A few weeks ago Podladtchikov became the first person to land a switch double McTwist, whilst he was doing some offseason halfpipe training in New Zealand.

World's First
Podladtchikov and Shaun White are the only two snowboarders on the planet to have successfully landed a regular double McTwist in a halfpipe. And now Podladtchikov is the only person to have landed it in switch.

Speaking of his achievement (to ESPN ) Podladtchikov said: “For every snowboarder, just a regular backside spin is hard because it's off your heels.

“Picture standing on the street and trying to jump off of your heels instead of your toes -- that's what's happening in the pipe. It's the most unnatural way to spin, especially when you are spinning cork, going upside down and blind off your heels. That's why it's so popular, because it's brutal -- it's exactly what you don't want to do in the pipe. But when everything works out, it's awesome.

"So to do it switch, you are jumping from your heels, going in blind, and on top of that, it's all the wrong way. Not a lot of people do, or will ever do, switch backside tricks in the pipe because it's so hard. It took me so many switch runs to be able to even try it."

Shaun White changed the face of pipe snowboarding when he landed the double cork a couple of years ago. He managed to pull off the trick during his victory lap at the Olympics and it made many wonder how on earth any other halfpipe rider would ever be able to beat him.

Podladtchikov then went on to land one during Winter X Europe 2010 when he managed to win his first even Winter X gold in the Superpipe, managing to get the highest pipe score in Winter X history.

The two snowboarders didn’t compete against one another at Winter X 11, due to Podladtchikov’s shoulder injury and White didn’t turn up to WXE 2011.

So the world is waiting to see who will come out on top when these two pipe experts meet at the next Winter X Games.