Today marks the final episode of the 10 Years of Flatmattersonline series! The name “Flatmatters” first appeared on a collar I did with with my Adidas for King of Concrete 2000 and one of those riders on the rise around this time was Paul Chamberlain. I have kept in touch with Paul over the years after he left the UK for a new life in Australia. Paul went off on a tangent from the questions I asked, so I decided I would put him last in the episodes and let him tell his story about me and Flatmattersonline. Hope you enjoy the episode and the series!
After much pondering, on the 27th November 2008 I walked out of a store on Albert Road here in Southsea and decided to start a website. I wanted something basic to begin with to learn online posting, something that was all new to me at the time…. the Flatmattersonline blogspot site was born, Flatmatters had out grown it’s monthly page in Ride UK and it was time for something new that would help the scene. Looking back the first month or so was pretty amazing, all exclusive content.
Ten years on, my first article “To Scuff or not?” is still one of my favourite articles I have done on the site and it’s especially interesting to see where it’s at right now in relation to that article. I wanted to have more writing and depth about flatland online and proud today ten years on today so stay I am contributing what I set out to do. Scroll down on the archives section on the right hand side of the site and have a read when you have a spare moment.
I think my most proudest achievement running the site, is that my initial ethos and theory behind why am I going to this site still runs true ten years on, and has grown over the years.
The initial idea was a simple one, I wanted to wake up everyday and have something for you to look at to motivate you the flatlander at home, no matter where you are in the world to get out riding that day, and I didn’t want to governed by anybody or any company.
Whilst I miss the qualities print has that the internet can never touch, you can’t deny that the internet has brought the world closer together. I can reach so many more people via FM then I ever could making a magazine.
I wanted to do something special to mark 10 years of Flatmattersonline, I realise the website is known for posting riding videos every day, but it’s not often I go behind the scenes and interview the people that inspire me.
So throughout the course of this week I reach out to riders and friends across the globe to ask them a couple of questions, in places some riders have gone on a tangent from what I asked. There are no rules here, I want to celebrate the site and feel pretty proud to be able to help inspire new riders, older riders, seasoned pros, help riders get sponsors, teach kids tricks, there’s always something new happening with the site its pretty mind-blowing to me and helps to grow and branch out in different ways.
I wanted to do something special to mark 10 years of Flatmattersonline, I realise the website is known for posting riding videos every day, but up until now I haven’t talked at all about the people that have inspired me on this journey. So these set of episodes attempts to focus purely on the people that have inspired me, not their riding which we all know every well.
After some brainstorming, I decided I wanted to go away from the riding (which I feature everyday) and dig beneath the surface of the site and ask my inspirations about their thoughts on FM. I reached out to a whole host of people who inspire me in so many different ways, most have responded and a couple not which is disappointing, but I kind of expected that to happen.
I asked the following questions:
What would you say over ten years is Flatmattersonline biggest contribution to the sport?
When you think of Flatmattersonline what do you think of?
What was your first memory of Flatmattersonline?
My next thought as I was sending emails out to riders, was to have exclusive content every day for an entire week. And go back to how I started FM ten years ago pretty much. Sometimes I feel I go away from that, with the daily demands of “edit, edit,”. It’s time for me to shut up, grab a cuppa and reflect on 10 years of running Flatmattersonline.
You all make flatmatters what it is, so I thank all of you who are tuning in. It’s been a lot of work keeping the site going, 15,490 posts later we are here celebrating our tenth anniversary!
Here’s to ten more, I hope you all enjoy the Ten Years of Flatmattersonline episodes…
Back from Colorado and back to my second home at Southsea Skatepark. What better place to get Episode 4 of my how to BMX flatland series done, today I teach you how to backwards peg wheelie on a rare dry November’s day in Southsea.
More gold from the UK BMX scene archives, the 20 video by Chris Job and Will Evans made back in 1990, featuring Mat Hoffmann, Jamie Bestwick, Jason Davies and many more with a spot of flatland from truly (Effraim Catlow) and Mark Atkins from the 3:36 mark.
This week is seriously going so fast, it’s already time for Friday’s update as we head to the Battle in the Rockies an hour away in Denver, Colorado this morning. We woke up to sunny skies, and after getting the FM updates done it was time to wash the Slab before we started riding. As I started washing the floor, Bobby Burge showed up and helped lend a hand to get the riding spot ready for a session in the sunshine. It was time for the AFA pre jam at the Slab.
After arriving into nice weather in Denver, Colorado on Monday. We have a few days of bad weather and been unable to ride James’ flatland slab riding spot at his house, pretty teasing when you can see it as you chill in the house, to say the least. Yesterday, we woke up to sunshine and after updating the site filmed a quick how to with the help of Mates Tucek. The how to is now up for you to view.
Welcome back to episode 3 of how to BMX flatland. A change of location for this episode, I am out in Monument, Colorado and today I am teaching you how to do the infinity roll.
The infinity roll is a trick that I first learnt back when I was 10 years old, I am now 44 years old. The infinity roll is an entry level scuffing trick, useful to learn and will eventually help you combine tricks together.
The technique for the infinity roll is relatively simple, here are some useful steps below:
1. Begin with a foot jam with your left foot on the left back pegs. Applying pressure to your right foot when you “foot jam”, get a little end to gain little speed for the infinity roll.
2. Learn to foot jam and rollback (as shown on the video).
3. Once you have step 2, keep your wheel locked in a position that would make your bike rotate in a circle. Using your left foot on the left back peg and your right foot on tyre kicking the wheel backwards (known as “scufffing”.)
* Scuffing essentially acts as brake on the tyre, so you don’t need to touch the brakes on this trick.
4. Get the scuffing part of this trick down and try to rotate in circles as many times as possible, hence the infinity roll name.
5. To ride out, slow down your scuffing and aim for the right pedal and try to keep your body weight over the bike and ride away. Refer to the video for a reference.
This is relatively more of a simple how to than episode 2, one you learn the scuffing technique and get used to licking your bars in a circular motion you will be good to go on this trick.
Day 3 of my annual Battle in the Rockies trip, and if there was any day for a chill day this was it. We woke up to snow and freezing temperatures in Monument, Colorado. After a little discussion at breakfast it seemed like the best day to get contest stuff organised ready for the weekend, trophies done, Halloween, etc.
We started the day with a visit to Touch of Shade, James’ business. James was organising the trophies, getting banners ready and even offered to make an FM banner and stickers, so if you are at the event this weekend. Come and see me for some free stickers, stoked! Thank you James!
James has been in the game a long time, so it’s always amazing to check the memorabilia he has displayed around his work place and office. For example, check his previous signature frames above with London Bikes.
After a few hours and lunch at the Tintadome it was time to head back to James’ house and get ready for Halloween and Trick or Treat with his kids. Halloween doesn’t seem so big in the UK, but here it was a huge deal. The snow had stopped so we took the opportunity to dry the flatland slab ready for some outdoor sessions Thursday and Friday when it is supposed to be back into double figures once again. Mates Tucek took the chance to have a ride for an hour or so, whilst myself and James moaned it was too cold to ride for old guys.
Trick or Treat as an experience walking James’ neighbourhood as the kids collected enough Candy to keep them going for a month or so. Never seen anything like it, it was a nice end to a much needed relaxing day. The sun is coming out now as I type this and the Slab is looking good for a session today, can’t wait! Short and sweet today, hope you are all enjoying the updates at home!
Yesterday was the first full day in Monument, Colorado for the Battle in the Rockies contest this coming weekend. And the first day is always a hard one for me, after 18.5 hours of travelling and a 6 hour time difference the body clock and the altitude takes some adjustment for me. It didn’t seem to bother Mates Tucek at all (watch the Tintadome session edit that I just posted as a reference).
As forecast, the weather turned from the 79 degrees and sunshine, to freezing and snowing over one day. Welcome to Colorado, various people said to me throughout the day. We started the day with an hour trip back to Denver to the Rackhouse, the venue for the Battle in the Rockies contest that will host the AFA finals once again this year. This year the lighting is much better with some new big opening windows bringing in natural daylight and the area was cleared from what I remember last year so it’s already going to be much bigger than last year.
Yesterday was a long day travelling to the annual Battle in the Rockies contest in Denver, Colorado. This is my fifth year at BITR! I was asking myself I wonder how long it is, door to door to get from Southsea to Denver? 6am start for me and doing two cuppas before getting a taxi to London Heathrow Terminal 3, turned out on this day there was more traffic than I have ever had before on this journey. We left at 7am and arrived just past 9pm.
The clocks just went back one hour for winter this past weekend and it’s already freezing. I started checking the weather in Colorado, as its always a running joke amongst the riders. It’s 79 degrees as I land, and snow the next day forecast, the weather in Colorado is so crazy but needless to say it’s warmer than at home currently.
Going back to the travel log theme, so three hours check in time as with all international flights. So I am already at five hours and still in London, the flight was scheduled for 9 hours 55, so basically ten hours. 15 hours later in total I am in Denver and waiting for Mates Tucek who was landing 50 minutes after me. Back in the mile high city for the fifth time, and straight away I notice the light. Being a mile high the light is so much more prominent and I see every scratch on my glasses when I am in the sunshine (this might not interest people at home but for me it’s a useful note to have). Customs seemed to take an age, with massive lines but in reality was probably only an half hour or so, but it did mean no waiting around for the bike bag. Which for many of you that have travelled, it’s a big part of the trip waiting on the bags, is it going to arrive?
Two hours later myself and James met Mates and headed to Five guys for the annual traditional Five guys burger and chips before heading to James’ home in Monument, Colorado. Catching up with James and Mates is always fun, hearing all the stories about riders coming to the event and the background to the event is always really cool. Tomorrow morning we are heading back to Denver to the Rackhouse where the BITR will be hosted and sorting out the lighting for the event. So door to door the trip took 18 and half hours, when we arrived at James’ after the usual socialising myself and Mates’ were both struggling to stay awake and got some sleep. Stay tuned for more updates day to day from my trip, hope you enjoyed this. Something a little different than my norm, its Tuesday morning here now. Let’s get a cuppa and get the day started!
