Looking at Tom Wallisch's "Jiberish: A Walk in the Park," released in 2012, the skating is so refined that it's hard to believe it's footage from over 13 years ago
On rails and boxes, he performed pretzels that rotated in the opposite direction to the direction they were rotating, 360 swaps that went beyond 180-degree transfers, 1080-degree switch double rodeos that switched left and right, and butters on landings. In the late 2000s, when he rose to prominence, many riders were trying to figure out how to reverse the rotation of his pretzels
Wallisch himself first gained attention with a video he submitted to the Level 1 amateur discovery contest "SuperUnknown V (2007)." He even incorporated 360 swaps into that video
After that, pretzels and swaps became staples of freestyle. If you went to a wide box or rail, you'd see riders practicing swaps and pretzels multiple times. If it didn't work, they'd take off their boards and hike up. If it did work, everyone would celebrate. The hike-up sessions would continue until everyone was exhausted. Anyone who'd been to a snow park has probably seen a scene like that at least once
Jib riding has developed into a genre in itself, to the point where it becomes a reason to "go skiing." However, no matter how many other riders try to emulate him, there's a core element that makes his riding instantly recognizable. That's Wallisch's landings
Even with high-rotation tricks, the body remains almost completely still upon landing. The stability is so remarkable that it seems as if they could immediately jump to the next jump in the same position. This unique landing style was coined the term "Afterbang." Since then, various expressions of style after landing have developed, and many riders are now refining their techniques
Yet, his landings never got lost in the crowd.
No matter what trick he was doing, the seemingly simple sequence of movements and the decisive landing made it instantly recognizable as Tom Wallisch.
"A Walk in the Park" is a 3-minute and 15-second video capturing his skating at its peak.
Looking at it now, you can see moves that subsequent riders have repeated many times.
That sense of déjà vu is proof of just how much influence Tom Wallisch had on freestyle skiing that followed