While the idea of a “new” snowboarding trick might seem a bit strange, athletes develop new techniques and tricks all the time. Whether it’s pushing the boundaries of speed and heights or trying to add another rotation to double backflip, there is always progress to be made in the world of freestyle snowboarding. This series details a few recent tricks and revelations in the freestyle community.
Sage Kotsenburg is credited with the creation of this mind-blowing stunt. A gold-medal-toting Olympian, Kotsenburg stunned the world with his run at the Sochi Games’ inaugural snowboard slopestyle event. In the X Games Aspen in 2015, he landed the first-ever backside 1260 off the heels.
In snowboarding, when you spin backside, you turn your back down the mountain in the direction of travel. While doing this, you turn your head up the hill to begin the rotation. A backside rotation is much more difficult than when you have the weight on your toes. Doing a backside 1260 off the heels means that Kotsenburg took off from the jump with all the pressure on his heelside edge—a completely unnatural position.
While this might not sound like a big deal, there’s a reason why this gold-medalist is the only person to ever land this trick. Here’s the trick in action. It doesn’t look like much special—just a few rotations off a moderate jump—but this thing is impossible to do.