Top 5 Shifty Flips

We recently criticised double flips for being a reductive attempt to 'improve' on a kickflip. The shifty flip, however, is the perfect example of how just a subtle change can elevate the humble kickflip to new heights while simultaneously proving your unparalleled mastery of The Flick. Have a read below to check out some of the best shifty flips from over the years.

P.S. If you like this one you can thank Mike Hellier who made the request. Safe Mike!

Tom Penny

Penny has a couple of strong shifty flips in this part, but the one at Besos is easily the most iconic. The fast flick and dramatic tweak, coupled with Penny's god tier style, make this one a certified classic that many have paid homage to. Legendary shit.

Andrew Reynolds

Reynolds comes through with an onslaught of hefty shifties in this part, both frontside and backside, including an absolute belter down the MACBA 4-block and a bonus switch shifty ollie. These are easily some of the gnarliest shifties on this list, but what else would you expect from The Boss? Definitely seems to be a trend of elite frontside flippers also possessing mean shifty flips, which does actually make a lot of sense.

Yuri Facchini

One of the most recent shifty enthusiasts, Yuri pulls some absolutely ludicrous shapes with his shifties, tweaking them way past the 90 degree mark. Kinda struggled to find much evidence of his stonkin' shifties in his parts, which is pretty weird considering at one point it seemed like every other Instagram post was a clip of him doing some insane, tweaked-out shifty flip. Guy's also got a pretty mean varial and hectic trick selection in general.

PJ Ladd

PJ Ladd's part in 'Wonderful, Horrible, Life' is definitely in the running for most shifty flip variations ever recorded with shifties in pretty much every stance of both the frontside and backside variations. He even effortlessly floats one down a 9-stair if you aren't impressed by the flatground wizardry. This part is without a doubt one of the finest displays of skateboarding ever recorded. Yes I will continue to shoehorn it into as many Top 5's as possible, and no, I'm not sorry.

Wes Kremer

Is it a shifty? Is it a switch frontside flip rewind? Who can say, but one thing's for certain: it's absolutely fucked. Wes cranks it up to 11 with this insane switch shifty kickflip at Besos - the third shifty at the spot on this list alone, making it possibly the most shiftied spot in the world - which he tweaks for the best part of a full 180 degrees, like only Wes could. The clip's not until the end of the video (16:20 if you're that impatient) but you'd be a fool to turn your nose up at 17 minutes of Wes footage, even if it is raw files.

Honourable Mentions

Dylan Rieder

Don't think I have to say much about this one. Not only is Dylan's shifty flip at Mile End in the part's intro perfectly structured, it's also pretty much head-high.

Lucas Puig

Immaculate rendition of the backside shifty flip from le GOAT at 1:31. Magnifique.

Tim O'Connor

Two strong entries from Tim in this part, including an extremely elusive backside shifty flip on transition.

That's enough chit-chat though. Head to the shop to browse the latest skate product and buy now from CSC. Or, check out more Top 5's on the CSC Blog. Safe.