Canada's Parrot taking snowboarding in new direction for Pyeongchang

Quads and triples are sexy in snowboarding, but Maxence Parrot has landed an unprecedented double that could come in handy when Big Air makes its Winter Olympic debut in 2018.

Fatigue was setting in for both Parrot and his videographer when the 22-year-old from Bromont, Que., nailed a double backside rodeo on his 11th attempt of the day on Oct. 20 in Saas Fee, Switzerland.

Parrot launched off the jump backwards spinning clockwise four times (1,440 degrees) while reverse flipping twice. The Canadian was the first man to execute it.

The YouTube video posted a week later could come with a language warning as Norwegian snowboarder Torgeir Bergrem admired Parrot's feat with profanity.

"I was really exhausted the more I was trying it," Parrot told The Canadian Press from Bromont on Monday. "It was a really hard trick.

"My filmmaker was looking at me saying, 'Are you going to land it?' and putting a little bit of pressure on me.

"I almost gave up so many times, but I'm a guy who is really determined when I want something."

Difficult landing

What makes the double backside rodeo difficult is Parrot doesn't see the ground much to orient himself in the air. He also doesn't see the landing until the last second.

"People have done that trick in 1080, so in three rotations, but there's no one that has done that trick in four rotations," Parrot said.

"It all comes down to your feeling in the air and you've really got to be confident in yourself and know where you are."

Parrot was the first to execute a switch quad, which is reverse flipping four times off the jump, in 2015.

While spectacular to watch, he said it was more attainable than the double backside rodeo because he gets more looks at the ground and sees the landing sooner doing the quad.

Why pursue a new double when triples and quads are all the rage? Some venues don't have a lot of real estate.

"In competition, we don't get big jumps really often," Parrot explained. "We can't always do triples and quadruples.

"I went back to doubles. I thought I would push the sport in a way that I could maybe land this trick in competition."

Parrot wants to be more consistent with the double backside rodeo before he unleashes it in competition. After competing in an Air and Style event Nov. 18-19 in Beijing, Parrot heads to Pyeongchang, South Korea, for a World Cup and Olympic test event Nov. 25-26.

Good fit for 2018

"The Big Air at the Olympics will be a scaffolding jump. It's not a jump in the mountains," he explained. "It's a jump built out of metal, like a ramp. So they can't do really big jumps on that."

So should Parrot master the backside double rodeo for competition, it would be a good fit for 2018.

"Having that uniqueness in a trick that no one else is doing always can wow the judges," Canadian snowboard coach Elliot Catton said.

"We'll wait to see it in competition how it is scored relative to a triple or something like that, but the fact that he's the only one doing it on this axis does give him an advantage in the sport."

Mark McMorris of Regina and Montreal's Sebastien Toutant also witnessed Parrot's mastery of the trick in Saas Fee as the Canadians were participating in a national team training camp at the time.

McMorris is returning to competition this season after breaking his femur Feb. 21.

Parrot and McMorris are the only two men to win both Big Air and slopestyle gold at a single X Games in Aspen, Colo.

Big Air is one big trick off a jump, while slopestyle combines tricks with navigating terrain down a course. McMorris won Olympic bronze and Parrot was fifth in 2014 when slopestyle was introduced to the Winter Games.

The Canadians duked it out in Aspen in January with Parrot winning his second career Big Air gold and McMorris taking silver. McMorris won slopestyle and Toutant was runner-up in Aspen.

So when it comes to defying gravity at high speed, the Canadian men's snowboard team is deep in talent and testosterone.

"Me, Mark and Seb are most of the time on the podium, so that's really good for Canada," Parrot said.