Intro/Interview: Effraim.
Photos: Matt Coplon, Sevisual.
Welcome to the second in the series of interviews with the winners of the 2015 Flatmattersonline Year End awards. Over the past few weeks I caught up with Heresy head honcho, Alexis Desolneux to get his thoughts on winning the year end brand award, the team, what’s behind the HY brand and so on. Without a further a due, let’s get this started…
Intro/Interview: Effraim.
Photos: Martti Kuoppa, Stephane Bar, and Marcio Massayuki Abe.
When I was thinking who to begin the 2015 Flatmattersonline award winning interviews with, the answer was pretty simple in my mind. Martti Kuoppa took home four of the possible ten categories, why not start with the man that dominated the awards? As anyone who follows FM will know, I like to dig beneath the surface, and the process of how riders get to the top is always intriguing to me. Let’s jump right into the awards interviews with Martti!
With the awards dropping on Sunday 10th January, I wanted to share with the flatland community my choice for the Flatmattersonline Top 10 edits of 2015. And thus my break down of how I arrived at picking the nominees and also the winners. If you are paying attention to the site and reading the comments, you will have seen I didn’t count DVD video parts into the mix, as the category was “edit of the year”. I left it plain and simple, edits only (not dvds or dvd parts for example) I also didn’t take one trick edits into the equation, in my mind an edit is multiple clips combined together. This made my life easier shortlisting and narrowing from the hundreds down to 5 down to the winners. With that being said let’s crack on with my top ten list for 2015:
We started the last month of the year with this sick xft pedal turbine mega spin opposite foot decade clip out of Jason Plourde.
On December 2nd, Alberto Moya published this really nice edit from the jam the day after the Com’in Lyon contest a few weeks back featuring Alexis Desolneux, Charles Paty, Fabien Stephan, Alberto Moya, Kevin Jacob, Mates Tucek and Matthieu Bonnecuelle. Definitely worth a watch!
Joel Schallhorn has been progressing a ton since his return from China back to his home in Denver, Colorado. Joel definitely stands out to me as he rides so differently than almost anyone I can think of, in this edit you will see lots of new opposite bar flips, gadget whips variations, and a fun new no footed steam holding the stem (3:57 + backwards variation) that was inspired by Martti Kuoppa at a Tintadome session at BITR last month. Really enjoyed this edit, keep on shredding Joel!
I caught up with Aaron Frost at Sequence recently to discuss his new frame project that I spotted on his FB page. Naturally I was curious as to what’s he’s up to and to find out some details about this project. Read on:
It’s been almost a year since our trip ended and we are quite excited to share the video and story which will finally be out tomorrow. A lot has happened during our trip, but only a few things were recorded. Here’s a few interesting facts that you might not see in the video you guys would like to hear about.
Our second Wagon, 1992 Mazda 323, Chile.
These lookback features have definitely been fun to put together during the past fortnight or so, and already we are on November today! Looking back it seems September through till December were the biggest months of the year! Let’s go back through the highlights from last month…
Martti Kuoppa celebrates his 37th birthday on November 1st, and does it in style with another NBD move. If you are counting, that’s the third “Must watch” of the week, and a new door opened with the possibilities when he learnt this walking man stem lash (I think we can all see whats coming!)! The man is on a roll and its beautiful to see this kind of progression in our sport.
John Yull got inspired by Martti Kuoppa’s walking man stem lashes the other day and applied MK’s technique of switching feet on the stem to the foot jam decade.
Dub over at igi just published this dope line from Benjamin Hudson, filmed during a practise session at Flatark. Style and flow for days!
October was all about Flatark, all eyes on Kobe, Japan! But besides that what else happened in the month of October? Take a lookback…
On October 4th, Canadian Powerhouse Jason Plourde dropped a powerful back wheel line, as he warms up for Flatark in a few weeks, hit play!
A while ago we dropped the news Fabien Stephan was riding for Far East Cycles along with Dub and Benjamin Hudson. Now check his Welcome to edit, signature SF styles and amazing production in this one! Hell yes!
What a nice video to wake up to on October 7th! Heresy just released this amazing trick, no handed turbine whiplash anyone? Matthieu Bonnecuelle just unlocked a new door, the possibilities are endless!
September is always one of the busiest months of the year, and this year was absolutely off the chart. Take a check through my highlights and you will see what I mean!
September 4th will be remembered for Martti Kuoppa’s, 10 Stemlashes! You can always count on the boss to raise the stakes, as if this isn’t enough the description hints of a return to KGB? Great news! Someone looks like they are ready for flatark…
Let’s start the month of August with an amazing demonstration of stamina, bike control and consistency to drop a 15 minute combo by the one and only, Rodney Williams! Rodney was already a few minutes into this combo when Gino Palencia started filming, there’s a nice moment here when Yohei Uchino realises he’s witnessing a moment and stops to watch Rodney do his own thing at the Voodoo pre jam. Respect!
