After we got wrapped up with a session on the Friday at the UK Flatland Championships at the Cycle Expo, in Harrogate, Yorkshire. Matti Hemmings wanted me to interview Davis Dudelis as a bit of pre hype for the event, as it turns out the Wifi wasn’t the best and when I got home my laptop died once again so I am little late uploading this.
Considering I had no preparation going into this, I am pretty happy about how this turned out, we discuss Davis’ hilarious party antics, the nose manual world record, his flat street style, struggling with motivation, what he thinks about the UK, why he always comes back to the UK Flatland Champs, his favourite Matti Hemmings quote on the mic and much more. This was good fun, so thought I would post it.
Category Archives: News
Kevin Meyer reviews Master of Creativity 2018
I have been keeping an eye of Kevin Meyer’s YouTube channel for a while now, and this morning I noticed a feature on the recent Master of Creativity contest. Hit the subtitles button on the bottom right hand side for the translation, it’s a nice show from Kevin including a nice feature on the MOC creator himself, Martti Kuoppa.
Sam Foakes – 2nd Place UK Flatland Championships + Interview
Featured
In typical style, Sam Foakes took us all by surprise showing up at the UK Flatland Championships this past weekend at the Cycle Expo, Harrogate, Yorkshire.
After a few years break, Sam has made his comeback to the contest scene and he came back in style to take the second place spot. His style is still the same and there are no compromises in his riding style at all, preferring to fall off rather than pump the tyre. I had a problem with copyright on the music Sam rode to (a Hospital Records track), so my apologises for the lack of soundtrack in his run. The sound returns for a short interview with the man himself after his run (I think James and Sam thought I was taking a photo hahaha), I hope you enjoy this one. Welcome back Sam!
Dominik Nekolny – 1st Place UK Flatland Championships 2018
Vancouver Flat Jam 2018
A lot of history with amazing riders coming out of Vancouver, Canada. Matej Ceska just dropped this awesome edit from the annual Flatland jam that went down on July 21st featuring Cory Fester, Miyuki Dezaki, Francois Debroux, Percy Marshall, Billy Gordon, Joseph Kyllo, Nelson Yeo, Tall Paul, Jamie Macintosh, Hidenori Ishizaki, and Jean William Prevost.
The Stars of The UK Flatland Championship
Dominik Nekolny & Lee Wilson win UK Flatland Championships
We just wrapped up a great day at the UK Flatland Championships for 2018. Congratulations to Dominik Nekolny who took the win for the third time here in Harrogate, Yorkshire with an amazing first run, Dominik was followed by the return of Sam Foakes, so good to see Sam back on the contest scene. Davis Dudelis took the third place spot.
In the Am class, so good to see the return of Lee Wilson to the contest scene for the first time in two years, Remus Simion and Yinka Thomas took the second and third places respectively. Full results below:
Pro.
Dominik Nekolny
Sam Foakes
Davis Dudelis
Dan Margetts
Amos Burke
Turi Istuan
Dino Jeffers
AM.
Lee Wilson
Remus Simion
Yinka Thomas
Dino Jeffers
Stuart McLaren
Johann Chan
Akos Bordas
Michael P
James Ovens
UK Flatland Championships Day 1
Text: Effraim.
Photos: Matti Hemmings.
Today I made the 6 hour trek from Southsea on the south coast of England to Harrogate, in Yorkshire. Harrogate is in the North of England for all of you across the world that might not know. Harrogate is the home of “Yorkshire Tea”, my favourite brand of tea in the world and what by and large fuels Flatmattersonline updates on the daily. It was pretty awesome to drive past the home of YT today on the way to the Yorkshire events centre for the UK Flatland Championships.
The trek to Harrogate was eventful, with Matti planning my route via the underground (bikes aren’t allowed on the underground) so I missed my train and after a stressful hour or so trying to figure out how I would get to Yorkshire. The guard was nice enough to let me on the train and all was well with the world once again.
When I arrived I was greeted by the man with the largest seatpost in BMX, Matti Hemmings and Davis Dudelis. Matti is out injured so is hobbling about with a swollen ankle. I got in a nice three hour session with Davis getting used to the floor. We have a decent sized floor, fast stone floor, super smooth! After brushing off the initial travel stiffness, I really enjoyed the session, nailing a couple of new lines I am working on whilst Davis was slaying big hop bars to manual bar out with ease, once my session started winding down Davis started playing with rollback grip rides again. Davis is one of the most chilled pros on the scene, Matti wanted to get some more content for the UK Flatland Championships so we fired out a pretty funny short interview that I will get posted as soon as I can. I’m feeling pretty tired now from the travel mostly, a 4am start will do it to you. But I wanted to update you across the globe and let you know what’s going here in the UK, the venue is dialled and we are set for tomorrow’s contest. It’s time for a Yorkshire tea in Yorkshire!
Toyosu Jam 2018
Today is a good day! Yuki Itoh is like the Japanese version of Tom Sevisual in terms of videographer. The camerawork, lighting, and overall feel of this Toyosu jam edit is so beautifully relaxing, and if you are like me it will draw you in and time just stands still watching this. That’s not to mention the amazing riding from the likes of Jean William Prevost (the opening line at 00:15 and that 2:38!), Naoki Watanabe, Hidenori Ishizaki (1:18!), Masashi Itani, Takuji Kasahara, Misaki Katagiri, Yuki Itoh (3:20), and Ryosuke Takagi. Nice variety in riding styles and soundtrack by Valance Drakes & Ivan Shopov makes this one an edit you will watch over and over again! Wow!
James White – Nemesis
This edit James White just put together showing the perusal struggle chasing down his line for the Master of Creativity best trick round illustrates what flatland is all about.
James gives a great description:
“Sometimes you try so hard for a trick the tougher it becomes. Your belief fades. No longer are you just physically pushing for the trick, your fighting your mental demons. The wall becomes so tall it feels impossible to get over. All this and more had become true for this manoeuvre.
It dates back to 2011. In my head, blending the 360 pivot to the bike flip seemed the perfect marriage but in reality it just didn’t want to work. I spent many frustrating sessions getting nowhere but I wanted it bad. In 2016 I entered Master of creativity and for the final round I spent months trying to land it and almost ripped my arm off trying so hard. But it was all to no avail, it had beat me.
That was that is until I had a moment of madness and entered MOC 2018. I wasn’t’ quite sure why I entered it at the time. It was literally a spur of the moment thing and found myself sending the application form off before I had a chance to come to my senses. I wasn’t prepared for it in the slightest, my body was possibly, in the worst shape its ever been in, niggling injuries, onset of arthritis and carrying a spare tyre round my waist isn’t exactly the condition you want to compete in what I consider the ’Tour de France’ of flatland contests. With hindsight I’m sure this was my subconscious at work, giving me one last shot at breaking my nemesis. I knew the trick was never going score highly in MOC but this wasn’t about that, I was competing with the hardest component there is….. myself.”