People who changed freestyle that you don't remember: Jose Yanez: Grandfather of backflips

In 1984, Eddie Fiola, Mike Dominguez, Brian Blyther battled it out for the King of the Skateparks on a BMX bike.  Doing a seven or eight foot air and letting go of one hand and one foot was the peak of aerial radness.  That summer, the first BMX freestyle flatland and ramp contest was put on by BMX freestyler turned entrepreneur Bob Morales.  The term "BMX freestyle," was new.  Wizard Publications put out the first issue of FREESTYLIN' magazine.  BMX "trick riding" was just morphing into an actual sport.  Dozens of riders showed up at each contest with brand new tricks.  Nobody was sure what we were really capable of on BMX bikes.  Racers had been jumping bikes for 14 years.  NOBODY in the freestyle world even thought seriously of attempting a backflip on a bike.  It just seemed far too dangerous.

Then out of nowhere, Arizona came this kid named Jose Yanez who did the impossible.  He wasn't a top pro racer.  He wasn't a known freestyler.  He was just a kid who liked riding and decided to try the scariest thing any rider could think of at the time.  He learned, landed, and got a cover photo doing the trick no one thought was really possible on a bicycle.  Jose Yanez did the impossible, became instantly famous in the BMX world, then wound up in Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus touring the world doing that trick.  Most of us freestylers back then never saw him do it live.  Even after he proved it possible, no freestylers learned the trick ramp to ramp until 1990, when flatlander Jeff Cotter learned it from Jose himself while working in the circus.  Mat Hoffman, in his traditional role of taking a new idea beyond possibility, learned backflip fakies and flairs, the backflip air, that same year.  Even then, it was a couple more years, around '92 or '93 when a group of BMX riders started learning to do backflips.  By that time, Jose Yanez had already done double backflips on a BMX bike into water, AND flipped a motorcycle ramp to ramp, the first to do either of those feats.

To put this into perspective, let's compare Jose's feats to the life of freestyle motocross pioneer Travis Pastrana.  Jose did the first BMX ramp to ramp backflip when Travis was less than a year old and in diapers.  Jose did a double BMX backflip into water when Travis was  about four years old.  Jose first flipped a motorcycle ramp to ramp when Travis was about eight-years-old.  Travis tried a motorcycle backflip on dirt for the first time in 2000, but missed and broke his foot.  He was about 17 at the time.  That was nine years after Jose had already done it.  I'm not trying to diss Travis, we all know how much he's added to the action sports world of progression.  I'm just pointing out how far Jose was in front of the curve.  But Jose Yanez, like many pioneers, didn't have massive TV coverage or tons of press around when he flipped that dirtbike.  In fact, he didn't have ANY press around, just a friend with a video camera.

The BMX and MX riders of today, as well as those in other action sports, grew up with backflips and flip variations as part of the lexicon of tricks.  These kids don't remember a time when a flip on two wheels was "impossible."  But us old guys remember that time.  In every progressive endeavor, someone has to put it on the line a be first.  In the world of flips on two-wheeled vehicles, Jose Yanez was that guy.
 
Here's a look at what's been built upon the foundation that Jose Yanez built with that first flip:
1984- Jose Yanez, BMX ramp to ramp backflip (Original photo sequence, 1:23 in the clip above)
198?- Martin Aparijo claims to have landed a BMX front flip into soft dirt, no photos or video.
1987- Jose Yanez- BMX double backflip into water
1990- Mat Hoffman, BMX backflip fakie and backflip 180 (Flair) on vert
1990- Jeff Cotter, First BMX freestyler to learn backflips into water, 44:23 in this video.  He also does a one handed flip (45:16) and quick no-hander (45:37) into water, the first backflip variations on a BMX bike.  Jeff landed his first ramp to ramp flip a week later, but I was editing the video then and didn't document it.  That was lame of me.
1990- Damien Sanders and Steve Graham flips and double flips on snowboards (segment at 53:43), At a time when snowboards were still banned from many ski resorts, and building snowboard jumps was illegal, these two put flips into the mix of snowboard progression.
1991- Mat Hoffman, First BMX backflip attempts in a dirt jump comp, 2-Hip King of Dirt, Mission Trails.  Dennis McCoy sort of tries a flip attempt on Death Jump as well.
1991- Mat Hoffman learning flairs (3:16), closer shot of first dirt flip attempt, other attempts into water.
1991- Jose Yanez, first ramp to ramp motorcycle flip, 1:17 in the clip above.  I believe freestyler Bob Kohl also flipped a motorcycle that year, no pics or video though.
1993- BMX Freestylers are finally flipping in contests...  starting at 9:38, you see three flips, unknown rider (Jay Miron?), Mat Hoffman, and then Bob Kohl with a no-footed flip (11:36).
1997- Jay Miron, first ramp to ramp BMX double backflip (3:29) for Canadian TV, ten years after Jose's double back into water.
1999(?)Cory Nastazio, Double BMX backflip on dirt attempts, Core Tour in Huntington Beach, CA, a few months before Dave Mirra landed double backflips at a CFB contest and then the 2000 X-Games.  I was there shooting video of this one, Cory knocked himself out on the second try.
2000- Cory Nastazio, JNCO commercial, Cory was the first guy (as far as I know) to backflip a bike on the first set of a rhythm section and keep riding.  That was huge at the time.
2000- Dave Mirra, The BMX Double backflip heard 'round the world, 2000 X-Games.  Dave landed a double in a CFB contest a couple months before this, and ESPN built a box jump to Dave's specifications so he could debut it to the world at the X-Games.
2000- Cary Hart, first backflip in a freestyle motocross contest (9 years after Jose did it clean)
2000-something- Todd Lyons, backflip at a BMX race, date unknown.
2002- Mike"Rooftop" Escamilla, BMX backflip over helicopter (blades going, of course) and 50/50 grind to backflip, from Etnies Forward.
2000ish- Koji Kraft in the circus.  He was the second guy to do a BMX double backflip in a contest, and the first rider to really have BMX double backflips on lock.  I saw him do one in practice in Huntington Beach one year, about 2003, with no cameras rolling.  He had them wired before anyone else.
2004- Matt Berringer, BMX Flip-O-Rama,  Hip front flip, backflip wall slap, street flair, snowbike flair, backflip disaster, from S&M Bikes Please Kill Me.
2006- Travis Patrana, First motorcycle double backflip, 2006 X-Games.
2007?- Stephen Murray, first BMX double flip on dirt in the X-Games.  Stephen later crashed a double flip and was paralyzed, reminding everyone in action sports just how dangerous flip tricks are.  STAY STRONG!
Stephen Murray-5 years later... still a part of the BMX world and a great dad.  He's moved back to England since.
Dave Mirra- No hand 360 flip to flair on Mega ramp, X-Games 14
2008?- Slednecks 4, First backflip on a snowmobile.  This is nuts.  Seriously, just plain nuts.
2008? Pierre Maixent, First double backflip on a jet ski. 
2009- Dave Mirra "Crank Flip."
2010? Snowboard triple flip attempt.
2010- Cam something, Longest MX backflip (129'7") and longest MX flip with trick (no footer, 126' 11") 
2011- Jed Mildon, First BMX triple backflip.
2011- Anthony Napolitan, BMX double front flip on Mega Ramp.
2011- A backflip like no other on this list.
2011- Harry Main, BMX bunnyhop backflip. 
2013- Cam Zink, Biggest mountain bike backflip cliff drop, Red Bull Rampage
2013- Russian girl, backflip tailwhip into foam pit.  I don't read Cyrillic, don't know her name.
2014- Brandon Schmidt, BMX 360 double backflip, "Aussie Roll."
2014- Cam Zink, 100 foot mountain bike backflip.
2014- Jolene Van Vugt and Lyn-Z Pastrana, Jolene, first female MX backflip, BMX backflip on mega, BMX front flip on mega; Lyn-Z, first female skateboard rodeo flip on mega.  
2015- Jed Mildon, First BMX quad flip.  Seriously guys?  Olympic gymnasts don't even do quad flips?
2015- Josh Sheehan, First triple backflip on a motorcycle.
2015- Ryan Williams, First BMX triple front flip
2015- Jolene Van Vugt, First female BMX front flip.
2015- Compilation, 9 Best FSMX flip variations
2016- Daniel Bodin, First double backflip on a snowmobile.
2016- Aaron "Wheelz" Fotheringham, first wheelchair frontflip.
2017- Ryan Williams- BMX front flip OVER skatepark bowl in New Zealand.  The progression continues...

Yes, yes, I know there are dozens more flip variations, but you get the general idea of what Jose Yanez started 33 years ago.

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