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Costa Rican Kenneth Tencio Rips World's First BMX Backflip

This BMX bandit really stole the show.

This is Costa Rican Kenneth Tencio doing the world's first backflip down a flight of stairs on a BMX. Who knew that was a thing you could do?

But this feat of concrete-defying daredevilry was -- at least in the opinion of this reporter -- only the second most dangerous thing that Tenicio, 21, did last Thursday while completing this trick.

The scariest thing? The landing. It's always the landing. Or in this case, what came immediately after the landing.

There were actually six guys called Kenneth Tencio who did the trick.
Red Bull Australia
There were actually six guys called Kenneth Tencio who did the trick.

Once Tencio had pulled off his "sick" trick (token bit of young person speak there), he faced two obstacles. One was a photographer. This photographer was stationed with a tripod at the bottom of the stairs to capture the moment. Yet for some reason, she seemed shocked as Tencio rushed towards her. The two almost collided.

Milliseconds after that, Tencio faced obstacle number two. A road in the Los Lagos district of the Costa Rican city of Heredia.

As far as we can tell, the road was not blocked off. So you know, if a car had come along came, it would have looked a lot like a BMX BLT out there. But Tencio made it. Phew.

Eeeek!
Red Bull
Eeeek!

"Backflipping down a set of stairs has been joked about for years, but never seemed like a realistic possibility until now," BMX expert Kyle Carlson told trick sponsors Red Bull.

Tencio, an accomplished Trick BMX rider, wanted to be the first. Even with "a sketchy gate in the front", he saw this flight of stairs as the best option because they were the right height.

"I wasn't worried about not flipping enough, but crashing into the rail or gate by landing in the wrong direction," he said.

Yeah, you don't say.

Woohoo! I'm still alive!
Red Bull
Woohoo! I'm still alive!

Tencio had four practice runs with pads at the bottom. Then it was time for the real thing.

"I had my mind clear and my heart pumping like an engine in my chest," he said. "All I was thinking was to pull with all my strength and waited for the landing in both wheels. It's a really unstable trick and even the slightest error could change it all."

Luckily there were no errors. Equally fortunately, there was no traffic. Don't try this at home, people. Or anywhere, really.

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