Category Archives: Must Watch edits!

Here is where you can find the best, must watch edits!

Must Watch – Akira Okamura / JYU BMX

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It’s that time of year where banging edits are few and far between, no one wants to let the cat out the bag too early. Akira Okamura chimes to his own beat, and boy did this edit hit me hard from the get go.

Laced to a flowing Libro track, Akira hits us with a whole bunch of new moves and that signature style we all love. From the opening line at 00:04 hopping rocket style to xft backwards peg wheelie cranked into inside switch-b he had my attention, no long drawn out intro straight to the point.

The two footed dump truck jump two footed ice cream at 00:36 is a perfect switch that I don’t recall seeing like that, execution top notch! I’m glued to this wondering what is up next, and then BOOM a couple of lines later!

My favourite of the edit, 180 backwards two footed bunny hop body twist with a quick x-up one hand to gliding junkyard at 1:16, absolutely beautiful! Let’s discuss the rest on the site there is so much detail to take in, what’s your favourite line? In a week where politics in BMX threatens to split us apart, this is a welcome edit! Thank you Akira! Wow!

Must Watch – James McGraw / New Style

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NEW STYLE from James McGraw on Vimeo.

At the age of 48 years old, the original Scooter King James McGraw continues to progress and digs deep for his latest edit entitled “New Style”. James has been promising this was going to be his best edit yet and he delivers, two combos stand out for me include the inside switch b pivot g-roll spinning gerator body varial to inside spinning switch b back to xft peg wheelie back to inside switch b body pivot to spinning gerator body varial to spinning inside switch b at the 1:03 mark. The excitement is genuine, and I love his passion for flatland. When you ride with the man that passion is contagious and fuels the session.

The second combo that stood out for me is at the 1:45 mark, inside switch b dumped into ice cream to two footed backyard pivot spinning g-roll kick inside b back to xft peg wheelie pivot spinning g-roll spinning gerator body varial back to that sick scuffless spinning inside switch b. If James can match this level of difficulty in the contest arena he will knocking on the door, James has been sweating over a “Must Watch” for years and I’m happy to finally say the man well and truly deserves it. Go watch the edit for the rest, I just highlighted my favourites. James is an inspiration to us, riding better than ever at 48! Think about that, thank you for sharing this one James!

Must Watch – Jean William Prevost / Made in Shenzhen

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Made in Shenzhen from IGI BMX on Vimeo.

This edit/documentary struck a real chord with me, here we have a man at the top of his game, Jean William Prevost and he has the humbleness to say something like, “Hey I am going to show everyone where I came from and how I got to where I am right now”. I always hear people say, what edit would you show people to say, this is flatland. Right now, I would show them this, the mix of narrative insight, amazing editing skills, and the killer riding tick all the boxes. Dub does what he does with great responsibility, and the forklift grabbing the tyre one handed at the 6:01 mark is flat out incredible not to mention everything he does. This is a great addition to the flatland culture, thank you Dub!

Must Watch – James White / Critical Beatdown

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Critical beatdown from James White on Vimeo.

James White is like flatland royalty, so when you see on Facebook that the man is dropping a new edit with a classic Dorkin’ reference to boot you know it’s going to be good. This one hit me in a different way than previous “Me summer 2016 bits” and “The adventures of James White on the wheels of steel” did, James hit a spot that I feel has been missing in flatland edits over the past few years despite regularly posting on instagram these lines remain fresh.

The emotion I got out of watching this was like a Dorkin’ part watched for the first time with no idea what’s going to go down, mixing all the the flatland eras James has gone through into a 3:38 edit and have this real hype quality that James seems to always have. And the major factor James always seems to communicate is that this was pure fun and returns t the feeling of watching a video part we used to pay for back in the day…

As always with Must watch edits I like to talk about what stood out to me:

– The backwards xft peg wheelie full scuffless gerator body varial at 00:43.

– The triple two footed and dump truck walkarounds at 1:21 and 1:46. This is years of riding to get these so smooth, amazing control!

– The no handed sliding hitchhiker (what do you call that?) to no handed pivot out at 2:26, creating something new out something old. Pure class.

– Full body varial back wheel sliding half lash at 2:53 in the wet no less.

– My favourite line of the edit without a doubt, the whiplash body varial whiplash out at 3:12 is one of the best tricks of the year hands down!

– And the ender, is pure skills. Opposite dump pivot xft backwards ice cream pivot regular dump out at 3:23.

Hitting the rewind again, great stuff from Whiteski!

Must Watch! – Master Of Creativity Top 5 Final edit

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Like Martti Kuoppa, the visionary of the Master of Creativity said yesterday on his podcast with Scott O’Brien. MOC is a different kind of riding from contest riding, and rather than consistency, riders are killing themselves for a trick they might only land once and try to capture it! The top 5 level was off the chart, I wanted to highlight what I liked about each entry.

Sietse Van Berkel: 1:55 locked in his original side packer position, Sietse takes the pedal steam standing on the top tube one handed to new levels. Absolutely incredible, go back and look at the balance point!

Sakis Doumas: I like what Sakis did here, here’s my banger and thats it! And wow, what a banger it was. Hitch dark side to knee fudegpacker, and considering the difficulty coming off the knees in that position, relatively clean exiting out! Much respect Sakis!

Lee Musselwhite: Without question I think this is Lee’s best work yet, really stoked he stepped up for the MOC finals. My personal favourite’s were the Phoenix body varial to fork wheelie at 1:10 and the backwards flail boomerang to no handed backwards crack that follows! Absolutely amazing!

Owen Bohn: Owen’s ender has had us all talking, the lawn to bike flip one handed at 00;38, executed so clean! I am excited for this guy’s future, and on a personal level the opening whip round to crack pivot hang ten pivot xft steam all in one motion was beautiful, one of the lines of the year! Respect Owen!

John Yull: Despite some bike troubles, John Yull still dug deep for the MOC Finals and continued his amazing level throughout the competition and much like Scott O’Brien said yesterday on his podcast. He dedicated his year to this event, and it showed. My favourite clips were the foot jam decade frame stand manual to stemade at 00:26, the no handed decade to opposite decade at 00:18 followed by switch foot one handed perverted rolaid that follows! Congratulations to John Yull for taking the win in the most progressive contest of the year, and all the finalists for progressing our art form so much, you can’t put a price on that….

Must Watch – Roman Schiavarelli / Finished

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I love surprises here on Flatmattersonline, and we start a big week off for the year with this creative banger from Roman Schiavarelli! Roman for as long as I can remember, has been one of the most creative riders around (would love to have seen Roman in the Master of Creativity contest), lots of interesting concepts in this edit and tricks with no names…. As always with Must Watch edits I like to highlight what I liked about it, everything he does is awesome, but here’s what I liked!

– The no footed steam stall one handed at 00:33!

– X hand hang nothing sat on top tube at 00:51!

– The handstand front wheel balance with the back wheel off floor, simple idea that really bought a smile to my face at 1:08!

– No footed Wheelie stall at 1:27!

Must Watch – Quentin Pelorson / XTen

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Nice simple concept for this new amazing edit out of Quentin Pelorson, who celebrates ten years of riding with ten xft tricks. But as you can see by the Must Watch tag it is so much more than just ten xft tricks that doesn’t do this justice. So here is a break down of a couple lines that stood out for me:

– No handed xft hang ten turbine at 00:47, never seen that done before.

– No handed inside karl steam pivot spinning xft crackpacker turbine pivot spinning hang ten line at 3:45 is unreal and so clean.

– And the banger line at 4:39, xft halfpacker turbine round the back to xft halfpacker other side, I have talked about this one for years, never seen it done! Wow, mind blown. Flatland just went up a few notches, thanks to Quentin Pelorson. Happy ten years anniversary Quentin!

Must Watch – Joris Bretagnolles and the story behind the two footed pedal caboose stubble duck

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The news of Joris Bretagnolles pulling this new banger, two footed pedal caboose stubble duck broke a week or so ago, now you get too see how it went down for the first time. With subtitles for all the english speaking people, this is different than my usual Must watch tag. But as I always say, they are no rules to getting the tag just a feeling I get when I watch the video. This video struck a different chord with me, great to see the background to it, 8 years in the making! Go watch it and congratulations Joris!

Repost: Must Watch – Matthias Dandois / The Flat Side Of Things 4

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* Matthias Dandois got in contact this week, to let me know Flat Side of Things 4 got taken down due to copyright reasons. So Matthias loaded up his amazing section again with the raw sound. This is certainly worth a repost and of course a rewatch! In related news, Matthias let me know that Flat Side of Things 5 will drop in August and he is already three tricks into filming….

Matthias Dandois digs deep in this amazing “The Flat Side Of Things 4” filmed on the road in between shows and contests in Filmed in Paris, Cologne, Huntington Beach and Hossegor with a tripod and a smartphone.

As always with Must Watch edits I like to highlight some of my favourite parts…

00:26: the fastplant 180 line that ends with an amazing signature MD spinning switch handed one handed steam step to crack!

1:46: the body english on the pumping no handed halfpacker whip to halfpacker out just to seal the deal! Absolutely unreal, this one defies all physics!

2:54: Steam jump over frame to tea kettle glide into opposite xft halfpacker pivot spinning hitch, love the foot positioning to make the last pivot switch smoothly!

3:26: steam jump backwards spinning frame tomahawk 360 varial to crack! No words needed!

3:50: possibly my favourite line of the edit! Rolling front yard turbine no handed 360 boomerang to right side halfpacker, been waiting to see this one! Wow!!

4:10: and the banger is absolutely ridiculous. Matthias just one upped his best trick banger from the Bike days, adding a pendulum so the crazy jump from xft coasting backyard, pushing it further!

Of course all the tricks are bangers, there were a few of my favourites! Pretty sure this one will be doing the rounds for the next few weeks, top stuff Matthias! Let it be said a proper athlete, that spends his year on the road, competes at the highest level and is still pushing out the video parts and take our sport/artform up a level! Merci
Matthias, today is a great day!

Must Watch – Rob Ridge / Might be something after all

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A saturday night treat from one of my favourite riders of all time, Rob Ridge. Rob began his riding career riding mostly flatland and has more lately taken what he learnt on flatland to the mini ramp and what he does is fresh! Undertaker taps, 360 lawnmower taps, countless impossible tailwhip nose pick combos, stalled no handed one footed nose pick to tail whip nose pick variations out and much more. Stop reading my description and enjoy this one, BMX at it’s finest!