Who was the first doing Air-flare?

[Flareboy]

Hey yo B-boy´s and B-girl´s,

maybe a thread like that is already there, sorry if it is.

But who was the first one who did the Air-flare and when it was? I have heard it was about 1998, is that right?

thank you 4 reply,

pEaCe B-boy Lite

[serebros]

i read somewhere that Paulo was the first to do 2 at one of the earlier fss

[mjg]

i believe it was kid freeze

[OmightyrefleX]

wasn't it soul control?
they interviewed kujo about this...

[BigBadBuffalo]

I don't really have time to get into details right this minute, but I will say that neither I, nor my crew, Soul Control, had anything to do with the creation of the air flare - or "air track," as we called it in '95-'96, or "air twist," as it's also been called. We were, however, responsible for a number of variations of, and combinations with, air flares - none of which we had seen before we came up with them in our garage sessions between '95-'98. This doesn't necessarily mean that we were the first to do these variations and combinations - it just means that, as far as we knew, we were coming up with moves and combos that had never been done before we did them, because we had never seen or heard of them being done before we did them. I can detail all these variations and combinations later.

Before we came along, as well as B-Boy Ivan, who we trained in the garage with regularly, I'm aware of versions of the air flare being done by Icey Ice, Kid Freeze, Fresh from LA Breakers, Paulo from Holland's 010 B-Boys, Storm and Swift from Battle Squad, and Robbie from Unique Wizards (in San Bernardino, CA - he battled RSC alongside Imperial Japan Breakers at B-Boy Summit 1995). However, the very first video we saw of an air flare was done by a guy we still don't know the name of - it was on a video that Easy Roc personally filmed while he was in Germany, staying and training with Battle Squad, in 1992. It was a black dude who did flare - air flare - ALMOST back into flare, and fell on his back. We were all in shock, and we immediately set about learning and mastering it before anybody else could.

A LOT of injuries occurred, because we had nobody to show us how to do it, and we were figuring out various techniques through trial and error. I knocked myself unconscious more times than I can remember, trying to learn this damn move, and one incident sent me to the emergency room - I'd hit the back of my head on the floor so hard that I'd gone temporarily blind, and had sprained my neck. Three days later, we battled Abstract Flava at Radio Tron 9, on September 27th, 1997 (and won). I was scared death of reinjuring my head/neck the entire battle, but managed to get through it.

Anyway, this is just part of my personal story and journey, as it pertains to air flares. I'll fill in the rest later - which variations/combinations we came up with and when, how Ivan and I used to compete in the garage to see who would get air flare - windmill first (I won), and when Benny from Basel City Attack (now Flying Steps) came to train with us in our garage in 1997, and just sat down and watched us doing all these new air flare combos, in shock.

I'm sure many of details will be open to debate, so much happened before we came along, and because many others were trying to learn this move right around the same time, in other parts of the country and world. I look forward to hearing others' stories.

Kujo

[Flareboy]

Kujo, thank you for that post!
Maybe we can discover the story of that black dude who did Air-flare....^^

thank you very much

[jdigz]

I don't really have time to get into details right this minute, but I will say that neither I, nor my crew, Soul Control, had anything to do with the creation of the air flare - or "air track," as we called it in '95-'96, or "air twist," as it's also been called. We were, however, responsible for a number of variations of, and combinations with, air flares - none of which we had seen before we came up with them in our garage sessions between '95-'98. This doesn't necessarily mean that we were the first to do these variations and combinations - it just means that, as far as we knew, we were coming up with moves and combos that had never been done before we did them, because we had never seen or heard of them being done before we did them. I can detail all these variations and combinations later.

Before we came along, as well as B-Boy Ivan, who we trained in the garage with regularly, I'm aware of versions of the air flare being done by Icey Ice, Kid Freeze, Fresh from LA Breakers, Paulo from Holland's 010 B-Boys, Storm and Swift from Battle Squad, and Robbie from Unique Wizards (in San Bernardino, CA - he battled RSC alongside Imperial Japan Breakers at B-Boy Summit 1995). However, the very first video we saw of an air flare was done by a guy we still don't know the name of - it was on a video that Easy Roc personally filmed while he was in Germany, staying and training with Battle Squad, in 1992. It was a black dude who did flare - air flare - ALMOST back into flare, and fell on his back. We were all in shock, and we immediately set about learning and mastering it before anybody else could.

A LOT of injuries occurred, because we had nobody to show us how to do it, and we were figuring out various techniques through trial and error. I knocked myself unconscious more times than I can remember, trying to learn this damn move, and one incident sent me to the emergency room - I'd hit the back of my head on the floor so hard that I'd gone temporarily blind, and had sprained my neck. Three days later, we battled Abstract Flava at Radio Tron 9, on September 27th, 1997 (and won). I was scared death of reinjuring my head/neck the entire battle, but managed to get through it.

Anyway, this is just part of my personal story and journey, as it pertains to air flares. I'll fill in the rest later - which variations/combinations we came up with and when, how Ivan and I used to compete in the garage to see who would get air flare - windmill first (I won), and when Benny from Basel City Attack (now Flying Steps) came to train with us in our garage in 1997, and just sat down and watched us doing all these new air flare combos, in shock.

I'm sure many of details will be open to debate, so much happened before we came along, and because many others were trying to learn this move right around the same time, in other parts of the country and world. I look forward to hearing others' stories.

Kujo

Awesome post, Kujo is droppin gems. .

[rythumJunkie]

I remember that dude from battle squad that whore all black he also danced like that in BOTY just dont remember what year it was early. he danced to that one song turn the beat around .. memories sigh

[bonus-chan]

If you check Bboying 1&2 some of Battle Squad go for some really early attempts, Storm even does a ropey 1.5! That's around '92.

Also, check this at about 3.00, this might even be an attempt at a really early airtrack?

[BigBadBuffalo]

If you check Bboying 1&2 some of Battle Squad go for some really early attempts, Storm even does a ropey 1.5! That's around '92.

Also, check this at about 3.00, this might even be an attempt at a really early airtrack?

I fucking flipped out when I first saw this video.

Technically, what Oz Rock did was not an air track/air flare, but what's known as an "aerial" - not to be confused with a gymnastic aerial. An aerial is supposed to be a 720-degree spin in the air that starts from your back, rotates in a drill formation two times in the air, and lands you on your back again. Oz Rock messed up and did a 540-degree spin in this video, landing on his hands. It's pretty common today, and people who have good control over it can easily go back into windmills.

I first saw Lil Cesar from Air Force Crew do it in '96, and I thought he'd made it up, but then Orko told me it "just appeared" in the '80s. He wouldn't say who invented it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Oz Rock, who taught Cesar and Orko, as I was told.

On a side note, Oz Rock loved to pour water all over the floor and do backspins with his shirt off. He called it "waterbreaking," and he did absolutely the most incredible backspins I've ever seen this way. I'm not sure where he is now, but I'd heard he literally went crazy....

Kujo

[Simeon]

Whoa, this is pretty interesting.. the head injuries sound insane!

This should be in the history section, and yo, there was a thread like this on how to break, and there was this video of was it kid freeze doing an airflare in 1983.. its really low though, more like a chairflare? oh well anyways, it's pretty crazy..

[BigBadBuffalo]

Whoa, this is pretty interesting.. the head injuries sound insane!

This should be in the history section, and yo, there was a thread like this on how to break, and there was this video of was it kid freeze doing an airflare in 1983.. its really low though, more like a chairflare? oh well anyways, it's pretty crazy..

Whoa, I'd love to see that clip. Do you know where I can see it?

Kujo