Tag Archives: Chad Johnston

Flat Snitches: Episode 5 / The Crackpacker with Pete Brandt

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YO!!!

Flat Snitches is back!
During the lockdown, plenty of time to kill and come up with ideas. Using Zoom started to become a weekly occurrence in work, and daily life, so why not use it for Flatmattersonline!
The subject of episode 5 features my co-host for Flat Snitches, Pete Brandt and the Crackpacker.
Chad Johnston, of Intrikat fame was the first to document Pete’s riding for us all worldwide, it only made sense to get in contact with Chad and include him in this episode.
Chad drops some amazing historical knowledge, and Aaron Frost joins in the episode too. We had a lot of fun on this call, the line dropped out a few times so apologises for that. You can check the time stamps on the video to skip to the parts you are interested in!

And remember kids, it’s a crackpacker not a wheelchair! Grab a cuppa and get educated.
Big thanks to Pete, Chad and Aaron for this episode!

00:00 Flat Snitches intro.
00:47 Introduction to the show.
1:36 What is a crackpacker.
2:41 When did Pete create the crackpacker.
3:49 Where were you when you created the trick.
4:45 When was the first time anyone saw the crackpacker.
6:01 Chad’s recalling filming the crackpacker for the first time & Reali-TV 1.
6:38 Chad’s fondest memory filming the section with Pete & Eric E.
7:06 Chad recalling how groundbreaking the riding was for time period.
7:30 Aaron talks about the emergence of West Coast riders…
8:44 Effraim ordering Reali-TV via the post.
11:00 Chad capturing the feel of the West Coast.
11:22 When Pete first drop the crackpacker in a contest.
12:00 When did Chad first meet Pete, Chad in leathers..
15:13 When time Chad and Pete saw the Crackpacker being copied.
18:04 Variations on the crackpacker.
19:34 Inventing the crackhanger, europeans calling it a coathanger.
23:06 Why did you call the trick a crackpacker.
24:11 Hayward and San Mateo stories.
26:16 Chad recalls his time in SF filming Reali-TV.
27:01 Chad driving back to SF for one trick.
28:01 Chad learning from Pete’s dedication.
28:31 Variations of the Crackpacker other people have done.
32:51 Is Chad still filming? Security Guard stories.
41:19 Scuff into crackpacker to learn it?
42:18 Outro.

Credits:
Chad Johnston.
Stewart Johnston, Props Video Magazine.
Lee Musselwhite.

Flat Snitches: Episode 1 / The Plasticman

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Intro.

Welcome to a new section of Flatmattersonline that has been brewing, not unlike the cuppa right next to me right now as I get ready to drop this first episode. After a lot of talk back and forth with Pete Brandt, “Flat Snitches” is born and dedicated to help educate the flatland community on the history of trick inventions and most importantly showing some love to the architects that came up with each trick along the way, not to mention the evolution of each move with other riders putting their twist on it.

Who came up with what trick and when, is sometimes a grey area, but myself and Pete Brandt after all our years of experience are as best placed as anyone to attempt to do this.
We Kick off Episode 1 with the Plasticman, and talk to the trick creator, Jesse Puente about the tricks history and evolution into another move entirely.

When I think about Jesse Puente, his energy springs to my mind. I always recall when he commented “You bust, I bust” back when we both rode for KHE in the late 90’s, his energy was contagious. Always thinking about new tricks and concepts, he made me want to have new tricks every time I would see meet him at contest across the globe. Jesse’s energy brings me to the plastic man and his desire to create something fresh.


Jesse, rolling the OG Plasticman in Shimersville, PA back in 1994. Photo: Sean Parker.

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Throwback Thursdays with Intrikat Blend

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When you look back at all Chad Johnston has done for flatland and the riders that featured and made their names on his videos, the man deserves some kind of award. This morning I started watching Intrikat Blend again for the first time in a while and it immediately took me back to that era of riding, with amazing riding from Martti Kuoppa, Ross Smith, Phil Dolan, Andrew Arroyo, Jesse Puente, Matt Ward, Ed Nussbaum, and Chad himself. The whole video flows like a mixtape, I would urge you to watch the whole thing, inspiration. Thank you Chad for everything you have done for the flatland culture if you are reading this.

One Love Jam 2018

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OneLoveJam2018 from OneLoveBmx on Vimeo.

The official edit of the 8th annual One Love Jam 2018 just dropped and it’s a banger. Look out for an interview here on FM real soon with the man behind the jam, Darin Wright. For now peep a whole load of good riding and vibes from the likes of Bill Nitschke, Ahmed Johnson, Bruno Zebu, Ruben Castillo, Chad Johnston, Gabe Weed, Ed Jolie, Dane Beardsley, and Pete Brandt.

New S&M Intrikat for 2018!

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There have been plenty of rumours going around that S&M are no longer making the popular Chad Johnston designed Intrikat frame. I was stoked yesterday to see Chad post on his instagram a new frame in production that will squash the rumours. From the look of the photo the new version will have a slightly lower stand over. Available in black and raw clear, no word on sizes, but should be available soon no doubt.

Lookback: August – The 2016 Flatmattersonline Year End Awards

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August is often the busiest month of the year on the site, and it certainly got started with a bang on August 1st! The man of the moment, Viki Gomez fresh back from the 2016 World Circuit title in Brazil goes back to the core day to day sessions at his home spot in Luxembourg and just like the CORE Part 1, this delivers at the highest level!

Highlights for me:
– The opening rolling dump truck pivot backwards xft ice cream pivot opposite side two footed dump truck pivot xft ice cream line is just beautiful and took me back to the riding of Dan Rigby, amazing!
– X bar steam kickflip regular bar halfpacker pivot opposite xft hitch xft halfhiker body varial to halfpacker at 00:39!
– I know it’s not new, but the hang ten pressure jump steam Viki does at 1:03 is timeless, execution is also on point!
– Backwards crackpacker in circles carved back to forwards crackpacker steam kick flip crackpacker, the technicality and sheer variety of moves Viki has is just incredible! This is years and years of crafting to get to this level, I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it here.

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inTRIKat – Infinite Pieces, 2000

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I’ve truly been waiting for Infinite Pieces to be online for years, and today is great day! Stop what you are doing, grab a cuppa and enjoy this classic from 2000 by Chad Johnston. Featuring: Martti Kuoppa, Matt Wilhelm, Nathan Penonzek, Terry Adams, Chad Johnston, Morisake Hiroya, Kotaro Tonaka, Dan Rigby, Erin Donato, Simon O’Brien, Jorge Gomez, Phil Dolan, Thomas Ebeling, Michael Steingräber, Frank Lukas, Ulrich Kittel, Matti Röse, Alex Jumelin, Hammadi Lotfi, Alexis Desolneux, Jimmy Petitet, Gabe Weed, Ryoji Yamamoto, Kent Pearson, and yours truly, Effraim Catlow. Thank you Kala Yasuda for posting this ono;one, you made my day and i’m sure many others!

Throwback Thursdays – Justin Miller & Pete Brandt Groundtactics Project

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For this weeks throwback we go back to that one time Chad Johnston invited Justin Miller and Pete Brandt to Long Beach, California for a video project. Chad was working on a system where every trick had a value and set out to score these two riders combos taking into number of attempts, errors, etc. Check out the edited version right here!

Throwback Thursdays with Simon O’Brien

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Pure coincidence that the last two throwbacks have both been Intrikat videos, but what the hell! And why the hell not, Simon O’Brien is an amazing rider with one of the biggest bag of tricks in the game. Take this 2002 Intrikat Landescape A part is small example. There’s not too many riders messing around with backwards xft halfpackers and the blender line at 1:45 where Simon et’s the pedals round to switch into xft caboose on pedal is still amazing to this day! Well worth a re-watch or if you haven’t seen it, a real treat!