Q13 News photographer captures amazing, rare skateboard trick

SEATTLE -- A Q13 News photographer managed to capture a rare feat Monday evening. But, unless you're somewhat of a skateboarder, you might have missed it.

Photographer Mike McCarty was shooting b-roll footage at the West Seattle Delridge Skatepark when he spotted one particularly good skater, Andrew Hopgood. McCarty asked Hopgood if he could perform a trick for the camera, and the skater obliged.



Coming out of one of the bowls, the skater attempted and landed a backflip.

A backflip. On a skateboard.

I've been skateboarding for 20 years. In my two decades of skateboarding, I've only seen one other backflip, and that was nearly 10 ago.

"They're really rare," fellow skateboarder Jimmy Blue confirmed with me via text later. "I can only think of two."

There's a myriad of reasons as to why skateboard backflips are rare. It's a high-risk trick. It takes a perfect ramp. For years it was looked down on as a "gimmick trick" by some very influential skateboarders.

I would love to get further into the minutia of why backflips are so rare, but that's for another time. Until then, I just wanted to further share this with the world.

A backflip. On a skateboard.

Sick, dude.