The backflip was once considered all but impossible, the "holy grail of FMX". Freestyle riders began contemplating it after the 1998 film "Children of a Metal God" showed riders attempting the trick into water. Also it had been done many times on BMX bikes, and FMX riders were using tricks from BMX riders, such as when
Travis Pastrana performed an Indian Air, originally from
Mat Hoffman, a BMXer. In 1991, Jose Yanez became the first person to backflip a motocross bike. He practiced for it by flipping his motorcycle into the Salt River, just as he had done with his BMX bike. He would kill the engine on his 80cc motorcycle just before he hit the water to prevent damage to the bike. Yanez performed the world's first ramp-to-ramp motocross backflip on an 80cc motorcycle in October 1991 on an 8' tall box jump he built himself in
Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Jose's next motocross backflip attempt, this time for
The National Enquirer, resulted in a crash that kept Jose off motorcycles and bicycles for two years due to an injured knee. In 1993, Bob Kohl was the second person to perform the backflip on a motocross bike. The bike was a 1993
Honda Cr80. He was a professional BMX rider who had performed the trick regularly on a bicycle. He continued to exhibit the trick until a crash in 1995 left him with serious injuries. In 2000,
Carey Hart attempted the first backflip on a full-size motocross bike off a modified dirt landing ramp at the
Gravity Games 2000. The landing was less than perfect, and Hart crashed immediately after. But Freestyle Motocross was forever changed. Many people started to attempt it, such as Travis Pastrana, who attempted the backflip off a Step Up jump at
Summer X Games Freestyle. He bailed off mid-flight, breaking his foot. The trick was still not attempted on a normal FMX setup, off a ramp-to-dirt setup. Hart attempted the backflip again at Summer X Games in 2001, during the Moto X Best Trick competition, but bailed off the bike in the air, seriously injuring himself. In 2002,
Caleb Wyatt was the first person to land a backflip on a large motorcycle, on April 25, 2002, at the
Rogue Valley Motocross track (RVMX). This backflip was performed over a mulch pile of grass clippings, leaves, and bark collected during maintenance of the RVMX track. Wyatt constructed a quarter-pipe ramp with the take-off completely vertical shoved into the pile of mulch. 2002 brought the backflip to X Games glory. Travis Pastrana and
Mike Metzger were both capable doing flips off ramps.
Kenny Bartram was still learning flips, doing them off the backsides of dirt landings, much like Hart in the 2000 Gravity Games. The unthinkable had become reality; a backflip was now common in freestyle competition. Mike Metzger had achieved a back-to-back backflip, which won him Freestyle Gold at Summer X Games 8. When the Gravity Games came along, riders were doing variations in their backflips, wowing the crowd and the judges, who didn't know how to score the riders. In 2003, regular tricks were being used in backflips such as 'No Footers', 'HeelClickers', and 'One Handed' Backflips. 2003–2005: These years saw the development of variations including cliffhangers, cordovas etc. As well as the disputed 360s which some consider only off-axis flips. The backflip was perfected over large distances including over . In 2005 at the very first
Dew Tour in
Louisville, Kentucky, Travis Pastrana landed four backflips in a row. At the
Denver Dew Tour in 2006, Kenny Bartram was the first to pull a one-handed takeoff backflip. In 2009 while filming for "Nitro Circus", Pastrana completed a backflip as part of a larger crossover jump, flipping over a number of riders below in the process. 2006 brought footage of Travis Pastrana completing a double backflip on an uphill/sand setup on his popular "Nitro Circus" Freestyle Motocross movies. On August 4, 2006, at X Games 12 in Los Angeles, he became the first rider to land a double backflip in competition. Having landed another trick that many had considered impossible, he vowed never to do it again. 2007 saw Scott Murray perform double backflips onto a large piece of foam placed over the end of a foam pit. Later that year, Murray attempted the double backflip at X Games but crashed upon landing. He landed the trick at a Supercross event in Italy. At the 2008 Summer X games Jim Dechamp tried a front flip and crashed, breaking his back. Three months later during Nitro Circus season 1 on MTV, Dechamp landed the front flip during the Guinness World Record episode. In early 2009,
Metal Mulisha rider
Jeremy Lusk attempted a Hart Attack Indian Air Backflip. He under-rotated, and crashed, hitting his head on the landing. On February 10, he was pronounced dead due to head and spinal cord injuries. At X Games 17, Jackson Strong nailed the first front flip on a dirt bike during the best trick competition. In early 2015,
Nitro Circus rider Josh Sheehan landed the first triple backflip, yet another trick deemed impossible by many, on a custom ramp/dirt setup at Travis Pastrana's "Pastranaland" complex in
Maryland. He had previously practiced the trick onto a large air cushion at the Maryland complex, using the same custom ramp built for the stunt. At the
Nitro World Games in 2016, Greg Duffy landed the first double front flip. == Equipment ==