Albee Layer's Double Alley-Oop

It was mid-May when Albee Layer (@live.fast.die.old) soared off a wave in Maui and did something exceptional, if not unprecedented, on a surfboard. He sped along the wave and then launched into the air, taking off facing away from the beach and turning back toward where he came from — known as an alley oop — rotating a little more than 360 degrees. He landed backward on the wave and then slid another 180 degrees to ride in facing forward.

Days later, video of the move went viral, and soon the surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding worlds were colorfully debating what it should be called.

Layer calls his move a “double alley-oop,” attempting to avoid one of the key aspects of the debate: the degrees of rotation. Kelly Slater calls it an “Albee-oop,” avoiding direction or degrees of rotation altogether in favor of using Layer’s name. For his part, Hawk calls Layer’s move an “alley-oop 540,” counting the final 180 degrees rotated on the wave in the name, similar to sliding the final half rotation on a ramp.

From “When a Surfer Lands a Skateboard trick, who gets to name it?” by Matt Ruby for the New York Times 

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