Cory Fester and Peakyp Msheffield made the trip down to So cal from Edmonton, Canada.
The 2nd annual One Love Jam went down Saturday, January 14th. The scene was a large parking lot at Zuma Beach in Malibu, California. About 75 riders came out for the jam. Crews from LA, Nor Cal, Texas, Canada, and a number other places were all ripping it up. One rider even drove from New York State, that’s hardcore!
The weather was rad, temperature was around 68 with no wind. The parking lot was clean, mostly flat, and large enough for both “jam circle,” or “solo style” session options. The Red Bull DJ Truck gave the gathering a nice soundtrack, with plenty of classic and new school mash-ups.
A number of riders entered the bunnyhop contest for a shot at the $300 prize. It was pretty amazing to watch so many flatland riders popping those short wheelbase bikes up! In the end, a shredder named Brock rode away with the cash. He cleared the bar at around 3.5 feet.
Nor cal resident, Mike Robbins tearing it up.
Rider diversity is always a cool thing at events like this. I saw one rider rolling around with one of the first Haro freestyle bike models, ever made. At the same time just across the parking lot, the flatland story continued to be told with riders like Dylan Worsley, Day Smith, Pete Brandt, Gabe Weed, Chad Johnston and others.
With so many great riders, there were a ton of tricks! Recent West Coast transplant Brian Tunney took advantage of the long parking lot, with some amazing rear wheel “Around The World” combinations. Stephen Hearn also pulled some crazy switch-footed forward and reverse rolling stuff. Aaron Frost really showed a lot of originality with his unique front wheel pivot switches. Canada’s own Percy Marshall brought his own brand of energy to the jam. He rolled Blenders and Death Trucks from the pedal as part of his arsenal. Percy must have adapted to the So Cal sunshine pretty quickly. He ended up going for a swim in the Pacific at dusk!
Brian Tunney just moved to the West Coast and described riding with the likes of Day Smith, Dylan Worsley and many more this past weekend at the One Love jam as “Surreal”, look for some coverage from Brian really soon on the ESPN site.
It was inspiring to see more than a dozen sponsors who stepped up to help. The One Love Jam organizers gave out free raffle tickets, and the winners rode away with goodie bags filled with so much good stuff!
Special thanks go out to Darin Wright and Shayne Khajehnoori and the rest of the One Love Crew, for all that goes into creating such a great event.
2011, what a year! It’s taken me a few weeks to put this together. Like 2010, I’ve gone through a years worth of posts, I dread to count how many that is or many hours I spent doing this, and picked out the stand out news (rider, industry), standout rider edits/clips, contest news. Everyone will of course have different opinions, but this is my take on 2011!
Feb 3rd was a big date, in one day we brought you the news that Cream was no more, Alain Massabova immediately announced Art magazine was born…Hours later on the other side of Paris, Matthias Dandois and Alex Jumelin announced they had left “A bad thing”, Alex Jumelin joined St Martin the next day, with whole load of signature products scheduled to drop, frame,bars, forks, pegs, etc. Speculation grew as to where Matthias would go, it wasn’t until May 7th that Matthias announced the launch of the “Superb” brand with Ucchie. At this point, I guess we all thought “A bad thing was done”….
A few days later, I was filming a flatmatters exclusive when the phone rang from a foreign number, it’s not everyday I get a call from a foreign number or Martti Kuoppa! I had just pulled the latest clip and was offered a place on the Junglerider team, with signature “e- frame”, Martti also added up and comers Bert Ribul and Navid Saleki, and Toon who is already established as a contest killer! A few months later, Aki and Denes Katona were later added to the team! Martti released his “Holiday” frame, and later in the year sponsored the 2012 flatland calendar.
Right in the thick of the Junglerider news, Round 2 of the Groundtactics dropped with so many good entries, Aki and James White took the top 2 spots, Groundtactics for the most part didn’t seem to take off as well as expected for whatever reason.
Whilst the majority of the Uk flat scene were at the Brighton jam, news broke of James White winning the DeepBMX passion contest in Bremen, Germany, James was a on a roll after his Round 1/2 Groundtactics entries, and took the win home to sunny Bexleyheath! News broke shortly after that James was added to the DeepBMX team. We all wondered what was next for Whitey! But sadly was pretty much the last we saw of Whitey for the year.
No sooner did James disappear, the one and only Phil Dolan came out re-ignited by 2010 World Circuit Champion Viki Gomez who lived in London for a year, for a few months Phil was documenting his progression on the daily, and was arguably riding better than ever! And with the help of James Smith and Johann Chan dropping two of the best edits of the year, as well as Nose manualling the whole of TGM at the Flatmatters launch jam for a pint or two! Good times that I will remember forever!
On April 4th, Adam Kun and Sevisual dropped one of the biggest tricks of the year, an upside down mega spin whopper, dubbed the “Monster whip”, nine months on and this trick has yet to go down in a contest, will 2012 be the year Adam drops it in a run? Whatever the case, it was a awesome moment for flatland and for Adam of course, the proof is in million hits that crossed over into just about every BMX website I can think of. Congrats to Adam!
Justin and Anthony aka Flat Web TV, celebrated their one year anniversary in style, I feel like within a year these guys are a household name in flatland right now, and are doing things right. The show has come on leaps and bounds, and their monthly round ups of what’s going on in flatland are really appreciated, and always refreshing. To celebrate we put together a big interview with the guys, hit the search engine on the right side of the site to hit that one up if you missed it!
A big part of flatmatters, is discovering and doucmenting established talents, I love being blown away by new riding talents, this year there were many, to many to name for very different reasons, earlier in the year Mazar’s full no handed whip amazed me, so much bike control, Shuichi Osada was name unknown to me until 2010, this guys riding is next level! Check the KOG clip below for a reminder what I am talking about, it’s easy to lose sight of the gems with the volume of posts on flatmatters, the list could go on and on, Charles Paty, Stephan Kornely, Bruno Zebu, Waldemar Fatkin, Steve Mulder, Toon, Ciaran Perry, the list is endless….
As I mentioned in the intro, I generally felt this year, seemed a lot less about contest riding and rider edits seem to carry more weight, now before anyone says i’m being negative, I’m just pointing out what I see putting together flatmatters everyday, Terry Adams started the contest year coming out swinging with wins in Toronto and Jomopro, then for the most part disappeared from the “major” contest scene (World circuit, Fise, Masters, KOG, Rebel jam). Perhaps a sign of times. As Terry tells me, this has been “his best year to date”…. This may be a sign of the times. Case in point on rider edits, Moto Sasaki dropped the “10 pedal” edit that for sure was the reason why he won the Nora Cup.
Matthias Dandois had a good year finally winning the Masters that has eluded him for so long, and also regaining the World Circuit title. I would say of anyone, Moto Sasaki and Dominik Nekolny at times brought the fight closer to Matthias than anyone, but whether you agree or not, Matthias won almost all the “big” contests this year without breaking too much sweat. Who’s gonna bring some competitive “heat” in 2012?
As the Nora Cup drew closer, there was clearly only one winner in many riders minds, throughout the year the boss gave more back to flatland than I can ever recall (Groundtactics, Junglerider, daily updates), until Moto Sasaki dropped one of the best/calculated edits of the year “10 pedal” that laid fresh in riders minds, and Moto took the Nora Cup for the second year in a row, peep Moto’s “10 Pedal” edit and Martti’s “Nora Cup Loser” edit, both are amazing!! And the argument who won can go on like the “judging contests” argument appears to go on and rear it’s ugly head. So….
August seemed to be the month for flatland getting mass TV coverage with millions of viewers, watching Matt Wilhelm on Americans Got Talent and Keelan Phillips this side of the pond on an hour long programme called “Concrete Circus”, both catapulted flatland into the minds of millions, awesome coverage by both riders!
Everyone knows what an influence Chad Johnston’s Intrikat videos have had on flatland, on August 19th I was stoked to publish the news that Chad got on S&M Pro, and with that he dropped one of the best edits of the year, debuting the elbow glide on the fork, forwards and backwards, as well as a ton of other incredible pegless combos. If you slept on that edit, here it is again one more time, LBC treats!
One of the best short edits of the year dropped at what looked like one of the best contests of the year, the Groundforce contest in Singapore, with Moto Sasaki bringing a lil’ fight for the World Circuit title edging out Matthias Dandois, this dubstep charged edit went down a treat in flatland circles, peep it again! Dope!
Bobby Carter dropped some really nice articles about flatland life as well as the epic “Beyond the Future” movie which was the first flatland movie to debut live online,Bobby researched a lot of different topics such as “how to make it in the flatland game” interviewing Terry Adams and Matt Wilhelm, and myself and Bobby discussed “too much drama at the contests – what’s going on?”, hit the references at the bottom for all the juice or maybe a good catch up, Bobby seemed to share a similar opinion as myself on the direction flatland was going in. Hit some of the links below for more of the good stuff!
On August 29th, the news broke of Flatland legend Chase Gouin being seriously ill with a severe mould/fungal infection, that doctors in canada were struggling to treat, the flatland world united and set about raising money to help Chase in his recovery, ironically the flatland world coming together like this, whether you made a paypal donation, you might a Chase fundraiser t-shirt from Flatland fuel or you attended a jam and donated there, the flatland community showed they cared, hopefully we will have some details soon on Chase’s recovery.
Photo by Fat Tony.
Rad Dad introduced some fun contests to flatland this year, and even these got a lil’ serious, as the rules got stretched a just a lil, in the end “Team Germany” aka David Hoffmann and Markus Reich won their contests respectively, David the most Hitch jugglers and Markus the most pinky squeaks, congrats guys!
October was a great month for edits and clips, Waldemar Fatkin normally known for his riding, dropped one of the tightest edits of the year, with Stephan Kornely, amazing production, graphics and riding! Over in Austin Texas, John Yull dropped the “Frame snapper”, and brought back that term “freestyle” to everyones minds, such a simple idea based on an old trick “Powermower” and made new, essentially a double footed stalled out decade, but it was fresh!!! Pete Brandt teamed up with Shayne Khajehnorri to bring what I thought was one of the best documentary type videos ever about the flatland life, if you missed this one, catch up now!
On November 28th, we celebrated three years of flatmatters, by dropping an riding/narrative edit, on the same day Steve Mulder teamed up with Kip Williamson to bring us all his “Throwback” treat of an edit, Steve’s interview is still in the works, and should be done shortly so keep an eye for that, for now here are those two edits again!
December began with the Rebel Jam, despite the usual bitching after the contest, I think in general the contest was great for flatland, sure the judging needs looking at, but I think the same holds true for every single contest on the flatland calendar. Some great edits dropped in the last month of the year, with the Too Small Bikes Movie, Aki’s 2011 compilation video, Hotoke’s Moxopin edit, Takuya Higa Welcome to Vans edit, Toon’s Junglerider edit, Scott Powell’s Driveway Project and James White’s spoof video! And of course Pete Olsen’s banger edit! The list can go and on, and I have to cut this somewhere, as I’ve been sat for hours per day here going through a years worth of posts for two weeks now, and this beginning to get to me. 2011 was a great year, hope you enjoyed this breakdown of the year and it’s defining moments. Or at least some of them…
As I was writing the intro for “defining moments of 2011”, Martti’s announced his decision to retire, the news spread like wildfire, all over Facebook, twitter, instagram, websites, blogs. I’m sure many like me were in disbelief at his decision, but i’m equally sure that most do not understand and perhaps cannot understand the depths he went to push himself this year.
2011 was without a doubt “his year” if there is such a thing, January 2011 kicked off with Round 2 of Martti’s groundtactics contest, dominated by Aki and James White. Martti then proceeded to drop videos almost daily at various periods of time throughout the course of the year each with at least three new tricks, giving us all motivation throughout the year, I can remember sharing the videos back and forth with him for a few months, In January we set about with the concept “to document, share and progress” a few months into the clips I made the joke to Martti “hey it’s 14-14” (clips each), from that point I got demolished, it was fun sharing new tricks/ideas/ videos and progressing as a result of Martti pushing me, Martti commented in his retirement statement “when I started published on youtube I felt that I am obligated to motivate other riders and show them “a better way”. It all got mixed up in my head and I was in a position that I could not relax at all, because new tricks were haunting me moment after moment.”
Some people have commented that the edits/clips could have been more polished, and got lost in the sheer volume he produced them, that may well be the case, but these people missed the point of the clips, it’s nice sometimes to take away all the clutter and just have the tricks! No gloss! The tricks were there for all to see without long winded intros, etc.
I don’t think any one rider has single handedly motivated “all” of flatland like MK did in 2011. It was an unselfish act, for sure, and he documented a beautifully pure progressive time period in his riding career. This year, Martti opened my eyes to a new side of flatland, I can’t thank him enough for his continued motivation, most of this came honestly, just from me being a flatland fan of his riding, I would watch his videos as you probably did in amazement, and message him, with ideas, the next day or two there would be a video with maybe a variation of the idea I suggested, throughout my 29 years riding. I have never met a rider like him, he really understood what flatland is, what it can be, and most of all, it wasn’t all about him, these videos he published were about motivating others, an unselfish act that flatland as a whole could do with more of, he had what it took to perform at the highest level whether competition, or video part at the same time, not to many can say that, his name will be remembered forever, a true flatland god! What he has left will continue to leave his mark for years to come…
As I was typing this, a thought came into my head….
Flatground 06, leading up to the event Martti was off his bike for about 2-3 weeks possibly longer with an injury, he came to event “cold”, he barely rode in practise, quietly going through qualifying and battle by battle, until the final battle, he dropped a never seen trick before, double infront of bar whip to crackpacker, that point always brings a smile to my face, it was a beautiful moment. There are of course countless other moments during his career, but this one always sticks in my mind.
Take a moment to think about all his his videos, and his attempt to motivate “you”…
Role reversal….What about, if you are in his position, When your that good, what motivates you?……
I guess it’s up to all of us reading this to keep the flatland flame burning bright! I would like to personally Thank Martti for all the great memories over his 21 year riding career! 2011 is the end of a huge era!
A true artist in every sense of the word that will be missed…A true riders rider, that I will always call “The Boss”..
The first “e-frame” prototype has held up well, just a few minor details I wanted to change, most notably the back bridge behind BB, I wanted stiffened up (see 2nd photo), change from 14mm to 10mm (I run a Nankai 10mm freecoaster), really excited to ride this, I will post some photos when it’s built up!
It was a dark wet Novembers evening in Southsea three years ago, my flatmatters page had been dropped from Ride UK, I wondered what I would do next, I looked around on the internet and was frustrated with what I saw, content wise, I wondered if I could start posting videos and content that kept up with the going’s on in flatland, if that would help flatland in the longtime, its already crazy to me, flatmatters is 3 years old! Where did the time go? I wonder how many updates I did in that time?! Im not going to count!!!
Besides the 3 year anniversary edit that dropped on Monday, I wanted to see what reaction to flatmatters was like with a wide spectrum of riders that have inspired me, I sent out the question below to a ton of riders, not everyone got back to me, but I’m proud to say the original intention seems to have worked!
“I wonder what flatmatters has helped bring to flatland in the last 3 years?” (perhaps within that how its effected you personally)
Photo: Jim McKay.
John Yull, Austin Texas.
2 1/2 years ago I couldn’t resist the temptation to start riding flatland again after 15 away. Effraim was there guiding and pushing me from day one helping me pick a frame and motivating me! Checking Flatmatters became the first site I opened every day and still is!
As a Joke one day Effraim said to me ” Maybe one day John you will get on Flatmatters” I took that as a huge challenge and every time I get posted it pushes me harder to do it again!
Thankyou Effraim & Flatmatters!
Anthony Buglio, FlatWeb TV, Portland, Oregon, USA,
Flatmatters, for sure, has brought a reliable, trustworthy consistent source for Flatland news, the breadth and width of which no magazine or forum could match. Underlying each post is an authentic voice at the polar opposite of what we see too often with the internet fights that happen on the forums. Flatmatters has filled the void that little to no media coverage created. Flatmatters is the media arm of flatland.
I would also say that Flatmatters is uniquely positioned to be that “destination” for debuts and exclusive content. Flatmatters reaches all corners of the word and if you want something seen, get it posted on Flatmatters!
Bobby Carter, Diversion TV, Hollywood, CA, USA.
Flatmatters has brought the flatland world together on a blog, indivisible, with bmx and riding for all…
Navid Saleki, Junglerider, Sweden.
It has effected me enormously. I still come home start the computer, go to the fridge, get back to the computer and start checking whats up!! check Mail check FLATMATTERS, get stuck… looking around at the latest updated within flatland worldwide, and feed myself with motivation to go and ride when i got time!!!
Flatmatters have held me up to date through out the years, motivated me in cold weather, and most important Flatmatters have kept me involved with here and now AND tomorrow!!!
Flatmatters is a leader in its environment, pleasant,honest,true,motivating and fun !!! gives more people time to shine, opens doors and make you feel involved!
Flat is whats Matters,
Photo: Fat Tony.
Chad Johnston: S&M/Intrikat. Long Beach, California, USA.
Over the last four to five years I’ve been stoked to watch videos on the internet, but recently the number of these web videos has increased substantially making it nearly impossible to view them all, not to mention even finding them. Flatmatters has helped locate and present any flatland related video or news in one site making it much easier to get my flat fix. Thanks for that E!
George Manos,Heresy Bikes, Greece.
3 years man,it’s a long time and i didn’t realise it until now!It seems so normal today to check “Flatmatters” and instantly share and learn information about what riders do on a daily basis around the whole world,but it’s really insane if you think about like 10 years ago where the only source of bmx information were magazines and videotapes,let alone flatland specific information.For new riders this past reality would be a torture but in the last 3 years “Flatmatters” helped form a new better way of sharing flatland news,becoming from a weekly notice in “global-flat” ,to a blog,to a full website with categories and 2-3 daily updates.It’s a great but hard work which Effraim developed with a quick but steady pace,and thanks to him we all have a place to ride together and speak our thoughts just like if we lived in the same neighbourhood!With scenes growing all over the world and new people getting to know our” sport” Effraim helps us unite alltogether in a big family,and be motivated with each one’s offer to flatland,so thank you E,keep up the good work and most important, keep riding!!
Mark “Rad Dad” Dandridge, BMX Freestyler, Austin, Texas, USA.
As for me personally it has help me stay motivated in my endeavors to keep my progression growing with my flatland skills. You are also on the pulse of the flatland community so I get my daily information from flattmatters.
Flattmatters has giving a large mass of professinoal flatlanders a platform that they can be proud of. It also takes the time to recognize the everyday rider. It has essentially given the community a much needed dose of positive energy. Thanks Effraim for being a shinning example and leading the way!
Frank Macchio, Flat/street head, NYC, USA.
how has flatmatters effected me……..it was allways up to date with the best people riden the bike in ways that are un real ! so it made me go out in hurricane irean in ny back in september and just go ride to my spot get soaking wet on the way there just to do skuffing-sideyards because that was brand new to me. so for some odd reason i one up my self and added a whiplash to the link now that is because of the progression and motivation flatmatters brings to the table !!
( ps – i do have the edit also this is no lie i love flatmatters )
Pete Brandt, Fenix/Quamen, San Francisco, USA.
To me Flatmatters has changed the way I view the internet. After years of seeing negativity on sites, before I would even see the video or read the article, now we see a site that is updating constantly, and really is the site for seeing current modern flatland as well as teaching and showing the roots of flatland. I guess in the normal world people watch CNN and read the newspaper for information on what’s going on in the world, for me I pull up flatmatters first thing to see what’s going on in the world of flatland. I appreciate everything Effraim has done with the site and appreciate all the hard work. Much respect and huge props!!
Shane Badman, Colony, Australia.
First, congrats to the Big E and Flatmatters on 3 huge years!
Straight up, Flatmatters has been the next step in the Internet revolution for flatland. There are other sites that exist, but none focus so specifically or as thoroughly on documenting the progression of flatland… which ultimately is what flatland is all about, so it makes sense right?
Flatmatters is the Twitter of the Flatland world!!
I can’t even tell you how hard this must be. Sebastian in the mix!
Bart and Paul de Jong are kicking ass with flatland updates lately, for a good healthy dose of all things bmx, check out http://www.fatbmx.com hit the links below for Navid’s and Sebastian’s Fat Fav’s, thanks for the shoutouts guys!
To conclude this internet revolution article, I asked York Uno for a japanese perspective on the following question:
“As the proliferation of “video classics” floods the internet, I ask the question, what are the positives and negatives of this situation?”
York Uno:
It used to be expensive and take long time to produce a film. You had to buy a camera and editing software, took care of rights for music and burn them on DVD or VHS at the end. So only a few riders produced footages back then. This was not only a case for BMX, but also skateboarding and hip hop, such as other street cultures. Everything improves and gets easer day by day to release footages these days.
The improvement of technologies open up opportunities equally for us to get exposed wherever you are. You can film your riding and deliver your new tricks through internet right away. That convenience has influenced our recognitions against tricks.
You can check footages of riders all over the world at home. Your footage is watched on an equal footing with old footage and that breaks the boundary of perspective between “old” and “new” including editing skills.
Firstly I’m looking for a sample of sound when I work on composing music. As well as composing music, riders are looking for a trick for sampling.
A good part of old footages are available online, is that you can easily check “roots” of tricks which you are working on. You know what’s original. A bad part would be that you couldn’t produce a bare footage, without music and editing back then. (High standard was required for all footage at the time as it takes time and costs.) So rarity value of a footage may becomes pretty low now a days.
As to aspects of tricks, scuffing, switching,whiping, rolling and spinning are found in old footages. Turbine is only a few as Turbine is the latest techniques for Flatland.
Latest footages include valuable information about techniques and equipments. But they are found among bunch of “average” footages in fact. So you have to “judge” the value by yourself. There’s no creation acceptable for everyone, it means there’s no absolute definition of what’s “good” or “bad”. So you have to be a creator on your own to be able to judge the quality.
Editors note:
To conclude, everyone basically seems to be on the same path. Everyone is stoked that the old classics have been published online and continue to do so, yesterday Kala published the 2004 Intrikat Flatsphere dvd online, and this will continue.
I found that all these videos were being published right at the end of the decade, as if to archive a chapter in the history of flatland, December 2010 was a busy month in terms of the old “classics” being published online, I was blown away at one point, and starting to question whether I should be publishing these videos on the blog, hence this article was born.
Respect for the artists work has been mentioned a few times, i.e, if you are going to broadcast someones video online, take some pride in it, publish in good quality, and don’t change the music.
As Bobby Carter said the internet revolution is here, ride that wave, we are nowadays spoilt for choice and it’s all for free, apart from the cost of your internet connection of course, when I grew up riding, there were no videos in the beginning, just a monthly magazine, so a flatlanders inspiration now is far greater than 27 years ago, this can only be a great thing for future generations. I don’t see any negative to that.
Because the internet is so vast, a lot of videos can be “slept” on, whereas videos back in the day were so few and far between, these videos would be studied, now a video edit is forgotten about a few days after it is published, not even that in some cases. Riders are already looking for the next fix. We are spoilt.
Distribution of information is the biggest bonus for me, whilst I don’t think you will ever beat the feel of a printed page, and having that dvd in your hand, the fact riders “worldwide” can access new and old videos right away providing they have a good internet connection, is a really great thing.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to get back to me on this debate, some healthy conclusions have been drawn from this.
One of my favourite interviews of all time, great to catch up with one of my favourite riders and an awesome level headed guy!
What’s to say about Dan? I would say Dan Rigby was and is underrated, he was one of the riders who however stood out more than anyone else in my mind during my time competing in the X games/X trials period. His links were so complex, that offten I thought his riding was misunderstood, and he always brought new mind blowing tricks to each event, and now when you look back, he was so far ahead of the time. His section on Props Groundworks, is one of the best in flatland history. I’m sure Dan doesnt realise it, but he pushed the sport and influenced a new generation. Check out the vimeo video he sent me (check that last dump truck 360 pivot round to death truck!!), that stuff was done in 2003!!! Amazing!! Can’t give this guy enough respect.
Photos and video by Dan Rigby.
What are you up to these days Dan? Are you still riding? I know you had pretty bad knee injury…
I’m living with my wife in Calgary, Alberta working for a small design firm doing interactive design and yes I’m still riding when I can. Mostly snowboarding on weekends right now since it’s winter but come spring I’ll be back on the bike. I had a bad knee injury in 2002 and was out for 3 months. I did physio but never really got it taken care of properly. I injured my MCL and most likely my ACL as well. It was strong for the most part but I had a few minor incidents after that. Then I went back to school in 2004 and started working a desk job after that. I was still riding but definitely not in the best shape. A few years passed, I was out riding one evening doing some whiplash combo really fast and got tangled up and finished my knee off. Complete ACL tear and MCL damage. In Jan 2007 I got surgery for both ACL and MCL and started the 6 months physio recovery. Now I’m all good. This last summer was the first full summer of riding in a couple years. I even learned a couple new tricks!
Halfpacker to flapjack combo..
Your section on Props Groundworks is one the best of all time for sure, what do you remember about that time period of your riding? Wasn’t it at that time you were renting a warehouse with Andrew Faris?
Wow! thanks. That means a lot to hear that. I never really liked the song props chose for it but i was really happy with how the section turned out. I was just happy to be a part of that project. That was a really good time for me in my riding guess. I was living with Andrew Faris the winter before that one and we rented a warehouse for 5 months. We both wanted to have a regular spot to ride for the winter and the warehouse just made sense. There was a lot of great riding that went down in there. Andrew came up with all his tailwhip stuff then and a lot of the tricks I did for groundworks started then too. After the winter, Andrew moved back to Vancouver and I ended up working in a grocery warehouse and saved enough money to go to California for the next winter. I had been talking to Andrew Arroyo a bit and he said he had room at his place so I packed everything I had in my car and headed south to the San Francisco area (Walnut Creek). Kerry Gatt was living there at the time too, working for Drew at his shop. It was probably one of the best winters of riding I’ve ever had and it had a huge influence on me both riding and personally. The weather that year was awesome. I rode almost everyday with Kerry, Drew, and/or Ross Smith. Of course Mutt was around too. That winter Kerry and I got a call from Chris Rye and he said they were doing this flatland only video and asked if we both wanted to do something for it. Kerry didn’t have any tricks ready so I met up with Chris in Huntington Beach on my own and we filmed the part in about 4 days.
Was it around that time you started doing the 360 bike pivots on the back wheel that are your section/bonus section on the ten pack DVD?
Those pivots seem to take your riding in a whole new direction. I think I started playing around with that a year or so later on my 2nd winter with Kerry and Drew. Then kept trying variations over the next couple years or so. I was trying to link them into different combos, forwards, backwards. Just thinking of different ways to link tricks on the back wheel. I always try to have a good balance of front and back wheel tricks.
You always did well competing in the big contests, (Metro, X-trials, X games etc), do you miss competing at all?
Yes and no. I miss the traveling and meeting new people and the experience. There was a lot of great stories I have from those times and amazing places i was able to see. But i don’t miss the stress of trying to make some money so I could pay some bills or practicing the same tricks all the time or worrying about how I’m gonna get somewhere or places to stay. That’s all part of the fun too but after awhile it just gets old. I think the whole flatland scene was starting to bum me out a bit too. Partly the contests but also what was happening to flatland itself. At the time I dropped out of the contest circuit, there was a certain style and approach that I wasn’t really into. Not just a riding style but an elitist attitude towards really keeping flatland separate from the rest of bmx too. Flatland is unique and deserves respect on it’s own level but also as part of the bmx community. I agree with it being separate to an extent but that can also be harmful. More can be done as a community. There were also some people that just ended up behaving like spoiled brats. Being rude to contest organizers just because the flatland area wasn’t perfect or flatland deserves this and that. Deal with it!! Vert riders deal with shitty ramps too. Be appreciative and work with the organizers. There were people that went out on a limb to do flat only contest or to include flatland in their comps out of respect and they didn’t the respect in return from riders. There was a lot of shit talking that bummed me out too. Some of the flatland forums online just got out of hand with rumors and little kids that talked crap about everyone. I never paid direct attention to that stuff but when I’d meet up with some local kids or meet someone traveling, they had heard some story or rumor about me or someone I rode with. It’s stupid. It’s just bad for the sport.
Dan at the Red Bull COB.
Did your riding style change when you stopped competing?
For sure. I stopped doing set links over and over again. I got way more inconsistent. haha. I just started doing links until I pulled them once then moved on. Some stuff I would practice til it was semi consistent or for a video. Other things were just to see if I could do it. I wish I would have filmed some more of that stuff but whatever. There are some days where I go to the parking lot and just do goofy tricks or rollbacks and whiplashes. I think riding kinda just went back to be just for fun again. It’s cliché’ to say it but it’s true. I also started riding a bit of street and ramps again as well. That contributed to my initial knee injury. I’ve always ridden street and ramps a bit but some days I just was bored with flatland or wanted a change of pace. Basically I just like riding bikes. Even just going out jumping curbs is fun. There is so much good street stuff where I live now.
Who do you look up to riding wise?
Kevin Jones, Chase Gouin, Chad Degroot, Steve Roy, Andrew Arroyo. And close behind those guys: Kerry Gatt, Alexis Desolneux, Paul Osicka, Andrew Faris, Stephane Royer, Jamie McIntosh…
What bike set up are you running these days?
My bike is kinda dated by today’s standards, but I like it! Old custom Federal Fraction frame 19.5 top tube. 1664 forks,Solid stem, Macneil 5 bars, FBM Leif Valin Pegs, Primo powerbite cranks w/titanium spindle, Ukai rims – dk front hub – nankai with profile shell, Macneil sproket, Primo 1.85 tires, Tech 77 levers & 990’s, ODI longnecks, Primo seat post drilled out w/ old primo plastic seat.
I’d like to do some upgrades this year maybe. We’ll see what happens.
Do you keep an eye on what’s going on in flatland these days?
Sorta but not really. I still have my subscription to Dig, pick magazines at the bookstore and pay attention to some stuff on the web but I’m really pretty out of the loop. I see some videos from time to time and there is some amazing riding going on. I still look out for stuff from a lot of the older pro’s who ride that I’m familiar with and whose style I like. I’d like to get involved with flatland and bmx again a bit on the industry side. Just to keep that connection and contribute in some way. It’s been such a big part of my life for so long and there are so many good people.
I look forward to that Dan, thanks a lot for your time in this interview, been awesome catching up with you.
Related links:
Dan’s personal graphic design website, (catch a video or two on there also.)
