So, today I have to share with you a brand new strat found by Rithek and experimented on by/optimized by Rithek (memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=4503) and a few people in his stream chat, including myself. So what we've found is a movement technique of similar importance to something like the AOSO or Frost landers, or spin boosts. So, what is it and how does it work?

Basically, the strat works like this: if you jump, tilt your board back, then go through some snow first with the back of your board barely touching that snow (but you go through it, like I do at 0:01 in my video, right here: http://prntscr.com/cijulv), you can land further down and do what we've called "sliding", or the "Free Fall Slide", which starts at 0:03 in the video. Basically, doing this tricks the game into thinking you're falling, so long as you're on a kind of gentle downslope (if you hit an upslope while stlll sliding, you'll wipe out). To get out of the slide, you do a trick or hold your left stick up to stabilize your rider. Since when you're falling, the game keeps you at max speed (120 km/h in this video, 75 mp/h for NTSC), this strat can be used to go faster especially through thick snow.

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPVTiZz4HlU

So far, we know of 5ish places where it could be useful, and two places where it definitely is. The time gain for this specific slide is estimated to be around 0.2-0.4 seconds, and is probably one of the most useful instances of this strat in the game.

So, I share this strat with you so that you can hopefully use it yourselves to improve your times and find new and interesting uses for it to show, but also because there is a question. This strat is in a little bit of a gray area when it comes to legality on the Merq leaderboards, and it's sort of in the same category as AOSO and Frost landers and also spin boosts. I've talked to Gondee about it, and while he is inclined to allow this strat, he first needs to see other people's confirmation that it can be done on console. So, go out there, try this brand new strat out, reproduce, and post here about your results!

Step-by-step:

1) Make sure you have a suitable angle and speed, similar to me in this video. Hold jump.
2) Release jump.
3) Hold back on the left stick to turn your board back, but don't turn too far. Hold it for like half a second, then let go.
4) Go through a little bit of snow with the back of your board kind of grazing the top of the snow.
5) Make sure you land on a gentle downslope not long after (at most a second or two after).
6) You're now sliding! Just enjoy the ride and let the terrain control where you go.
7) When you approach an upslope, hold forward on the left stick to stabilize your rider.

If you have anything to share or any questions, including questions about how to do this, feel free to post them!

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This sounds amazing, I'm sure that several world records will come out of this. I'll give it a go when I next play SSX 3.

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This post was sponsored by my parents.

Great, can't wait to hear about your results. I hope this strat will be allowed. I don't think it's as big of a deal as spin boosts though, but it could be the maker or the breaker for a couple runs.

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Bump - any opinions? Anyone gotten to test this out yet?

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I tried for a bit, but it's difficult to replicate. I guess it's very hard to describe to someone how to do it because the angle has to be so precise and the character moves so quickly that it's a matter of feeling it, rather than imitating a tutorial. As of yet, I have not been able to replicate it intentionally.

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This post was sponsored by my parents.