Stop sniggering at the back. Trannies (aka transitions) aren’t just found in halfpipes – they’re everywhere. Whether it’s in a snowdome or on the mountain, there are always opportunities to fined sweet spots for take-offs and landings. The most godawful Frenchman’s-afterthought park can be a top-class playground if you do a little hunting, and before long you’ll be pulling fun lines seemingly out of nowhere. And as these photos show, even amongst the pristine features of the world-famous High Cascade at Mount Hood, there are offbeat lines for the taking. Will Smith, star of the Grindhouse and Postland Theory movies and toast of the UK rail scene, has found his fair share of trannies over the years – here he takes us through a few of the basics:
This first appeared in Whitelines issue 115
Rather than hitting this hip straight on, Will’s taken off from the transition at the side and cleared the run-in. While it’s a smaller gap there’s still plenty of airtime, and the trajectory makes this a very different beast to airing straight off the hip. Here’s how to adjust:
First thing’s first: work out the speed that you’re going to need. It depends on the gap, or the size of what you are wanting to tranny find. When coming into the take-off, make sure you are ready for the transition and on a flat base.
The more you pop, the easier it is to get the angle of your nose steep enough to catch the tranny right
As you reach the lip of the jump you should pop a good size ollie; I always like to pop as hard as I can because it just feels and looks way better! Also, the more you pop the easier it is to get the angle of your nose steep enough to catch the tranny right.
You can do anything you want in the air – just a straight ollie, grab or a spin if you want to! As you are at the top of your air you want to have spotted where you are landing, and begun to aim the nose of your board in that direction.To make sure you get maximum tranny find, point your nose into the top of the tranny. If you get it right it will probably look like your are going to not quite make it, but the majority of the time that’s when you get the best tranny finder.Push your board through the tranny and if you have caught it properly you should get a little wheelie on the landing for speeding up and whipping out of the transition. That’s pretty much all there is to it, and once you start doing them you’ll begin to see them in more and more places!
