Fred Gyrzbowski is doing what he can to give rise to a new classification of tricks.

By Nick McClintock

In a time not too far back, when everyone was riding GG’s, we had devised a system to categorize tricks. This system broke all tricks into five groups: big air, technical, spins, stalls, and reverses. Overall there was considered to be two styles of jumping; Big Air and Technical. When sticks like the Flybar and Vurtego came along, however, these classifications began to break down.

Under our traditional system big air was defined as “tricks where you jump as high as you can in the air and perform a trick.” This mostly included all grabs, table tops, and basic DUZ tricks. (DUZ, for those of you who don’t know, is our confusing method for labeling tricks based on how many hands and feet you leave on the pogo). Technical ticks were considered those that “are performed low to the ground where height doesn’t matter.” Generally these would be the same as flatland tricks, including things like peg taps and other flatland stalls. Spins are pretty self explanatory; these were tricks where the stick spins either with or without the rider. A barspin is the most common trick in this grouping. Stalls were considered “tricks where the pogo stops on the ground, bench, ledge, or where ever else you stall.” And finally, Reverses have always been “tricks where the stick starts in front of you and ends up behind you, or the other way around.”

When broken down into two styles, Big Air riding would (obviously) consist of big air tricks, all the grabs, and some of the spins. Technical riding generally referred to everything else; all the flatland stuff and most barspin as well as reverses, all things where height is not important.

Now that this new breed of pogos easily allows for more than six feet of air, new doors have been opened as far as tricks go. One of the immediate changes in trick classification this has caused is that tricks simply don’t fit into just one of the previous categories. A trick like the V-Wrap can be called a big air, technical, and spin trick all at the same time. The old notion of Technical riding has essential been eliminated when it comes to jumping with this type of stick, it’s just not possible to be throwing tricks like peg taps with an 18 inch piston. The new place for tech tricks is in the air and the line between Big Air and Technical has been blurred. With such great height potential riders have been taking old technical tricks like barspins and throwing them into combos of multiple tricks in one air. Barspin grabs are the forefront of this new style of riding.

So, with the old system reduced to rubble, what do we do? Should we throw it out and start a new one? Should we just go without a classification system? Well, with sticks like the Motostik and now the GG being reproduced, there’s still too much of a traditional technical trick presence to completely scrap the old system. Going without a classification system won’t work either, it really does come in handy quite often. What I would propose as the best solution is simply to acknowledge this new style of tricks as a category in itself; a merging of Big Air and Technical riding, where the goal becomes to throw as many complicated tricks in one air as possible. Perhaps “Tech-Air” would best describe it? Whatever it may be called, one thing’s clear; as long as we keep doing our best to push the envelope the tricks of our sport will just keep evolving.