5 years of Flatmatters!

As I sit here a week before celebrating 5 years of Flatmatters. I’m taking a moment to reflect on what has come before. I grew up in an era when you had to imagine how the trick worked from a photograph in a magazine/’sine or wait months sometimes years for contest footage in crappy VCR quality. Nowadays we are asking, wheres the contest footage an hour after the event?

As technology advances, are we spoilt? It’s hard to see how we aren’t? Day to day videos, sometimes seeing contest footage livestream. Is the internet good for flatland, in many ways yes! Look at the documented progression, to document share and progress as I call it. That’s basically how I see a lot of the flatland world working nowadays, everyone is influenced daily to push their level or at the very least to be entertained daily and to be kept informed of what different riders and scenes are up to. The vast source of information (videos) to take in is of course hard to keep up with. I feel sometimes, videos are overlooked and I’m as guilty of that as anyone. You put so much time and effort and thought into something you feel like it deserves more. That sadly is just the nature of the beast.

Flatmatters has become almost like my second full time job. It’s a labour of love that’s hard to describe to you all, unless your inside it. From the daily requests “hey can you post my video”, to searching online for something new and fresh. From the messages about what kind of bike to buy, or how do I get good at flatland? One thing remains so constant, I love all forms of flatland riding! Whether its old school (Old School Sundays was born), mid school (throwback thursdays…), or new school, I always believed and still do believe theres something to take from every generation that can inspire for that next session your going out on.

During the last year I’ve ticked off some dreams I never thought would happen when I started Flatmatters. I was able to put up the prize money for the flatmatters contest this year at King of Concrete. I always wanted to be in a position where I could give back to the sport I love. And now I’m ticking off another, the idea to hold Flatmatters Online Awards has been in my head for a few years. There are so many different elements to our sport/artform that I wanted to showcase as many as I can!

I feel like these awards help legitimise what I have been working towards the last five years with FM. So with that being said, let’s celebrate another great year of flatland! Whether it’s a video part, your stoked on a brand and what they are doing, maybe it’s a contest run you watch over and over. Maybe a rider is coming through the ranks and its pumping you up. There are so many factors that make flatland great and make it matter. Send in your votes and let us hear your voice! (see the post above from all details!)

Thanks to everyone that checks the site daily or whenever you have time, all the riders that send in their edits. All the advertisers that are supporting and believing in flatmatters, shoutouts to Emer, Flatland Fuel, Autum, Profile, Dans Comp, S&M. Shoutout to Kurt at BMX Union, Anthony at FlatWebTv for being a big supporter of FM!

Much love to you all!

Effraim Catlow/FM.