Category Archives: Articles

A Decade Of Flatland: 2010/2020 Part 1

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Intro/Interview: Effraim.

Flatland, a decade on. Where is it at? In 2008, when I was starting Flatmattersonline, I hit up a broad scope of riders from across the globe, and asked them a topical question at the time, “To scuff or not?”.
As we went into a new decade, I wondered…. in terms of styles, have we really moved on in progression over the past 10 years? I hit up some of the same riders that were involved in the first main article on the site, and also some fresh riders to get their perspective. How has their personal riding developed over the past ten years, are there still lines and tricks that they feel never get old, and stand the test of time?
How has bike technology affected their riding, riding spots and so on. Welcome to Part 1 where I reach out to the 2019 Flatmattersonline Rider of the Year, Dominik Nekolny, Pete Brandt, one of the most hardcore riders on the planet. And Matthias Dandois, winner of reader choice edit of the year and the most recognisable face in flatland in the world. Part 1 is an interesting read, you might want to grab a cuppa and give this your attention….

A decade on technically what’s different about your riding style? The tricks are obviously different, but has your approach changed?

Dominik Nekolny: Man, I just watched some footage from KOG back in 2010 – and boooooiiii I was killing it 😀 I guess my riding was little bit more technical and “jumpy” which I actually miss a bit…

Pete Brandt: My approach has changed with some tricks and techniques, but the commitment of exerting a trick is a lot still the same. I love the feeling of full commitment on the approach, and throughout the the trick.

Matthias Dandois: I only do things that look good and feel good. I film all the new tricks I learn, and if they don’t look good enough to me I just put them in the trash can. Even if it’s contest winning trick.So I guess I got less technical but more flowy. Works for me!

Describe your riding ten years ago?

Dominik Nekolny: My riding now? I love it! 🙂 I come up with some style and links which nobody did in the contest and I spend a lot of time to make those links dialled as fuck, so what you want more. :D.

Pete Brandt: Lots of spinning and turbine styles.

Matthias Dandois: My riding 10 years ago was more technical, less aesthetic. More trick based. Contest winning tricks.

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The last days of the San Francisco Trip!

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Wednesday and Thursday, the last full days of my trip out here to San Francisco. I missed the last few days updating the diary of my trip so f-it. You get a double day update in one post, Monday was by far my most productive day of the trip so far. Getting two clips really got me in the mood to capture my riding again, and on Wednesday I got another two clips! This trip has, despite my knee injury been the best yet.

Pete as always was in attack mode, right from the off at the Clocktower murdering the spot whether it was dialled lines, or brand new stuff. Because of his level of consistency, he’s able to have brand new tricks dialled almost instantly, it’s quite amazing to see in person and understand the process of how that happens.

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Flat Snitches: Episode 3 / The Backyard

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Intro: Effraim.
Interview: Effraim & Pete Brandt.
Photos: Tim Treacy.

Welcome to Episode 3 of Flat Snitches, an educational resource on the history of trick inventions in flatland. We have a very special guest for our third episode, Ladies and Gentlemen… Tim Treacy from San Francisco! Tim was one of the first pioneers of the scuffing technique in flatland in the 1980’s. San Francisco was a hot bed of creative talent back in the day at Golden Gate Park that are now legendary in flatland circles and via coverage in Freestylin’ inspired riders across the globe.

Have you ever done a backyard? Maybe a two footed rolling backyard in the modern era? Were you ever curious. Where did this trick come from?

Episode 3 focuses on the Backyard, myself and Pete Brandt dig beneath the surface of this trick and interview the man behind this staple move in flatland. It’s time for the interview!

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Repo: Sportzone Veres Contest by Rob Alton

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Text/Photos: Rob Alton.

Four months of hard work finally paid off on Saturday at Sport Zone. The larger room and new floor was perfect! Three riders could ride at the same time and we definitely needed the extra space as there were 36 riders from 5 countries at the event. It was a combined contest, the Hungarian Championships in collaboration with Bringasport (Hungarian Cycle Federation) and the Veres Verseny 2019.

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Repo: UCI World Championships 2019 Chengdu China

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Text: Effraim.
Photos: EC, The Agency Photo.

The finals day at the UCI World Championships was a great day for flatland. The day started with Women’s flat and four riders knuckled down and give it their all, Irina Sadovnik was battling a knee injury and with the help of Trish and her medical skills she was able to ride. Sometimes when you are faced with a physical obstacle such as an injury your focus is heightened. The injuries were stacking up in China and kind of became one of the main topics of everyones discussions during the two week trip.


Lionel Cardoso on the MIC duties, and David on the decks. props to these guys who killed it throughout the series and the two weeks in China!

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Day 2: UCI World Championships / Chengdu, China

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Day 2 at the UCI World Championships in Chengdu, China was a good one. Starting once again wet with over night rain rearing it’s ugly head. In fact it seems to rain every evening here and certainly when it does, it clears the air.

We headed down to the contest in a shuttle at 8am ready for the 9-10am practise slot before qualifying started at 10am. 36 riders to get through, we were using live scoring in qualifying for the first time.

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Arrived at Fise Chengdu!

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After a long day travelling from London Heathrow to Beijing and onto to Chengdu beginning on Tuesday afternoon, myself and my girlfriend Alex arrived in Chengdu on Wednesday evening. We were accompanied on the flights out by Lee Musselwhite, Hank who is judging BMX park, and Blake Bird who judges roller blading on the Fise Tour. So that definitely helped make the flight a pass a bit quicker.

We got picked up from the airport by my girlfriends brother Ed who lives in Chengdu and works as an English translator, whilst the others got their shuttle to the host hotel that I would arrive at the following night. I spent the night walking around downtown Chengdu, and discovered marble spots exist everyday as well as random skateparks on the sidewalk built into the landscape. I wish I had my phone with me at the time to document the madness.

Normally at these big contests it’s off to the host hotel and I don’t really see much of the cities. So this time made a nice change, not to mention waking up to an English breakfast in the morning was a real treat. It was however, raining on Wednesday morning but due to clear. So no rush to get to the Fise venue. So after a chilled morning, I took an hour taxi ride to Qingshui River City Park on the outskirts of Chengdu for the contest which turned out to be an ordeal. The taxi driver dropped us firstly, 25 minutes away from the venue. Luckily Ed was on hand to translate and explain this is not where we booked to go, half an hour later and in a different taxi we arrived onto an amazing River City Park venue.

ED and Alex left to go back to Chengdu and go hiking in the mountains whilst I judge the Fise World series along with Alexis Desolneux, Kotaro Tanaka and Hiroshi from 430. I stayed at the event and caught my bearings with the layout of the venue and generally find out where everything is and shoot some photos of some the riders during practise. The floor looked a lot better than the first two rounds, and I spoke to a few of the riders out on the floor who said it was much more solid than Montpellier.

Most of the sites I use to put together FM and to buy 5.56 ammo online are banned in China, although thankfully my email and FM are not blocked. So I can update from the contest at least. Qualifying starts today at 2pm, 38 riders, followed by the Women’s Class. I will update results when I get some wifi later. Hope you enjoyed this little break down from Chengdu.

Flat Snitches: Episode 2 / The Gadget Whip

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What a response, we got from the first episode of FlatSnitches. Myself and Pete are super stoked and humbled by all the feedback. FS is a labour of love dedicated to being an educational resource on the history of trick inventions for flatlanders spanning across all generations of our artform.
What we realised after the first episode is that these are episodes that can be updated as useful information (“art of facts as Pete calls it) comes forward. This wasn’t something we considered when we started FS.
We had numerous riders, for example reach out with further information about Jesse Puente doing the Plasticman after we published the first article. Articles can be updated much like tricks are, you get a refresh every so often and learn more about tricks you love to do on the daily.

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Flat Snitches: Episode 1 / The Plasticman

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Intro.

Welcome to a new section of Flatmattersonline that has been brewing, not unlike the cuppa right next to me right now as I get ready to drop this first episode. After a lot of talk back and forth with Pete Brandt, “Flat Snitches” is born and dedicated to help educate the flatland community on the history of trick inventions and most importantly showing some love to the architects that came up with each trick along the way, not to mention the evolution of each move with other riders putting their twist on it.

Who came up with what trick and when, is sometimes a grey area, but myself and Pete Brandt after all our years of experience are as best placed as anyone to attempt to do this.
We Kick off Episode 1 with the Plasticman, and talk to the trick creator, Jesse Puente about the tricks history and evolution into another move entirely.

When I think about Jesse Puente, his energy springs to my mind. I always recall when he commented “You bust, I bust” back when we both rode for KHE in the late 90’s, his energy was contagious. Always thinking about new tricks and concepts, he made me want to have new tricks every time I would see meet him at contest across the globe. Jesse’s energy brings me to the plastic man and his desire to create something fresh.


Jesse, rolling the OG Plasticman in Shimersville, PA back in 1994. Photo: Sean Parker.

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