A handplant is exactly what it sounds like: you place your rear hand on the feature and push off it while the board comes up into the air. Technically it's one of the simpler feature tricks, but it looks great and instantly spices up your rail riding.
Before trying it you should be comfortable riding features, have your ons dialled, and have started playing with spins on boxes. Solid board control matters more than anything here.
How to do it
The easiest place to learn a handplant is a feature that goes up, like an incline or a small up rail. The rising surface gives you room to reach down while you're still on the feature, and the end of the feature drops you straight into the water so a failed attempt costs nothing.
Ride or ollie onto the feature as normal, then turn backside 90 degrees so you're sliding sideways. From that moment, get small. Sink into your knees and stay as low and close to the surface as you can, because the whole trick depends on how far your hand has to travel.
Wait until you reach the end of the feature. Then push out of your toes so you slide off the edge, let go with your rear hand and keep only your front hand on the handle. Plant the rear hand on the feature, pull your board up into the air, and keep looking in the direction you're riding. You'll land in the water and ride away.
Watch the full tutorial here:
Video by Julia Rick
Key tips
- Pick a feature that goes up, an incline or small up rail, and do the plant at the very end so you land in the water
- Turn backside 90 first, then compress. Getting low is the single biggest factor
- If you stay tall, your hand is too far from the surface and you'll never reach it
- Push out of your toes to slip off the end of the feature. That's what creates the movement
- Front hand stays on the handle, rear hand goes down
- Actively pull the board up into the air, otherwise there's no lift and it just looks like you fell over
- Keep your head up and look in the direction of riding, not down at your hand