The abridged history of flatground trends in the current decade goes something like this: we entered the 2010s doing 360 flips before/between/after every single trick, then decided that varial flips were so underutilized that we over-utilized them, giving way to a brief flirtation with plain-regular-old heelflips.
Oh, and between all of that, backside big spins went from being a seldom used Welshian or Ellingtonian maneuver, to the lay-up of flatground tricks. Every single bump-to-bar ollie, wallie over something, or trash can line of the past five years has been proceeded by a backside bigspin on flat. If you spent sixty minutes watching skate footage released between 2012-2018, at least one of those minutes will have been spent watching people confirm to you that yes, they can backside bigspin on flat.
In 2018, most skaters who have cameras pointed at them have began to feel confident that the general public believes in their flatground backside bigspin, 360 flip, or backside bigspin capabilities.
But now — there’s a loneliness. It feels empty when you end a line. The pressure is there. You have to squeeze another trick out. But what?
Apart from Kevin Tierney’s love affair with the switch laser heel, the most re-blogged flat trick in Tumblr history never caught on. When the entire northeast spent the better part of the decade attempting a white whale of a stylish varial flip, such a complicated maneuver is understandably out of reach.
