How to Do a Barrel Roll on a Snowmobile

A barrel roll is a snowmobile trick that completes a full rotation on an axis through a helical flip, while maintaining a forward direction. It is an impressive but difficult maneuver which you can master through careful practice and instruction. Read on to learn more.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Extreme snowmobile
• Snowmobile launch ramp

Perform a Snowmobile Barrel Roll

1. Make sure you own a snowmobile suited to attempting tricks and jumps. Snowmobiles designed for sport use are usually referred to as "extreme snowmobiles." You can learn more by talking to snowmobile dealers to see if your machine is suitable. If it's not, and you are serious about wanting to learn to do a barrel roll or other tricks, consider investing in an extreme model.

2. Network to find people who share your interest in extreme snowmobiling. Ask snowmobile retailers or among your friends and acquaintances. The easiest way to reduce your learning curve is to benefit from the instruction of someone who's already mastered the barrel roll.

3. Start out by simply launching and landing straight jumps off a snowmobile ramp. You'll need firsthand experience to get comfortable with how your machine behaves while airborne.

4. Understand the physics at work. A barrel roll requires that your snowmobile rotate on an axis that's oriented in a perpendicular relationship to the direction your axis and tracks are taking when you launch off a ramp. Thus, you should always default to starting that rotation in a forward motion. This will conserve your momentum for when you introduce the helical flip.

5. Attempt to complete the rotation component of the trick prior to performing it in tandem with a helical flip. Launch off the ramp, then turn your snowmobile's handles to perform a clockwise 360-degree rotation. This step alone will require considerable practice. Expect that you will have to attempt it many times before mastering it.

6. Add the helical flip component to the rotation component when you've mastered the latter on its own. Lift your feet off to reduce the amount of weight on your snowmobile, then ease the machine into a helical flip by drawing it back once you launch the ramp. That will send you into the upside-down motion, where you will add the rotation component you mastered in Step 5. Complete the barrel roll by easing the machine back down towards the ground when you come out of the rotation.

7. Expect that it will take a long time to master a barrel roll. The pros make it look easy. It isn't.

Tips & Warnings

• Learn from snowmobile videos. You can review both successful and errant attempts at doing a snowmobile barrel roll to see what to do and what not to do.
• Bail early if you know you're not going to land your jump. Otherwise, you risk having the snowmobile land on top of you, which can cause serious injury.
• Never attempt snowmobile tricks without another person present. In the event you get hurt, you may need someone else to summon help.

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