-and-a-quarter spins, snap the head around to find the wall and begin opening.
  5. Release the grab, square the shoulders, extend, and slam the re-entry with everything absorbed forward down the transition.

Body mechanics

Front footExists only as part of the tucked flywheel until the final half-spin, then must find load instantly.
Back footPressing the tail through the tuck; it takes the brunt of the compressed landing.
ShouldersThe engine: a decade of Hawk's attempts refined exactly how much throw the takeoff must contain.
ArmsMute grab holds the system together through two inverted rotations; the free arm's tuck sets the spin rate.
GazeNothing but blur until the final rotation - then the head snaps out, finds the coping, and the body follows or it doesn't.