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If You Thought Modern Freestyle Skiing Was Too Gymnastic, This Will Restore Your Faith…

Who says double corks can't be stylish?

In a freestyle skiing world now dominated by the triple flip, doubles are now seen as common as muck.

The ‘spin-to-win’ trick from not-so-long-ago competitions, the trick that used to make you shout “ooooh fuuuuuck!” at the screen when someone landed one on the X-Games Money Booter, the trick in a ski edit that used to cement that rider as hands-down “sick!” now passes almost without a mention.

Which is a shame. Because the thing is that although triples can be stylish (and straight up nuts) they are still very much a “huck and hope” job – a mad mix of spin that leaves you counting the rotations for days after you see them.

“Although triples can be stylish they are still very much a “huck and hope” job.”

Doubles on the other hand, have evolved out of this stage. Skiers have mastered them to such a point that they can put their own style and creativity into the trick, even slowing them down to make them look easy.

Don’t believe us? Well here are 10 doubles from edits, competition runs or park shoots that prove it. Take this as a toast to the double cork, double flip or any other variation. And a celebration of what skiing is really all about – style.

1) Adam Delorme’s Wacky Backie

This edit’s splices together some of the biggest and sickest tricks from Level 1 Productions’ 2013 film, Partly Cloudy. It really doesn’t come much bigger than Adam Delorme’s double backflip at 4.28.

Check that monster out; it looks like he disappears off the face of the earth! And listen out for the filmer’s “oooh my god” of disbelief about what he’s just witnessed. We’re with him on this one.

2) Parker White is Double Corking in Heaven

In 2011, Stept Productions shot a couple of tricks at Windells with riders Parker White and Paul Bergeron for their flick that year, NetWork. This edit shows the two slaying the massive Windells kicker in the middle of the edit.

Check Parker’s first hit at 1:20 – an insane switch double cork 1080 tail blunt. This shot is made all the better with the backdrop – he’s literally above the clouds!

3) Tom Wallisch’s X Games Winning Wonder

Not the best picture quality this one, but look through the slightly grainy filming and you’ll see a banger of a gold medal run by freeski king, Tom Wallisch.

This 2010 X-Games Europe winning run includes possibly the cleanest, most stylish double cork 1080 landed in competition at 0:48. See that landing? It’s the definition of stomp!

Landing a perfect double on a park shoot is one thing; under pressure in an X-Games final is a whole other bag.

4) Nick Goepper Nose How It Goes

Whether you love or fucking despise Coldplay, you can’t help but get stoked on this edit from Sochi medallist, Nick Goepper.

Although this entire edit is laced with perfection (look at that unnatural double at 2:48), his last two switch doubles (4:12 onwards) are the best. Just ridiculously technical and stylish – that Mute grab is basically a nose.

Just such a shame it had to be Coldplay eh?

5) And the Crowd Goes Wild

This X Games final has gone down as one of the most progressive Big Air events in history.

A couple of honourable mentions here for sure: Jossi Wells switch double 14 at 0:34, TJ Schiller’s ground-breaking double 16 at 0:58 – but we have to give this one to Bobby Brown for his switch double misty 1440 at 1:29, holding mute the whole way round.

I mean, he won Gold for a reason, right?!

6) The Straight Up Fucked Up Project

It’s that man again, Tom Wallisch. Take him out of the competition element and he still owns it. This ‘Project’ is a short film showcasing his 2012/13 season and it’s jaw-dropingly good from first trick to last.

It’s another double cork 1080 this time, but on a massive backcountry kicker instead of an X-Games course. Check it at 0:54, then freeze the frame at 0:57 – look how inverted he gets.

He lands it like nothing too. One word: Boss.

7) WTF Kind of a Grab is That?

This edit includes one of the best sunset kicker shoots this season. Complete with a selection of hard-hitting riders, an awesome soundtrack and incredible camera skills, some absolute bangers are put down on this epic jump.

Alex Beaulieu-Marchand’s slow and smooth double 900 true Tail grab at 4:14 rightly gets a stoked reaction from the other skiers on-shoot but the last shot is tasty as hell too.

Jeremy Pancras’ double cork 12 Mute to Liu-Kang grab at 4:55. How much fun does it look to be part of that shoot?!

8) Kenworthy’s Ridiculous Day of Dubs

When you drop all the editing and soundtracks from ski edits – the extras basically – you get a stripped back video like this.

This is all shot in one day with Olympic medallist Gus Kenworthy, giving us a behind-the-scenes look at a typical day in training for him.

It’s impossible to single out a particular double cork in this raw footage; just watch all of them, there’s simply too many.

Bear in mind when you watch this that he landed all these tricks on a single day. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure that I’d be on the floor pretty quickly after this much spinning…

9) Woodsy’s Total Headfuck Flip

What kind of feature would this be if we didn’t include the UK’s home-grown legend? James Woods has slayed the freeski scene recently, standing tall amongst the international big guns in Sochi despite carrying an injury into the finals.

This edit shows him cruising Breck with Unity Productions, doing what he does best. His switch double cork 1080 Octo grab at 3:22 is a master class in style.

I’m not sure how legs can bend that way but he makes it look easy. And ending the section with a hands-in-pockets, laid out backflip too – Woodsy kills it.

10) Jesper Tjader’s Even Wackier Double Backie

Speaking of backflips, there’s only one video that we could end on for this feature.

Suzuki’s Nine Knights took place in Livigno, Italy, this season; a unique Big Air and jib event involving a massively impressive castle-like snow feature that attracts the best riders and filmers in the world.

One of those riders was Jesper Tjäder, a young dude out of Sweden (and not, as was rumoured previously, a piece of Ikea furniture).

This video shows him hitting a ridiculously huge double backflip over an outrageous transfer gap, giving danger the big ‘fuck you’ that he thinks it deserves.

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