Snowboarding
Prepare to have your mind melted by the cream of the past season's tricks.
Quad cork 1980? Now that snowboarding has officially caught up with a calendar year in which snowboard freestyle was actually being done, we think it’s high time the haters stopped hatin’ and we all come together to agree that snowboarding is not only more technical than ever, it’s also more stylish and generally awesome, too.
And what better way to celebrate than with a quick round-up of the 10 most mind-melting tricks of the 2016-17 season? Enjoy!
1: Yuki Kadono, Backside Quad 1980° (1m 29s for trick)
Yuki was always going to become a member of the Quad Club, and trust the Japanese freestyle ninja to out-do everyone else by adding an extra 180° to the mix, making this Backside Quad 1980° the biggest rotation ever performed on a snowboard.
2: Marcus Kleveland, Backside 540° Rewind
There’s no doubt that this young Norwegian is taking freestyle in all the right directions: he’s probably the most progressive rider in the world right now, mixing up ultra-technical quad corks with ultra-creative knuckle tricks and flat-ground butters. Then there’s this mind-meltingly stylish (and difficult) backside 540 rewind, where he pulls a 720 then throws it into reverse at the last moment. As Todd Richards put it: “This is the most technical trick that has ever been done on a snowboard. Hands down.” Sick!
3: Vlad Khadarin, Frontside 360° Rewind
And, while we’re on the subject of the Rewind, how’s this version by Russian up-and-comer Vlad Khadarin? All the way through it looks like a cool off-axis FS5, then at the last second he rewinds it back to a 360. Interesting to note that Vlad pulled the first-ever flat spin FS 1800° back in 2016: like Marcus, it seems that mastering big spins is giving Vlad the control needed to pull innovative, smaller rotations.
4: Scotty James, Handrecht
Handplants are a skateboard trick from all the way back, so they'll always have max cool factor, especially when they’re served up with a stylish new twist, like this insane sliding Handrecht by Aussie halfpipe star Scotty James. It’s basically an inverted Method done over the knuckle of a jump, but it’s the way Scotty locks it into place then freezes for the duration that’s so damn fresh.
5: Eiki Helgason, 360º flip Hippie Jump
The elder Helgason brother is definitely Iceland’s answer to Scott Stevens as his awesome #braindomness series proves, with a seriously weird NBD dropping every Tuesday on his Youtube channel. Highlights include a Darkslide, one-foot backflip to fakie and this, a skate-inspired, perfectly stomped 360 flip with a Hippie Jump thrown in for good measure.
6: Halldór Helgason, FS180 gap to switch Misty Flip (5m 38s for trick)
It’s not very often a winter goes by that Icelandic magical snowboard hobbit Halldór Helgason doesn’t do a trick that has you simultaneously scratching your head and picking your jaw up off the floor. In 2017 HH rocked up to Superpark #21 and delivered time and time again: this huge gap–butter–flip-out off the manual pad was just one of the reasons he was awarded the Standout award.
7: Fridtjof Tischendorf, Alley Oop wallride 720 Out (2m 44s for trick)
Superpark #21 was one of the biggest progression sessions of the year, and an unknown Norwegian ripper called Fridtjof made quite the entrance to the bigtime, pulling the sickest tricks while wearing a highly impractical backpack – this huge backside Alley Oop wallride 720 out would be crazy even if he wasn’t strapped to his lunch.
8: Frank Bourgeois, Backside Rodeo gap to rail (1m 22s for trick)
The annual X Games Real Snow video contest always has the biggest names dropping the biggest urban hammers and this year was no exception: Canadian hellman Frank Bourgeois stole the show in 2017 with a part stacked full of massive tricks, and this ender was the biggest of all. The trick, an inverted backside 540 to Frontside boardslide, has been done before, but never on this scale or with these consequences.
9: Scott Stevens, Triple Nollie 360s (2m 15s for trick)
No list of mind-bending tricks would be complete without a sample from the king of creativity, Scott Stevens. Besides having a standout part in Union’s STRONGER, Scott was kind enough to put his 2017 season highlights into one incredible HODGEpodge edit, and while it’s impossible to choose just one trick that represents what this guy is capable of on a snowboard (or a skateboard for that matter), this three-in-a-row Nollie 360 combo comes pretty close to showcasing his masterly technique.
10: Bode Merrill, Fastplant to frontflip (6m 25s for trick)
Bode Merrill has been scoring regular best video part awards for years now and this is because a) he’s the ultimate backcountry/urban hybrid and b) his one-foot game is beyond strong. This past winter he once again upped the ante with his solo film project Reckless Abandon and the unstrapped action was better than ever – this backcountry Fastplant to frontflip out is flipping crazy.
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