The 360 Flip’s Less Attractive Sister: A Study of the 10 Greatest Varial Flips in Skate Video History

April 26th, 2013 | 5:54 am | Features & Interviews | 51 Comments

top 10 varial flips

The varial flip occupies a strange space in skateboarding. It’s pigeonholed as a little kid trick — a midway point between the kickflip and 360 flip, and sometimes even the first flip trick learned by a kid who found the shove-it motion easier to land on than a straight up kickflip. Beyond that, it has a far better looking, more shapely and marketable sister trick: The varial flip is the Khloe to the 360 flip’s Kim and Kourtney.

Even when you run an image search for “varial flip” (every result is hideous), Google is right there with “360 flip” as the sole related search. Except when you Google “360 flip,” the term “varial flip” ceases to be relatable. No need to backtrack.

google varial flips

As observers of professional skateboarding, an eternal question burns in our minds every time a pro does a varial flip: “Why wouldn’t he just do a 360 flip?” Whether you agree or not, 360 flips infallibly share the “you can never have enough of them” category with ollies, kickflips, backside tailslides, or anything else you’ve seen Keith Hufnagel do several times in each his Real parts, while the varial flip remains a lumpy oddity that sets alarms off for critics of trick selection. No company would dare introduce a new rider with a varial flip ad, and Skechers certainly had no intention of calling Khloe for their Super Bowl commercial if Kim was unavailable.

Surely the most standard of 360 flips is superior to the greatest varial flip — if such a thing were to exist. Is there even such thing as a “great” varial flip? We set out to find an answer to this question. Here are the ten instances in which the Khloe Kardashian of flip tricks looked jussst good enough to do, by ten of skateboarding’s Lamar Odoms.

The 10 Best Noseslides in Skateboard History

October 2nd, 2012 | 10:05 am | Features & Interviews | 41 Comments

“He [Jereme Rogers A.K.A. J. Cassanova A.K.A. J.R. Blastoff] leads off this latest offering with a noseslide, the building block of modern skateboarding…Indeed, the noseslide serves as the basis for his entire repertoire. This is the main thing he has going for him in 2012. Shit is relatable; it’s still the first trick I do in any session. Dude also does a lot of switch tailslides, which are, of course, an inverted mirror-image way of getting into a noseslide. And whether you are switch inward heelflipping into one or f/s switch bigspin kickflipping (or some shit like that) out of one, a noseslide is still a noseslide. His ender even incorporates two different noseslides into a three-trick ledge combo that the editors of Transworld probably hate. More importantly, as we have seen in the recent Gino x McEnroe internet video clip, noseslides are highly relevant in 2012 because most people can do them, but few can do them well.” — Frozen in Carbonite: Bookmark Me, Maybe? – 2012 Song of the Summer/Video Part of the Summer Retrospective

There is not much to be said about the obvious significance of the the ollie, kickflip and Osiris D3 in skateboarding history. But there *was* something to be said about the oft-forgotten cornerstone of skateboarding known as the noseslide, until the above paragraph conveniently took care of that two days ago. Consider this an addendum to our “30 Phattest Outfits” study. It should come as no surprise that there is an overlap between the two lists — any skater who knows how to dress, knows how to do a proper noseslide. Thanks to Sweet Waste for compiling this list.

NPBP*S: The Top 10 Partyboy Pro Skaters

May 11th, 2012 | 10:35 am | Daily News | 20 Comments

Though it may appear that having a next-best-thing-to-free apartment on Spring Street, and the luxury of avoiding work or higher education for the better part of a quarter-century is easy, such an assumption would be a mistake. To the superficial eye, Matthew Mooney’s lifestyle affords him a plethora of free time. However, you should know that he toils in his Nolita office day-in and day-out with the burden of having to solve all of life’s crucial questions. For example, who are the ten best partyboy pro skaters?

For most, concluding on such an elaborate topic would require the time it takes to complete two, maybe three dissertations. Mooney solved it in a mere afternoon, when the Jewish Hockey League had taken over the T.F. and he had nowhere to go. Here is Mooney’s finalized list, just in time for the weekend…

The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2010: 5-1

December 31st, 2010 | 5:52 pm | Features & Interviews | 16 Comments

Billy Rohan and Saddam Hussien

With about six hours left in 2010, here is the final set of five. Happy New Year, and thanks again to everyone who helped out spreading the word and contributing to Quartersnacks this past year. See you in 2011. #25-21, #20-16, #15-11, #10-6. So, like, what are you guys doing tonight?

5. Billy Rohan goes to Iraq

In a career that has been defined by insanity, Billy’s most absurd feat came not at a time when he was actually “crazy,” but when offered the chance to go to Iraq for the purpose of skateboarding. While there aren’t too many places that white people like Kenny Reed haven’t gone to with the intention of skateboarding, Billy one-upped the entire travel game this past summer by looking for spots in Saddam’s Palace. Leading travel consultants have since began booking tickets to Mogadishu (do planes go there?) in hopes of reviving the seemingly dead “white dude who likes to travel to places that you wouldn’t expect to find spots in but you find two or three and spend the rest of the time experimenting with exotic prostitutes” gimmick.

The Events That Defined New York City Skateboarding in 2010: 10-6

December 28th, 2010 | 1:16 pm | Features & Interviews | 7 Comments

Slightly behind schedule, but down to the final ten… #25-21, #20-16, #15-11.

10. The rise in popularity and subsequent banning of Four Loko

The lifeblood of New York skateboarding has always been diluted with alcohol. When sizing up the abilities of skateboarders in this city, is it important to not merely assess tricks, but the social environment within which these tricks are accomplished. It is not what tricks you can do, but what tricks you can do after waking up at 5 P.M. with half of a six pack you purchased at 4:48 in the morning still in your fridge, a pounding headache, and your friend-who-used-to-skate’s unread mass text about his acquisition of a bottle in six hours. Film a part amongst this madness (or avoid it altogether), and you will be ranked among the greats. If you falter, well, you’re just like the rest of them.

This dependence on alcohol is not comical, or tangential by any means, and it all begins with one simple exposure. For the pre-internet nineties, it was the frequent sight of the 40 ounce bottle in Kids that told youngsters what to drink. In the early-2000s, half of the under-eighteen contingent that would skate flat in the back of Union Square past 10 P.M. was introduced to alcohol through Sparks. And even further down the line, the 2008 opening of Trader Joe’s on 14th Street brought forth the availability of $2 wine for a whole slew of younger degenerates, bringing new relevance to the otherwise outdated term, “wine-o.” But 2010 was hit hard with the youth-marketed Four Loko beverages, which fueled this past summer with relentless forays into bad decisions, and can now be found on Craigslist for $10 a can.


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