Yearly Archives: 2019

Time to vote: The Flatmattersonline 2019 Year End Awards!

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Design: Johann Chan.

Hello everyone!

It’s that time of year where we celebrate another amazing year of flatland, and honour the winners with a medal in each category. As always I like to mix things up with a reader vote and also an editorial vote.

Who’s going to win this year? Who do you feel has had the best year, what do you look for? Contest results? Must Watch edits? Giving back to the sport? Perhaps something else…

You have plenty of time to vote, work your way through the year and see who’s contributing throughout the year, or who’s had that banger part that inspired your own personal riding. Everyone has different opinions, which is one of the many things that makes flatland so special.

Without further a due, it’s time to start researching and digging back through the year at what’s gone on.

Editorial Vote:
Rider of the Year
Edit of the Year
Most Progressive Rider
Outstanding Contribution
Line of The Year

Reader Choice:
Rider of the Year
Edit of the Year
Most Progressive Rider
Contest Run of Year
Breakthrough Rider of the Year

What’s the Deadline for voting?
Voting closes New Years Eve at 12 Midnight GMT.
Tuesday December 31st.

How do you vote?
Send your votes through to: effraim@flatmattersonline.com – entitled Flatmattersonline Awards 2019.

Nominees announced:
Friday January 3rd.

Year end award winners announced:
Wednesday 15th January.

Please note:
Voting only counts via email, and you must vote in each category to be eligible. Plenty of time to go through edits over the festive period and look back via the site on the highlights of the year that will follow over the next few weeks, take your time and good luck and most of all enjoy the process!

Effraim Catlow
Flatmattersonline / 11 Years Strong!

Claude Hickman – 2019 clips

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I was chatting to Claude Hickman about his riding whilst we were out in China and he was saying he was facing a progression block in his riding. Well, today I am stoked to wake up to a fresh edit from the man himself, get to see Claude the man behind the mic on the Fise livestreams. Skills to pay the bills, love the darkside line that starts 1:38, and the backwards switch foot no handed hang 5 at 2:54. Well worth a watch, we didn’t see enough of Claude’s riding, super smooth too.

Matthias Dandois – BTS of a Red Bull photo shoot

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Something a little different right here that I actually really enjoyed watching, and perhaps you will do too. Matthias Dandois sent in this Behind the scenes shoot with Visualrev in New York City. See the work that a rider like Matthias does on almost the daily as a “professional” rider, great to see this insight.

Throwback Thursday with Jean William Prevost

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This weeks TBT kills two birds with one stone so to speak, I will be dropping the Flatmattersonline 2019 Year end awards on Monday and Saturday I will be dropping an exclusive with Jean William Prevost! It seems like as good a time as any to go back watch Dub’s amazing awards winning Puro Flat that was shot in the spring of last year and released on August 7th.

Puro Flat #2 highlights:

00:17: The g-roll pivot inside switch b undertaker out is beautiful in technique where he has condensed the dead time.

00:25: Spinning undertaker flip grabbing tyre spinning cream pivot out is sexy flatland at it’s finest. I am on 5th watch now, and still have the same reaction as the first time I watched it. YES!

00:32: Dub further pushes the concept that I highlighted at 00:17 and adds the spinning undertaker at the beginning of the line and ends with g-roll pivot inside switch b undertaker with no deadtime at all. Wow!

1:07: Carved Opposite Dump truck ride in pivot to pedal inside switch b pedal pivot to double turbine spinning forward death truck straightens out forward pedal death to casual walkover decade out. This line has been years in the making, so much depth to this.

2:59: Dub explores different concepts around the Rodeo, each line till the end is absolutely ridiculous, but the dead time taken out on the final line and the seamless switches is something else entirely.

Level up!

Benjamin Hudson – Flatland Immersion Podcast

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Benjamin Hudson and Dusty Tweedhope get together for the last Flatland Immersion Podcast of the year. They talk Flatland, growing up in Santiago, discussing the current state of his country, travelling, psychedelics, Percy Marshall..
“We also got into a great conversation about art, one of the funnest topics Ive gotten into on the podcast aside from riding. Ben and I both share a deep appreciation for art..and watch it unfold into one of the most random moments of coincidence on my podcast..Coincidence? Parallel universes colliding? You be the judge.”

You can listen to the episode on the following platforms:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/benjamin-hudson/id1448137343?i=1000459171780&fbclid=IwAR3jwuJOJNzEDpyUjYTQCxB57XzFvVG_-4h_1PqYrQzPA1Um6LgRCAXUvcQ

Must Watch – Matthias Dandois / Taking Hawaii

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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!