This video might not have the pizazz of a lot of other surf clips, but it carries within it a piece of surfing history. For nearly four years, surfers have been attempting to land the first ever documented kickflip in an attempt to win $10,000 and a variety of other prizes in a contest called the Volcom Stone’s $10,000 Kickflip-Off Contest. There have been a lot of kickflip attempts over the years, with all previously submitted videos showing surfers getting oh-so-close, but failing to land a clean documented kickflip. Finally, after many years of feeble attempts, it was a local surfer who finally pulled it off.

Santa Cruz surfer Zoltan Torkos was surfing at world-famous Steamer’s Lane in Santa Cruz, where he pulled the trick that should award him $10,000. Here’s the footage.

The question remains whether Torkos has won the contest, since Volcom has yet to make an announcement. It would be a shame if Torkos was denied victory due to some sort of technicality, as Volcom made a long list of rules to follow if one were to win the $10,000 prize. The rules for the $10,000 Kickflip-Off are as follows:

1. Your entry must be on video from the start of the trick through the ride out. No photos allowed.

2. This contest is open to everyone. The contest begins today November 21st, 2007, and will run until there’s a winner.

3. The kickflip must be a real air “above the lip” – No backwash, No chop hops, or anything in the flats or below the lip of the wave.

4. All waves must be self caught – You must paddle into the wave. This means NO tow-ats, step-offs, jetskis, boats, dinghys, winches, canoes, oars, helicopters, dolphins or assistance of any kind.

5. No grabs of any kind. Not before, not after, not during.

6. You must completely “ride out” of the kickflip. That means if you land on the back of the wave and fail to continue surfing the wave – it’s not a make!

7. No heelflips. Or else we’d have called it the Heelflip-Off.

8. No shoes. Who surfs in shoes anyway? Regular “made for surfing” booties are acceptable.

9. You must be riding a real surfboard with at least one fin. No boogie boards, softboards, wakeboards, wakeskates, skimboards, kiteboards, trays etc.

The only rule that Volcom could call into question is #3. It’s tough to tell whether Torkos was “above the lip”, although it appeared to be so as he was pulling off the kickflip. It looks completely legit to this humble viewer. Congratulations to Zoltan Torkos for pulling off the first documented kickflip in surfing!

Speaking of long-running surf contests, 21 year-old Matt Meola of Maui, Hawaii won what feels like is the never-ending Innersection.tv contest for creating a homemade surf clip that will appear in the upcoming surf film titled Innersection. Meola’s short film is revolutionary to say the least. If Meola decides to use his form consistently in larger, heavier waves, he could be a real force in the competitive side of surfing. For now, Meola seems content being a freesurfer, settling for shooting video clips at some of the best surf breaks in the world.