BMX tricks run into the hundreds, with countless combos and variations – but everyone has their favourites. Here are Red Bull’s top 10 classics.
Front flip tailwhip
Many had tried, but failed, to land a front flip tailwhip in competition until twice X Games gold medallist, Scotty Cranmer, acheived it in September 2007 at the Toyota Challenge – the fourth stop of the Dew Tour. That trick helped Cranmer to the top of the park standings for the second successive year. The crowd and commentators went wild and rightly so. (Michael Beran tailwhips his way around Prague, below)
Daniel Vojtech/Red Bull Photofile
Barrel roll tailwhip
When you pull an insane trick for the first time you’d hope there would be a full house to appreciate it. Not for Chris Hughes when he landed a barrel roll tailwhip in a near-empty park. But he wasn’t completely alone. A friend filmed the feat, meaning it went down in BMX folklore.
1080
2007 was a year of firsts – with Mike Spinner (it's all in the name!) pulling the first ever contest 1080 at Vodafone X Air in Wellington, New Zealand in February of that year. Once landed, Spinner threw his bike to the floor to the floor and was hoisted into the air by a friend.
Backflip 360
The humble backflip (modelled below by Pat Laughlin) nearly got a mention of its own in this top 10, but it’s undoubtedly topped by the backflip 360. Zach Shaw pulled it many moons ago in 1993 in Hastings, East Sussex. Always someone to go one better, Dave Mirra landed a no-handed 360 flip in March 2006.
Justin Kosman/Red Bull Photofiles
Superman
While the superman may not be the toughest trick out there – although say that when you’re standing at the top of a 50-foot ramp you cannot deny it’s damn impressive. It has been incorporated into countless combinations, but there’s something perfectly simple about a BMX flying through the air with its rider trailing behind.
Double flair
Is there a better place to nail a trick than the X Games? That’s what Kevin Robinson did when he landed a double flair (a backflip into a corkscrew) for the first time in 2006. He was duly bundled by his fellow competitors. It was a trick that was three years in the making – “the end of a three-year-long day,” said Robinson – and it won him best vert trick.
Nothing
Off all the limbless variations out there Ron Wilkerson’s nothing – a no-hander and no-footer – has to be the gnarliest. It’s simply an all-time classic – a stark contrast to the spin-to-win era – stretching back over two decades. Wilkerson first landed it in 1987 and didn’t look back – until he got in wrong two years later and ended up in a coma for a week.
Back-to-back 900’s
The X Games has featured heavily on this list, but it’s the holy grail of extreme sports and the mecca for new tricks. A 900 on the vert is impressive but not insane, however Simon Tabron does it better than anyone else. And at X Games 13 in 2007, Tabron became the first rider to land back-to-back 900’s. Now that’s impressive.
Christian Pondella/Red Bull Photofiles
World record air
Sometimes in BMX, it’s just a case of the bigger the better. On June 12, 2008, in New York’s Central Park, Kevin Robinson set out to break Mat Hoffman’s high air record of 26.5ft off a 24ft ramp at the Red Bull Experiment (pictured). Hoffman was towed by a motorbike for his jump, while Robinson went off a 60ft roll-in before launching himself 27ft into the NYC skyline. That’s over six stories high and Hoffman – the big ramp pioneer – was on hand to confirm the record.
World record backflip
K-Rob’s ambition was to go higher than ever before, but Allan Cooke had his eyes set on going further than ever – while doing a backflip! The initial gap between the two ramps – at a remote location near Temecula, California – was 45ft. Cooke landed it and wanted to go further, so he then nailed 54ft. Still not happy, the daredevil insisted the ramps were moved further apart before backflipping over a final distance of 54ft.
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