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Hah, I haven't posted on this website for over a year, but I had to chime in on this.  I am really dating myself here, makes me feel really old that I know this but...you guys are all wrong..
PoorBoyz released a movie called Degenerates back in 98, one of the first true twin tip movies.  I don't know how many of you have access to that movie, or even know what it is, but if you do, you can see the first switch back in a major ski flick.  You have to fast forward through all the credits and keep fast forwarding until you reach a secret movie at the end.  Fast forward through that (or watch it, it has Mike Atkinson, Loubek, and some others), and you will come to a home video of JF Cusson during a very early competition.  We are talking little 15 foot table tops and a 6 foot quarterpipe here.  In it, he takes off a jump and attempts a japan, but gets hunt up in a flag advertisement that was strapped to the jump.  He crashes hard, but gets up and tells his buddies he is going to attempt a "Switch backflip".  Everyone is like, "oh man, he is crazy, that trick is impossible, he hit his head too hard." etc. etc.  And BAM, he does it with like 6 feet of air off one of the table tops.  Before that, those guys didn't even know what a switch backflip was.  So...yeah.
Also, they've been around forever, so I don't know what you guys are talking about.  Back when 13, Area 51, and Balance came out, you couldn't watch 5 minutes without seeing a switch backflip.