Top Five Ski Tricks

This is a much debated topic among freestyle gurus. Some people prefer the inverted freestyle tricks. Some love the maximum amount of spins possible on a single jump. Others give no credit to the ‘spin-to-win’ era we’ve moved into and much prefer a steezy tweaked out 540 or just a simple late 180.

Whatever you like, this is the Nonstop Top 5…

#5 – KANGAROO FLIP

Back in 2006 this trick would have been number one on almost everyone’s list but thanks to its inventor, Mr Jon Olsson, it has become over used and has won too many competitions already. It is still an amazing talent to be able to pull it off so it definitely makes the list.

So what is it? This is a strongly argued point on many forums and between a lot of skiers. The most popular and my own opinion is that its a flatspin 5 to flatspin 3. Sound complicated? Check out Jacob throwing it down in this video:

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#4 – CAB 1440 MUTE

So this is still one of the hot topics of conversation in the freestyle skiing world because a lot of the time when somebody spins this many times there is a distinct lack of style and people claim the direction skiing is heading in is ‘spin-to-win’ instead of the preferred emphasis on style.

This trick is cab, which means going off switch, 1440 so four full spins. Henrik Harlaut is thought to have been the first one to do this but TJ Schiller’s is almost unrivalled when it comes to stomping it with such style. When he first did this trick Jon was making fun of him so TJ made him a pretty dumb bet that he’d never do it again. The bet was for $1,000! Maybe Jon became the richest skier by tricking the young ones into stupid bets as TJ obviously lost that bet not too long after! Here is the original:

#3 – CAB 5 DOUBLE GRAB

Going the other way from the spin-to-win is the school of thought which says the slower, more steezy the better. And with that in mind this is the daddy of skiing talking you through a sweet trick which isn’t that hard to do, though the style Tanner drops in with the double grab is typical of his skiing.

#2 – PISTOL FLIP

Back to the inverted tricks for the number one and two spots. This one is amazing and was invented by the only guy I’ve ever seen do one successfully. Joe Murrell is an English kid who apparently had only done one season of skiing when he pulled this little puppy out the bag!

Its a bio 7 to misty 5. It’s immense and the guy’s English which gets him easily to the number two spot because we’d almost expect that from a Canadian or American. Here’s to you Joe:

#1 – DJ FLIP

The flip is named because this is the 2nd double flip invented by Jon (Kangaroo was named because he invented it in Australia) and so the Double Jon flip was born. As seems to be the trend with Jon’s tricks there is some debate about what is actually going on in the air! I, again, agree with the majority of speculators and believe it to be the very complicated sounding d-spin 630 to flatspin 630. Make your own mind up though as it doesn’t really matter what’s going on it’s just enjoyable to see such talent!

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