Billy Morgan lands snowboarding’s first triple back-side rodeo
Britain’s Billy Morgan earned the bragging rights for pulling off snowboarding’s first-ever triple back-side rodeo at the Keystone Resort in Colorado, America, on Friday, December 16.
While the skiing community had already seen a number of successful executions of triple back-side rodeos, the trick only made its debut in the snowboarding world last week, sending the entire community in a state of shock and awe at the same time.
With so many big names in the sport, it was a relatively unknown talent - and that too from Britain - who ended up clinching the honours for making the latest version of the triple a reality.
The video of the historic moment was uploaded on YouTube. In the video, filmed by Ben Kilner, Morgan is seen warming up on several jumps with double back-side rodeos before going for the big one. In order to gain sufficient air time, the British rider initially concentrated on gaining as much speed as he could before launching himself in the air off the fourth jump to complete three revolutions cleanly before making a perfect landing.
A number of snowboarding heavy-weights have praised the feat pulled off by Morgan. According to his fellow countryman and a multiple-time Winter X Games Slopestyle gold medallist Jenny Jones, "I think he is blown away that he is actually the first snowboarder to do a triple backside rodeo. All his mates back home are stoked and there is a definite buzz amongst British riders. Billy isn't just a one trick wonder -- this boy can snowboard. Although, as Billy would point out, not quite up there with the international big guns in contests yet. I think he totally has the potential and the enthusiasm. For a young lad coming from dry-slope in the UK I think the boy [has] done good!"
Despite being able to do what nobody in the snowboarding world has ever done before, Morgan remains modest and admits that he is still not ready to face-off with the big-guns in competition, though he is hoping to rise up to their level through hard training.
Due to his time off the circuits, the young British sensation has not been getting too many invites to the competitions. However, he will seen participating in his first major competition O’Neill Evolution soon.
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