It’s been a couple of weeks since the X-Games in Chiba, Japan! I had a couple of clips left on my phone from practise, from two days of filming during practise. Featuring the winner Kio Hayakawa, Terry Adams, Moto Sasaki, Yohei Uchino, and alternate Yu Katagiri who didn’t get to compete sadly.
Great to see flatland back at the X Games!
Yesterday was a good day for flatland, the return of flatland to the X Games after a 19 year hiatus. They started just like every other so far, you collect the bag with your covid 19 test on your door handle, get the test done.
Daily procedure, it is what it is. Boring part out the way, ready to enjoy the rest of the day.
From X Games alternate to X Games Gold, what a story for Kio Hayakawa who saved his best line for the final hitting a ridiculous blender 360 bike flip back to time machine ending with a downside foot jam decade out!
What a moment for Alex Jumelin winning his battles with Yohei Uchino and Moto Sasaki. Alex pulled his new 1080 nose manual to take a well earnt second place spot.
In third place, Moto Sasaki pulled one of the lines of the contest in his third place battle against Matthias Dandois, with a crazy hang 5 pivot to Xft crackpacker turbine into Xft backwards spinning crackpacker and ended with an amazing halfhiker pivot to opposite Xft halfpacker backwards hitch out.
That was intense! I will post a little repo tomorrow! Flatmatters at the X Games here in Japan, what a contest!!
Results.
1. Kio Hayakawa.
2. Alex Jumelin.
3. Moto Sasaki.
4. Matthias Dandois.
5. Terry Adams.
6. Viki Gomez.
7. Varo Hernandez.
8. Yohei Uchino.
Day 2 here in beautiful Chiba, Japan and my first full day at the X Games. The first nights sleeping is always so hard, and after waking p at 2am, I managed to fall sleep until 7am.
First things and breakfast was a fun catch up with the X Games organisers, and then caught up with riders, Broc Raiford, Terry Adams, Matthias Dandois, Varo Hernandez and many more.
After a breakfast it was time for the daily covid test, and then over to the venue, which I got a great view from breakfast.( Check the photo.)
It’s time to announce the winners of the 2021 Flatmattersonline Year End Awards, as well as show some love to the nominees….
It’s a labour of love putting this together, after two weeks filming, capturing, and editing, the show is finally is done!
If you are unfamiliar with the awards, there are 5 categories in both editorial and reader choice. I made a few changes this year, adding Female Rider of the Year + Brand of the Year to the awards.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote, and congratulations to all the winners and nominees, tune into the Year end awards show to find out who won in each category!
Grab a Cuppa and I Hope you enjoy the show!
Flatmatters / Effraim Catlow.
Unscripted – A Flatland Film 2021 is available for download right now, Stewart Munro’s latest video project. Looking forward to sitting down and watching this one later today!
”Unscripted is a new full-length video showcasing some of the best flatlanders from around the world featuring Kio Hayakawa, Masato Ito, Nick Watts, Simon O’Brien, Clint Millar, Jody Temple, Paul Chamberlain, Pete Brandt, Ruo Hayakawa, Yoshihiro Shinde, Trevor Meyer and Viki Gomez.” Run Time – 1 hour .
Link to buy – https://kfc.gumroad.com/l/qFmTD
Congratulations to Ryo Katagiri taking the win at the recent Chimera A Side contest in Japan, followed by his brother Yu, and the Flatmattersonline Rider of The Year Kio Hayakawa in third podium position. I have been looking for footage of the event and so far nothing. If anyone finds anything, please send it over….
