Category Archives: Interviews

Steve Mulder: The Throwback interview!

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Intro: Effraim

It was 1999, the BS X trials in Lousiville, Kentucky, I was trying to qualify for the X games that year, three riders qualified at each round, I went over for the first two rounds to give myself a better chance, at the contest I am warming up for qualifying and this guy rolls past so fast in a rollback to pops a half cab rolaid, I was in awe, UK kid in the land of the gods! His style is classic, butter smooth, and covers the whole flatland area very quickly. I quickly worked out it was Steve Mulder! Before this, I had really only seen him on Props a few times, ever since this moment, Steve has been one of my favourite riders. He does tricks no one else touches, that in itself gets my respect, but he is so much more than an awesome rider! Ladies and gentlemen, here is the Steve Mulder interview!

Interview: Effraim
Photos: Steve Mulder

Briefly introduce yourself, just for the record….
Steve Mulder, 40 year old flatland freestyler from Indianapolis, Indiana.

So the new video “throwback” dropped late November 2011, tell me a lil bit about the concept behind the video?
I’ve had ideas of doing “themed” edits for some time now and decided to make this one a tribute to the tricks that really got me hyped on freestyle back in the day. When I learned boomerangs and decades those were two tricks that really got me inspired. So I wrote “Old school skills edit” on the top of a page and filled in some ideas and it grew from there. My first trick list was quite a bit harder than what we came out with and I planned to shoot it in 2012. Then Kip Williamson called and said he was coming into town in November and wanted to shoot video, so I reworked it and made it easier so I could have it ready by then. As for the name, Kip came up with the title “Throwback”, which I thought was perfect. I was really happy with the cool “throwback” visuals he put in, radness.

Watching “Throwback” I kind of thought that most of the tricks you did showed that scene in some ways hasn’t come that far, like what is trendy nowadays has been done years ago, the Rolaid stuff, multiple brakeless flails for example are much harder than the walk-around boomerang, and for a while a lot of guys were doing rolaid links, it gave me the impression, like hey guys I did this stuff years ago, it often gets forgotten y’know?
I agree, in many ways the sport hasn’t progressed as much as it could have in certain areas, in some areas it definitely has though. Look at E-Clips with Chase, no one has touched anywhere near that level of skill and progression on brakeless decades. There are a lot of old school type tricks that could go so much farther and in time the may, however nowadays people are taking the front wheel switch handed steam roller position to the limit, ha ha… My intent with this edit was to bring some of the old school tricks that I liked and breathe some new life into them. My hope was people would dig seeing it as much as I enjoyed going through the process.

What were for you the hardest tricks to get on tape?
Probably the whiplash combo, the jump to rollback, keeping enough speed and in control was challenging while filming. That trick was on the list to end with half cab whopper but I couldn’t get my rollback solid enough for some reason.  Also I had this cross footed forward rope thing into a backwards wheelie to half cab perverted, I missed the half cab and we never went back to it. We were working with a limited time frame and we got what we could with the weather and minor injuries. Kip was calling me “Diva-Steve” by the end of it, ha ha….

We of course use to compete against each other on the X trials circuit, I was always in awe of your riding, way ahead of your time with the one hit tricks in contests, I was always curious how you felt about getting ripped off at almost every contest I can ever recall?
Thanks E, I appreciate that. At the time I had really hard feelings about it and it was very frustrating. However looking back I did accomplish what I truly wanted, which was to be respected by the core riders as being original and having some of the hardest tricks of the time. Unfortunately I got to a point where I was too up in my head about “making it”, meaning making a career out of riding flatland that would financially support my life. I realized sometime after I stopped competing that “making it” even if possible, wouldn’t have made me happy. My drive with riding is to create and not practice the same stuff over and over again to perform well at contests or shows. I guess if could do it all over I may have never came out for my final runs at the 99’ X-Games after all the judging controversy. Instead just went home and dedicated myself to progression on video or just by myself, which is why I love riding in the first place. But I went back into the contest game and into that same pattern for a few more years of self-imposed frustration, after which I quit riding again for like the sixth time. All that being said, the early contests (80’s and early 90’s) where huge in pushing me to progress and develop my skills to a level where I was able to learn the original tricks I came up with. I wouldn’t rule out me riding in contest again, but if I do it will be solely for the fun of it. I do owe a lot to contests and I think they have an important part in flatland.

This kind of a similar question, but I have always been curious on your opinion about, regarding aesthetics in riding, what I mean is your tricks are one hit tricks for the most part rather than a one minute combo? This kind of goes back to the X trials, I wonder if the judges didn’t know what to score?
I was always motivated to ride unlike anyone else and pushed myself to do so. I distinctly remember when front wheel and long link tricks became popular I intentionally started developing back wheel and one hit type stuff. To make myself feel good I just say I was so original they didn’t even know how to score my runs, ha ha. Maybe that was a small part of it or maybe the fact I was an old school rider and didn’t ride much like the current “norm” and they thought I was out of loop?

When I think about your riding, the phrase “less is more” springs to mind, with that being said, how do you know when a combo is finished? Is there a point where a combo is over done aesthetically?
I ride based on what I want to see, and for me I like bigger tricks or short creative flow stuff with a bigger trick mixed in. I mean if you’re at a contest watching a run and someone drops into a hitchhiker does a 360 kick flip and lands it perfect do you really want to see them go into a long front wheel clone link that you’ve seen a hundred times? That kills the moment for me and makes it less exciting.

Just for the record, how long have you been riding?
I’m pretty sure I started around 1983- 84. I started out racing bmx and doing some freestyle on my race bike. I saw Perry Mervar riding flat at a race and was blown away, I was in 100% after that.

Thats great! You grew up on the AFA contest circuit right? Do you think that formed a basis of what we see in your riding now, I’m talking about the macaronis, rolaids, multiple flails, all “classic” tricks that you have brought back from that era?
Yes I did and those were some great times, riding was so exciting then. Today you get videos uploaded everyday of people’s new stuff, back then you had to wait for their contest runs, it really brought the energy level way up. And yes those times are definitely a huge part of the rider I am today, my trick selection and the way I come up with new stuff.

Who were some of your favorite riders from that time period?
I have always been a huge fan of Dennis McCoy when he was really riding flatland, I totally modeled his riding style coming up and if you look at how I ride today, you can still see I ride very similar to him style wise. Kevin Jones really took it to the next level for me with his originality.

I kinda expected you to mention Gerry Smith to be honest, but you cant argue with those two riders!
Gerry Smith was definitely right up with those guys, as was Aaron Dull. However Dennis and Kevin were the main two I idolized at the time.

Who did you grow up riding with anyway?
I started riding freestyle with my friend Mike and met Perry Mervar and Jim Crafton shortly after. That’s when I got really into it. I rode with those two and Bill Nitschke for a couple years or so and then came in the AFA days. The obsession became full tilt around that time and Perry, Bill and I rode every day, all day for years.

Any good Perry Mervar stories?
I don’t think most people know that Perry began has a quarter pipe rider and was super good for the time period, in fact he was right up there with many of the pros at the time. When I met him he had already blow out his knee from doing a 3 foot out fakie air, which at the time was huge. I’ve seen him do 9 foot airs on a little 6 foot vert quarter back in the day. He could do 540s, no footed can cans, look-backs and most all the limb off variations. He quit riding vert because we all rode flatland and kick turn and he didn’t have anyone to ride vert with seriously. So he came into flat pretty fearless, which explains the Perry Doom jump and my favourite the split leg rolaid.

The 360 bike flips are over ten years old now, and untouched! There’s not many tricks you can say that about. And you have them dialled, I don’t think I ever saw you miss any! Tell me about this trick, the process of learning it you went through, & then getting it dialled?
That was the only trick I’ve ever learned that I didn’t really think would be possible going into it. I guess it had to be 1998 or so since I pulled it in the 99 X-games. I had already learned the 360 bike flip while holding the head tube and just had the thought of throwing it instead. I don’t really recall how long I worked on it or what took place before I pulled one, maybe because the time I pulled it was pretty monumental for me? As for getting it dialled, once I had learned to pull it, it was 99% mental.

What video parts have you done? And which are you most proud of?
I’d have to say the Throwback edit, it really is the only real edit I’ve ever personally planned and done. Everything else has just been me riding for a session and some person is there or asked to meet up to film for their own reasons. Even the Fight with Flight promo, I was asked to do it and agreed. I’d hadn’t rode in three months when I shot that, I rode the day before and totally sucked, luckily I was able to let go of my doubt and get some stuff done. Also I really like what Chad Johnston did with the X-Games footage in that one iNtrikat video too, that was super cool.

This is may sound like a random question, but have you ever been interviewed before? I don’t recall one…
I had a couple nice interviews in a French magazine called Soul back in the day and a magazine called Bmx Rider, no love from the States, ha ha…

Ah, thats right forgot about the BMX rider interview. Just wondering have you ever done multiples of that bike flip?
No, I had played with going backside caboose undertaker to wheelie out (Chad Degroot Baco style) but didn’t end up liking how it was feeling. I’ve played with a few ideas since but haven’t sat down on them.

Do you get support (sponsorship) off anyone these days?
These days I get flow from Revenge Industries for Revenge tires, MasterBlasterPlanet.com for bike parts and Kenny Powers DVDs and HDJ for T-shirts.

What about back in the day? What’s your sponsorship history?
I started with N-Orbit skate shop in the AFA days. After the X-Games in 99’ I was officially sponsored with some pay, incentives and travel by Puma shoes. Around that time I got flow from S&M, XS (for parts), then Odyssey a bit. I’ve gotten flow through the years from Evolution bikes (Troy McMurrary), Infinity bikes, was sponsored by Bulldog bikes for a while, got some flow on a Sick Child frame and finally my S&M LTF which I’m sure is what I’ll ride off into the sunset on.

Tell me about N Orbit? What is that?
N-Orbit was originally a skateboard shop then moved locations and added a skatepark. Perry Mervar, Bill Nitschke and myself did shows for them with the skate team around Indy. And of course we wore the N-Orbit flag back in the AFA days at the contests. It was an awesome place to hang out, ride and have good times with everyone. They had a King Of Vert contest there in the early 90’s and I’m pretty sure it was the first place Mat Hoffman ever did a vert ramp back flip at a contest.

Ah thats cool, that makes sense now, remember seeing a Trend video that Kevin Jones was on, Perry Mervar too, at that King of Vert contest, always wondered…I would imagine with the way you ride, big long rolling combos, you must need a lot of room to ride?
When I ride outside I prefer big areas, I like to roll. I’ve been tightening up my style a bit over the last few years a bit so I can enjoy myself in smaller areas.

I bet..What kind of music are you into?
Music has always gone hand in hand with riding for me, always been big into rap. These days I run Pandora radio stations in my head phones, Jedi Mind Tricks and Black Sabbath have been my riding stations of choice lately.

So almost everyone should know you are from Indianapolis, how’s the scene there? Who do you ride with?
There are some really good OG’s around here, Roman Schiavarelli, Andy Cooper, Chris Armstrong all ride daily as far as I know. I rarely ride with anyone since my riding time is so limited I prefer just to ride by myself and get down to business. Plus I don’t like working on new stuff around people, when I ride with others it’s more social. I think last year I had about 5 sessions with others. I don’t think I rode with the Coop last year but we hung out a couple times and I rode with Nitschke a few.

There seems to be real resurgence of old school videos right now, recently Gerry Smith Kansas AFA 88 uploaded plus countless others, I wondered what you felt about these videos appearing from your riding roots?
It’s great, many of them I was there so it brings up lots of cool memories. I could tell AFA era stories all day long.

Well with that being said, what would be your finest memory from the AFA days, either with yourself as a rider, or as a flatland fan?
There are so many, it’s hard to say. One of my favourite memories had to be at my first AFA contest in NJ when I got to watch McCoy ride and met him for the first time. We were in a mad house of a practice jam circle and I was watching him ride in total “dweeb” awe. He did a 3 or 4 no-touch hang-glider and rode back to the line-up, Right after I rode out and did 6 no-touch hang-gliders and pulled them. He came right over and congratulated me and we spoke about hang-gliders for a few minutes. It was really cool since I idolized him at the time and couldn’t believe I was riding the same area with him. Looking back on that story I always think how it must have looked, like I was trying to show him up. But for me it was my chance to get noticed by my favourite rider and luckily he was super cool and stoked for me. Later that day I took my first qualifying run after some guy I never heard of named Ross Smith, I was blown away, felt light years behind and totally gelled my run.

How has the scene changed in Indy from when you were growing up?
After high school in 89’ during the later part of the AFA days, we had fun but we were psycho serious about practicing. Every day was a contest of some sort in the parking lot and 8 hours per day became the standard. I can tell you Perry is one of the most driven and competitive people I’ve ever known. I’m pretty competitive but my natural state is more the type who goes with the flow and let’s things evolve instead of using force. Perry was always pushing, always challenging and always wanting to practice something over and over. I’d stay the night at his house, wake up around 10am and he was in the street in front of his house riding since 7am. In fact around 1992 (I think?) I got so burnt out on riding that I told myself I was done and told everyone I quit, the release of pressure was unbelievable. The scene now is pretty much guys who like to ride bikes and have fun doing it, ha ha…

How serious you talking there, I know recently its well documented, certain contest pros do there combos 5 in a row,are we talking a similar kind of thing?
I never did the 5 times in a row thing, not sure if Bill or Perry did. I would pull my stuff 10x per day then practice my entire run 5x all the way through. Then the rest of the day was learning new stuff, it seemed like there was so much new stuff coming out back in those days. It was really just the time put in to develop skills, we where super dialled. I remember Perry and I got into this first trick of the day thing and how long we could keep the streak going. We did a double decade as our first trick every day. I think he had the record, pulled as first trick of the day for about a week and half.

How often do you ride these days?
It kind of varies, after the Throwback edit I took some weeks off. I’ve been back on the daily for bit. I just ride for fun or when I’m inspired. Sometimes I just ride and call it a cardio workout, normally if I’m not feeling it for whatever reason I won’t do it. I’ve been able to overcome the obsession thankfully.

What’s a typical day like for you Steve? Do you work? Your a parent right?
I keep busy running my business which does credit card processing for businesses throughout the United States. I super enjoy spending time with my two daughters and my wife, we are like a little four person crew and have a blast together.

Does your riding slow down in the winter, or do you have an indoor spot in Indianapolis?
I ride just as much in the winter, I have a deep 2 car garage so I can walk out and ride whenever. I break up my stuff in pieces in the garage then put it all together when I get outside, it works great for me.

Do you think flatlanders like structure, and perhaps thats why those AFA contest were rammed with riders, whereas nowadays it seems less organised and in turn less riders?
I think to a point, I’m personally not a big fan of  how contests are run these days for the most part. The super small areas, the DJ style mixed music, the crazy announcer run around style and the battle style format. Maybe I’m old school but larger sized areas would be better suited for “freestyle” riding. Getting to pick your music is rad because it lets the
rider dictate the vibe of the run, music selection was always huge, I remember what song was played in so many of the pro runs back in the day.

I hear you on that! I’m always curious what different techniques riders use to get consistent at contests, back when you were competing, I barely ever saw you miss a trick, what methods or routine did you have to get so consistent?
I was often dialled in practice ,but had trouble in my runs, I normally made contests too much of big deal and created so much pressure for myself. Coming up I did the 10x per day thing plus just practicing my run all the way through. The best I ever rode was the 99’ X-Games and I really switched it up for that comp. It always frustrated me on the 10x per day thing when I would get “stuck” on a trick I had dialled. Like I go through and pull 6 of the same trick in 10 tries then for whatever reason I’d have to spend 30 tries to pull number 7. I realized after having this happen I was creating negative mental habits around the particular trick. In the example I had a trick totally dialled and I now I “think” I have problems on it even though I had it dialled for months. So I did the “if I pull a trick the 1st time” I was done with it, if not I’d do it at least 3 times in the session, but not with back to back attempts. If I miss the first time pull attempt I’d go to something else and come back for a 1st time pull later in the session. It was amazing how much more dialled I became, I literally created the habit of pulling my tricks the first time. Now this will only work after you pretty much have the trick already dialled from mass practice. I pulled 3 no steps run in a row in by far the biggest and highest pressure contest I ever rode in using that. My last 2 X-games runs of the comp fell apart, because I basically gave up, didn’t’ care and was mentally finished after all the controversy. What’s weird is I rode 3 comps after the X-Games and just went back to the 10x thing, wtf?

It’s been amazing to catch up with you Steve, I could sit here all day and talk about the AFA days, maybe a few pints sometime, to close this interview, do you have shootouts to give?
This has been really cool, thanks Effraim! Shout outs for the Throwback video specifically would be Kip Williamson for flying to Indiana to film then putting it all together and the support, Bill Nitschke for shooting the last trick, Burd for working with me to try and pick up some footage, Todd Carter for his part with the graphics, Sean McKinney for the tires and always my wife Mary and my daughters Ileana and Madeline. JA.

Thank you Steve! Peep Steve’s amazing “Throwback edit one more time!

THROWBACK – Steve Mulder x MASTER BLASTER BMX FLATLAND edit 2011 from MASTER BLASTER PLANET on Vimeo.

Dane Beardsley Offline Interview

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Great words from Dane in his Offline interview….

“Flatland (like almost everything else) is now an online popularity contest. The internet has changed everything so much and all of us need to be aware that we need to be doing all these things in our lives for a greater purpose than posting it online. Flatland is what you make of it. Make it something special.” Hit the link yo!

http://offline.hu/bmx/2012/01/bigflatview-dane-beardsley

Jody Temple interview!

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Intro & Interview by Effraim.
Photos: By Kent Pearson.


This trick never gets old, no handed gliding switch foot dump truck.

Back in November as I sat planning content for the opening month of the year, a few names popped up that I thought deserved an interview and of course with that, so much deserved coverage. Jody Temple fits this category, when I think about Jody’s video parts, “Same thing daily”, “Video Name”, “Flatcrap” and Intrikat “Background” spring to mind, I think to myself how can this guy be underrated, he’s on some of the best videos? Perhaps the answer lies in his trick choice…and also I think thats the appeal in his riding, Jody is paving his own way, and his unique composition of tricks makes his riding aesthetically standout from many others, without further a due lets get right into this well deserved interview!

Introduce yourself Jody, where you from, your age, how long riding?
My name’s Jody Temple, I grew up in a small town called Hartwell, that’s 45 miles from Athens, 36 years young and riding since ’88.

Tell me about the Athens Georgia scene Jody? 
There’s been a flatland scene here for well over 25 years.  I grew up in the shadows of Kent Pearson and Mark Bell.  Mark had a beautiful natural grace on a bike and the riding I got to see from him when I was 13 is still on a high level in my mind; he was one of the guys who learned hitchhikers within a week or two of us hearing about it, and he was the inventor of the Do-or-Die, which is a framestand jump to barride that Martin Aparijo stole and got in Freestylin’ mag doing a how to.  He got hurt real bad in ’92 and never really got back into riding, which is a real shame, I think he could have really had an impact.  He had tricks that were way ahead, fire hydrant decades to pedal wheelies to death and dumptrucks, and he did 180 fudgepacker varials years before I saw Wilhelm do them.  
But it was me and Kent who really loved BMX.  He grew up 30 miles closer to Athens and moved there to ride with Mark full time and go to school in ’91.  I spent every weekend there from then on riding in the semi-infamous Tate Student Center parking lot.  Kent took me to my first ever big contest, the 3rd ever BS contest in Daytona in Sept ’92, my mom even wrote me a sick note so I could skip school!  Met a guy named Darren Hough there who moved to Athens in ’94 to go to UGA, then two months later a guy who really changed the scene saw us riding for Sunshine Cycles at the Christmas parade:  Gregg Overstreet.  We would become inseparable riding partners for the next few years.  I actually dropped out of college to move to Athens and have the 1st ever BMX house here in ’95.  It was a total disaster but still real fun.  But thanks to Gregg we met Kerry Gatt and Brian Tunney around ’96 and that really started what I consider to be Athens getting on the flatland map.  After that we became friends with the hardcore crews from North Carolina, Tennessee and  New Jersey and went to some really great contests that Play and Useless clothes put on, which is how I met Terry Adams in ’97 at a contest in Myrtle Beach.  In ’98 Gregg wanted to go to the BS contest that was held in St. Petersburg FL.  I couldn’t afford to go so Gregg told me he’d pay my way, with some assistance from Duncan Gore.  That was a fortuitous event because I got to personally witness what I think is one of the most important events in the history of flatland.  Kent and Gregg were putting on the 1st ever Twilight contest in Athens so we went armed with flyers for it.  Chad and Amy Johnston hopped in sketch ass little pickup truck and drove to Florida from Cali with the intent to make a video of their travels.  Nathan Penonzek went on a road trip that he’s still on and Martti Kuoppa was on a mission to reinvent flatland.  We all wound up at the same hotel and they all came to our contest, which afterwards the sessions went down in a sketchy warehouse where Nate and Martti killed it in a tiny area that was some of the best riding in InTRIKat’s return video, Linkt.  I also had the total honor of getting a clip in there. I always wondered where InTRIKat would have gone if they’d not all met in the same fashion.  Nathan wound up becoming a great friend and used Athens as a homebase, while he was traveling the country and the world killing it, and also brought Viki (Gomez) and Simon (O’Brien) to Athens.  
But nothing lasts forever.  Gregg just sorta fell out of the scene, but fortunately Jon Dowker, AKA The Duke took over the role as our main ambassador, then Darin Wright moved here followed by Shayne and Roman when they graduated high school and Andrew Wickham moved here just cuz he’d heard there was a scene back in ’04.  Dane moved here after he graduated college in fall of ’06, and we all are very good at having very good times.


The obligatory mugshot.

How did you get into flatland riding?
I originally wanted to skate, but my parents wouldn’t spend the money for it.  A friend of mine in 6th grade told me boards were cheaper in BMX mags so i bought a few issues of BMX Plus but never really looked at them.  For some reason one day a photo of Joe Gruttola doing a no hand freak squeak caught my eye and it was on after that, all I wanted was to get a flatland bike.
I was curious if you would mention Nathan and Martti, thats the first I remember the Athens Georgia scene, lot of history there for sure, moving on…. What is flatland to you?
Flatland simultaneously saved and ruined my life.  I think flatland and street skating say something, but I’m not sure what exactly.  I always thought it was kind of like drawing pictures in the sand, you spend so much for something so fleeting and ephemeral, yet I think it’s one of the most beautiful human expressions ever.  I think it’s more art and expression than sport.

Anyone who has seen Dane’s videos will know your riding, tell me about the process of filming a video part, do you have Dane come out to film, or are you guys all filming separately?
Shayne Khajenoori and Roman Wilson probably did the most for me in Flatcrap and Video Name since they lived here then.  After Dane moved here in ’06 he pretty much has been my exclusive filmer.  I definitely enjoy filming him too, he’s always got secret things I don’t get to see except when he’s ready to film them.  I usually make lists of tricks and after a bunch seem pretty sure of happening I want to film a part.  But some of the best things I’ve ever filmed were accidents and not planned the way I originally wanted;  other times it’s hard to get stuff filmed and I’ve accepted things that weren’t as good as they could have been, but that just the way it is…

If you had to pick your favourite time period in flatland what would that be and why?
I definitely don’t live in the past, but I think the most happening times for me started with Baco 6 in late ’94 up until Baco 8 in ’99. Sandwiched between there are Ell’s great video’s, especially Release the Grease,  the entire go to Cali movement to be a flatland bum, the Flatland Fugitives, and Andrew Faris.  I still remember getting the Prop’s with his interview, wow.  SO much happened in that 5 year period that influenced me forever, not just the riding but the hardcore approach to flatland and a commitment to some sort of lifestyle that had riding at it’s center.  People who rode flat were trying  to do their own things and have stand out, original tricks alongside being committed to living the endless summer lifestyle.


Love how steep Jody is on this Xft halfpacker, skills!

How’s your bike set up these days?
Pretty f’in sweet.  19″ toptube and a chrome front end, still rock 48 radial.  I really dig the InTRIKat bars and thank Shayne and Darin for spreading the gospel of Comet tires.   

I noticed that your crew in Athens largely stay away from pumping, theres a lil’ on halfpackers and stuff, I was curious if that was a conscious effort to stay away from it aesthetically?
I have always made a conscious effort to avoid what I consider the trendiest or cliched tricks, especially after the turbine steam almost monopolized the flatland style.  I’m still curious as to why a trick Chase did in ’97 or ’98, became the most copied thing ever in all of flat, yet so many other tricks were never copied by others.  I stole Andrew Faris’ hang 5 flips and to this day I have never seen any other person do that trick except me, and I still think it’s such a cool trick. On the flip side I recently made up a new switch that requires the steam turbine technique so I’ve been working on that and found out why it’s probably so popular, it’s really fun to do and teaches some good bike control I didn’t really have before.  So for the last few weeks I’ve been doing more on turbine steams and McCircles, but I decided to use them as salt and pepper on my riding instead of being my bread and butter.  Inside 1/2 packers are a favourite of mine and it’s almost required to pump those.  I think here we’re just committed to creating our own style and being original in our approaches as much as possible.  Me, Kent Pearson, Darren Hough, Gregg O, the Duke, Shayne K, Roman Wilson, Darin Wright, Andrew Wickham and Dane were or are the staples of the scene here and everyone of those guys rides his own version of flatland without there being an ‘Athens’ style.

I was doing a bit of research for the interview and I noticed that you always used to ride in the annual Toronto contest, but you don’t compete much elsewhere, are you more interested in the video part side of things than contest riding?
Going to those contests taught me I had no business in the competitive side of flatland unfortunately.  Turns out I finally figured out that I was having horrible anxiety attacks when I try to ride in front of other people and I’ve been taking steps to have a more positive mental outlook instead of falling into these terrible depressions and anxieties that contests and jams used to provoke.  I’m just not consistent enough to ‘practice’ for those kind of events, but now that I know myself better I’m kinda looking forward to maybe just going to a contest and busting out and not worrying about what others might think.  Doing new tricks for myself and to film is much more interesting to me.  I’m more of a quantity over quality rider, I’d rather have a 1000 sketchy tricks under my belt than being super consistent at 3 super combo’s, but that’s just my approach and could see how that wouldn’t appeal to everyone.

Totally agree with you there Jody, the chase for new tricks is a beautiful thing, it’s the most satisfying when you ride to your spot with no idea what you will learn then come home with 2-3 new tricks, I always found that beautiful and addictive. It’s hard to explain to people outside of flatland what we do and why. You’ve already talked about being in the flatland scene for a long time, who are some of your favourite riders?
Chad DeGroot, Andrew Faris, Chase, Viki, Yanmar, Simon, Michael Sommer, Akira Okamura, Dane, Tunney, Aaron Behnke, Cory Fester, Dez, Markus Redlberger, & Pete Olsen all come to mind, that kinda runs the gamut of then to now.  

I always looked at your riding as very unique, especially in this modern era, your clips, video parts stand out, lot of unique switches, what’s your opinion about the modern era of flatland riding?
It’s pretty rare that anything in flatland catches my eye anymore, and I still think that’s from a lack of effort to do new tricks by a lot of riders.  I spend waaay more time watching skateboarding, cuz that’s is where I see so much more of a unique approach to the concept of shredding.  Of course there’s still incredible, unique and original flat out there, but there seems to be an inordinate amount copycat riding coming from incredible riders with great ability and no imagination. I don’t understand how so many people don’t want to stand out.  Of  course this isn’t a morality problem and I don’t look down on people who ride like that, I just think the world of flatland would be far richer if some people would take their incredible abilities and couple them with their imagination and use them to stand out instead of disappearing into the world of already saw that 6 six years ago.


Xft ankledeath karl kruzer, it’s called that for good reason!

It’s that old saying “dare to be different” Jody, its interesting that you mention skateboarding, and I hear you on what you are saying because I watch a lot for skateboarding, but a lot of times, I find myself thinking skateboarding is largely the same tricks, but done bigger, done bigger sets, different obstacles, we don’t have that in flatland do we? Skateboarding is a lot to do with style, theres a million kids doing frontside flips but they wont ever look like Andrew Reynolds for example, whats your take on style in flatland, theres the Rebel Jam coming up, and I believe they are judging style there?
There are definitely some incredibly stylish riders out there, I don’t think that’s an area that is lacking. Even if someone’s tricks don’t stand out often their style does. Plus it’s something you can work on; if I see a trick and i don’t like my style I make an effort to smooth it out. As far as being a category in a contest, that might be tricky. We all like different styles in our lives, whether it be clothing, music, tricks etc, so at the end of the day it’s just one’s own individual choice, which makes me wonder how anyone judges contests ‘objectively’, I don’t really think it’s possible. I think when I’ve judged I’ve always used style as one of the criteria though, ya gotta look good out there. As far as skating go’s, I really just like watching creative people express themselves, especially in unique terrains. One must always look for new creative opportunities.

 How many video parts for the record have you filmed, and which are you most proud of?
I had one clip in Intrikat’s Linkt, then sections in Background, Neon Media’s Control Issue and Impaqued, a couple of appearances in Flatland Manifesto, and Dane’s video’s, Flatcrap, Video Name, and SameThingDaily’s 1 & 2.   Background is probably the one I’m most proud of, that was such a heavy hitting video and to be included with the roster that was in that one was such an honor, plus me and Anthony Durbano were pretty close back then and having our parts back to back made us both stoked.  Thanks Chad, not just for including me, but everything you’ve done for flatland.

Intrikat and Chad have done so much for the progression of flatland riding, This leads onto my next question, are you working on any new video parts? Is the chase for new tricks and progression what drives you riding wise?
I’ve got a pretty long list of tricks to do so I’m gonna work on an edit for this interview.  Pretty much having more than five combo’s and finding a good song makes me wanna film.  The search for new tricks is what has always kept me going back into the parking lot day after day and year after year, plus the fact that somedays I can’t imagine doing anything better than riding BMX.  It can be maddening sometimes ,but when you have a good day riding it makes it all worth it.  Everything has a price.

I guess the following questions I have for you are about aesthetics. I don’t really ask these normally, but I feel like you think about the aesthetics more than do, so I’ll fire away Jody!

Big combo or small combo?  
Both are fine, long combo’s are great if they’re not repetitive and flow well, but short clever combo’s sometimes stand out too.  

Videopart or contest win?  
For me a videopart, but if I could rule the dance floor I know winning a contest feels good as well.

Two scuffs or a circle pumping to set up?  
Depends, two scuffs is better than five circles of fighting and pumping, but if one can shorten the pumps and make it look good then I’d have to give it to the latter.   

How do you view riding with brakes in this modern era of brakeless riding?  
I think I usually sort of separate the two in my head as two different styles.  My favourite riding is usually by people with brakes, because I think there are more technical possibilities, however I’ve seen Matthias in person several times and what he can do at his best without brakes is an unholy sight to behold.

If you had to pick a video to show someone what flatland is, what video would you show them?
My mom sent me Danny Macaskill’s video’s and a cousin once sent her some artistic cycling video’s.  I forwarded the Hyperspeed Johnny and the Destruction Kid video to them, in my opinion that’s one the highest level video’s ever.  Moto’s 3 minute combo or the pedal 10 edit’s would be good choice to start with too.  

flatmatters edit from jodytemple on Vimeo.

If you missed Jody’s flatmatters exclusive, here it is again!

Interesting choice Jody! A few readers sent in some awesome questions, lets get into a few that were sent in!

Why get a degree in English? What made you want to finish school?
Quite honestly I got an English degree because it was easy for me.  I grew up on the same street as my local library and was practically raised there, plus my mom is a grade school teacher, so she didn’t have any trouble getting me to read because it was something I really enjoyed.  I dropped out of college when I was 20 to move to Athens to solely ride flat, and it was during this sabbatical that I decided an English degree was a good fit for my intellectual interests.  I was particularly interested in medieval poetry and philosophy, so that’s the area I concentrated on: Chaucer, Boethius and Milton. 

How are playing chess and flatland similar?
They are both extremely technical and at the highest level deceptively simple looking.  I think I always liked flatland because of the technical complexities and a complicated game of chess is mentally similar to me.  They’re extremely challenging and I like swimming upstream. Chess can be just as exhausting as flatland after a difficult struggle as well; the uncertainty in the middle of the struggle causes one often to find great resources you don’t know you have.  The feeling of wiggling out of a hairy position is as satisfying as pulling a schwo combo you should have fallen on but didn’t.  

How did you tear your scrotum riding flatland?
I learned hitchhikers before death trucks when I was in 9th grade, so my bars were quite torn up from that.  My friend Jamie Holbrook came out to skate with me one afternoon and I wanted to show him that I’d learned the 2nd step of death trucks, where you do the peg wheelie then straddle the handlebars, but i couldn’t get on top of the head tube just yet.  I fell forward in this position, my bike landed on it’s side and I landed right on top of the jagged end of my bars, with sweatpants on.  I just remember the warmth of the blood trickling down my leg.  Jamie took me home and my mom took me to the ER.  Turns out I only cut the skin on my scrotum, which is quite thick so that you can get away with these things.  I got 7 stitches and a hell of a love scar…

Time to wrap this up Jody! Any final shoutouts?  
I’d like to thank my parents & sister for putting up w/ my strange lifestyle choices; all the members of the ATHFAM past & present: Kent Pearson, Darren Hough, Gregg Overstreet, John Davis, Josh Pontzer, Matt Potter, Scot McElwaney, Britt Brzoza, Neal Burton, Jeff Gunn, Dave Eidson, Jon Dowker, Darin Wright, Shayne Khajehnoori, Roman Wilson, Andrew Wickham and some guy named Dane. My friends in BMXland: Brian Tunney, Aaron Behnke, Andy Cooper, Scott Nagy & a shout out to the Austin crew, you guys took real good care of me last year; Chad Johnston at S&M for helping me out with some much needed stuff; Effraim for giving me this opportunity; my civilian friends Hughie, CJDub’s, Virginia, & Amanda; all my homies in Athens; Turkey the kitty and flatlanders the world over for the endless inspiration….
 
Thanks Jody, that was awesome catching up with you!

FlatWebTV Episode #13: Season 2 premier! Martti Kuoppa, Iligan Flat Crew, and more

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FlatWebTV Episode #13: Season 2 premier! Martti Kuoppa, Iligan Flat Crew, and more from Everyday Paradise on Vimeo.

“In the Season 2 premier we show how the Philippine tragedy affects everyone, even the flatland community. The new issue of A.R.T. is examined and we dig right into the recent announcement of Martti Kuoppa’s retirement with an interview with the man himself.

Hear from Martti on the decision, riders that influenced him as well as some big news for JungleRider and FlatWebTV for 2012.”