Switch Backside Kickflips #1: coming tomorrow...

Because of time issues, the last post of the best switch backside kickflips will be coming tomorrow. But to occupy today's post, please refer to the switch backside kickflip Trickipedia at the Berrics as both a precursor for tomorrow and the best visual lesson for the trick possible.

Switch Backside Kickflips #5: Shane O'Neill

Shane O'Neill is kind of like Moose in that they both have basically claimed the nollie frontside flip through their excellent use of the trick, yet Shane has also done wonders with the switch backside flip.  Everyone knows Shane is a wizard when it comes to skating: he can do basically any trick he really wants to and somehow make it look like he's had that trick down for years. I'd say there's a fine line between stylish and robotic, and Shane knows exactly where to walk on the stylish side without wavering too far over. This is evident with his switch backside kickflips. Just look at his Trickipedia for the trick at the Berrics. (You know when you get a Trickipedia for a trick that you've definitely mastered it.) Shane encompasses just the right amounts of flicking without going too ninja, the right amount of spinning board and body without overdoing the late backside rotation almost into a pivot, and the right amount of knee flexing so his posture while popping and landing is the most comfortably looking I've seen. A trick like this with Shane's style is the pinnacle of bringing jealousy to those that watch him skate as for how easy he makes the trick look.
Shane's put out some top notch parts over the past 4 years or so that are obviously worth watching for the diversity of tricks, yet the few switch backside flips thrown in them definitely stand out.
In Skate Mental's Am Chowder, Shane works a switch backside flip into a banked manual at 1:41 with enough ease to calmly 180 out at the end. He also nails a really nice one at 2:29 at this foundation gap.
In his going pro video part through Skate Mental and the Berrics (above), Shane continues to show his comfortability with the trick at 0:47 across a flat gap and especially in the combo trick at 2:48, the likes of which I had not even imagined possible before this video part. (Remember how monumental this part was when it came out back in 2010? Looking at it now is a trip because of how much crazier skateboarding has become in every respect. Woah...)
Recently, in Primitive's team video Pain is Beauty, Shane perfectly executes a switch backside flip over a picnic table at 7:52, which again demonstrates the right balance of everything good in a stylish fliptrick.
And lastly, in Not Another Transworld Video, Shane does the trick into a nose manual at 0:53 (holding it for quite some time) and just to be safe he nollie flips out. At 1:39 he utilizes the lily manual pads with a quick ollie up then a frontside 180 switch manny switch backside flip out, fully rotating the trick on its way out and sustaining his momentum too, just because that's how good he has the trick. He immediately follows that clip up at 1:45 by speedily switch backside flipping with a sick flick across a long gap. And then at 2:39 you can witness the culmination of all switch backside flippage with the ultimate ledge combo that I had been dreaming about seeing for years: switch kickflip back tail switch backside flip 270 out.

Ams that Should be Pro #2: Kelly Hart

It feels like Kelly Hart has been around for quite a while.  And all through that time I always felt that he had a very grown up, professional steeze that would grant him his own deck at some point.  Kelly is easily one of the butteriest skaters out there with his easy-looking but dominantly high pop, flicking and catching tricks, and bending his knees for one of the best landings styles I could imagine.  Kelly can manual like he's in a video game with cheat codes, holding a single pose throughout entire long manuals like nothing.  He's got a mastery of nollie and fakie pop shove its and varial flips (and when I say POP shove it, I mean it), which no one else has as smooth as him. Another thing I doubt many people give him credit for is that with his skills to skate switch as smoothly as he does regular, he is able to film tricks that are mirror images of each other, which is a clever way of making his parts more interesting to watch (nollie pop shove nose manny followed by fakie pop shove fakie manny for example).  One of his first major parts was in It's Official, where I'd say all the tricks from 0:50 - 1:11 perfectly demonstrate his pop shove it abilities, his pop, his manual abilities, and his gorgeous tre flips.  His part in Give Me My Money Chico (above) is also really pleasing to watch, just to see exactly how tricks should be executed.  I love his varial heelflip at 2:18, he has a perfect switch heel over a bump to bar at 2:50, and he displays his craftiness with his last two tricks by mirroring a fs 5-0 kickflip out with a switch one afterwards that looks just as buttery as the first. His Berrics Recruit part once again comes through and shows Kelly's mastery of good-looking flip tricks and perfectly balanced manuals. He comes again with two nice mirrored lines starting at 1:02: a front tail then a beautiful fakie tre over a bench and a switch front tail and nollie tre.  His nollie inward heel over the fire hydrant at 1:57 is just another piece of eye candy. Kelly also has some great clips in the latest Expedition offering Madness with some very speedy and smooth cruising lines, in one of which he approaches a handrail and decides that with a tre flip as good-looking as his, he might as well just tre flip over it instead of worrying about any grind tricks, which I fully back.  Throwing a switch flip in the middle of a switch manny at 2:23 is not even fair because he almost doesn't flinch or waver at all! And the fakie POP shove it at 2:35 may possibly be the best one ever done.
So with a really solid collection of video parts, a proper style that is the perfect amount of butteriness without going overboard, and some of the most correct flip tricks in skateboarding (he has the most Berrics' Trickipedia entries for a reason), it's really a shock that he hasn't gone pro yet.  Even just some talk of turning him pro would be nice, but all I can hope for is that he's working on another attractive video part for his first pro board.