Repo: Effraim.
Photography: Effraim, Thaddeus Schau.
Videos: Brant Moore.

Bit late with getting this repo up on the site, after a very busy summer. I finally have some time for myself to return to riding and updating the site regularly. Hope you all enjoy this one!

As I boarded my first flight home from the FA Battleground contest, I planned to start writing a report on the event for the site. Then, over the tannoy, we were told that we were unable to land in Chicago because of a thunderstorm. Off to Indianapolis we went, to wait until we could land in Chicago. I thought to myself, was this trip all worth it? The flight home was already delayed by twenty-four hours, and now was going to be even longer.
The Battleground contest had a real family community vibe that we really need right now. As this event clashed with the Olympics, I thought to myself, what do we really need to help the sport grow? More events? More jams? Better communication between riders? What is it that holds us back?

The answer seems to be a mix of many things, but reality is very different. And we’ve been dealt the cards we’ve been thrown; not much we can do about that, it seems.

What we can do is improve the flatland scene country by country, and I see that happening a lot in the U.S. The event was full of life, with young kids riding and enjoying themselves, alongside soon-to-be, even some park riders entering, experts, masters, and pros in the mix. It’s really healthy.
I arrived in Cleveland, Ohio, on Wednesday. It was a long day sitting on a plane, wondering what the event would be like. I left my house at 4:56 a.m. and headed to catch a coach at Portsmouth Harbour to London Heathrow. Three hours later, I was at the airport and dropped a message to Chris Young, the organizer of Battleground, letting him know I was on the way.

First stop, Philadelphia. Flying into Philly brought back flashbacks of competing in the X Games in 2001. I thought about how lucky my life has been. Traveling all over the world, doing what I love, and making friends for life is priceless. I might have traveled to the U.S. more than anywhere else. It feels like a second home. I was daydreaming at the gate, wishing I wasn’t injured and could ride and bring my bike. The gate was called, next stop: Philly to Cleveland.

Such a short flight, just over an hour, to the home of Battleground. When I landed, I called Chris and let him know I was there earlier than expected. Chris said, “I’m ten minutes away.” Little did I know that would become a joke amongst some of the riders throughout the week….

Chris picked me up around 9 p.m., along with Francois from the Hang 5 podcast, and we went down to the contest to check out the area. The event takes place at a church. The venue is huge, and we had one of the halls at the back of the building with a big parking lot outside. The sound of the crickets caught my attention right away., so loud here. There were already a few riders there: Kio Hayakawa, Lee Musselwhite and his wife Ami, Scott Powell, Francois, of course, Dustyn Alt, and Jean Francois Boulianne. The area was huge, and the setup was really impressive. I thought, “Wow, this event is going to be much better than I expected.” We went back to where we were staying and chatted for hours. I must have been awake for at least 30 hours before hitting the sack. Can you say lights out for me?! Yep!

In the morning, we went to get breakfast at a place called Bob Evans, an American diner, before heading to the contest area. Chris and his team started setting up banners, and chairs around for the spectators. More and more riders were showing up, and the stoke level was getting higher and higher. Kio was putting in eight-hour days getting ready for the contest, and as we found out, that’s not unusual—it’s his routine.

Jam day was soon upon us, giving everyone time on the contest floor before the big day. OSB floor, double-layered, dialed! Lots of fresh faces for me. Thanks to everyone who came and introduced themselves; I definitely felt the love.
One of the most memorable moments was on jam day when things were winding down. I called Kio out on a combo, asking something like, “Do you think you could link your Blender 360 flip line to your Blender X-foot pedaling upside down?” Kio said he had never done it before, and on the first try, there it was!

Brandon Fenton was the head judge and introduced the Chase Gouin judging system to me, Pete Brandt, and Robert Reilly. Brandon was judging originality, Pete was on difficulty, I judged variety, and Robert did consistency. Four factors—a very simple system that allows you to tap into how complex we know flatland can be.

Just like that, contest day was upon us. The “Soon to Be” class was the first up for Battleground! YouTuber and downright tech monster Brant Moore took the win at his first-ever flatland contest. I say tech monster because Brant is known for his mini-ramp tech, and you could see that in his flatland riding—180 candy bar bunnyhops, 360 tire tap to track stand, and so on. Brant was the most surprised and stoked of anyone! As he arrived at the podium, he repeatedly said, “What?!” The stoke was real.

MC Robert Castillo kept the event moving flawlessly throughout the day. The only downside was that we didn’t get to see Robert compete. Brant was followed on the podium by Kevin Czuba and Joel Munday. With ten riders in the “Soon to Be” class, it was good to see some younger kids participating.

Next up, the Old School/Vet class was tense and could have gone any way at the top. Matt Veach killed it with solid riding and extra stomp and confidence exiting tricks, especially in his second run, where he nailed everything! Matt was stoked. Ron Seay finished second, nailing his second run with smooth backward hitchhikers into backward bar flip fork wheelies. Good job, Ron!
Brent Schultz took the third place spot, executing smooth rolling tricks across the contest floor. Tony Abasolo deserves a shoutout for nailing a surfer while being handed a beer—a rad moment and even more amazing control to pull that off. Good vibes!

I forgot to mention the vibe: Mark Eaton was on the decks on one side, spinning Dorkin’ classics, while Pete Brandt was on the other, spinning and cutting up drum and bass, mixing it live. It was a truly amazing vibe! It was great to see all the riders supporting each other, one of the great aspects of the old school class and this event. This spirit ran throughout the entire event.

The next class up was Mid School Legends. Ruben Castillo was on a mission—his first run was something I won’t forget for a long time. Eaton dropped his Dorkin’ 3 mix with the part that featured R-Dog, and I’m sure it gave everyone goosebumps; if not, it was just me! This was the best run I’ve ever seen Ruben do. I was judging the variety category for this event under Chase Gouin’s judging system, and Ruben’s trick rate was at least double that of the other competitors. Style for miles, those candy bar pinky’s, and his flow front to back wheel were just amazing to see. The fact that he’s still going strong is incredibly motivating.

Much like the rest of our podium, Bryan Huffman and Todd Carter! Bryan got it together in his second run, nailing a nice no-footed tea kettle to half-lash out, and Todd had multiple whiplashes on lock plus a nice Xft ankledeath whipped into guillotine across the contest fooor, was good to see these two riders still going hard. Old school legend Dave Nourie and Chicagos Ron Monis rounded out the class, Dave rocking out with a Gumby and his signature Antrider body varial, all while sporting a Southsea Skatepark T-shirt. And Ron Monis with his signature smooth slow style, on the day Ron had a tough time on the contest Floor.

The Expert class was next up, and Ed Jolie was a man on a mission. With a smooth rolling style, he was a level above all the other competitors on this day. He nailed multiple hitch jugglers and backpacker jugglers with ease to take a well-deserved win! Congrats, Ed!

Mr. Hang 5 Podcast, Francois Dubroux, took second place with dialed runs full of front and back wheel tricks, decades, rolling, and scuffing. It was great to see Francois ride in person.

In third place, Anthony Schneidewind rode in his smooth-as-always style, hitting a nice foot jam to switch foot scuff/switch foot steam combo, followed by a backward wheelie pivot to switch foot gerator.

Shoutout to the rest of the competitors: smooth styles from Steve Lapsley and Jerry Milborn representing One Two, Lee Mejia comboing a fire turbine to hitch turbine nicely mid-run, and Andy Pandemic battling the half lash and getting it on his last try. It was so good to see riders winning their personal battles.

Next up, the Pros…

The pro class was stacked, and with $10K prize money up for grabs, you could see why. Two 3-minute runs, best run counts. Kio Hayakawa was a man on a mission, stomping down a flawless first run that brought the house down. What stood out to me the most was that Kio, who had looked pretty stressed at past events, was smiling almost the entire time at Battleground. Kio hit all his hardest tricks back to back, including the blender to Xft pedaling upside-down mega spin, finishing with his signature junkyard stall to decade Xft pedals landing. The Xft pedaling defies physics! Both of Kio’s runs were incredible. Kio rides eight hours a day, six days a week, and it shows. He was pretty much unbeatable on this day. A well-deserved first place!

Second place went to Jean William Prevost. Dub sleeps, eats and breathes flatland, and it shows. Whether it’s his IGI flatland booth at the event or his riding, he’s 100% all in, and it’s exciting to watch! His two runs were full of Dub’s signature pivots and spins, including his signature undertaker to pedal junkyard line. The highlight for me was the two-footed forward death truck on the pedals rolled across the contest floor last line in his second run. I’ve seen it quite a few times, but seeing how high up in the air he is when he straightens out and locks into the trick is jaw-dropping live no matter how many times you see it. Contest floors don’t often allow him to do this trick, so it was awesome to see him pull it off. Mad props!

Third place went to one of the crowd’s favorites, Matt Wilhelm. It’s fair to say everyone was hyped to see Matt where he belongs—on the contest floor. After a crash in his first run, Matt came back swinging hard for his second. He pulled off bottom-bracket upside-down ice cream turbines, ice cream turbines to spinning death truck, his signature beetle turbines to spinning no-handed forward Karl, foot-on-the-bar jump to back pegs. Matt executed everything with authority. It’s crazy to think Matt has been in the pro class for 26 years—wow!

Fourth place went to the UK’s Lee Musselwhite, another crowd favorite. A couple of misses on his spider glide combo cost him a podium spot, but Lee got redemption with his forwards no-footed backyard in circles pivot to forward spinning g-roll, which he also nailed in the best trick contest!

Dustyn Alt rocked the house and his Ti bike all the way to a well-earned fifth place. Dustyn rides with high energy and brought the crowd to their feet with his signature backward Saturn sign with his hands around back, transitioning into a backward spinning Time Machine on the opposite side. Super dope!

Sixth place went to Terry Adams! Terry had a little trouble in his first run with his signature pedal death truck jump to fudge packer but got redemption in his second run, nailing a Katrina into crackpacker elephant glide to halfpacker pivot Xft hitch.

Seventh place went to the back wheel assassin, Austin Luberda. Austin pulled off one of the tricks of the comp in my opinion: a can-can pedal g-roll across the OSB floor and out. The man is electric when he’s on it—so good to see Austin ride again!

Eighth place went to the global traveler himself, Jean Francois Boulianne. With his van parked up outside, JFB lives the life more purely than anyone I’ve seen. And he gets it done on the contest floor too, which isn’t easy. I loved his 360 opposite rolling tomahawk to 360 bar flip without the bike laying down—so clean! Props.
I’ve seen plenty of footage of Canadian ripper Rémy Denoyer, but seeing him in real life—dude is good! He pulls off loads of unique no-handed can-vadar-type stuff, nose wheelie combos, and much, much more.

The level was high among all the competitors, each bringing their own style to the game. Dax Walford was throwing whoppers with ease, along with so many turbines—whether two-footed death trucks, cliffhangers, crack hangers, and many more—Dax has you covered.

Omari Cato, riding for Majide, always brings good energy, and his riding continues to grow. I really liked his body varial gerator, where he was turning in a kind of downside direction on the varial. Omari is definitely a name to watch in the American flatland scene.

Rounding out the class were Ryan Russell, Bo Wade, and Cesar Rangel. As I said, the level was high in the pro class, and the event as a whole was a huge success. Chris Young deserves a lot of respect for what he has done, along with his team working tirelessly behind the scenes to get the unseen work done and make the event better.

After the pro class, Bill Nitschke donated $1k towards Best Trick, four attempts at your best trick. You can watch this one back on the Flatmattersonline Instagram to watch this back, pressure off, everyone having fun, flatland really shines here. Shouts to Chad DeGroot, Lee Musselwhite and the winner Jean William Prevost who all threw down contenders to win.

Thanks to all the sponsors who stepped up and supported BG. Chris is already talking about bigger plans for 2025.

This is becoming a must-attend event. Next year will be stacked, great to see the US back on the map.
It was worth all the hassle getting home. My motivation is sky-high, and it’s great to see American flatland returning to some of its former glory. These things take time, but Battleground is moving in the right direction.

Thank you Flatland!

Effraim