Bob Kohl was the man in the late 80's.  Every magazine would talk about how BIG he went and the style he had in the air.  Nowadays people see crazy riders on the cover of Ride pushing the superman seatgrab beyond belief...  But they are still missing the style of the original trick slightly-  While none of these descriptions include it-  a TRUE superman air is done ONE-HANDED.  Well, eventually we will all be able to do that- but learn them with both hands on at first.

Probably a good idea to be comfortable with doing BIG no-footers before pushing your limits with the superman...

Rider Submitted Description #1

To do a superman you have to first find a jump that gets you a lot of air and that you are comfortable jumping.

A superman is pretty basic its just like a no footer, when you take your foot off you want to slide them off the side instead of lifting straight up.

This keeps you pedals and cranks from spinning.

You first hit the jump and do a no footer.

Keep doing that and every time you try it extend your legs back a little more and your arms forward a little more.

Just keep extending farther and farther each time you do it.

Soon you will be able to extend you body all the way out.

It's easy as that, it just takes time.

Rider Submitted Description #2

1. Get enough speed to get off the dirt jump and make sure you are high.

2. Then just about immediately after you leave the jump, stand up on the pedals and take your right hand (or left hand depending on which is more comfortable) and grab the seat.

3. Now here's the tricky part (sort of), make sure you keep the front handlebar straight and not wobbly, jump off the pedals and put your feet straight back keeping your legs locked.

4. Then whenever you are ready to finish the trick, use whatever hand you have on the seat and pull yourself back in.

5. Put your feet on the pedals and take your hand off the seat and put it back on the handlebars and make a successful landing.

Rider Submitted Description #3

PREREQUISITES: No-Footers, One Handers (these two are musts before attempting the trick)

VARIATIONS: Seat grabs are the one that seem to get you on the cover of the magazines- and is the version described here.

DESCRIPTION:  Start by going at the jump at a pretty normal speed (you can decide what kinds of speeds you like the more you learn the trick)

While going off the jump, take whichever hand you feel comfortable with, off of the grip (so basically do a one-hander)

Next take that hand and grab the nose of the seat (the skinny part)

This is the hard part, while holding the seat tight and the grip tight (cuz you don't want your bike wobbling around) jump off of the pedals and kick your legs and feet back (each time you do the trick you will be able to keep them out longer and farther then the last time, trust me)

Then, make sure you don't hit your back tire or the seat, pull your body in with your hand that is on the seat and keep your legs spread apart so you don't hit the seat, and land them back onto your pedals. It is like being in the middle of a no-footer.

Then take your hand that is on the seat and take it off and place it back on the grip like you were doing a one-hander.

Make a nice smooth landing. This trick goes very fast, it might take a while to do it, but if you keep practicing and aren't afraid to fall a little, you will be able to do it.

Submitted By:  Kel

RIDER SUBMITTED DESCRIPTION #3

DESCRIPTION:   You must be pretty dumb if you try a superman but you cant land a no footer smooth so make sure you can land a no footer smooth before you try this!

You can take your feet off and put them back as far as you can and keep trying to get them farther and farther

Keeping your head down makes this trick a hell of a lot easier extend your arms out as well as your legs

Pull yourself back and land on the pedals because your going to want to be able to have kids so don't land on your noots.

Submitted By:  Nate

RIDER SUBMITTED DESCRIPTION #4

VARIATIONS:  Superman seat grabs, frame grabs, and what ever else you can think of

DESCRIPTION:  There are 2 styles of supermans.  Totally stretched like TJ Lavin and smooth and laid back like Chris Doyle.

The laid back style is easier...  You really don't need a big jump. You just have to be extremely comfortable with no footers (lifting your legs up above your head) to do them laid back.

You should be pretty straight up in the air with your bike. Then kick your feet off behind you and keep your knees somewhat bent at first.

Then you can fully extend your legs and arms later on.  Keep your elbows bent the whole time.

To bring it back, you have to flick your wrists up and slightly bend your elbows into you. You must flick your wrists to get your bike level again.

The big TJ Lavin style you have to go higher. It's pretty much the same thing but you lock up your arms and legs at your peak in the air.

Submitted By:  Bart

RIDER SUBMITTED DESCRIPTION #5

PREREQUISITES:  Rocket airs help. No-footers

VARIATIONS: One-handed, seat grab, double seat grab (those are just weird), indian air.

DESCRIPTION:  Start off by getting comfortable with your box jump/dirt jump that you plan to do this trick on.

Start trying to get as much air as possible before learning this trick. You want plenty of time to recover if you mess up.

I learned rocket airs first (without letting go off the bars). If you choose to learn this trick first, stay on the pegs for a long time in the air. Then when you are comfortable doing rocket airs, take your back pegs off.

From there, its just a matter of stretching the trick more and more.

Also, when going off the jump, you're going to want to kick back immediately, because you want to be completely stretched when you are at your peak in the air.

Use the momentum of the ramp to push your bike out in front of you rather than jumping off the back of it.

When it comes time to land, don't pull in your arms until your feet are almost at the pedals. If you pull in with your arms, it is very easy to lose control of the bike.

When learning this trick, it's going to take time. For the first month of supermans, I don't think I ever had one that I had my legs entirely straight.

To refine this trick you may also want to just extend your legs, rather than kick them. This way it looks a whole lot smoother. Another thing that might help is to keep your frame more upright when you start doing supermans. It's easier to stretch like that. If you take your time and don't go crazy, it's possible you will never have to come down on your stomach, or without your feet on the pedals.

Submitted By:  Bob