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Backside boardslides (facing downhill) are the starting point of learning intermediate rail tricks. This skill is used as a stand-alone trick or as part of a more advanced rail trick such as spins, noseslides, etc.
It is a little confusing why this trick is called a backside boardslide when you do a frontside 90 degree turn to get onto the rail. The history goes way back to the early days of skateboarding and deals with halfpipes and pools. When the skaters would approach the coping (top lip of the ramp), they would determine what to call the trick by which way they exposed their body relative to the coping or top (deck) of the ramp. If their back was facing the top deck or coping, it was called backside (chest was facing towards the middle flat of the halfpipe). If they were looking at the coping or the top deck, they would call it frontside (back was facing towards the middle flat of the halfpipe). This is pretty simple when you are talking about kick turns or airs, but when you start talking about slides, it gets confusing. Basically, the set-up is the same for a backside boardslide as a backside kick turn or air.
With snowboarding, a backside boardslide in a halfpipe would have more pressure on the heel edge and you would be looking down the pipe (back would be facing uphill). When you take this to a rail in the park, you approach from straight above the feature (hardly ever done in early skateboarding days). Most skaters will approach a rail from one side or the other and not straight on like in snowboarding (most terrain park approaches). If you think of coming in from the side at a "T" (perpendicular), it might make more sense why this trick has the name it does. Think of the rail being the lip of a halfpipe. If you approach it on your heel edge or heelside, it would be called a backside boardslide. If you approach the rail, lip, or top of a halfpipe and are on your toe edge, it would be called a frontside boardslide (looking uphill).
Anyway, watch the clips on the CD and know that these are called backside boardslides (facing downhill).
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