The Victory Lap

Ah, the victory lap -- an antidote to the modern bro-down, post-hammer celebratory hug fest that's become a mainstay in modern stuntboarding. After all, what's a better way to celebrate the high of conquest: hi-fiving all your "bros" and giving yourself props like you're in the NFL, or riding it out and tacking a few additional improvised tricks onto your line? We here at Theories of Atlantis are a little tired of the self-congratulatory nature of post-trick celebrations that have become the norm lately, so we decided to put together a list of our favorite victory laps in which the skater decided to ride it out and continue to partake in the shred. This is by no means comprehensive, and like everything else in skateboarding, this is all up for debate.

Pat Duffy, slappy, Questionable

What's one to do after grinding what's easily the largest rail ever done at the time? How about immediately skate the smallest thing imaginable? After grinding the twenty stair in Plan B's Questionable, Pat Duffy headed straight to the curb in front of him for a proper slappy, followed by a 360 flip on flat. The raddest thing about this trick? In the second angle, it looks like he's setting up for another slappy. Some dudes can't get enough.

Rick Howard, Beryl Banks line, Virtual Reality

The ever-effervescent Rick Howard managed to squeeze some good times out of the notoriously stressful filming process for Virtual Reality. After jamming out a fakie inward heelflip on the steep and lumpy Beryl Banks (an impressive feat in and of itself), Howard turned a single trick into an iconic line, following it up with a shove it, a mob nollie flip, a three flip, and a kickflip, seemingly setting up for a fifth flatground trick before abandoning the line and assuming a self-congratulatory pose. If Howard ever ends up on one of skateboarding's many podcasts, someone's gotta ask him what that last trick would be.

Mike Carroll, EMB line, Goldfish

Legend has it the hardflip at the end of Mike Carroll's opening line in Modus Operandi was improvised. We couldn't find verification on that, so we picked his second-best line for inclusion. It's hard to say exactly when this line turned into a victory lap -- I would guess right after the backside tailslide, but possibly as early as the turnaround to nollie nose manual -- but by the backside heelflip, he was definitely feeding off the group's energy. With moves like a nollie casper flip, it shows. 

Ricky Oyola, 360 flip, Closure

This one almost slipped by us. If Pat Duffy's twenty stair 50-50 was gnarly, Ricky Oyola's ollie into moving traffic was downright suicidal. Hauling ass through Love Park, ollieing on and kickflipping off blocks before gapping out of the park, over the sidewalk, and into unchecked moving traffic (we cannot stress that enough), it's pretty clear Oyola didn't put much stock into the events that would unfold after he landing on John F Kennedy Boulevard. As such, the 360 flip in the middle of the street is less of a line extension, and more of an instinctual reaction to staying on his board.

Stevie Williams, fakie frontside shove-it, Chocolate commercial

Upon first watch, the fakie frontside shove it at the end of this line gives the viewer the impression that Stevie Williams had more to offer us than waist high frontside heelflips, switch heels, fakie hardflips, and switch back tails. The dick grab immediately afterwards lets us know that yeah, he could have kept this line going, but there's no need to improve upon perfection, is there?

Geoff Rowley, Really Sorry

Geoff Rowley never seemed particularly concerned with meticulously learning flatground tricks, which is why his final clip in Really Sorry is so astonishing. After a huck down the Clipper stairs and onto the ledge, Rowley took his adrenaline rush to the blacktop and knocked out a switch bigspin, a switch frontside 360, and a varial heel in rapid succession, all worthy of laud and praise. Meanwhile, in the same video we can't forget PJ Ladd's all smiles fakie bigflip after switch flipping the Lincoln 13 in San Francisco. 

Ocean Howell, post-backside flip line, iPath Summer Promo

Taking a page out of Rick Howard's book, the ever-elusive Ocean Howell rode the high he got after cruising through a San Francisco schoolyard and backside flipping out of a bump over the trash can. until the bitter end, rifling off a fakie 360 flip, a half cab flip, and a heelflip until he was at a complete standstill.. The grand finale? Grab indy and fade away.

Guy Mariano, pressure flip, cherry.

"Do a flip trick!" William Strobeck demanded, after Guy Mariano did a proper fakie bigspin bluntslide over the length of a picnic table. Mariano complied, not with a traditional line-ending 360 flip on flat, or even a simply shove-it, but rather, an early nineties staple: the pressure flip. Some things can't be unlearned, we suppose.

Jake Johnson, switch 360 flip off the curb, GX1000

Mere moments after blasting a nollie frontside 180 over a Lower East Side bump to bar, Jake Johnson cruised past Jonathan Mehring and turned his single trick into a line with a semi-obscured switch 360 flip off the curb. The ambiguity of this one makes it so much better. I've watched GX1000 at least a hundred times and I still have no idea if he just landed it wonky, or completely stepped off.

Casper Brooker, post-360 flip line, "Atlantic Drift: New York City"

Casper Brooker was skating like he had something to prove in New York City this past May, and this clip is definitely a highlight of his many noteworthy Atlantic Drift endeavors. Judging by the cheering after his ollie onto the block and quick 360 flip over the stairs at Hunt's Point, the backside bigspin on flat, immediately followed by a gap back onto the block and a pop shove-it off, seems to have caught everyone by surprise.

-Andrew Murrell