Breaking Down Shaun White's Double McTwist 12

The Vancouver Winter Olympics are rapidly approaching now. One event I am personally looking forward to is the Men's Half Pipe Snowboarding event on February 17th.

We all know that in this event, Shaun White is the man to beat. The defending men's half pipe champion recently unveiled a new trick that he will likely perform at the Olympics, the Double McTwist 12.

Sounds really complicated, but what exactly is it? Below is a video of Shaun white performing this crazy trick. We can use the video to break the trick down and understand it better.



We can start with the obvious, the 12 in the trick name refers to the number of twists. Shaun is rotating 3 and half full twists or 1260 degrees. It is pretty hard to pick that up as he needs to twist so quickly to finish the trick.

A McTwist is a 540 degree spin (or one and half rotations) with a flip in the middle. Double the McTwist would be a total of 3 rotations and 2 flips.

Therefore the Double McTwist 1260 can be broken down as a half pipe aerial with 2 flips and 3 and a half twists. If you watch the slow motion replays of the trick you can pick out the two flips and spot the beginning of each twist.

Look out for this trick on February 17th in Vancouver and possibly other new tricks by Shaun's competitors.

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The Snowboard Ollie

Winter is definitely here and many of us will be heading to the slopes this season for some skiing or snowboarding. When heading out, it is a great idea to have a trick or skill in mind that you plan on learning. Anything from slaloming on skis to riding your first rail on a snowboard will help to motivate your sessions on the slopes and ensure you do not get too frustrated with crowds.

Whatever trick it is that you plan on learning, see if you can find some video of it being done. Study the video carefully and keep it in your mind as you try the skill once you get out on the snow

We will keep it basic this time and take a look at the snowboard ollie. We have discussed the ollie in skateboarding in a previous post. On snow and a snowboard the trick is performed similarly. As in skateboarding, the ollie is the basis for most aerial tricks on a snowboard and therefore it is important to learn how to do a great one.

1. Try the ollie from a standing position first. Get used to the mechanics of the movement before you try the jump while moving.
2. Start with your knees bent and body upright. You do not want to bend at the hips and lean forward or backward. If you do you will have difficulty landing your ollie as you will have started the trick off balance. Bend at your knees a little though to give you some spring.
3. To start the trick, push down on your back foot moving your center of mass backward over your back foot. This will allow you to pull the front of your snowboard up and prepare you to jump off your back foot. Remember that a snowboard is also pretty flexible so pushing down on your tail will bend the board giving you some spring into the air.
4. As the nose of your board begins to pull up into the air, jump off your back foot so that your back foot comes as high as your front foot. To get higher into the air, pull your front leg higher up and jump higher off your back foot to allow your back leg to catch up in the air.
5. Once your back foot and front foot are at the same height position yourself over the center of the board and stabilize yourself for landing. Your center of mass should now be in between your feet.
6. Land on both feet evenly, so that you do not slide out once you hit the ground. Once again do not bend at the hips. Bend your knees slightly to absorb the landing.

Take a look at this video of a small ollie on a snowboard.


Watch lots of videos of the pros and film yourself to see if you can improve your style or get higher in your ollie or any other trick you try this winter.

Have fun in the snow.