Video: Emil Johansson's Winning Run from Red Bull Joyride 2022

 @rockyflowtbay: Irrelevant ad hominem. By your logic you cannot positively critique something without being able to do it either. Play the ball not the man. If you liked the run say why. What you or anyone else can do is irrelevant.

 I counted 7 tailwhips and 7? barspins in there too.

 @rbeach: ya. I get that. I was just curious.

 @nsmithbmx: would have been good to see a single backflip though

 @rockyflowtbay: hopefully someday

 I would like to see some more variety (specifically some inverted moves) but your assessment is inaccurate because it is so oversimplified. It’s like wondering why Lebron James gets paid so much when all he does is run back and forth and throw a ball around.

 @ads10: I need some tricks. I got nothing.

 @rockyflowtbay: yep, same

 truth, lack of variety should be hurting the scores.

 @BiNARYBiKE: it's actually not though. X-games and other contests have variety as part of the grading scale. When everyone started to do flips in moto-x, they wanted to keep variety of tricks and doing non flip oriented tricks were rewarded.

 There's one problem with your idea... You're implying Semenuk and Rheeder have already peaked which is false.

 Let's make it happen. Rheeder vs Semenuk vs Johansson in a best line video contest. Sort of like x games real mtb but as slopestyle version.

 Emil has taken the sport to another level for sure in these contests. Semenuk was very cunning when he competed less and went to short film content.

 assuming that they've all peaked. Emil seems to go bigger and more technical on every run.

 @swissironrider: YES PLEASE!

 Semenuk. The correct answer is Semenuk

 Hands down Semenuk for the steeze.

 With current judging, no doubt emil in my opinion. I still love watching semenuk ride a bike, but emil has a level of technicality that is tough to match. and the technical multi-trick combos are what currently dominate in slopestyle.

 Just sayin

 @adrennan: Bring back real Slopestyle and no more just Dirt-Jump. Versatile obstacles where you need a mountainbike and no BMX…thats the way Slopestyle should go imho. Emils runs all look same, perfect technik but boring to watch.

 @dh-corn: "real slopestyle" which back in the day were 90% dirt jumps? OK bud.

 @adrennan: While you are probably right, I wouldn't write Semenuk off so quick. He always won by bringing a few brand new things to slopestyle. They weren't necessarily always combos like Emil either (Emil is definitely the combo king). Quite often, they were just plain ballsy moves (like when he first Cork 7ed a stepdown, or the half cab off the drop. Even Rheeders flat drop flip whip still hasn't been done by anyone else in contest). Not to say Emils moves aren't ballsy, because they just are, but I think Semenuk would have a shot by bringing some proper game changing moves in. Even on the dish, I think Semenuk had the best move on it out of the current field (full loop while in a can to can out, and the fast plant 3 out). People forget he has a full blown slopestyle course in his backyard that he can ride every day. He was putting on a clinic in Joyride practice, and he is definitely still capable of a top 5, or even top 3 "pretty easily" if he gets his run. He's just so damn consistent and calculated, with surprises up his sleeve.

 @leon-forfar: I prefer watching a semenuk run most the time, but emil is calculating runs that score incredibly for the judging criteria in slopestyle. with the dish feature, keep in mind, semenuk wasn't in a completion so he could take a bunch of tries and risk not completing a run. I think that is part of what held back some tricks on the dish in joyride. do you risk it all for something sweet in the dish half way down one of your two comp runs? or do you do something relatively safe to make it to the bottom?

 Number of Emil's runs/videos I've watched more than once: zero. Number of Semenuk runs/videos I've watched over and over: all of them.

To paraphrase Mr Burns, I may not be a slopestyle rider, but I know what I like.

 @adrennan: Semenuk one banged the fast plant 3 out of the dish in Realm (first time he hit it). And in Joyride practice, he was also just a machine with everything. I saw him do pretty much every "line" or trick on the dish that all the others did. He trucked out from pretty high, tail whipped out, full loop to trick out (including a can lander full loop). He's (still) a machine. He generally doesn't seem to need many tries to get whatever it is done. To be fair though, it was technically his concept, so he does have the upper hand there.

But yeah, the whole idea of only having 2 runs and "playing it safe" is what a lot of people have an issue with. Slopestyle should introduce a bunch of techy new features, and maybe be a bit more lenient with creativity on said features. Otherwise, we will continue to have pretty much the same tricks, and combos/evolution of the same tricks run after run from everyone. I personally think both approaches have their merits. It's rad to see how damn perfect these guys are at their tricks, but I do miss the creativity of the Semenuk era. I do think Emil at least brings the tech tricks to a level that is creative and mind-boggling. Any of the runs outside of the top 3-5 at any slopestyle event over the last 5 years could pretty much all be the same.

 Emil. Semenuk was never as dominant as Emil - the most Crankworx he won in a row was 2, maybe 3 if I'm forgetting something. Over the last 3 years, no rider has posed a challenge to Emil. He wins every single event he competes in by a long shot. When Semenuk was at his peak, other riders were able to win. For example, in 2015, Rheeder won the first 2 Crankworx before Semenuk won Joyride. In 2013, Brett won X-Games and in 2014, Brett won the Berrecloth Invitational after Joyride and Messere won L2A. In 2016, Brett won Joyride, and in 2017, Nicholi won at Rotorua. These were all events that Brandon competed in.

 @Rampage44555:Rheeder's Run 2019 was better than Emil's Run imho.

 @dh-corn: Rheeder rode regular if I am right Emil oppo. There is no comparison of a rider riding his right way against a rider spinning both ways. This has been covered by the judges a good few times to explain how technical what Emil is doing is.

 @betsie: Rheed had Backflip-Drop Combos and Frontflips, Emil not. And what Rheed did was way more extended.

 @dh-corn: Emil threw a huge frontflip bar to tuck at Innsbruck earlier this year

 I think rheeder and semenuk definitely have the best runs compared to emil because they would actually do a backflip

 @betsie: Semenuk and Rheeder basically brought oppo tricks to the sport. Semenuk was oppo trucking drops before pretty much everyone was doing oppo spins on jumps in competition. Both him and Brett can oppo cork 7, and Brett even Oppo cork 7ed the stepdown at Rotorua. In Realm, Brandon does a truck to downwhip straight into an oppotruck to downwhip in the whale tale. Rheeder has down those in edits as well. Emil has definitely taken the oppo torch from them, and is taking it to a new level. His 3 combos are pretty much unmatchable now, but I think Semenuk and Rheeder would STILL be the 2nd/3rd best in the oppo game, even in todays stacked field.

@ads10: Emil has done plenty of flip combos in the past (flip double whip to bar, flip quintuple bar etc). He recently has been doing fronty bar to tucks as well. He probably enjoys doing spins more as you can mix it up more with direction. Obviously whatever he is doing is working. I do miss seeing him get upside down, but I am still completely blown away by his spin technicality. It's just absurd.

 I don't care for oppo tricks because I although I want to see someone do a 360 tailwhip x-up-to-bell-ring in the half-pike position, I don't want to see the same thing again in the opposite direction - I want a totally different trick. And I don't care that oppo scores technical points, I want to see mad shit done on a bike, like Lemoine gapping the last feature.

 @leon-forfar: I think they learned from BMX who were there a long time before MTB.... Just saying.

I like BS and met him in our team pits at Crankworx Whistler where he as a humble and nice guy.

Can't knock Emil, he is head and shoulders above what has come before.
Negative prop, I don't care, the judges agree too and that is all that counts really.

For reference.... I can't even wheelie, it's a magic science !

 Emil had a broken hand too.... Now he rode it all 1 handed, that's a fair trick.

 I heard he doesn't flip too...

youtu.be/v-I2tOeV23k

Only 6 world firsts in 2 hour flipping. Those bar spins!

 @ads10: Dude backflips don't even score as high as 3s

 I dunno, I thought it was refreshing to just see some clicked steeze out of there. Especially in a winning run.

 He didn't do anything mad because he had a broken hand

 @Rafmiller: Lol, crazy to think that wasn't a "mad" (it still was) run. I was just at the Backwoods jam, and it somehow seems like Emil just has double the hangtime as everyone else, even though he doesnt. Sneaking in clicked unturndowns late in the spin, but still somehow holding it and landing smoother than a straight air.

 @leon-forfar: I think he pulls back more than most riders so he gets the airtime. there is a video of him riding dome and it looks like he just boosts all of his tricks. Smart guy!

 I know the big huck at the end was nuts and clearly the coolest moment of the contest, but Emil has like half a dozen tricks in his run that are better than anything Lemoine did outside of the huck. He did an oppo 360 oppo double whip on the first big jump, and then a double downside whip on the log. Lemoine's run outside of the last feature can't touch that.

 @mackster23: yep, I'm probs gonna get hate for this, but Emil could fairly easily do Lemoine's run.

 @mackster23: I am with you...

At the end of the day, it is a contest that is judged on all aspects of your run, so I get why Emil wins and do not really dispute the victory. But the huck will forever be one of the coolest things to ever go down at a Crank Worx event. Just like in BMX, there will always be someone who can add in another barspin, tailwhip or additional rotation to a trick. At some point, that recipe just gets a little stale. But going faster, higher and farther than everyone else is always going to win me over.

 @11six: Could but didn't. Therefore couldn't.

Everyone else twirled. Lemoine was the lone contestant to go big.

 Flips don't score as high as 360s and oppo 360s. I'm not sure what you consider more variety but Emil brought heaps more variety than both of them. Lemoine's run was defiantly a banger run but Emil started with a half cab bar which is super tech. switch truck to bar back to unturndown which is a nbd in competition and finished with triple truck on the final feature which is also a nbd. So you can't say he didn't have variety