Category Archives: Exclusives

The Flatmattersonline Pete Brandt Interview Teaser!

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Have you ever met your childhood hero? Last month, I got to hang out and ride with Pete Brandt for the first time for an extensive period of time, since I have known him. When I received the news that Pete was organising a Go Fund page to get me out to San Francisco and the One Love jam. To be honest, I didn’t really know whether to scream, or shed a tear, what I can tell you for sure is I was very hyped and super excited to get out there. I can remember talking to myself and saying, “right this is it! It’s time to get the interview I always really wanted on the website.”

I had the time of my life, riding and hanging out with Pete everyday during my trip to California. After approx two weeks of editing, plus going over footage, and general tweaks that come with putting something like this out (I have never worked on a video for so long, hence why FM updates have been a little slow…). The full interview will drop this Friday, today to whet your appetite here is a little teaser.

Words cannot express how hyped I am to drop this interview on Friday, Pete is a true architect of Flatland, and a man that deserves the utmost respect from all of us!

Stay tuned!

Repo: The 2019 One Love Jam

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Text: Effraim.
Photos: Effraim, Juan Lopez, Bobby Carter.

The 9th annual One Love Jam in Newport Beach, California was lived up to all the hype I have heard over the years. We were staying around an hour away in Corona, and I believe it was James McGraw who said “it will be sunny at the beach Effraim”. I remember thinking “yeah yeah, that’s not going to happen”, low and beyond we arrive at picture perfect Newport Beach and the sunshine is booming, girls in bikinis everywhere, hockey players, and a fast smooth newly resurfaced riding spot which is large enough to hold 120 riders pretty comfortably with a California beach backdrop.

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One Love Pre Jam – San Francisco / LA trip Part 3

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Good morning everyone!

Yesterday was a good day, we arrived the night before to Robert Castillo’s house in Corina, California.After a nights sleep it was time head out to Long Beach, Corona to Long beach is around an hours drive. LA traffic which can be horrific, we hit up a In and Out Burger joint just round the corner from the jam. The spot looked familiar and sure enough I had been to this burger place before. Must have been like 9-10 years ago, funny how your memory can jog in an second.

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San Francisco Trip – Part 2

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Yesterday was the first dry day of my trip to San Francisco. Dylan Worsley from We Bicycles arrived in the morning, and myself, Pete and Dylan headed from Fremont to San Fran by BART. 40 minutes later, we were at Embarcadero and the Clocktower is across the road. The ground was still really wet from and early morning shower, Pete has the Clocktower on lock down and has a let blower, squeechie, and to my suggestion added a towel to the fix to get the riding spot dry.

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Repo: San Francisco Trip Part 1

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Good morning everyone!

As many of you will know, Pete Brandt who happens to be my child hero growing up organised a go fund me page to get me out to the One Love jam in Newport Beach, California this weekend. When I was younger, my parents took me to San Francisco on holiday and I always loved the place and everything about it, so much character in this city. So as you can imagine I am still pinching myself that I am actually here. I can’t thank Pete, his wife Karissa, and everyone who donated to help me get here.
I arrived into San Francisco on Monday, after an 11 hour flight and almost three hours in the customs line I was pretty tired, but also pretty excited to get riding and make the most of this dream trip out here.

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Re Up: Jean William Prevost Podcast

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With Jean William Prevost aka Dub taking the 2018 Flatmattersonline Year end awards by storm, it seems to me as good a time as any to repost the podcast with Dub from last year at Bike days. It was really interesting to catch up with Dub and pick his brains and here his opinion on judging, the flatland scene, competing, and the struggles he faces day to day.

The 2018 Flatmattersonline Year End Award Nominees are…

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Hello everyone!

Great response to voting this year for the 2018 Flatmattersonline Year End Awards, this really is a labour of love for me and my chance to really give back to the content that I post throughout the year and also reach out to you the readers of Flatmattersonline. Thank you to all the readers that took the time to vote, this years voting was really interesting. A definite shift towards how you decide and who you vote for. Let’s get right to it..

– Effraim Catlow / 10 Years of Flatmattersonline.

Editorial Vote:

Rider of the Year:

Matthias Dandois

Yu Katagiri

Jean William Prevost

Alex Jumelin

Sietse Van Berkel

Edit of the Year:

James White – Stop the World

Benjamin Hudson – Done Deal

Matthieu Bonnecuelle – Riding Waste

Jean William Prevost – Puro Flat #2 Spring

Denes Katona – Rolling Stone

Most Progressive Rider:

Jean William Prevost
Sietse Van Berkel
Alex Jumelin
James White
Yu Katagiri

Outstanding Contribution:
TBA ON ANNOUNCEMENT DAY.

Line of The Year:

Austin Luberda – 3:05 from the Autumn Flow edit.

Jean William Prevost – 3:52 End Line Puro Flat 2.

Yu Katagiri – Bikeflip line at 3:00 from the Yu Katagiri 2018 edit.

Sietse van Berkel – Final Round Entry from Master of Creativity 2018.

Dominik Nekolny – Best trick from Sport Zone contest.

* Go back and search and watch these! Incredible…

Reader Choice:

Rider of the Year:

Yu Katagiri

Ryo Katagiri

James White

Jean William Prevost

Sietse van Berkel

Edit of the Year:

Jean William Prevost – Puro Flat 2 Spring

James White – Stop the World

Denes Katona – Rolling Stone

Yu Katagiri – 2018

Joe Cicman – The idea in brief

Most Progressive Rider:

James White

Sietse Van Berkel

Ryo Katagiri

Yu Katagiri

Jean William Prevost

Contest Run of Year:

Dominik Nekolny BMX Cologne Finals

Jean William Prevost Fise Chengdu Finals

Ryo Katagiri BMX Cologe qualifying

Dominik Nekolny Hungarian contest

Yu Katagiri BMX Cologne Finals

Breakthrough Rider of the Year:

Mates Tucek

Sietse van Berkel

Julian Baron

Austin Luberda

Kio Hayakawa

Year end award winners announced:
Friday 11th January.

The 2018 Flatmattersonline Year Awards!

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Design: Johann Chan.

Just a few weeks ago, I celebrated 10 years of running Flatmattersonline. Thank you for all the positive feedback on the site and on my social media, it’s pretty amazing to me that the site continues to grow as we now move into it’s 11th year. Next year I have some bigger plans with the site that I am really excited to get working on in the new year.

Now it’s time to get to the 2018 Flatmattersonline Year End awards and if you have already scrolled down you will notice I keep the same format as the 2017 awards. 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…

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.
Monday December 31st.

How do you vote?
Send your votes through to: effraim@flatmattersonline.com – entitled Flatmattersonline Awards 2018.

Nominees announced:
Friday January 4th.

Year end award winners announced:
Friday 11th 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 / 10 Years Strong!

Effraim Catlow – Ten Years of Flatmattersonline Reader Interview Part 1

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Intro: Effraim.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was celebrating 10 Years of Flatmattersonline I reached out to you, the readers of FM to ask me a question. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I sure wasn’t expecting the response I got. In light, of such a great response I decided to answer all the questions as they were all so good and insightful in some way. There are way too many questions for one part so I have split up the interview to make it easier for you all to read and digest. Without further a due, let’s get into your questions.

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Repo: Sport Zone Veresegyház Contest

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Text: Rob Alton.

On November 24th we held our second major contest at Sport Zone Veresegyház. I worked really hard to improve on last year’s contest in all departments. Thanks to our main sponsors Magnetic, IPF Corner, DMKER, Elite BMX Shop and Sport Zone we raised 1000 Euro for Pro purse. I hoped it would help bring some top Pro’s here and it did! We had 12 Pro riders from 6 countries, including the kids and Amateur riders a total of 34 competitors!
Róbert Völler “Minerboy” our live DJ was running the rider routines which made my day a lot easier. We also added new podiums and sponsor wall for the prize giving.

I split School Class into A and B classes, because there is a good step up now from the kids who are really practicing a lot. Recent contests in Hungary have really helped to motivate them. The B class was great to see as some of the kids have only been riding 5-6 weeks and still wanted to take part. Emma Kriston one of two girls at the school got second place! There is a separate video for each category on Youtube.

School Class A

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