Rodeo Flip - Taking the Slopes to the Waves

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39. Rodeo Flip

rodeo flip - rodeo clown

This is where surf moves to get a little mental.
The Rodeo is well known as a snowboard trick, the first well documented Rodeo flip on a surfboard (also known as a Rodeo Clown) was done by Kelly Slater in 1999 on the north shore of Oahu during the Pipeline Masters competition where he fully got the rotation down but came up just short on the landing.
Since then a number of guys such as Jamie O’Brien, Dane Reynolds, Aaron Cormican and Jordy Smith to name just a couple have perfected the Rodeo and it’s a solid hitter in the arsenal of tricks.

What is a Rodeo? Well it’s pretty much a flip with a 720 in there…. That’s right 2 360’s!! It can only be done on your backside and you need a serious amount of speed and control as well as the right section to pull one.
Lets try and break it down for you. You need to be flying down the line getting as much speed as you can, you also need a very steep section in front of you. Don’t try doing these on sections coming at you because you wont be able to get the rotation down. The move needs to be done on the same section where you would probably do a big Reo.
You need to do a good solid smooth bottom turn where you maintain your speed all the way to the top. You need to be launching off the part of the lip that is going to pitch you out and keep you travelling down the line of the wave but you are in the air. As you launch you are not going to go into the backside air position you need to keep going round as if you were doing a backside 360 above the lip. This move is all about getting a good solid double grab and a very good rotation. If you launch off just the right section and get that double grab in the rotation can usually take care of itself.
Hopefully if you are in this situation you will have gone high enough to get the full rotation so you are about to land on the wave backwards. The earlier you let go of your rails after you have completed the rotation the cleaner and more stylish the rodeo will look. If you are still clinging onto your rails after you have landed its not going to look super smooth. Although we are getting pretty tech here so the main thing is to get the rodeo down and then worry about style points.

If you are trying rodeos you should have landed multiple airs, frontside and backside where you have landed going backwards so you should know the procedure here for how to land backwards and ride out smooth to complete the move. If you need more tips on how to land backwards and ride out of it check out lesson 36. Frontside Air Reverse.
If you nail one of these puppies your going to turn heads. Guaranteed.