Two Must Watch edits in a day?! Effraim’s firewall has been broken, in the comments section someone commented about Matthias Dandois vs Mateus Beckmann earlier. Well you didn’t have to wait long, except this is all flatland….
You could be forgiven for thinking after the busy year travelling, contests, shows, sponsorship appearances, travelling for modelling contracts and much more that Matthias Dandois would take a break after the UCI World Championships but no…
Matthias is over in Hawaii for a Vans trip, and has been putting in work. I was lucky enough to get a preview and I have to admit I didn’t jump at the email right away. I thought to myself, oh this will be a lifestyle video I will check in a bit.
Once I checked it I was hitting the rewind again and again, from the opening junkyard turbine hop into hang 5 to spinning cliffhanger at the 00:43 mark I knew this wasn’t going to be what I had expected and I stoked to be proved wrong.
And it continues with great editing and the soundtrack fits nicely to, the following switch foot no handed hang 5 (not a plastic man) into a move I called the “elastic man” is so damn good at the 00:58 mark, great to see Matthias pushing himself and his natural talent shines through.
1:13: Steam to teakettle switch to opposite fork wheelie spin (that had me saying please go to spinning hitch) and guess what he did!! Been waiting to see this one for a while and stoked to see this flow, style for miles.
1:38: G turn rollback flail to steam, will this be in Matthias’ contest runs next year. Only time will tell. What I do know is its exciting to see what he has been working on out of the contest arena.
2:03: Possibly my favourite of the whole edit, whips into opposite spinning fork wheelie and casually bar scoots into backwards spinning one footed halfpacker with one out under the chainring/BB into halfpacker, absolutely beautiful move. When flatland is this good you don’t need to draw out the combo, this is flat out amazing. In and out, job done!
2:23: Another contender for move of the edit, backwards carving manual jump to backwards frame nasal and winds into backwards pumping one handed frame mega spin, yes!!!
4:31: No handed xft spinning crackpacker step no handed to switch footed no handed halfpacker foot on the chainring (I’m not even sure what to call this!).
What an edit, its great to see Matthias at the top of his game contributing to the artform not only in amazing contest performances but edits like this in a short time in Hawaii. What’s your favourite move in this edit? One of the best days of the year for content without a doubt that’s for sure!
Catching up on videos and news across the globe after a busy weekend at work and the Backyard jam yesterday. And we kick start the week with a belter from the Brazilian flat/street wizard, Mateus Beckmann. In terms of fusing the two disciplines together, Mateis is as progressive as gets right now.
At two tracks long, it’s evident Mateus has put some work into this one and from the opening 180 hp backwards manual whopper to manual 180 out, my eyebrows were raised thinking wow this is going to be a good one! First impressions ana all that!
From the Switch foot rocket hang 5 jump from right foot on back peg to foot whip (as bike spins) to manual 180 out at the 1:05 mark, mixing the riding styles so good right here. Short sweet and to the point. There’s a lot packed into this edit its pretty hard for me to not write an essay but I am impressed as much with his street skill as his flat skill, and its not often you can say that. At the 2:24, the manual going opposite to 180 downhill is so good, and the nollie or nose 540 fakie at 2:34 is unreal! The hits just keep coming..
In the modern street riding era, I would like I would like to see Mateus in the contest with Garrett Reynolds, Alex D, Paley, etc etc…
Go watch this one and get stoked for your session today! Skills….
Intro: Effraim. Interview: Effraim & Pete Brandt. Photos: Tim Treacy.
Welcome to Episode 3 of Flat Snitches, an educational resource on the history of trick inventions in flatland. We have a very special guest for our third episode, Ladies and Gentlemen… Tim Treacy from San Francisco! Tim was one of the first pioneers of the scuffing technique in flatland in the 1980’s. San Francisco was a hot bed of creative talent back in the day at Golden Gate Park that are now legendary in flatland circles and via coverage in Freestylin’ inspired riders across the globe.
Have you ever done a backyard? Maybe a two footed rolling backyard in the modern era? Were you ever curious. Where did this trick come from?
Episode 3 focuses on the Backyard, myself and Pete Brandt dig beneath the surface of this trick and interview the man behind this staple move in flatland. It’s time for the interview!
I don’t get nostalgic about bike parts and frames, but the Hoffman Bikes Big Daddy is one frame I wish I never got rid of. This one holds great memories for me and I am stoked to see the re-release of this classic frame with modern day geometry. Here’s the word from Mat Hoffman…
“It just landed in LA and is on it’s way to headquarters in OKC. It is still about a week out, but I’ve made them available to order now. Kevin Jones signature Big Daddy frame is back with OG look but with modern geometry.
TT 19.75″ or 20.5″
CS 13.4″ to 14.2″
HA 75 degree
SA 70 degree
Bottom Bracket Height: 11.8″
Standover Height: 8″
Integrated headset
Mid-BB shell
CNC Cromo heat-treated dropouts with 14mm slots
Removeable brakes mounts and gyro tabs included
an extra decal kit included. Sneak peak Photos by @motocrossinternational they landed in Japan first. Thanks you.”
Jean William Prevost interviewed 8 riders from 8 countries and asked how they feel about the importance of grassroots events vs big corporate ones in Flatland. Head over to Our BMX for an interesting read if you haven’t already.
Great edit from the Battle in the Rockies pre jam by Anthony Schneidewind from the Colorado Springs Convention Centre with a halloween theme running throughout. That’s got to be one of the biggest contest areas ever, quality riding from all levels in this one. Enjoy!
You can perhaps forgive me for thinking with winter hitting the “Must Watch” edits were done for 2019, but how wrong I was. Dane Beardsley, one of the most skilled and underrated riders out there in my opinion just dropped a hammer of an edit that has already made my day.
Dane’s riding always strikes a chord with me, whether it’s the thought that goes into the ride on, and ride outs, the clips riding dirt and street. You can just see he loves BMX! Anyone else feel that or just me…
From the first ride in I knew this was going to be good, great imagination on the 180 hop tp x-up smoothie lands cross handed which sets him up for the cross handed whiplash to hitchhiker whip and scuff to backwards cross handed double backwards hitch juggler into swivel boomerang to x-handed half lash position and out! The detail on the cross handed throughout was bang on, what a start!
Throw in a few trails clips, at what looks like his house! And that 360 after the last set is sweet, you can see what I am saying about Dane just loving being on the bike and enjoying all sides of BMX.
At 00:56, I am still only on my third watch and this line is definitely the hardest to describe. Dane goes from a switch handed one handed cyclone position without his foot on the back peg I might add with both wheel on the ground jump pivot to rolling lawn turbine mega spin straightens out to dump truck jump with same foot to ice cream (are you following this?) one kick to two footed backyard body varial jump landing backwards wheelie, quick half bar out! Insane jumps in this one and once again the creativity on the intro and outdo are amazing!
1:28: Multiple x-fted whiplashes shove-it one kick to multiple backwards whiplashes, perfect technique. Love this clip!
2:03, is the last line that is off the chart and no doubt years of craft to be doing this. Dump jump round to backwards rolling ice cream to rope then into backwards straddle come out opposite side g-roll to ice cream back regular rope back to straddle back opposite g-roll to ice cream jump to peg wheelie bar flip out! What an ender!
Top marks on this one from Dane Beardsley! Wow, hitting the rewind throughout the day on this one…
Wednesday 27th November marks a special day, today I celebrate eleven years of running the Flatmattersonline website!
11 years!!!
In 2008 I said to myself let’s make a place where you can “document your riding, share it and naturally progress!”.
The original concept of starting Flatmattersonline pretty much runs true eleven years on. I wanted an independent place for Flatlander’s to be able to look at fresh content everyday, and help inspire their session that day. I thought if I am looking for someone else, than perhaps other people are too. Interestingly enough, when I started FM back in 2008, video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo were pretty fresh so not a lot of people were using them and I was relying heavily on original content which eleven years on is something I am going back to and am more inspired by.
From the initial generic blogspot days, to a full website FM that has seen many changes over the past eleven years. I really do have to pinch myself when I think about how many posts and also how much time I must have spent putting content together for you the viewer at home.
Various stages of the site of the past 11 years:
– Posting almost every video out/ blogspot days
– Birth of the website, rebrand.
– Writing Original content
– Detailed contest repos
– Flatmatters exclusives
– Video reviews
– Top 5’s
– Old School Sunday’s
– Classic Mondays
– Throwback Thursday
– Must Watch edits
– Exclusive Interviews
– Year end awards
– Flatmatters How-to’s
– Flat Snitches
As the site grew, I heard a few viewers say that it should mean something to appear on Flatmattersonline, and in a way I kind of like that, and I kind of don’t. FM in my mind shouldn’t be elitist, it’s definitely for everyone. But at the same time, I can’t sit behind the computer all day posting, so something has to give. This is a tough part of juggling what goes past the “Firewall” as James White calls it.
Eleven years on Flatmattersonline is still an independent place for Flatlanders across the globe to visit daily. Via Google analytics it’s easy to see that not every one checks videos everyday, and I can see like 3-4 day cycle of which most of you check videos.
Since my earlier years putting together Totally Intense ‘zine I always enjoyed putting together content. And the part of FM I enjoy the most is gathering original content in whatever form that might come in.
If I can help educate the next generation of Flatlanders with my articles that isn’t a bad thing in my mind. As the natural quality of riding progresses, my motivation to keep going is more driven by trying to provide original content, and help up and coming riders which I have done over the years rather than just copy and paste edit after edit.
Time management is definitely the hardest part of running the site and perhaps the major thing I have improved, at least in my mind. For many years FM would take over five hours a day which affected my personal riding sessions a lot, now I’ve learnt to manage that and not rush content out so that I can spend time riding for myself.
So when you are at home asking why your edit is not online yet? Chances are 1) I haven’t seen it yet. 2) I’m at work or riding or 3) I’m saving it for the next day as I have already posted 4-5 videos.
The birth of the Must Watch edit.
When I think about it, the Must Watch edit was a natural progression of curating all this content over the past 11 years. There has to be a standout video along the way, trawling through thousands of videos.
July 3 2012 marked the birth of the Must Watch edit after a chat with Matthias Dandois the previous month. It was something to the affect of “I love the site Effraim, but I can’t be bothered to trawl through so many edits to get to the good stuff.” It was valuable and honest feedback, as many others may have felt the same but not said anything. I must have stewed on the idea for around a month and came up with the Must Watch edit idea, and that being almost like an award and something people would in time push their level to achieve. In my mind the Must Watch edit is reserved for those edits I rewind immediately, can you imagine how many edits I watch and have watched over 11 years?! The Must Watch edit is something that drew me to hit the rewind right away, in the beginning of the Must Watch I didn’t really write a lot, but as time progressed the descriptions of why the edit was a “Must Watch” started to be published and also it began to get harder to get that elusive tag as the concept grew.
“For anyone who is interested, The first “Must Watch” edit went to Viki Gomez “lost and found” by James Smith on July 3rd, 2012. The Must Watch is seven years old, crazy to think that!”
The Flatmattersonline Year end awards…
After the concept of the Must Watch edit started to gain momentum, I started to think about all these videos I describe everyday and the need to do something to recognise the work people put into flatland. But, not just rider of the year? I went back and forth with a few friends and the Flatmattersonline year end awards were born in 2013. Johann Chan stepped up to help on the graphics to share the news, and six years on the awards are still running. The 2019 awards will be coming up really soon…
From Flatmattersonline to Judging…
It’s also interesting to think about my role now as a curator/critic//rider, I feel curating Flatmattersonline and having a critical eye and knowledge on what’s current and also whats been done in the past in flatland has lead me to judging events worldwide. And this year specifically the honour of being headjudge at the Fise/UCI world series. On top of that, my work has been recognised by people such as my childhood hero, Pete Brandt who organised a fundraiser to get me to SF along with Fred Gates and James McGraw for the One Love jam earlier in the year and I am already booked in once again for January 2020 in SF/LA. The support for the site really does blow me away, many great memories that will never be forgotten. And I look forward to making more!
FM is a labour of love for me, that will no doubt take many swings and turns in the future. Who knows one day I might actually get round to a FM clothing brand. It’s only taken 11 years so far!!!
I could ramble on, but want to keep as short as possible. Thanks to everyone who has supported FM over the years, all the contributors over the years for which there are too many to name. Johann Chan for the new graphic make over of the site, Kurt Hohberger at BMX Union for all his help over the years, Simon Shorten who helped take all the content from blogspot to a full website and did all the early branding on the new site.
How long have you been checking out Flatmattersonline? And how did you find it? Word of mouth? Social media? Lets hear it in the comments section. Normal updates will resume tomorrow, today i’m taking a moment to enjoy and acknowledge this achievement.
Thanks Flatland!
Effraim Catlow
Flatmattersonine / 11 Years Strong.
It’s a lot of work holding a contest, Matti Hemmings just dropped this Press release announcing the UK Flatland Championships will not be on in 2020. Read on…
“UK Flatland BMX Championships won’t be taking place in 2020. I’ve decided to take a break away from running this contest and to focus on other things. Its not the end just time out to work on personal goals and achievements. I’d like to give a massive thanks to all riders that have supported the contest over the 8 years without your support it wouldn’t be the contest it is now its come along way since it started loads of good memory’s and laughs.”
