Buttering on a snowboard & flat land tricks refer to playing around on your board while

flexing and holding positions over the nose and tail. It gives you stuff to do when riding

flat or boring terrain, or if there is no terrain park available.

In this tutorial, we cover an introductory buttering trick, tail butter 180 out. Buttering

tricks don't really have names, I've called this a tail butter 180 because that's the

movement of this trick. Buttering is far easier on gentle slopes,

rather than steep terrain. There's no rules to what you can or can't do, it's all about

fun and style.

Prerequisite techniques For this buttering trick, you have to have

a few skills on lockdown first. You must be able to do ollies ....and nollies.

You need to be able to hold the tail butter position while riding.

You need to be able to jump 180s, and specifically 180s using counter rotation.

The techiniques behind ollies, nollies and how to hold a tail press are all covered in

our basic buttering vids. Tactics for learning 180s are covered in detail

in our 180s tutorials so check that our first before trying to learn this trick.

Tail Butter 180 The tail butter 180, is an introductory buttering

trick and very achievable for riders new to buttering. This trick can be done with either

a frontside 180, or a backside 180 out. Start with the frontside 180 as most riders find

this easier.

Step 1 Begin by jumping a few frontside 180s using

counter rotation. Counter rotation is where your upper and lower body rotate against each

other in the air. You can get the feeling of this by jumping

180s with your board off. Either hold an object like a bar or pretend your holding something.

Jump and do a 180. This is counter-rotation because during the trick, your upper body

and lower body rotate against each other. After you understand the movement, use a more

relaxed looking position.

Step 2 Try this while riding on a flat slope. The

key is to be in this position as you jump with your upper body facing forward and you

lower body straight. Being in this position will allow you to counter-rotate the 180.

Incorporate an ollie into this movement. Ollie counter-rotated 180.

Practice these until you can snap the 180 quickly, you're then ready to add this to

the butter.

Step 3 Practice the basic tail butter position a

few times. It's easier to nollie into any buttering trick on your tail.

Small nollie, to hold a controlled stylish tail press, then pop an ollie out.

You can do this with an ollie, but it's much harder to keep the nose of your board from

slapping back to the ground. Try ollie into a tail butter and you'll see what I mean.

In a clean pressed position, your nose should be lifting approximately 10cm or 4 inches.

A small controlled press looks good. Trying to press the board too much is a common problem

and is way harder to balance.

Step 4 It's time to slap these stepping stones together

to make actual buttering trick. Nollie tail butter, ollie frontside 180 out.

The key get to making this work is your final body position right as you're popping the

180.

As you nollie into the tail butter, begin to open up your upper body. When you reach

your maximum open position where your upper body is at an angle of 90 degrees or more

away from your board, this is when you ollie and snap the front 1.

You need to be slightly on your heel edge, your board may even turn slightly frontside

while buttering before you 180. This is normal. You can slide it around as much as you desire.

The whole trick should be one smooth movement with no delayed point or dead period.

If you're having any forced movement or still period, then try doing the whole trick faster.

Rotating your upper body as you nollie in, holding the pressed position for only a second

then snapping the 180 out. One of the most important points is to just

keep it smooth and stylish with no forced movements.

Backside 180 out The exact same trick can be done ollieing

a backside 180 out, to mix it up and build your skills.

The only major difference is that a backside 180 uses what's called a blind landing as

you land the trick. Blind landings are covered in detail in our 180s video.

Step 1 Jump some backside 180s with your board off

using counter-rotation to see how this feels. Your upper and lower body, rotate against

each other to make the 180 happen. You can get the feel by holding onto something

or an imaginary object. After you've got the basic technique, relax and let your body flow

through this movement smoothly.

Step 2 While riding, ollie and do a counter-rotated

backside 180. Land blind and ride away before looking into your new direction of travel.

A blind landing helps to make the trick look smooth and easy. It prevents you from reverting

and allows you to ride away switch in a straight line.

Step 3 For the full trick, nollie into a tail press,

close your upper body into a wound up position, ollie and counter-rotate a backside 180 out.

Land blind and ride away. The key to making this 180 easy is to use

lots of counter rotation. Right as you ollie, your upper body needs to be 90 degrees or

more offset from your board. The more wound up you are, the easier it'll be to perform

the 180. You also need to be slightly on your toe edge

and your board may have already started rotating a little. That's fine and happens naturally

as a result of the direction your upper body is leading into.

Style Style is important with all butters. They

should look smooth, effortless and fun. When you're first learning these 2 tricks,

keep the nollies in and ollies out small and controlled so that they're easy.

As you get better and want to challenge yourself. Put more emphasis into every part of the trick.

Pop your nollie harder to get more height. Emphasize the pressed position by sinking

your hips down towards your tail. This will also bring the nose of your board higher from

the ground. Spring from your tail ollieing a big 180 out.

It'll take substantially more effort but will separate you from other riders making you

stand out from the crowd. Smoothness and control is more important than

the height and pop you get.

Terrain Once you've learnt this trick you can take

it to other terrain features. Rolls over knuckles and cat tracks are 2 fun

spots to do these. Butter across the flat areas then pop your

180 off the roll. It'll naturally give you a little extra height and hang time, which

makes it feel good and look better too. These butters translate into the tail press

front 1 and tail press back 1, which are intermediate rail and box tricks. The body positions are

the exact same.

Summary The tail butter 180 is a simple introductory

buttering trick. If you practice your quick counter-rotated

180s and balancing in the tail press position, then you should be able to easily tie them

together for this trick. The key is your final body position right

as you ollie the 180. Make sure your upper body is 90 degrees or more away from your

board, which makes it easy to counter-rotate a full 180.

Learn this both frontside and backside as it's an essential stepping stone to many other

buttering tricks. You're riding with Nev Lapwood & Dan Gerstner

SnowboardAddiction.com