Decade Anthology: Wiper-Opp Decade from scott powell on Vimeo.
Day 6 in the Must Watch Decade Anthology video series by Scott Powell. Today is my favourite variation so far, Opposite windshield wiper to decade, both ways for good measure. Mind blowing!
Decade Anthology: Brakeless Backside Decade from scott powell on Vimeo.
We are up to day 5 in Scott Powell’s Must Watch Decade Anthology series, backside decades with a brake are hard enough. But brakeless… So good!
Decade Anthology: Un-Decade from scott powell on Vimeo.
With time differences and all that, I am a little late posting day 3 of Scott Powell’s amazing Decade Anthology. And today we have a unique single decade variation, the un-decade!
Triple Opposite Decade from scott powell on Vimeo.
Scott Powell’s decade anthology has most certainly got people talking both publicly and privately. Today, day 2 and Scott shows off a fire hydrant to triple decade, regular triples are still a big deal?! Well, this is opposite, that is crazy hard! Respect due!
The ORB from scott powell on Vimeo.
Last week we published the trailer to Scott Powell’s Decade Anthology project, today we have the first in the series. Scott has been stacking clips for a long time, and rather than clips being lost in the overload of decade variations. He has taken an interesting approach and is releasing them one by one, and focussing on each move rather than a long edit. Great concept, I really liked the multiple takes on the double upside down. Here is what Scott had to say:
“Months ago I set out on a journey to compile some of the most advanced variations that I could do of a BMX trick named “Decade.” . After months filled with obstacles: trips, shows, work, injuries, and operating Chenga, I finally completed my project — The Decade Anthology. Due to the volume of variations I captured on video, I am releasing them in a series rather than one large edit. We embark with a throwback that I first created/pulled 16 years ago; in March of 2001 — The ORB.”
Decade Anthology: teaser 3 from scott powell on Vimeo.
In this day and age of instagram and social media, footage can often get whored out and it doesn’t get the respect it deserves.
Sitting on footage is always a tough one, and I have respect for anyone that can do it until they are happy enough to release their footage with that fear that someone will drop what they have been working on for however long. I am sure you all reading this as flatlanders will know exactly what I am talking about. I don’t have the exact timeline, but I would say Scott has been collecting clips for at least the last year and half working on his “Decade Anthology” part, it is also easy to dismiss this as just decades, when you look deeper there is a lot more going on than just one technique.
With that said, the wait is almost over for the final part that I have been itching to see over the past year. Teaser 3 does not disappoint, infact it begs the question what the hell does he drop in the final part?
Personal Standouts for me:
The opening fire hydrant triple decade with brakes (00:33), and brakeless version at 1:22, the opposite fire hydrant double decade again brakes and brakes versions at 00:39 and 1:16. The multiple upside down decade line is executed perfectly at 1:40, not to mention the fire hydrant brakeless triple decade at 1:22 begs the question is Scott sitting on a quad?!
Hell of a lot of skill an effort has gone into perfecting the skills you just witnessed, respect to Scott Powell for this one! Hitting the replay, I forget to mention the Applecrate to peg to decade without touching the frame, I recall only ever seeing one other person do that, RIP Paul Palmer. Aside from the tricks, this is really well put together, hitting the rewind. What a great start to the week!!
Another treat for you on the last sunday of January! This ticks the box for a Must Watch in a different way, really nice to see Lee combine his originality, difficulty and now consistency. Five signature combos laid down in one take! We will see more “One take” edits through the year? Bar raised!
RAW 10 from NUAGE BMX on Vimeo.
We are starting off the week with an absolute treat from Matthieu Bonnecuelle, ten years of his riding from 2005-2015! At just over 40 minutes long of raw clips, it’s time to grab a cuppa and enjoy one of the most creative riders on the planet at work. The progression throughout the years is inspiring to watch, I got a great feeling watching Matthieu just experiment with an open canvas and it is interesting to watch his creative process over the years. Here are some of standouts for me:
From the earlier years 2005-2009, watching contest footage from Circle Cow at 00:20 with basic moves through to bringing original moves like the step in kick pedal death truck at 7:37, you really get a sense that Matthieu experiments with all styles to get where he is today. Great to see in a rider so young.
Fast forward to 2012, and you really see a huge step in progression. At the 10:40 Double fork lash, that I don’t think I ever saw before. Just amazing!
A year later, and perhaps Matthieu’s most pivotal year in progression and creativity! There’s so much to talk about it is difficult to pin everything down without writing an essay. I really liked the backwards double steamboat whiplashes, another NBD at the 10:49 mark, this quickly follows with an Alexis Desolneux esque x-hand backwards hang 5 to backwards facing messiah backwards whiplash out at 11:03. At 11:25, x-hand backwards facing whiplash! This still hits hard now!
At 14:40, we see the no handed whiplash out of nowhere, theres not really a trick before it where you see this coming?!
15:21: In front of bars multiple whiplash turbine line, which of course has now been taking to new levels by one of his friends Thomas Noyer.
16:40: The much talked about double no handed whiplash (we are now in the Heresy era), that has opened the door to so many possibilities.
2014. What you may or not notice throughout the video is that Matthieu seems to have an abundance of massive indoor riding spots at his disposal. And in 2014 it looks like he switched to a indoor tennis riding area, at 18:52 again kind of out of nowhere with regard to the clips that come before, a backwards facing seat stand manual! That balance point! At 19:15, I loved what became kind of his signature move for a long time, the two footed fork rolling front yard backwards whiplash out, still a very untapped area of flatland creativity.
Back in 2012, I mentioned the double fork lash, two years later at the 19:44 mark, we see the turbine fork lash. I don’t recall this at the time, but again like I probably will say a lot during this review of his video.
Around summer 2014 Im guessing Matthieu was experimenting with downside whiplashes, at 22:44 there is a really nice turbine whiplash step over switch directions kind of half whiplash boomerang type of deal jump to peg manual time machine out, totally unexpected! Definitely a rewind moment for me.
Between the 23-27 minute mark there is some interesting styles being experimented with future of 8 downside whiplashes and that kind of style. Then boom at the 27:16, a move many of you will know! The no handed turbine whiplash! Still so crazy, and amazing to see it archived like this.
We are into 2015, the last year documented here and at 30:44 at what looks like the tennis courts in Toulouse. We get to see what may go down as one of the hardest tricks ever done, the double backwards facing xft whiplash. Time will of course tell, but I don’t see two years on anyone messing with that. So good!
The styles change again, its an open canvas after all! And now Matthieu is experimenting with what I called the no comply style, you variations from backwards hitch, backwards crack to forwards, and vice versa plus many more. A true artist, just experimenting.
If you needed some inspiration to start the week, this is it right here. Loved the raw footage feel to this edit, almost like a mix tape vibe I got to this and really inspiring to see Matthieu’s riding grow over the years. Merci Matthieu if you are reading this, mind blown!
Amazing behind the scenes footage of Tall Order’s Sebastian Keep embark on a mission to find the biggest wall rides possible on set ups that for 99% of BMX do not exist. Baz is that 1%, as the project grows you can see how they learn from each set up, check the size of the last ramp used compared to the first used. Here’s what Baz had to say:
Photo: George Marshall.
“The idea started with lets take 2 small ramps to the city centres to jump off multi storey car parks and bridges land on buildings and wall ride down them. We knew that what we were doing wasn’t exactly legal so we decided to wear high vis jackets and hard hats and try our best to disguise ourselves as road workers so that people would leave us alone and It worked!
The spots we found on Google earth were bigger than we anticipated
and so we tried to build practice set ups to help get used to the gaps.
At the spot in Croydon nobody knew if it was possible to ride down 20 feet of vertical wall and after speaking to various pro riders who didn’t have an answer for us we decided to try it…
This video tells the story of how we rolled into city centres in the early hours disguised as builders with vans holding huge ramps set them up and filmed our attempts at some of the biggest wall rides we could find…”
STEVE MULDER 2016 CLIPS from mulderflat on Vimeo.
We have started the new year with some absolute banging edits, and it continues here with Steve Mulder’s 2016 clips filmed in his futuristic looking garage riding spot. I have said it before and ail, no doubt say it again. Steve Mulder is one of the best to ever touch a 20″ BMX Bike, period.
From the opening two clips, regular and opposite I was glued to the screen. The edit just keeps getting better, the following bar backwards 1 and half hang glider to steam at 00:28 is so well executed!
00:54, the half lash to macaroni to smith is just a thing of beauty! Absolute next level bike skills right here!
1:06, 5 brakeless hang gliders done like he could do ten more without breaking a sweat.
1:15, half lash jump to xft backwards peg wheelie backwards rolaid out! (Featured this a few days on the FM instagram page!)
1:23, Steve has been doing this move for years and still it is untouched! Peg wheelie 360 hand job to switch-b, now I mention it you could say that about almost all of Steve’s riding. Skills to pay the bills, nice length to this edit, great tune that made my day a whole lot better! Thank you Steve!
