A play on words from the “black friday” look it up on wikipedia if your unsure, a new weekly column comes to flatmatters, who knows what it will bring!. Without any more delay I will let James continue..
Hello and a very warm welcome to ‘White Friday’. Your Friday has just been upgraded..Whiteski Style!
Who the heck am I? I’m the Godfather of this shite… that’s who! I was into this stuff before it was even here. i‘ve invented more tricks than you’ve had days on your bike. I even invented socket pegs god damn it. I AM FLATLAND!!
Here and every Friday that I can be bothered you will find all sorts of hints, tips and thoughts from me to make your flat life that much better! I’m gonna tell you what’s good! What’s bad! Show you how to, what not to! And probably make myself look a prat while I’m at it! (as if I haven’t done that already).
I would of loved to kicked this off with some Crack pot video from the depths of my warped head. But with the ‘Level Vibes’ just gone and the state of British Flatland Scene on everyone’s mind I’m gonna get a little serious and tell you a story. It’s a true Story, from the way i saw it!
Once upon a time (early 90’s) there was a Family…A BMX Family, there was Daddy Vert a Mummy Street, and Baby mini Ramp…..Oh! And the poor relation ‘Flatland’. It was a small close nit family and all got a long. They held contests together, got merry together and simply rode BMX together.
No one in the family could understand why the sport wasn’t growing, why companies weren’t interested in supporting BMX anymore. And really, we were having too much fun to care. Bring on the passion and foresight of one Matt Hoffman and the Bicycle Stunt series and things started looking up. The later part of the nineties was an exciting time for the family. BMX was on its way back! The media giant TV was knocking on our door and money was looming. Yes even for Flatland! My brother ‘Dolan’ was receiving a healthy salary, add this to his prize money (for second place when I was competing) and things were good. That was until Mother Nature stepped in – Money + TV+ Large corporations = Stress. When the dust settled the poor relation ‘Flatland’ was out of the X Games, off TV and basically disowned by the family. We were hurt, but not down! Plenty of things were going on, Brother kuoppa was franticly upping the level, youngsters were coming through. F**k them! Was the natural reaction! We can go this alone!
Sad story huh? The first flatland only contest ‘Level Vibes’ was held in 1998 in almost a protest…we don’t need them attitude. Yes, it was a hit. No. I wouldn’t change those jams for the world but at the same time, did it push us further away from the family? Probably!
Have we continued to distant ourselves more and more from the family? YES!! Is that good for us? No! We are more BMX than anyone.
‘Level Vibes’ Last week was great! Everybody had smiles on their faces and we really were a real family. It restored my faith in flatland and brought a tear to my eye. We need to keep it rolling and build, build, build.
Is a BMX Contest happening in your local area? Can you organise a flat comp along side it? Let’s bring the family back together; it is that time of year after all.
Let’s Show the BMX World what they’ve been missing!
