Tag Archives: James McGraw

Battle in the Rockies Day 1

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Yesterday was a long day travelling to the annual Battle in the Rockies contest in Denver, Colorado. This is my fifth year at BITR! I was asking myself I wonder how long it is, door to door to get from Southsea to Denver? 6am start for me and doing two cuppas before getting a taxi to London Heathrow Terminal 3, turned out on this day there was more traffic than I have ever had before on this journey. We left at 7am and arrived just past 9pm.

The clocks just went back one hour for winter this past weekend and it’s already freezing. I started checking the weather in Colorado, as its always a running joke amongst the riders. It’s 79 degrees as I land, and snow the next day forecast, the weather in Colorado is so crazy but needless to say it’s warmer than at home currently.

Going back to the travel log theme, so three hours check in time as with all international flights. So I am already at five hours and still in London, the flight was scheduled for 9 hours 55, so basically ten hours. 15 hours later in total I am in Denver and waiting for Mates Tucek who was landing 50 minutes after me. Back in the mile high city for the fifth time, and straight away I notice the light. Being a mile high the light is so much more prominent and I see every scratch on my glasses when I am in the sunshine (this might not interest people at home but for me it’s a useful note to have). Customs seemed to take an age, with massive lines but in reality was probably only an half hour or so, but it did mean no waiting around for the bike bag. Which for many of you that have travelled, it’s a big part of the trip waiting on the bags, is it going to arrive?

Two hours later myself and James met Mates and headed to Five guys for the annual traditional Five guys burger and chips before heading to James’ home in Monument, Colorado. Catching up with James and Mates is always fun, hearing all the stories about riders coming to the event and the background to the event is always really cool. Tomorrow morning we are heading back to Denver to the Rackhouse where the BITR will be hosted and sorting out the lighting for the event. So door to door the trip took 18 and half hours, when we arrived at James’ after the usual socialising myself and Mates’ were both struggling to stay awake and got some sleep. Stay tuned for more updates day to day from my trip, hope you enjoyed this. Something a little different than my norm, its Tuesday morning here now. Let’s get a cuppa and get the day started!

One Love Jam 2018

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Mizo Misael dropped this nice edit from this year’s One Love Jam in Newport Beach, California. I forgot to post this despite writing the description. Featuring Bruno Zebu, James McGraw, Robert Reilly, Bert Ribul, Sean Fontenot, Mizo himself shredding on Bruno’s bike, Pete Brandt, Lucas Koala, good vibes from Cali!

The 2017 Flatmattersonline Year End Award Winners are….

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First up it’s time to announce the editorial choice in the 2017 Flatmattersonline yearend awards followed by the Reader Choice, holding the awards each year I feel is a important thing to do for the culture of flatland and show some love back to the sport that has given me so much over the years.

Congratulations to all of the winners, and the nominees. Much respect to you all and all you do to contribute to flatland, it was a great year with a lot of twists and turns. Going to be interesting to see what 2018 brings. I wanted to display the medals tonight with the winners, but there is a slight delay that I’m not in control of. I will be contacting the winners shortly for addresses and interviews. Without further a due…

Editorial Choice Winners:

2017 Flatmattersonline
Rider of the Year
Jean William Prevost

Runner Up: John Yull.

2017 Flatmattersonline
Edit of the Year
Quentin Pelorson – XTen

Runner Up:
James White/Critical Beatdown.

2017 Flatmattersonline
Most Progressive Rider
John Yull

Runner Up: Quentin Pelorson

2017 Flatmattersonline
Line of the Year
John Yull

Runner Up: James White.

2017 Flatmattersonline
Outstanding Contribution
James McGraw

Reader Choice:

Thank you to all the readers of Flatmattersonline who took the time to vote, this year in particular was pretty interesting as your nominations differed slightly from mine, would the results be the same? Let’s go through the categories…

2017 Flatmattersonline
Rider of the Year
Jean William Prevost

Runner up:
John Yull.

2017 Flatmattersonline
Edit of Year
James White / Critical Beatdown

Runner Up: Quentin Pelorson – XTen.

2017 Flatmattersonline
Contest Run of Year
Jean William Prevost / Flatark.

Runner Up:
Jean William Prevost – Ninja Spin Finals.

2017 Flatmattersonline
Breakthrough Rider of the Year:
Yu Katagiri

Runner Up: Benjamin Hudson.

2017 Flatmattersonline
Most Progressive Rider
John Yull

Runner Up: Scott Powell.

Catching Up with Todd Carter

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I’m really enjoying doing these “Catching Up” interviews and today I interview Todd Carter, one of the smoothest riders in the flatland game and a man that doesn’t get enough credit in the flatland scene. Lot of history with Todd’s longevity in the sport. It was great to interview Todd and hear his story, grab a cuppa and enjoy this episode:

00:56: How long has Todd been riding for, and how did he get into flatland?

3:13: What was Todd’s first flatland competition?

4:38: I never knew that myself and Todd both rode for Hutch, and the Ohio scene shaping Todd’s riding.

8:00: What are some of Todd’s favourite memories from the AFA Masters?

10:29: How flatland is good for physical and emotional health, and forget about life issues?

11:54: What can modern day flatland learn from era such as the AFA masters where there 130 people in Todd’s class?

14:20: Moving from Ohio to Los Angeles and living the Californian dream.

17:45: Moving back to Ohio and building a flatland spot.

21:40: Coming from that era where what music you rode to was a big deal. What music is Todd into?

23:42: Bringing the American Flatland Association back.

26:00: Having two kids that both ride flatland.

29:36: The transition from expert rider to professional.

32:35: Plans for 2018?

33:21: Being a good rolemodel for the flatland scene, and what device would he give to the future generations?

35:47: Any final thanks?

Repo: Battle in the Rockies Day 5

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Text: Effraim.
Photos: Effraim, Art Thomason.

Day 5 of the trip, it’s Friday. The build up to the contest is getting real, everyone is moving just that one step faster. We woke up to sunny skies again, and I wondered if I would get through this annual trip to Colorado without seeing the snow. James, Todd, Will Redd, and Bill Nitschke started to talk about making an edit for the week, of the best clips, but needed an intro. After much laughter, James started playing the Geto Boys “Damn it feels good to be a gangsta”, next thing the house and the cars outside made it feel like a movie set. It started the day off continuing the great vibe that’s been here all week in Monument.

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Repo: Battle in the Rockies 2017 Day 4

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Text: Effraim.
Photos: Effraim, James McGraw.

Day 4 was the best day yet, I got the flatmatters daily updates done early and walked outside to sunny, but windy as hell conditions. I started washing the floor, which felt like it has become a daily operation. You gotta do what you gotta do to get the best out of riding spots, and James spot is literally perfect. Once his garden gets grassed, I would imagine this spot will stay for the large part dust free. Mates Tucek joined me and helped sweep the spot, I said to Mates I wanted to pull something new today and right as we started filming the winds picked up. Tumble weeds flying past us, and dry leaves smacking you in the face. It felt a little bit like this was a bad idea riding the spot today, but it passed and I really wanted to get back on the progression trail.

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Repo: Battle in the Rockies 2017 Day 3

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Day 3 of my annual trip to the Battle in the Rockies contest was awesome. We woke up to sunshine once again, bare in mind the past three years I have visited Colorado it has snowed and generally really cold. I started the day grabbing an early session in on the spot after I hosed down the spot whilst James headed to the airport to pick up Bill Nitschke, I thought I would film a fire hydrant flow line and as I started filming out came James and Mates, if you are on my social media you will have seen that and James’ scream. Sorry for your ears. It was a good start to the day, and today looks the same.

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Repo: Battle in the Rockies 2017 Day 2

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Day 2 was our first full day in Monument, Colorado. After after our late session on Monday night, I was hoping to get at least six hours sleep, but it wasn’t meant to be.
After a rough first nights sleep, James washed the flatland area and then took the kids to school and run a few errands. We stocked up on groceries at a nearby store and headed back to grab some lunch, before we rode the slab spot at Jame’s new house.

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Repo: Battle in the Rockies 2017 Day 1

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Text/Photos: Effraim.

Yesterday was Day 1 of my 2017 Battle in the Rockies trip to Denver, Colorado. James McGraw and Fred Gates once again invited me out to the mile high city to judge this year’s event.

I met Mates Tucek at London Heathrow, Terminal 3 on Monday morning, the flight was delayed by a little bit, but nothing too stressful. Flying time of nine hours, twenty five minutes to Denver. Luckily the movie selection was pretty entertaining, so after watching a couple of movies we were in Denver. Throughout the trip out there, security was really tight and Mates seemed to get searched every time, we counted at least ten times, and each time Mates would style his hair. This amused me a lot, and made the trip out so much fun and the day just seemed to fly by as we caught up and discussed all things flatland and general work life stuff.

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2017 AFA Round 1 – Best Trick

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Streaming

If you missed the livestream from the AFA Round 1 contest in Detriot, Michigan. Fear not, you can catch it right here, thanks to Mark Mundt for the heads up. You can see Jean William Prevost’s wild new spinning undertaker line at around the 9:46 mark, plus of course a ton more great riding.