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Repo: King of Southsea

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Text: Flatmatters.
Photos: Tanya Durrant.


Flatmatters juggling duties, MC and Stopwatch in effect!

It’s now the Thursday morning after the 2nd annual King of Southsea event, I am still exhausted, but it’s time to get this report done. The overwhelming thing that stands out in my mind from this years event, is the new generation coming through the ranks.
All the hard work that goes into organising a big weekend event such as the KOS, seems all worthwhile when I see fresh faces in the scene, I intended KOS to be a grassroots event that gives the AMs a chance to gain some contest experience here in the UK. Events are few and far between.

This year we had a few riders make the trip from abroad which I am very stoked on, Pete Hollinger made the trip from Ireland, Gino Stuart and Michael van der Kroft from Holland, Yannick and Jean Michel Chauvel from Normandie, France, Martin from Global Flat, and also Tex was in Southsea for the first time in ten years!
The format was the same as last year, two runs, best run counts! A simple format that gives the riders a chance to bust out!
We had a few small showers right before flatland, so whilst we dried the rink, I went round interviewing a few riders, and a also dropped a bit of trivia, which no-one got, but it was pretty funny, just to see peoples reactions…
At KOS the format is simple, two runs, best run counts…

Novice.

To my surprise DJ Issacs ( a street rider ) won Novice flat, lacing together a solid first run, with all manner of street moves on the flatground closely followed by Andrew Parkin and Dean Pidgeon, Andrew did a nice fire hydrant karl kruzer switch hand fork wheelie combo, the real story of the Novice class were the two sisters that placed 4th and 5th respectively, Nicole and Chelsea Lewin showed some great basic skills. Mentor, Chris Massey looked like a proud man, Chris has done so much for the UK flat scene, goes to show what can happen with a bit of support! Well done girls!
If that wasn’t enough we had more youngsters, this is rare in the UK! Richie Spencer and Cohin Brooker deserve a special shootout for taking part, hope to see them at more flatland events in the future!


Yannick Chauvel, two footed pedal steam.

Am.

The Am class raised their game this year, and the level naturally went up a few notches from the Novice class, 12 riders competed, Gabor Szitas tore it up with fast rolaids, hitchhiker juggler combo 360 bar flip out, winning some great prizes by S&M, DeepBMX, Function Flatland and Flatware!
Yannick Chauvel made the trip for the second year in a row from Normandie, France with his brother, Yannick dropped his infamous tow footed pedal steam, as well some stalled out caboose stubble ducks, but on this day Gabor was a cut above his level.


Michael van der Kroft, mid Halfpacker pivot to inside xft steam.

3rd place went to Gino Stuart, all the way from Amsterdam, Gino has improved a lot, really nice xft turbine for wheelies back and forth then crossing over to fire hydrant turbines, all with his forks backwards believe it or not!
4th place went to Function Flatlands Ashley Adams, Ashley has come on leaps and bounds during the last year and a half, and that really is testament to all the hard work Chris Massey is doing with his youth club in Bolton, it really was a feature of the contest, the girls in Novice, Ashley killing it with super fast time machines, foot jam decades, inside cliffhangers, a real style emerging from his riding, good to see! Close behind TGMs and Function Flatlands Yinka Thomas, I may have shocked Yinka with my random interview during the warm up, but he looked calm and collected during the runs, nice elbow glide rebate to halfhiker, smooth lung spins, its great to see plenty of new talent emerging from the UK scene. We have been waiting and wondering for years, who’s next, but with the likes of Ashley and Yinka, and also 6th place Salvador Brown, you can see the wait is over! The nerves seemed to get to Salvador is this day, and he struggled with the stuff I normally see him nail, nevertheless his backwards manuals and backwards gadget whips were dope!
7th,Yannicks brother rode with an old school style that brought a smile to everyones face, super smooth stalled out rocket g turns, were the highlight of his runs.
Robert Voller finished eighth, with fluid style, nice spinning hitches, and no handed gerators, shootout to the Gypsy games that event is awesome!
9th place went to Griff, nice hang nothings, and super smooth half cab to backwards manual slider out!
Tenth place went to the Brighton jam organiser, Chris Carter, you may recall the interview I did with him a while back, Chris hit a nice backpacker juggler during his second run!
11th and 12th places went to the Fareham crew, Random Rob and Dave Cowell, Rob was close to landing footjam decades, and Dave did a nice 360 bunnyhop to manual. The standard of riding was great to see out of the experts. Made the weekend all worthwhile for me!

Pro.

This years King of Southsea flatland contest had a real feel of out with the old in the new, I was MC’ing and organising the whole event, James White was in the audience, and Phil was injured so he helped judge. Whether intentional or not, it gave the event a fresh feel I thought.
The pro class had nine riders, street rider and all round nutcase, Issac Clarke entered everything all weekend and came out winner of King of Southsea, congrats Issac! Amos Burke made the trip to Southsea for the first time in ten years, was great to see Amos competing again.


Andy Hale, two footed dump truck.

7th place went to young gun, Andy Hale, a rider I am expecting big things from in the future, no pressure or anything Andy, on this day he had a lil trouble on the 360 varial to two footed dump truck pivot to xft upside combo he normally nails, nevertheless he said all he wanted was that he didn’t come last!
6th place went to TGM local Steven Green, nice no handed messiah turbines, one foot pedal manual foot jam decades, but a few too many mistakes but him down the list and out of the top three.
5th place went to Michael van der Kroft, who was ripping in practise, so much so, that he was in Am, and I moved him up to the Pro class, this guy definitely has a good future, he got stuck in the contest repeating his spinning circle k to spinning one foot halfpacker combo a few too many times, but like Andy I expect big things out of this guy! Like a said a real feeling of out with the old in with the new.
4th place went to Norbert Onodi, super smooth style, Norbert made the trip all the way from Liverpool by bus, hardcore! Really liked his switch foot pedal 5 to whiplashes…
3rd place went to DeepBMX’s James Smith, James’ first run was awesome, I haven’t seen James compete for a long time, so it was great to see him lace together some long combos, as well as dialled multiple whiplashes, inside xft steam pivot to steam juggled round to halfpacker to crackpacker.


Gergely Szajer tore it up for 2nd place in Pro Flat, crackpacker to teakettle right here!

The top two were super close, second place went to Gergely Szajer all the way from Hungary, he has improved a lot, really liked his crackpacker reach through the legs flip to teakettle, multiple turbine halfhikers to spinning hitch, Gergely was dialled!
First place at King of Southsea went to Sickchild’s Pete Hollinger, considering Pete never rides contests, maybe the last one was the rained out Southsea event a few years ago?? He rode like a contest veteran, (especially in the first run) super calm and uber dialled, I heard someone say his riding style was similar to James White and you cant pay a bigger compliment than that. Pete killed it, whiplashes to multiple jugglers to halfpacker to hang 5 360 flip to steam juggle bar flip out, Pete’s buttery was great to see! And everyone was stoked and not surprised at all that he won. I think Pete was most surprised.
I had some great sessions with Pete whilst he was in Southsea last week, well deserved win. “Sickchild baby”.


Sickchild’s Pete Hollinger juggling his way to first place, congrats Pete!

We pulled it off! Year 2 of King of Southsea, and the scene is changing and evolving most notably this year! Thank you to all the riders and spectators that supported KOS, all the judges, Trevor Lacey, Johann Chan, and Phil Dolan! All the sponsors that supported flatland at KOS, (Chad Johnston, Chris Moller, Ian Morris) at 4 down for the S&M prizes, Chris Massey at Function Flatland, Matti Rose at DeepBMX, Johann at Emer Clothing, Ben Marvin at IMG for the Flatware prizes. The contest was laid-back, the riding went off, it started to feel like the aim of KOS was working…

Good times!

Flatmatters!

Pro Comps. Too much Drama? What’s Going On? (part 1 of 4)

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“The following private conversation was sparked after Effraim made a post on FlatMatters about the Fise comp in France a while back. Since this conversation, another altercation arose in the US. Although it’s fun to meet up and ride with friends at comps, there’s a lot more to it, especially for a pro rider, the organizers of the event, as well as the flatland community as a whole. Effraim and I decided to make our conversation public and invite others to listen in.”

http://flatmode.blogspot.com/2011/08/pro-comps-too-much-drama-whats-going-on.html

Bo Wade discusses Flatland judging with ESPN

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Photo by Jarod Anklam.

Tunney seems hot on this topic, here is yet another article about the judging drama with Bo Wade and the AM Flat circuit, this part in particular interested me:

“In the Pro class you should have to complete your trick combos to score high just like a BMX dirt jumper would have to complete his line of jumps to score even decent and the difficulty, style, and originality dictate the score. Originality is another item that umbrellas many different meanings. Original way to combo the tricks, the difficulty of the actual combination and order of tricks, and how many people are doing (or are capable of doing) the hard tricks. Lastly variety is a problem concept in Pro Flat that few seem to understand. Variety should have less to do with back and front wheel and more to do with how many different tricks you can fit into your timed run.”

Well worth a read! Hit the link:

http://espn.go.com/action/bmx/blog/_/post/6883977/bo-wade-discusses-flatland-judging

Judge Dread and the Am Flat Circuit

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The never ending judging drama reared its ugly head this weekend, I came across this interesting article on ESPN’s site by Brian Tunney about the recent judging controversy between Bo Wade and the Am flat circuit. Brian writes….

“This past weekend, the final round of the 2011 Am Flatland Circuit hit Buffalo, N.Y., with wins going to DK’s Dane Beardsley in Pro Flatland, Tyler Gilliard in Masters, Todd Carter in Expert, Tony Strickler in Vet and Jimmy Kibbons in Beginner. Unfortunately, the contest was not without controversy. According to riders in the contest, including pro Bo Wade, who placed third out of three riders, the judging was inaccurate…..

Hit the link to read more…

http://espn.go.com/action/bmx/blog/_/post/6870534/judge-dread-flat-circuit

Steve Lapsley from the Am Flat circuit sent in a response:

When I decided to start running the Am Flatland Circuit in 2009 I did it for my love of Flatland and the hopes of growing the sport. I did not do this for money or popularity or publicity. In the last two years I have put everything I have into this circuit including every spare dollar my wife and I could save. Not one penny has been made off of this circuit personally; all money from t-Shirts and entry fees went directly back into contest expenses, trophies and pro purse.
It is very unfortunate that there are untrue statements floating around the internet regarding the round 5 judging and scoring system. In no way were judges asked to change scores or were scores altered. I am sorry that there are hard feelings over placements or scores but I stand by my system when the proper judges are in place. Every contest format and judging system has flaws and needs tweaks. Mine is no different.
I did my best to plan and raise sponsorships to plan the Battle at the Border in 30 days time. With this short time frame came little money to put towards the actual event. Everything from the DJ’s to the Trophies were donated. There were no funds to pay judges and we used the best people available for each class at the time of the event.
I will continue to run the Am Flatland Circuit with all of the recent comments as a stepping stone for next year’s circuit.
As I said I do this for my love of Flatland and I will continue to do this as so.

Repo: G Shock “Real Toughness” Contest

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Text and photos by Anthony Buglio.

G-Shock (Casio) presents “Real Toughness.” This multi discipline contest held in Osaka on August 10 was one of the most exciting events I’ve been to. Flatland, a skate rail jam, B-Boy dancing, break dancing and a live MC performance all made for a pretty amazing Wednesday night in Osaka. There was also a live art performance where two artists had 15 minutes and a blank canvas. At the end of that time what was left was an amazing rendition of a b-boy in full breakin’ style. The event was geared to find the “Real Toughness” of B-boy culture. The dancing, DJing and skating were a perfect complement to each other.


Ucchie two footed backyard on the way to first place!

As for the flatland portion of the event, 9 riders entered, and they were divided into 3 groups for qualifying. The clock was set at 5 minutes and each rider could ride until they touched or finished their link. The format worked well for the crowd and each rider got several runs on the small stage. The winner of each group advanced to the final where the clock was set at 7 minutes. The final battle was amazing. A live DJ provided the sound track all night and the crowd was hyped. Here’s a brief breakdown of the qualifying groups and final battle. Working on the video edit now!


Good to see Kotaro is still in the mix!

Group A: Hiroya Morizaki, Kotaro Tanaka, Yasushi Tanabe. This group might have been the tightest to judge with each rider hitting links right off the bat. The small size of the stage seemed to trouble Kotaro the most as his smooth back wheel links were cut a little tight to avoid tumbling off the stage, though he still managed to knock off some nice forward deathtrucks. Hiroya put down a real smooth run of front wheel pivots and a couple half-cab front to back jumps. In the end, Yasushi Tanabe got first place in the group with a host of front wheel turbines, switches and style for miles. Tanabe advanced.


One of the most stylish riders on the planet, Tsutomu Kitayama!

Group B: Kotaro Arai, Tsutomu Kitayama, Tomokazu Morinaga. Another tough group to judge with such a variety of styles. Kotaro Arai is well known for smooth whiplash variations, but this was just not his night as he struggled to put down anything consistently. It’s no small test of skill to try cross footed jump lashes on a tiny stage, but he went for it anyway. In the end, too many touches did him in. Tomokazu Morinaga may have had one of the most exciting tricks of the night in my opinion with an inside back wheel glide to full bike pivot. His inside on-both-pedal back wheel Stick B glide is also amazing and he threw that one down in a nice carving circle. Tsutomu Kitayama just wouldn’t be denied though with a few runs just jam-packed with too many tricks to name. One of his longest links started with a plasticman, kept it going with some turbined front wheel pivots, threw a spinning Dave Duster in for good measure into a nice pumping cliffhanger and capped it off with an amazing bar flip pivot (a la Matthias) and the crowd went nuts. Kitayama advanced.

Group C: Yohei Uchino, Shinichi Kiba (Russia), Yoshihiro Nishikawa. Another group of diverse styles. Yoshihiro Nishikawa fought hard to get his runs going, but kept getting hung up on a transfer, a sort of behind the back switch from a inside back wheel glide to backyard. He gave it a few tries, and in the end that may have done him in. Shinichi Kiba threw down some buttery smooth front wheel flow to little crowd reaction. Juxtaposed to Yohei Uchino’s fast spinning back wheel tricks, it’s easy to see how the average crowd can’t understand the difficulty level. Though he made a few choice links, it just wasn’t going to happen for him. Yohei Uchino was on point from the very start. His links bordered on the out of control, but everything was tight, fast and amazingly on beat (the DJ was throwing down some dirty dub step). Uchino advanced.


As well as flatland, a bit of graffiti culture thrown in the mix!

FINAL BATTLE: Yasushi Tanabe, Tsutomu Kitayama, Yohei Uchino. Couldn’t really ask for a better final battle. The clock started at 7 minutes with the same format: ride until you finish a link or touch. Each rider carried the momentum from the qualifying battles into the final, and to be honest, the runs were much the same. Yasushi put in front and back wheel work and might have won the award for coming closest to falling off the stage when in the midst of a front wheel link his tire came within an inch of the edge. A couple bails though during his runs ultimately hurt his chances. From watching the qualifying runs, I thought it would come down to Tsutomu and Yohei and whoever hit their links the tightest would walk away with the win. Both riders put in work with Tsutomu concentrating on the front wheel, while Yohei killed the rear. In the end, Yohei’s consistency, difficulty and manic speed propelled him to the top (taking home a very nice G-Shock watch and an even nicer 200,000 yen!


Final battle right here….

The rest of the event was bonkers as well with some impressive skating, dancing, and general b-boy flavor. It was obviously a event G-Shock hopes will sell more watches (I don’t know this for a fact, but I have to think G-Shock sells more watches in Japan than the rest of the word combined). Very commercialized but who cares. In the end we got to see some amazing dancing, skating and flatland and once again a rider went home with some well earned cash for doing tricks on a bike.