It’s time to announce the winners of the 2020 Flatmattersonline Year End Awards, 2020 was a difficult year for everyone. Flatland as a community rallied together to make the best of these difficult, testing times.
We saw riders focus more on edits rather than contest placings, as a result perhaps the rate of progression was a lot greater than previously would be, those that wanted to compete took part in numerous online contests, and in between all that the FM exclusives made to 60 episodes in 2020.
What the future holds is unclear currently, the vaccines are getting out there, and we hope to know more by spring time which really isn’t that far away.
Let’s try, and remain positive and make the best of every situation.
COVID-19 brought a lot of disruption. One major area of disruption was to Dave Nourie’s and Joe Cicman’s antics at contests.
Without the after party to share stories and rumors, the two spent hours on the phone one-on-one saying things like “yeah well Wilkerson said…” and “yeah well Brett Downs told me…”
So they decided to call some of these guys on Zoom, and have a virtual after party dinner table conversation for everyone who can’t see their friends.
The summer of 2020 must’ve been the quietest in recent years in terms of Flatland events / videos, so here is a little Backyard Spot Inauguration jam mashup video from this past summer to freshen up the vibe a bit, and show it’s still possible to have a good moment with friends in these times! Enjoy riding from Juan Camilo Niebles, Steve Bergeron, JF Boulianne, Gauthier Saint and Jean William Prévost. Good vibes!
I am getting back to normal after two weeks being heavily focussed on the 2020 Flatmattersonline Year end awards. It is Old School Sunday time, getting back to it with Jeff Cotter’s run from the 88 AFA Masters in Carson, California.
The King of Ground archive footage keeps flowing, today it’s the turn of a rider I am not familiar with. Nozaki, and his run from the KOG Asakusa contest back in 2005.
I have been super busy the last two weeks putting together the Flatmattersonline Year End Awards, so on my breaks it’s good to watch something a little different to freshen things up. Paula Marie in this insistence came through with this amazing edit documenting the growing female flatland scene in 2020, and had this to say:
“2020 was a tough year to say the least. But, in the chaos and fallout that we are still experiencing we have a lot to be grateful for. Just stop for a moment, each day, and give pause. Be mindful of your surroundings, and of yourself. Mindfulness has many times been proven to be effective in over all wellbeing. It’s benefits preached and practiced for millenniums now. So if you’re having a hard time, don’t forget it’s ok to just stop and pause in the moment to breath. Or go ride. Many riders will tell you riding is a form of meditation. You must clear your mind of all distractions and focus your attention to the moment. We are all grateful for the riding that we did in 2020, and we are all grateful for every moment afterwards that we have. Here are some of our favourite Rad Girls of 2020.”
It’s time as promised to announce the 2020 Flatmattersonline Year end awards nominations,
I felt there was a lot to say about the awards and the year, which a lot of the time doesn’t get covered under the previous text announcement format.
So, I attempted to make a makeshift studio feel in my front room during lockdown 3.0, and present the nominations, and share my feelings on the year as well as the reader choices.
Congratulations to everyone who was nominated, and thank you to everyone who took the time to vote.
Winners announced: Sunday 24th January.
* If you don’t want to watch the whole show, you can skip through parts using the timestamps.
TIME STAMPS:
00:00 FM Title Screen
00:07 Effraim introduces the FM Year end award nominee show
00:56 Reader Choice Rider of the Year
04:59 Reader Choice Edit of the Year
8:07 Reader Choice Most Progressive Rider
11:38 Reader Choice Contest Run of the Year
15:12 Reader Choice Breakthrough Rider of the Year
19:33 Effraim introduces the Editorial Awards
20:50 Editorial Choice Rider of the Year
27:33 Editorial Choice Edit of the Year
31:06 Editorial Choice Most Progressive Rider
35:55 Editorial Choice Outstanding Contribution
39:37 Editorial Choice Line of the Year / Flatmattersonline Exclusive of the Year
46:06 Effraim Outro
Welcome to Episode 2 of the Flat Only COGcast, my guest for the second episode is Aaron Frost from Sequence. The return of Sequence is a breath of fresh air to the flatland community, and I sit down with the man himself, and talk about the history of the brand, re-re-releasing classic sequence product, the new Anvil system on his peg design + you get the scoop on the new team for 2021 and a whole lot more.
Check the Timestamps for what’s discussed, I have to say this one of the best interviews I have done. Really enjoyed catching up with Aaron and talking all things Sequence. This show is not to be missed!!!
Enjoy the show!
0:00 Welcome to FLAT ONLY cogcast episode 2!
00:19 Introducing Aaron Frost to the show.
2:52 History of the Sequence brand.
3:49 Concept behind Sequence name.
6:06 How long did the brand run the first time round?
7:59 Shintaro Misawa added to the Sequence team.
10:42 Who was on the original Sequence team?
15:45 Recognising annoyingly good riders.
17:46 How long did Sequence lay dormant, what was your thinking starting back up?
19:04 Making a mistake getting Sequence made in Taiwan.
20:56 When did you start Sequence up again?
21:57 Starting a manufacturing company.
24:29 Making Sequence product in house.
25:32 Re-releasing classic Sequence product?
26:24 The Hook stem and the engineering behind it.
31:03 Is the weight on product a concern for you as a rider and engineer?
32:35 The Anvil peg system and size of pegs?
34:37 Why is the internal sleeve starting inside the peg more than usual?
36:28 Working with Titanium.
38:34 Having the facilty to take more then stems and pegs.
39:57 Working towards complete bikes.
40:52 Who is on the Sequence team for 2021?
48:25 Discussing how insane the Real Jeep Games were?
51:53 North American flatland scene.
53:07 Where can you get Sequence product from?
54:51 Aaron’s personal riding progression and injuries.
It still seems like yesterday Marton Szilagyi came to Southsea Skatepark as he was working in the Hungarian circus across the road. OG Marton is a legend, not only a great rider but blessed with amazing editing skills to boot. These videos are so easy on the eye, that’s not easy to do. Keep on keeping on Marton, I can’t ever imagine him stopping! Respect!!
