HOW TO IMPOSSIBLE

[PhilZero]

That point about scooping forward and not sideways is life changing

[OddJames]

losing your virginity is called an impossible in scootering...

[mouija]

I remember back when I was like 12-13 or so in 1991-1992 the impossible was the height of skate trick fashion, just before the pressure flip thing came to the east coast. I think it was related to Ed Templeton and the first New Deal video, but that was a long time ago so I don't remember specifics. The Impossible was the holy grail of tricks during that time. My friend Jerry and I were out skating and somehow that became the day that we learned impossibles or got slightly injured trying. Jerry was a couple years older and had gone to the skatepark the weekend before (all parks in the northeast were private pay-to-play things back then) and learned the "secret" from someone there. He had his front foot all the way up on the nose (the board was transitioning from the old school fish shape into the popsicle stick we're all familiar with today) and told me you had to take your front foot off as you popped the tail and kinda tuck/scrape the tail to get it spinning around your back foot. I'm a small human male, especially so before I hit puberty, so I could only comfortably put my front foot hanging way off the side like when I first learned kickflips, flop it off the board, scoop the tail and learn how the trick is supposed to work. The only "trick tips I'd ever see was a page in the back of Thrasher magazine depicting a photo sequence, and I'd never seen a tutorial for a legendary trick like an impossible. It was all trial and error that we knew was doable because we saw it in videos and magazines, with the idea of a "scoop" being the secret of the trick, whatever that was. I think we started in mid afternoon during the summer under an awning next to the supermarket and it took a while to get the feel for the "scooping" motion and even longer to get the board to wrap my foot. After hundreds of tries and my tail starting to show grim signs of left-footed wear, the sun had already set and the light started to fade. Jerry's mom was on her way to pick us up, so we had scant few tries left to get both feet on the board. Somehow I was much closer to the truth than Jerry, despite my "unorthodox" stance and diminutive size. He basically gave up for the day, but I felt like the trick was gonna happen for me. The wrap was a full rotation with complete foot contact, it was just a matter of figuring out my forward momentum so as not to land in front of the board but on it. I know it would have been so dramatic and monumental to land the trick just as Jerry's mom pulled into her parking space, but the truth is that during the 10 minute drive I dwelled on the trick, said my goodbyes and thank yous, and walked down my own crusty, patchy, salty concrete, steeply inclined patch of pavement that led into a main road and thought I should give it a couple more tries. Maybe it was the fact that you could only skate my 15-20' driveway one way and the steep incline helped, but I took one baby push, positioned my feet, scooped the tail and landed it clean. I called Jerry 20 minutes later when I knew he'd be home and he didn't believe me. We skated together two days later and I was landing them 2/3 of the time. A year later, when pressure flips were the rage, the locals called me the wrapmaster because I had impossibles so dialed I could do them over little trash cans and into lipslides on bars. It took me another two years to unlearn the back foot scoop on an impossible and transition into the sideways pressure flip scoop that the trick fell completely out of favor during the initial "clean" era of street skating that came along with the advent of 411 VM and Jeremy Wray's style of big, simple, clean street skating. I haven't been able to do an impossible since 1994. They just do a sideways 360 shove for me now.

[geraldhoffman]

I been skating for years I recently learned tres. after watching this I did the rotation a couple times than I started trying it and got really close. I landed it in about 5 tries thank you for this video. In all my years of skating I never thought I could do an impossible.

[RIPJimmyAX]

impossibles are my favorite looking trick, there is just something smooth and unique compared to other flip tricks

[Thebean-zm]

impossible was one of the first tricks I ever learned, I really struggled with most basic tricks but for some reason this one always clicked with me

[twelvelookslike]

Love this! I'm sick of seeing 3 shuvs being counted as impossibles

[peterdaniels]

Finally a channel of a youtube skater that is dedicated to trick tips. I think this is the first of a kind

[peterbull]

So many bad trick tip videos out there. Thank you for making a really detailed insightful trick tip. I really like how you pointed out that your front foot goes way up to get out of the way. I never noticed that but now it's super obvious!

[garbagearchive]

This was my Summer '91 OBSESSION, I never mastered it but all my friends did and I've always regretted it, I'm 41 now and arthritic so... it will never happen. Yeah, I always pressure scooped it sideways and it looked more like a frontside 360 shovit (they were later named "pop" shovits. We held outer front foot almost off the side of the board, so we could slide it off immediately. We were popping the tail and popping them higher because of the New Deal video -Templeton was doing Impossibles on benches and over huge gaps and down stairs, and the lower pressure-style variants was only good for flat ground. Anyway, love you Giger!!

[saulorocha]

If you pay attention to Rodney’s impossibles you’ll notice something he does that makes sense and helps a lot. He turns the front foot 90 degrees before popping the tail, that helps to wrap the deck around the back foot. Same with the nose hook half cab impossible.

[Jamesbaulsir]

Do a front foot impossible tutorial please I can't find one anywhere and your tutorials help me so much

[Gnarkilla]

Glad I watched, finally got em, just needed to clear my front foot a bit, and like u said I was scooping a bit sidways.

[RMagnum]

Ich fand den Impossible schon immer einen der geilsten Fliptricks. Tolles Video!

[stinkinlizard]

cant tre, 3 shuv, or pressure flip but somehow I can do these (:

[tylerbunch]

I learned these before kickflips, surprisingly simple, just stomp and lift up with your back foot.

[coishman]

glad you got the wrap most ppl think a 360 shuv is an impossible noobs lol

[lrdstrontium]

You make a very difficult trick look very easy - they are called impossibles for a reason! Especially when you do them the proper way with the board wrapping almost vertically around the back foot.

[larelare]

Good looking Impossibles, and good on you for pointing out the difference/traps that cause tre shovs.

[medium]

I would love to see a hardflip tutorial. Thanks for the video Jonny.