Review: Effraim
Images: Effraim & Aggro Rag

The era of ‘zine making during the late 80’s/90’s always to me seemed to fit flatland and the creativity bursting within every flatlander. When I started Totally Intense zine back in the day, I would swap regularly with other zine makers worldwide. The one zine I always dreamed of getting ahold of, was Aggro Rag. The holy grail of all zines. The sine was put together by Mike Daily from the Plywood Hoods who of course changed flatland forever, I was always curious what there zine would be like.
For years, there were just small glimpses from the pages of Freestylin’ to go from, that wetted the appetite to see the zine even more.

Recently the news broke that Aggro Rag was being re-released. I knew that was my chance to finally get the zine I always wanted.
And the issue doesn’t disappoint, I found myself lost for a few hours, nothing else in the world mattered during the first read. I recall my girlfriend trying to have a conversation, to which I listened to how much of that conversation I will let you guess….

Zines likes flatland are so personal, I find the two compliment each other perfectly, the cover of Chad Johnston doing a pedal 5 personally signed by Chad was and is a really nice touch. If you ask me, nothing compares to the zine days, that personal touch cant be matched.

The inside cover is a collage of images from the rap Dennis McCoy bust out on Dorkin’2 with a short interview with Large Ray and DMC. Aggro rag is really a collectors item for any flatlander that has been riding long enough to remember the Dorkin’ era. The main focus of this issue, despite the cover title “the hip hop issue”, the big focus of Issue 13 are interviews.

Interviews with:
Chris Day
Aaron Dull
Frank Garrido
Joe Gruttola
Greg Higgins
Jim Johnston
Chad Johnston
Adam Jung
Craig Lepage
Mark McKee
Dave Nourie
Gary Pollack
Derek Schott
Gerry Smith
Tim Treacy

All these riders made a huge contribution to the sport whether original tricks, or to their scene. The stories are absolutely gripping, the whole issue is so educational.
Maurice Meyer writes about “influences” and his particular influence back in the day at Golden Gate Park, Damon Frost.

There seems to be a running subtext throughout to find out who invented scuffing, the article indeed asks “Why Tim Treacy is the ultimate undergrounder:, with really great insight from Tim himself, Aaron Dull, with Tim Treacy and the backyard. But also these interviews go into detail about the original riders and characters who all contributed in some way to make flatland and BMX what it is today (Derek Schott and the rolaid, Adam Jung – handstand i- hops, Dave Nourie- Old school legend, Joe Gruttola and his infamous accidental one footed double decade, Craig LePage and the Landspeeder, Gary Pollack and the PInky Squeak, Gerry Smith, style icon and smith decade originator, Cover star, Chad Johnston breaks down his brakeless pegless style and talks about the Team Scrounge days, I could go and on.
Besides flatland there of course is hip hop content with insightful interviews with Aesop Rock, Dark Time Sunshine, Death Grips.

If you are at all into the history of flatland, and you want to know where it came from, and why you are doing what you are doing right now, then you need to get ahold of this!
Top marks to Mike Daily, and the Plywood Hoods! Thank you once again for all you have done for flatland! Go order the zine right now, absolute classic!

On 01.01.13 The complete Collection of Aggro Rag will be available, all 12 issues! Including a new exclusive interview with the man himself, Kevin Jones.

Ordering details:

Cost per copy is $10 shipped 1st Class to U.S.
Cost per copy is $11.50 shipped 1st Class International to Canada and Mexico.
Cost per copy is $13 shipped 1st Class International to Worldwide.

DIBS RULES APPLY
This is a limited edition. Please call dibs if you want to buy a copy, then:
PayPal to mickogradylives@hotmail.com

Review: Effraim

I am a bit late reviewing issue 7 of ART Magazine, but anyway here it is. I am sat here with a cuppa, and lets get on with it…

So What’s inside flatland related?

– The first flatland related coverage is Chase’s two page editorial this issue is “Hybrid Fleeting (The trend of flat/streeting), an interesting and timely subject we all talk about. There is a lot of text, the parts that stuck out to me were…

“Let me remind us all that combining street and flat is not a new concept. The only difference is that now it may be brakeless and done in a different way. It used to be a odd flatlander or a general BMX rider or two doing something unique by combining different disciplines. And don’t get me wrong here, nobody needs to be labeled as a member of one single discipline of BMX, or confine himself to certain styles.”

“Personally, I always considered my speciality to be Flatland and I set up my bike in a way to maximise any foreseen Flatland possibilities. I would look at my bike and ask myself if any specific feature might hinder certain types of flatland tricks and always tried my best for this not to happen….”

“flatland never assimilated into the mainstream, have flatlanders changed the look of their bikes and styles of their tricks in order to seem closer to what is popular..street? If (and I stress IF)this IS what’s happening, would it be a form of selling out? If this is indeed happeningand it still doesn’t work, would that be considered a failed sell out attempt? We’ve even got announcer’s at contest’s saying “this is what flatland is supposed to look like”…further convincing themselves and others at the same time. Whether the announcer means the flow of a rider or the actual street/flat look, he is still being dogmatic in TELLING people what an individual form of creative expression is supposed to look like.

Chase goes on to discuss, following the leader, and how flatland could progress much faster if people were open to the vast amount of tricks and styles available to them, he goes back to mention Bill Nitschke first doing the whopper in 1990, and riders such as Jay Miron and Joe Johnston riding with high seats, and not getting tangled up.

The topic of lightweight bikes comes up, and Chase argues.. “I think it’s partly up to the pros and companies to work together and assess the trends for what they are and come up with a wise and a reasonable compromised solution that creates the type and strength and functionality. Chase believes it is possible to accommodate the current flat/street style without changing flatland components.

The editorial is thought provoking, and worth buying the magazine for, on its own! If your open to what Chase is saying, if not….

– Fat Tony has a six page interview, featuring some of his photography work. The interview discusses his worldwide travels, his previous job at Transworld as Online editor, the flatland calendar. There are some great photographs of Bo Wade, Pete Brandt and Terry Adams, amongst others, including Fat sending it down a massive drop at Woodward West. Art always covers all sides of BMX. Not only the riding side, but the media side as well, which is a good thing!

– You all know the name Pete Olsen, infamous for his killer groundtactics entries a few years back. Pete is now on S&M (great news, and hugely deserved, the mean is ` beast!), and is definitely not slowing down anytime soon.
Trevor Oleniuk and Luis Elias interview Pete, the interview discusses his latest “The last ten” part, what tricks haunt him… “It’s the one that’s not in the video actually. The video didn’t come out exactly how I wanted to and I was definitely missing some things I was hoping for, but I’d say the backwards cross foot in general has been a real pain for the last six or seven years. I remember back in 2006 doing backwards backpacker jugglers, wanting to do that cross footed and really straggling with it. I had a mental block up until this year. It’s a territory that hasn’t really been tapped into by many guys so I just wanted to start trying to do some original things with it.
The interview goes on to discuss groundtactics, his creative motivations ” to which he sights Ross Smith, Steve Mulder, Garrett Reeves and Ruben Alcantara”, quite a broad list that kind of shows where he is coming from in general, Pete is open to lots of styles reflected in his riding. They discuss his hook up with S&M via Chad Johnston, which is great to hear.
I must confess I’m always disappointed when riders such as Pete only get 3 pages! This happened with George Manos. Perhaps a magazine policy with the face interviews, in turn I would argue these type of riders that are changing the game deserve more!

– Fise Costa Rica has a three page article, Viki Gomez and Raul each get a small photo.

– Manu Massabova writes about Caen indoor event, with photos of Romain Georges, Yannick Chauvel. Matti Hemmings has a sweet full page advert from Flat Squirrel…

– French up and comer, Melvyn Masson has a three page face/interview.

– Viki Gomez reports from the Voces contest in madrid, Spain.

– Chris Bohm gets a five page interview, with one of the most honest intros I have read in a long time! Alain Massabova writes ” Chris is spectacular, Chris is handsome. Chris the strongest of them all! This amazing rider is a total phenomena. Those who are lucky enough to meet him shall remember the encounter their whole life. This pretentious individual is the type of guy you might hate at first but who you’ll end up loving. His motivation, his ambition is so strong that nothing can stop him. Chris give so much of himself, sure, he’s loveable. Sometimes a bit too much, but he doesn’t cheat. He’s generous to a fault but loves the glory, which is a good thing for us, for bmx. By putting himself under the limelight, BMX has everything to win.”

– Tostivant Malo has a 4 page interview about his bmx brand, PIR Malo.And that finishes anotehr good issue of ART!

ART continues to go from strength to strength, as always theres so much more than flatland in the magazine. But it is great that ART continues to source a wide scope of writing styles and subject matter, the magazine is growing, and seems sustainable. Try get hold of this if you can. Definitely one for the collectors out there.

Related links:

http://fingerprintdistribution.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.artbmxmagazine.com/

Review by Effraim.

It is pretty much a given that every week we see a new amazing flatland edit or a clip come out of Japan. The land of the rising sun is widely recognised as leading the way in flatland. As much as they do that in terms of contests, jams, bmx schools and video edits, we have never seen much in terms of printed media. I recall there was Dig-it magazine in the 90’s, that was almost impossible to get ahold of. With that being said. It was with great pleasure that I was asked to review a new magazine out of Japan, called “Encounter”. The magazine is currently on its 2nd issue.
I hear you already, is it written all in japanese… No, there are english and japanese texts to all the articles in the magazine, all articles are translated!

First impression?
The magazine is very cleanly laid out, full colour magazine, on a really nice glossy paper. Clean cut. Simple design. Perfect binding. Very professional. Gave me the feel of an up market BMX magazine/booklet.

So what’s inside?

Intro – Editor, Yasu “Green G” Takeo writes about the concept of Encounter.

“Recording Challenges, struggling at creation, finding out something through BMX and travelling, a general theme of life is found in it. I believe this point of view would lead our magazine to being timeless”.

Flatland related articles:

The BFWC Groundforce contest in Singapore gets a great double page spread, really nicely laid out collage of photos, Yasu captures the contest well with typically a great photo of Moto with Matthias Dandois pondering his next move after. The text largely focusses on the background going into Groundforce, it was however the text that went into the contest mindset that stuck out for me “Matthias Dandois and Moto Sasaki faced off. Moto’s concentration was unusual. Moto totally mimicked Matthias combo after Matthias’s run gave him pressure. Matthias failed to fight back in his run and Moto pulled off his harder tricks dialled. Matthias was totally stumped. That’s the game.” No one really talks about the psychological in flatland, so I found this although, just a short text, it was great to read.

York Uno and Calvin Tan both have full page photographs on the following page.

Great double page spread “Smile for future” a project supporting the victims of the Tohoku Region Pacific Coast earthquake. Put together by Yohei “Ucchie” Uchino who himself was a victim of the Hanshin earthquake in 1996.
Ucchie teamed up with fellow rider and great friend, Kotaro Tanaka to visit several disaster areas in Tohuku, and joined volunteer works to help support the local community. Personally I found this very moving, and another great side of flatland and bmx, helping others in greater need. I’m sure this article could have taken up the whole page. It is great to see professional riders giving back! Brilliant!

Without a doubt the highlight of the magazine for me, is a seven page article entitled “A Theme and answers”, riders discuss memorable tricks. The article features riders such as Chad Degroot (who has been a massive influence on the japanese flatland scene! Check Baco 7 below this review!), Alain Massabova, Shinichiro Hara, Hiroshi Uehara, Takashi Ito, Hiroya Morisaki, amongst others.

Chad Degroot discusses the “Darkside” – and also the decade, “It was a good session one random day. Then I was falling and didn’t want to put my foot down so it hit the bars and the backend swung up. Almost naturally I jumped to the pegs. After a few tries it was easy and looked cool as hell. It then spawned the front to back and back to front variations. To this day I still do that trick almost every time I ride, it just flows and feels sweet.
Therefore the most memorable trick in my eyes is the Decade over 20 years ago. While the most memorable trick for myself personally is the Darkside.”

Alain Massabova discusses the Time Machine, and it’s origins. “A man named Jesse Puente made history by doing the time machine on the pedals in 1994, he was the man! Thanks to Kevin and Jesse for pushing this trick. We’ve come full circle, a time machine on the pedals is just a like a spinning cherrypicker or pedal picker!”

Shinichiro Hara writes about the whiplash turbine, he recalls how a friend called him from the USA and broke the news Kerry Gatt was doing something similar. he talks about stopping the trick for five years when it became popular. It took him 5 years to realise a different way to do the trick, to make it his own again. I think as flatlanders we can all relate to that moment when your heart sinks, yes somebody already did the move you’ve been working on for so long. Its documented, it’s out there. This case in point, Kerry Gatt, Baco 9.

Hiroshi Uehara of 430 clothing and Hiroya Morisaki discuss the decade, the decade appears to the most popular choice for memorable trick in this article. And you can understand why. “My most memorable and favourite trick would be the “decade”. It was the first trick I mastered. As my friends were trying this trick, I knew how strong the accomplishment felt after you pull it. Eager to learn, I swore to myself that I wouldn’t stop riding until I mastered it.

Hiroya recalls “I was in a football club and had trainings after school. I would later practice tricks under the lights at the car park of a local electrical shop. With lots of injuries on my legs, I practiced everyday and I mastered the “decade” in 3 weeks. The feeling of achievement was something I had never experienced. One of the motivations when I try new tricks is this feeling of achievement. Yes I did it, but strangely I did not know the name of this trick, so I named it “CC Lemon” after the TV commercial.”

Takashi Ito has deep roots in the growth of flatland in Japan. Unlike everyone else, Takashi talks about the “Waving move”, “The rider who polished up the ” and “waving movement” and completed it as a historical concept was Yanmar (Ryoji Yamamoto). He tried “Paddling” which was also similar to waving earlier than any other riders and integrated them into his combos. From then on, Flatland started evolving into a “new era”.

Takuma Kawamura Izu Road trip through the picturesque Izu peninsula, has 6 pages which relates back to Yasu’s intro…”Recording Challenges, struggling at creation, finding out something through BMX and travelling, a general theme of life is found in it. I believe this point of view would lead our magazine to being timeless”.
Takuma writes “During travelling, “gut feeling is the key. Right or left, to stop or go, to talk or leave, you always have to choose. This sense will probably be more developed the more you are on the road. I want to encourage all of you who hesitate to set off. Why don’t you develop your own “travel sense?”

Keita “Kane” Uchino has a full page bio to round up the flatland coverage in issue 2 of Encounter magazine.

As with all reviews on FM. I concerntrated on the flatland side of things, there is of course much more content besides. It is great to see a legit magazine come out of Japan. What is even better is the magazine is available over here! I hope to see more issues in the future! This is definitely one for the collectors out there!

Hit the links for more information on how to get hold of Encounter Magazine.

http://fingerprintdistribution.bigcartel.com/

http://fingerprintdistribution.bigcartel.com/product/encounter-magazine-issue-2

Review by Effraim.

I feel kinda weird reviewing this what like a week and a half after I reviewed Issue 5, but whatever…. Issue 6 is out now. And I have to say right off, there is a lot more flatland content than Issue 5.

So whats in this issue?

-Up and coming Pro, Joris Bretagnolle has a really cool double page spread about his Khe A damn bike, which also kills two birds with one stone with a mini interview also, they discuss new tricks, the french scene, his opinion about the street/ flat phase to which Joris comments “personally I’m not a big fan, but having said that, It might just revamp flatland……I can’t see flat runs being made up of just street tricks. And let’s be realistic here, we haven’t done half the tricks you can do in flat yet…”….

– Chase Gouin has another editorial type piece, this issue is not flatland related, its about “vowels”, A E I O U and sometimes Y, I’m going to need a lil’ more time to digest this one…

– Viki Gomez in Egypt – Viki takes flatland to the pyramids, a place I thought I would never see flatland, great double page spread with story by Viki himself.

– George Manos has a “face” double page spread, I personally was expecting more pages for one of the most original riders in the game right now, but nevertheless its a great article by Luis Elias, that discusses his riding roots, his motivations, riding pegless, his thoughts on originality, “Let’s be reasonable, it’s always been the same, so it’s not a matter of nowadays and I’m afraid it will never change because this has deeper roots in the human behaviour and consciousness. But concerning our particular type of living, I’ve seen lately more examples of character than I could imagine, and I’m happy for it. Everybody has their place in this thing and one should accept the other as he accepts himself. There should be respect and reward for one’s good qualities and skills, no need to say and point out the negative things (it gets worse) because everybody knows that “action speaks louder than words”. Great words from George, the interview continues to discuss his influences, the flat scene in greece, his experience at the rebel jam “I would like to consider myself more as a craftsman. I see the contest as another opportunity to present my work. Presentation and reactions are my concern/factors. The first is about my critic on my work, the second is about others critic on my work. “Rebel jam” was my second pro contest and concerning the two above factors I have both mixed feelings”… Sadly the interview finishes two questions after, just as the discussion was warming up. Still sometimes less is more, this certainly left me wanting more!

– Lee Musselwhite show company “Inspire promotions has a great three page feature, with some cracking photographs of Lee by Jonathan Williams, with words by Lee, he tells his story in riding from inertia bikes to sales rep for skate show brand, and how he ended up making his living as a show rider, how he branched out further than flatland, and added MTB, free running…Very few can say they are a making a living off flatland in the UK, Lee made it happen!

– Cartoonist Niko Del Real has a two page interview, if you are on Facebook, you may often see his drawings of the likes Chad Johnston, yours truly, Lea Dobrowski, Chase Gouin, Pete Brandt, and many more. Great to see this guy get some coverage.

– The next article with flatland is a three page story on the “Reunion show”, Reunion island is the south east of Africa, they sent pro flatlanders Chris Bohm, Raphael Chiquet, Adam Kun, Takahiro Ikeda and Alain to promote the Fise event, along with a whole host of ramp riders, the article has some great shots of Ikeda, Adam and Chris, looks like fun in the sun, really appealing in this cold month of February.

– Jeremy Pavia has a six page photography portfolio, with some great shots of Ryan Russell at Malibu, and Tono…

– This week we featured Blake Hicks and the Electron Bike, the chaps at Flat Web TV put together a small interview for ART, which is interesting, as I don’t know anything about him, it was news to me that Blake earns his living off flatland, supporting himself by doing circus shows, or any type of event that wants to draw a crowd, the interview also discusses his Electron video and of course the latest video, nice short piece, good to see Blake get some coverage.

– The next article surprised me, that is a good thing! Chad Johnston and his table designs gets a double page spread along with interview, his tables for example are made out of bike parts, you can two pairs of bars and forks with a wheel between as the main structure with wheel on top for table top, really creative, its Chad through and through, one of the best articles from this issue, different form the norm.

– Dominik Nekolny has the stand out article in this issue, a dope 6 page interview, Dom is rarely interviewed, and I was curious what he would have to say, Matti Rose and Thomas take care of the interview and do a great job, as this really opens up and is a fascinating read. I admired Dom’s honesty/outlook on riding in this interview, they discuss his motivations to ride. to which Dom replies “I take flatland as a sport and only as sport and in sports it’s about crossing your line to be better and better! So this is my motivation, to reach my limits!”.. They discuss his similarities with Justin Miller which relates to the last quote, who is one of Dom’s favourite riders, “I think he took it like really sporty and not like “fashion awesome cool guy”! He wanted to show everybody that he could do the hardest shit with his bike, and he did not care about super originality and style or silly fashion shit…”..
The interview goes on to discuss his riding focus, throwing bikes, riding backwheel, riding brakeless, his job, cad drawings for a big company which builds powerplants, the interview gets more interesting again when they discuss Dom being straight edge and into PMA “Positive mental attitude” and so on, his plans for future etc, the interview went way past my expectations, I was waiting for this issue for the George Manos interview if I am entirely honest, but it was the Dominik Nekolny interview that really grabbed me, it is brutally honest, you can’t ask for more than that!

– The last page of flatland is a small repo on the Flatlive contest in Argentina, across the page is a dope full page of Pete Brandt for Quamen Bikes, check the photo.

There’s so much more than flatland to this issue, but I will be writing forever if I comment about all of ART magazine, whilst I was disappointed with only a double page spread for the George Manos interview, the Dominik Nekolny interview is a must read! One of the best interviews i’ve read in a long time! ART continues to get better and better, great depth in articles, dope adverts, Matthias Dandois has full page G shock ad on the back page for example, and as I already mentioned Pete B’s quamen ad, is so sick! This is issue 6, and ART continues to grow, exciting times ahead for this magazine. Try and get hold of this if you can.