BOOMERANG
(FLAIL)

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The flail boomerang is one of the more impressive beginner tricks.  It is usually done without touching your brakes at all or just briefly touching your brakes at the beginning and the end.  The trick is basically as the name sounds- you jump off the bike, go completely around it, and come back to the pedals- just like a boomerang!

• Begin by travelling at a medium/slow pace with both feet on the back pegs.  Make SURE you set your pedals to land on.  The pedal you land on is the one that you are turning towards and should be set forward.
• I will describe the trick in the direction that I do them...  While turning slighly to your right swing your RIGHT leg around to the left and push off with your left foot.
• This shoots you out in front of the bike.  It makes sense that the bike is happy to roll with the handlebars either facing forwards or backwards, but NOT sideways, so it really is a whip around 180 degrees.
• Support all of your weight on your arms and lean against the handlebars to help counteract the weight.  Lean over the bars, keeping your weight centered.
• You can lean from side to side to control how quickly you spin around the bike.  If you lean to the right as soon as you spin 180 degrees it is actually possible to stop your spin entirely!
• When you decide to ride out of the trick lean your body to the left and let the handlebars start to twist to the left.
• Reach with your RIGHT foot for the pedal that you already set at the beginning of the trick and then SNAP the handlebars around 180 degrees so that they are straight at the exact same time that your foot touches the pedal.
• Swing your left foot over the seat and put it back on the pedal and ride away.  At no point during this trick was it necessary to touch your brakes.

Hang-Gliders:  If you think a flail boomerang is impressive imagine doing two- or three- or MORE???  It is possible to avoid touching the pedals or the frame or a peg when you spin out of a boomerang and actually twist 360 degrees around the bike so that you are back in front of it again.  If you are on a smooth enough surface you can actually KEEP your speed while doing multiple boomerangs.  These are called hang-gliders.  The most that I have ever seen anyone do is 17 of them without ever touching the pedals.

The boomerang (with brakes) and the flail boomerang (brakeless) are both old school tricks.  They are very difficult to link other tricks into and out of.  Of course that doesn't stop someone like Jason Brown from doing boomerangs straight into hitchhikers!

If you have a question about this trick please feel free to e-mail it in...