I am a bit late posting this, round 1 of the AFA series will take place in California on March 9th. Here’s the official word:
“We are excited to announce Round 1 for 2019!
We will be headed back to California, for one last contest inside Common Grounds Skatepark. As you may know, the venue is moving soon so let’s take advantage of this great spot while we can!
Amateurs riders start shooting your videos! You’ll remember we are giving away a free flight to (and from) each round. Deadline for entries is February 20th. American riders only please. More details on that in our next post. Looking forward to seeing you in California!”
Landscapes 3 is coming soon. Stewart Munro got in contact with this fresh teaser featuring Aaron Frost filmed by Jim McKay for the up and coming video release and to let the world of flatland know there is still an opportunity to feature in the “mix” section.
Here’s what you have to do:
1. The clips must be 1920 by 1080 or 4K HD 30P to 60P NTSC format.
2. Send the clips via a file hosting such as Dropbox or WeTransfer
3. Send the link to hendrabmx@hotmail.com
4. If the clip is not the right format it will not be used!
5. Expert to Pro level of riding please.
In my opinion, You couldn’t really script this story.. Who would have thought my childhood hero would organise a go fund me fundraiser to get me out to San Francisco and the One Love Jam.
Wait what????
How many would do this or even think about doing this for another rider? It is and was an amazing gesture. So much so I pinched myself at various points of the long flight over to SF. Is this really happening??
As Pete broke the news, aside from my initial disbelief, and thoughts of finally riding the clocktower and going to the One Love Jam. This was finally my chance after ten years of running Flatmattersonline to interview Pete and ask him all the things I was curious about over the years.
I first travelled to SF when I was seven years old with parents, then again at 14 years old and to compete for the X Games in 99, and 2000. The city definitely strikes a chord with me, it is my favourite place to travel in the world. So much history here, the bridges, all the different cultures, the views each way you look, the people, you can ride around Embarcardero and see all the famous skatespots just a throws away from the legendary Clocktower spot that Pete rides everyday, making the 40 minute BART commute from across the bay in Fremont.
I have met Pete numerous times over the years at contests across the globe, and even at the San Francisco X-Games twice which we discuss in the interview.
I haven’t however, hung out with Pete for any considerable amount of time, until this dream trip. I think it’s fair to say we got along so well I now consider Pete a close friend and we share a lot of the same music tastes, views on flatland, we both vibe off skateboarding, and best of all just a lot of laughs and good flatland sessions.
As I approach my 45th birthday in March, seeing Pete still going as hard as ever was a massive motivation to me “hey you can still do this and work a full time job and juggle family life with kids” and be an absolute monster to boot.
There are multiple layers to Pete’s life, which we cover in this interview. The term “legend” gets over used a lot, but Pete really is a flatland legend. And in fact as I now call it he is an “architect”. Pete has helped shape the spot/artform we all love, have you ever shove-it’ed mid trick, done a crackpacker, held a hitchhiker on the peg instead of tyre, used plastic pedals, use a freecoaster, these are all things Pete invented and made them popular and the list goes on.
The man deserves a BIG interview so much I can’t even stress this enough. Our sport/artform needs to respect the architects that shaped what we love today, and Pete is still going hard and infact I can almost guranteed he’s the last to read this and will be out shredding at the clocktower without a care in the world other than riding his bike and doing what he loves on the daily.
Over the years, I have met just about everyone in the flatland scene and Pete is the realist rider I have met. This guy eats, sleeps, and breathes flatland, and he totally gets it.
Grab a cuppa, and make some time to learn about one of the best riders to ever do it. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s do this, the Flatmattersonline Pete Brandt Interview! This is for all the hardcore riders out there, proud to bring this exclusive to the flatland scene.
Can anyone keep up with Toon Pakphum in 2019? Wow, this guy is making a big statement and his riding intent for this year. Under the tuition of the boss, Martti Kuoppa this year marks three years of work with MK for Toon, and the man continues to get better and better. Love the structured headings after each line in this one, hit play and admire the work that goes into this level of riding.
There have been a whole bunch of great interviews and podcasts lately, and it continues today with this Tim Knoll Space Brothers Podcast!
“Kip Williamson and Chip Riggs catch up with Tim Knoll to discuss his early gymnastics career and how that’s helped him with some of his tricks he currently does on his bike, how he got into BMX, when he first started doing tricks using street obstacles, which tricks were the most dangerous in his videos, riding at Lake Owen Camp, doing backflips over box jumps, what goes into a typical day of filming, how the mainstream reacts to what he does, and what it’s like to be YouTube famous. So get comfortable, crank up your speakers, and get to know one of the most unique bmx riders on the planet…. Tim Knoll!”
BIG news today, the boss Martti Kuoppa just launched his own training website. “MK Format”. have you ever wondered how Marrti got so good? There is a method he uses, and it’s intense! Now he no longer competes, he’s trying to give back and help riders take it to the next level. This is an amazing project that riders such as Toon Pakphum and Varo Hernandez are already feeling the benefit from. Peep the introduction below and hit the link below as well. Good luck Martti!
“My name is Martti Kuoppa and I have been riding BMX Flatland for 30 years. I was 10 years old when I started riding and by the time I was 13 I had made a decision that I wanted to become a pro rider. I then entered my very first pro competition (Worlds in Cologne) at the age of 17 where I got 10th place. That day I realized that I have a change in making my dream come true and I created my very first system of learning new tricks and preparing them for a competition. One year later, after systematical practice, I entered my 2nd pro competition (Worlds in Eindhoven), where I won the qualification round and ended up 3rd place in the finals. It made me more hungry. Soon after I traveled to Toronto for the Elsinore competition and that weekend changed my life and my pro career started from there. 2 years later I won the X-Games for the first time and I won the X-Games 2 more times making me a proud owner of 3 golden X-Games medals. I also won World Championship title back in 2002 and another one when I made my come back in 2015 in Kobe, Japan (Flat Ark). Below you´ll find my full contest career CV. Besides all the competitions, I have always been highly fascinated by learning new tricks and filming them for a video.
I am no longer competing and I am directing all of my passion I have for BMX into the online coaching I have created for Flatland BMX. I started online coaching Toon 3 years ago and it has been absolutely amazing coaching journey with him and Toon has exceeded all my expectations with his progression, which made me realize that online coaching can be very effective if it is done properly under an experienced coach.
I started online coaching without knowing much about how to teach people online and during the 3 years of coaching Toon in the daily basis, I have learned a lot and gained a lot of experience with this type of coaching and I am ready to take in more riders into my online coaching program. I have also been online coaching Varo Hernandez for almost a year now (daily basis) and just got started with one very well known pro rider (anonymous). Besides pro riders, I have amateur riders in my online coaching program; during the past couple of years, I have coached approx. 15 riders in all levels (from USA, Canada, Peru, Spain, Thailand). That has taught me a lot about how to coach different personalities and having that said, all of the coachings I offer are one-on-one style and I do a lot of customizing with each rider because that is the way it works with me.
So far every rider has progressed who has started practicing in my online coaching which is a proof, that this method of coaching works, and it works great!
To sum up my online coaching service: I am giving the riders I coach all of the knowledge I have gained during the last 30 years of riding. From learning new tricks (basics to bangers) to winning competitions.
I welcome you to join the first ever BMX Flatland online coaching platform to find out what you really are capable of doing with your bike!”
Have you ever met your childhood hero? Last month, I got to hang out and ride with Pete Brandt for the first time for an extensive period of time, since I have known him. When I received the news that Pete was organising a Go Fund page to get me out to San Francisco and the One Love jam. To be honest, I didn’t really know whether to scream, or shed a tear, what I can tell you for sure is I was very hyped and super excited to get out there. I can remember talking to myself and saying, “right this is it! It’s time to get the interview I always really wanted on the website.”
I had the time of my life, riding and hanging out with Pete everyday during my trip to California. After approx two weeks of editing, plus going over footage, and general tweaks that come with putting something like this out (I have never worked on a video for so long, hence why FM updates have been a little slow…). The full interview will drop this Friday, today to whet your appetite here is a little teaser.
Words cannot express how hyped I am to drop this interview on Friday, Pete is a true architect of Flatland, and a man that deserves the utmost respect from all of us!
Today is a good day, fresh David Nagy is always a treat! We share a lot a lot of similar ideas and this edit got me stoked with David’s numerous variations around the left side halfpacker dropped into one foot cliff, technical as you like and made to look easy. David is one of the most underrated riders on flatland in my opinion, don’t sleep on this!
Dusty Tweedhope is putting out these FI podcasts weekly it seems, today we have episode 6 entitled “Flatchat” talking about the weekly happenings in our small world. Hit back grab a cuppa and enjoy the show. If you missed the previous shows, you can easily find them under “Podcasts” in the Categories section on the right hand side of the site.
It’s always interesting to me what riders do with their time outside of riding flatland. And the man of the moment, Jean William Prevost is keeping busy, peep his “burn my Soul” track on Soundcloud.
