The world’s best extreme winter athletes are set to compete at the X Games, which open this Thursday in Aspen. And in one of snowboarding’s marquee events, it’s Canadian Max Parrot who’s the defending champion.
The 22-year-old from Cowansville, Que., will be looking to make it back-to-back X Games titles in snowboarding’s Big Air, which will also make its debut at the Olympics next winter. Big Air is exactly as it sounds: competitors rip down a huge ramp, then perform high-flying tricks before trying to stick the landing.
Last October, Parrot laid down the world’s first double backside rodeo 1440 (he’ll explain what that is soon). He did so in practice, and has yet to debut the trick in a competition.
Sportsnet caught up with the Canadian to talk about that new trick, his goal at X Games (Jan. 26-29), and the upcoming Olympic debut of Big Air.
Sportsnet: What is a double backside rodeo 1440?
Parrot: It’s two front flips with two 720s.
SN: What?
MP: Yes.
SN: I’ve seen it on video, but it happens so fast. Two 720s?
MP: Well, in snowboarding we count every flip as a 360, so maybe it would be more proper to say I do two front flips with two 360s.
SN: Must’ve been nice to land that for the first time.
MP: It felt great. I fell a lot of times before landing it—I’m not used to falling that many times when I try new tricks. Normally I land it in the first five times. This trick, it took me 10 tries to get it around.
SN: Were you working up to this with baby steps?
MP: Yes, baby steps. For many years I’d been doing only one front flip and the 360, which is the backside rodeo 720. And for many years I was visualizing in my head adding the same trick, but twice in one air. So in my head I would see this trick: a rodeo 720 to a rodeo 720. So two times the same trick, but in one jump.
SN: You’ve made history by inventing new tricks a few times now.
MP: I love pushing my sport. When I was a kid I was always looking at pro snowboarders to see what they were doing and when I got at their level, I realized it was time for me to push a little and to continue into a new path. I love creating. It’s super fun.
SN: How big are X Games for you?
MP: It’s our biggest event every year. It’s like our Olympics, except it’s every year.
SN: As the defending champion in Big Air, do you have new tricks up your sleeve to defend that title?
MP: I never say before a contest when I do new tricks, I keep that for myself. I do have a lot of tricks in my mind. We’ll see how practice goes.
SN: Will we see something new?
MP: Pretty sure you will, yeah.
SN: With Big Air added to the Olympic schedule, it must be getting more competitive.
MP: It’s definitely getting tougher, because [other competitors] are doing the same tricks that I’ve been doing. So now I gotta learn new tricks. Once you do a trick that’s never been done before, it takes a couple months, or a couple years, and everybody does it as well. You need to come up with something new every year, it’s very important.
Canada’s Max Parrot flies through the air during a training run prior to a qualification run at the Sochi Winter Olympics in Krasnaya Polyna, Russia. (Jonathan Hayward/CP)
SN: I imagine you have to hide your tricks from competitors so they can’t mimic you in time for a big event. So why post a video of your double backside Rodeo 1440 from practice before laying it down on a huge stage?
MP: Last year when I pulled down the cab triple cork 1800 at X Games, I’d been hiding this trick for a year. Nobody knew. A lot of rumours were circulating, but nobody had seen it before I did it at X Games. But I personally think the rodeo, it’s a really, really hard trick. Showing it before the season starts, everybody’s done with their training, so they don’t really have time to work on it. [Laughs.]
SN: Is it hard to keep tricks secret?
MP: For sure, because you want people to know about it. But I remember this last trick I had for one year, and I was just thinking about that gold medal. I knew if I could land this trick at X Games I would win the medal.
SN: What’s your goal for this X Games?
MP: To get another gold medal, definitely. And do well in Slopestyle as well.
SN: Will we see your new trick, you think?
MP: We’ll see. [Laughs]. Like I said, I’m keeping that to myself.
