In yesterday’s news report on Art Burgess training on his amazing $50,000 custom-built freestyle ski, we attributed much of the evolution of the sport of freestyle to the machines themselves. While that might be true, it is slightly disingenuous particularly towards the level of athletes that populate modern jet ski competition.
To really hammer the nail in this argument, we want to present what we consider possibly one of the greatest feats of pure athleticism, talent and skill – the double backflip. Executed by France’s most famous freerider Pierre Maixent, he was filmed in 2008 successfully performing the first double ever landed on a jet ski.
Even today, few can perform the double backflip, and all honor Maixent for being the first to master it. Even as machines become lighter and more powerful, the double backflip eludes many and it’ll probably be a good while before we see another do so with Maixent’s flare.
