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8 memorable mountain bike tricks from 2017

Looking back at the year’s best, from crazy cliff drops to back yard tricks

From huge senders and high-speed style to messing around with friends, when the friends are all pro mountain bikers, these eight tricks caught our attention in 2017. They’re not all extreme, sport-defining moments, but riding a your bike shouldn’t have to be extreme to be memorable. Not that any of these would be easy to copy at home, mind you. So whether the riding is fun, exceptionally stylish, or just plain huge, here’s some of the best tricks to look back on this year:

Bernard Kerr – Stoppie Sunday on In and Out Burger in Squamish

Video doesn’t come close to capturing the steepness of this line down Squamish’s In and Out Burger, which is more of a connected sequence of massive rock slabs than anything recognizable as a trail. Kerr attacks the intimidating line with speed and, oh yeah, entirely on his front wheel. As a bonus, this is a trail you can go ride yourself next time you’re in the area, just maybe try it on two wheels first?

Kirt Voires and Carson Storch

Barspins, from a dead stop. Well, the ramp is moving, but neither Kirt or Carson are. Not totally sure how the physics of this one work out, but if you decide to try this at home please send us the video.

Tom van Steenbergen – Caveman drop

Tom van Steenbergen’s caveman drop, which is jumping onto your bike, in this case from the top of a huge cliff at Red Bull Rampage. This was huge move, and van Steenbergen had no practice run to make sure it was dialed. Looking for a way to step up his second run in Utah, he just line up and decided to go for it. A first for Rampage.

Andreu Lacondeguy – indy backflip

There was no shortage of huge tricks this year at Rampage: Sorge no-hand backflipping, Cam Zink’s massive flat drop backflip, and most of Antoine Bizet’s run. Any of those moves could be on the list, but Lacondeguy makes the cut because it’s so stylish and comes at the end of a long, physically demanding run and because his follow up attempt in his second run showed just how wrong it can go.

Paul Genovese – My World

Genovese latest video, My World, was full of creative, progressive tricks expertly captured by Mindspark Cinema. Any could have been on the list. Here’s a flat drop 360 on a DH bike, but you should probably just watch the whole thing: Mindspark Cinema – My World

Brandon Semenuk – Raw 100 V3

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'Raw 100 V3' is now live! | Link in bio | ? @revel_co

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It’s always hard to choose which Brandon Semenuk moment to choose when making a yearly list. The Canadian has a seemingly endless bag of tricks, and is probably holding onto a few new ones no one’s seen yet. Watching him strip it down to simple – or simpler – tricks and focus on style for his third Raw 100 video was memorable for showing just how stylish it is possible to be on a bike.

Brendan Fairclough – DeathGrip

Also stylish, but with a slightly different take on style, is Fairclough’s charging, loose approach to riding. Watching him ride on the edge for the entire duration of DeathGrip had us death gripping our sofa cushions.

Josh ‘Ratboy’ Bryceland and Josh ‘Loosedog’ Lews

This final entry is less a specific trick than an great display of how to have a great time even when you’re racing. Here’s two riders who are always riding together and constantly pushing each other to come up with new, creative tricks to try on their bikes. Taking this level of creativity into the woods, and visibly enjoying riding so much, makes it feel like anyone can go out and have fun messing around in the woods with their friends, even if you can’t ride like they can. Which is OK, most people can’t. But everyone can have a great time trying, which is what’s so great about mountain biking to start with. For more of this, check the feature-length look at Bryceland and Lewis’ 50to01 crew, Wheel Love.

Bonus Clip:

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Outside dab practice ??? @maxxistires

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While this might not quite fit in a best tricks list, this little clip of Josh Lewis practicing flat corners stands out for being fun, impressive, and a nice window into the practice that it takes to look so effortlessly good at mountain biking