Congratulations to Terry Adams, taking the win at AFA Round 2 in Detroit, followed on the podium by Dub and Dax Wolford. Check out all the full results, congrats to all the winners.
Flat Snitches is back!
During the lockdown, plenty of time to kill and come up with ideas. Using Zoom started to become a weekly occurrence in work, and daily life, so why not use it for Flatmattersonline!
The subject of episode 5 features my co-host for Flat Snitches, Pete Brandt and the Crackpacker.
Chad Johnston, of Intrikat fame was the first to document Pete’s riding for us all worldwide, it only made sense to get in contact with Chad and include him in this episode.
Chad drops some amazing historical knowledge, and Aaron Frost joins in the episode too. We had a lot of fun on this call, the line dropped out a few times so apologises for that. You can check the time stamps on the video to skip to the parts you are interested in!
And remember kids, it’s a crackpacker not a wheelchair! Grab a cuppa and get educated.
Big thanks to Pete, Chad and Aaron for this episode!
00:00 Flat Snitches intro.
00:47 Introduction to the show.
1:36 What is a crackpacker.
2:41 When did Pete create the crackpacker.
3:49 Where were you when you created the trick.
4:45 When was the first time anyone saw the crackpacker.
6:01 Chad’s recalling filming the crackpacker for the first time & Reali-TV 1.
6:38 Chad’s fondest memory filming the section with Pete & Eric E.
7:06 Chad recalling how groundbreaking the riding was for time period.
7:30 Aaron talks about the emergence of West Coast riders…
8:44 Effraim ordering Reali-TV via the post.
11:00 Chad capturing the feel of the West Coast.
11:22 When Pete first drop the crackpacker in a contest.
12:00 When did Chad first meet Pete, Chad in leathers..
15:13 When time Chad and Pete saw the Crackpacker being copied.
18:04 Variations on the crackpacker.
19:34 Inventing the crackhanger, europeans calling it a coathanger.
23:06 Why did you call the trick a crackpacker.
24:11 Hayward and San Mateo stories.
26:16 Chad recalls his time in SF filming Reali-TV.
27:01 Chad driving back to SF for one trick.
28:01 Chad learning from Pete’s dedication.
28:31 Variations of the Crackpacker other people have done.
32:51 Is Chad still filming? Security Guard stories.
41:19 Scuff into crackpacker to learn it?
42:18 Outro.
Credits:
Chad Johnston.
Stewart Johnston, Props Video Magazine.
Lee Musselwhite.
This week we go back to 1988 for our OSS post, and San Francisco flatland legend, Aaron Dull’s run from the AFA in Portland, Oregon. The double backwards boomerang attempt into backyard, backwards perverted out is incredible. And the stick-b and puppet amongst other stuff, such a progressive level of riding for the time period!
In my opinion, You couldn’t really script this story.. Who would have thought my childhood hero would organise a go fund me fundraiser to get me out to San Francisco and the One Love Jam.
Wait what????
How many would do this or even think about doing this for another rider? It is and was an amazing gesture. So much so I pinched myself at various points of the long flight over to SF. Is this really happening??
As Pete broke the news, aside from my initial disbelief, and thoughts of finally riding the clocktower and going to the One Love Jam. This was finally my chance after ten years of running Flatmattersonline to interview Pete and ask him all the things I was curious about over the years.
I first travelled to SF when I was seven years old with parents, then again at 14 years old and to compete for the X Games in 99, and 2000. The city definitely strikes a chord with me, it is my favourite place to travel in the world. So much history here, the bridges, all the different cultures, the views each way you look, the people, you can ride around Embarcardero and see all the famous skatespots just a throws away from the legendary Clocktower spot that Pete rides everyday, making the 40 minute BART commute from across the bay in Fremont.
I have met Pete numerous times over the years at contests across the globe, and even at the San Francisco X-Games twice which we discuss in the interview.
I haven’t however, hung out with Pete for any considerable amount of time, until this dream trip. I think it’s fair to say we got along so well I now consider Pete a close friend and we share a lot of the same music tastes, views on flatland, we both vibe off skateboarding, and best of all just a lot of laughs and good flatland sessions.
As I approach my 45th birthday in March, seeing Pete still going as hard as ever was a massive motivation to me “hey you can still do this and work a full time job and juggle family life with kids” and be an absolute monster to boot.
There are multiple layers to Pete’s life, which we cover in this interview. The term “legend” gets over used a lot, but Pete really is a flatland legend. And in fact as I now call it he is an “architect”. Pete has helped shape the spot/artform we all love, have you ever shove-it’ed mid trick, done a crackpacker, held a hitchhiker on the peg instead of tyre, used plastic pedals, use a freecoaster, these are all things Pete invented and made them popular and the list goes on.
The man deserves a BIG interview so much I can’t even stress this enough. Our sport/artform needs to respect the architects that shaped what we love today, and Pete is still going hard and infact I can almost guranteed he’s the last to read this and will be out shredding at the clocktower without a care in the world other than riding his bike and doing what he loves on the daily.
Over the years, I have met just about everyone in the flatland scene and Pete is the realist rider I have met. This guy eats, sleeps, and breathes flatland, and he totally gets it.
Grab a cuppa, and make some time to learn about one of the best riders to ever do it. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s do this, the Flatmattersonline Pete Brandt Interview! This is for all the hardcore riders out there, proud to bring this exclusive to the flatland scene.
I dropped the 2016 Flatmattersonline year end awards just a few days ago, thank you to everyone who has already voted.Today I begin the task of going through the entire year and seeing what went down. In order to keep this as concise as possible, I will posting just what has happened in 2016. (In January there were a lot of edits posted from the previous year…)
Effraim Catlow/Flatmatters Online
2016 really kicked off with the Quest BMX Sponsor Me contest, with a whole load of quality entries form across the globe arriving, in the end Jeremy Brosset and Gurvan le’ Brok won the competition and place on the team. Refresh your memories and take a look at their entries right here:
Joe Cicman just uploaded the final battle from yesterday’s Battle in the Rockies contest here in Colorado Springs. Dub vs Moto in the final battle went off, and went down to the wire! Don’t miss this!
Yesterday I made the long trip out to the annual Battle in the Rockies contest this year being held in James Mcgraw’s hometown in beautiful Monument, Colorado. After a pretty smooth flight out to Denver, I was greeted by James telling me to held it right there, he wanted a photo of me above the immigration sign. It was a welcome sight after a long day travelling to already by greeted by a joking, hyperactive McGraw. Somethings never change, and perhaps they shouldn’t.
The trip from Denver to Colorado Springs is around an hour, I wanted to get a taste of America right away so we headed to what James called Donald Trump’s favourite restaurant “Five Guys”, and discussed the week ahead. Unlike previous years I have been here, there is no snow at the moment, and it’s 70 degrees, blue skies with amazing views of the rockies all around.
After dropping bags and stuff, we headed to James’ work aka the Tintadome where he also rides after opening hours. James got a session in, it was awesome to see what James is working on outside of his contest runs. I built my bike whilst we also waited for Bill Nitschke to arrive who funnily enough left at the exact same time of me 12:30 UK time, 8:30 his time, making the 1000 mile drive from Indianpolis. Pure beast mode!
I was lagging by the time Bill arrived, we grabbed a few beers and called it a night.
