Props Groundwork is 20 years old and a certified classic in any flatlanders collection. Claybom is on it with uploads this week, I was so stoked when this popped up the other day.
Sections from Brian Tunney, Leif Valin, Brian Rybak, Chase Gouin, Dylan Worsley, Nate Hansen, Akira Okamura, Chad Degroot, Aaron Behnke, Mike S, James White, and Dan Rigby.
Let’s face it, flatlanders social distance everyday. It’s nothing new for us, flatland has come into it’s own during the Covid-19 pandemic and helped us all stay sane. And with lockdown somewhat easing, it’s ideal in a lot of ways to get out riding.
Jason Forde got together with some UK heads to document a line each during the pandemic for a project he calls “distancing”, featuring Jason Forde, Kevin Browne, James White, Miguel Pargas, Remus Simion and Josh Briars. Enjoy this one if you missed it on Instagram last night, rad riding and tune!
Great blast from the past for this weeks TBT, the Circle Cow contest on the suburbs of Paris was always a great event. Tons of quality riding in this one from the likes of Raphael Chiquet, James White, Alex Jumelin, Matthias Dandois (Steam jump over frame, boomerang to halfpacker at 2:13!), Sam Foakes (the line at 4:11!), and many more. Go watch this, loved these edits from Global Flat back in the day.
Classic Monday’s, it’s been a while! And we return with a certified classic, Madd Matt produced by Mark Eaton back in 1995. Great sections from Day Smith with an amazing soundtrack (7:23) and James White in York, PA (21:03) and plenty more with little flatland clips thrown in here and there.
Intro/Article: Effraim.
Photos: Veren Luka, Sevisual, Albero Moya, other photographers unknown.
I have had a great response to the first couple of parts to this Decade of Flatland article I have been sharing over the past of couple of weeks whether comments on the site or private messages. This week for Part 3, I catch up with Heresy rider and the man that made coin the phrase “Too good for instagram” Sebastian Grubinger, the godfather of UK Flatland, James White, and the current Women’s UCI World Champion Irina Sadovnik. It’s great and refreshing for my perspective to hear all the different viewpoints on the state of modern day flatland. Grab a cuppa, and enjoy this one!
This weeks TBT is dedicated to the Carhartt flatland jam that went down at the Jugendpark in Koln, Germany. Featuring so much amazing riding still to this day from the likes of Hiroya Morizaki, James White, Phil Dolan, Alexis Desolneux, yours truly Effraim Catlow, Chad Degroot, Lee Musselwhite, Matti Rose, Frank Lucas, Michael Sommer, Michael Steingraeber and many more., Throwback gold today on Flatmattersonline this morning. I took a lot out of watching this one back and sure you will do too!
In typical style, Sam Foakes took us all by surprise showing up at the UK Flatland Championships this past weekend at the Cycle Expo, Harrogate, Yorkshire.
After a few years break, Sam has made his comeback to the contest scene and he came back in style to take the second place spot. His style is still the same and there are no compromises in his riding style at all, preferring to fall off rather than pump the tyre. I had a problem with copyright on the music Sam rode to (a Hospital Records track), so my apologises for the lack of soundtrack in his run. The sound returns for a short interview with the man himself after his run (I think James and Sam thought I was taking a photo hahaha), I hope you enjoy this one. Welcome back Sam!
The results are in, and unless you have been living in a cave with no wifi over the last two days you will have seen the videos on instagram plus shared all over social media. Martti Kuoppa put together a Master of Creativity pro finals edit that totally hits the spot.
The MOC is infamous in flatland circles now as the most progressive contest on the planet, I am honoured each year to be invited to judge the event, this year along with Martti, last years winner John Yull, and Chad Degroot.
Now the contest is over and results have been announced, I wanted to give some love back to the riders that are helping to take flatland to the next level and bring new tricks to the table as we have seen with the likes of Sietse van Berkel’s winning entry.
11th.Stephan Fabien – Xft pedal nose wheelie inside xft steam without touching seat drops back wheel throws back to xft nose wheelie at the 00:6 mark. So smooth.
10th. Raphael Chiquet – 00:15. Raphael seems to have caught second wind in his riding career and is coming back really hard after being out of the scene for a while it seemed. Love the one handed stubble, looks like he wanted his signature no handed backwards spin, and throws the bike round body varial style to the floor. Look forward to seeing how this line develops.
9th. 00:34. Interesting choice of trick from Toon Pakphum for the finals, although I have seen this crack 360 flip to steam done to death with a front brake. I have never seen it brakeless, watch his technique getting the foot to the tyre so quickly after the flip. Literally has to be perfect execution to get this done, respect!
8th. 00:47. Who else but Mateus Beckmann drops a 180 bunnyhop to backlash whopper to backwards wheelie (controls with a few scuffs) to brakeless foot jam decade out?! Amazing skills from the talented Brazilian.
7th. 1:09. Xft rolling lawn full body varial gerator to his signature Zinger out, James White continues to amaze. James posted today there will be an edit out this week showing the background work that went into this entry later on in the week.
6th. 1:23. It’s been a great year for Mates Tucek, and this teakettle to opposite side xft half packer step to quick xft hang ten without touching the bar pivot to crackpacker is out of this world technically. This guys future is bright, believe me…
5th. 1:49. Owen Bohm is always a treat, you never know what to expect. And this no footed cliff turbine holding the seat defies all logic of gravity, flat-out amazing!
4th. 1:57. Ederson Paulo Ferreira dropped a wicked variation on his signature backwards one handed seatspin spinning the bars 360 and back to it for the finals. Incredible.
3rd. 2:11. Top three is getting heavy, Moto Sasaki went for a longer line than most riders for his final entry. The difficulty of combo’ing a one handed hang ten pivot triple xft crack turbine jump to steam kick pivot forward Karl xft opposite steam backwards spinning opposite Karl to spinning/pumnping xft hang ten jump to crack is insane!
2nd. 2:38. The beginning of Alex Jumelin’s final entry is out of hand, who else does an xft nose jumps at the point of the sweet spot to turbine and hop 360 nose jump xft steam without holding the seat? All Alex originals right here, absolutely unreal!
1st. 2:55. It was going to take something special to beat Alex’s entry and boy did Sietse van Berkel come up with the goods. I am going to just put it out there, whatever Sietse calls this trick (some kind of hybrid backwards pedal halfpacker locked on the top tube no handed) is the trick of the year!
It’s so fresh I have no name for this, and it made just say “wow” let’s rewind that when I was judging this. Flatland just went up a notch with the Master of Creativity contest, for me this event is not about the results although I know you riders at home like to see who came where. It’s about the progression, and the inspiration it gives to us all on that next session. I can’t wait to ride tomorrow….
Big thanks to Martti Kuoppa inviting me to judge, all the other judges that helped. John Yull, Chad Degroot and MK of course and of course all the riders that made MOC what it is. Beautiful.
Intro/Article: Effraim.
Photos: Bobby Carter, Kai Kuusisto, Alicja Korbinska, Tom Sevisual, Keith Mulligan.
All so often we only see the polished finished article, we turn up as riders at a contest and amazing riding, and flawless runs, or we see a “Must Watch” edit here on Flatmattersonline. What we don’t see is the blood, sweat, tears and psychological games that riders struggle with behind the scenes. I have faced this quite often over my riding career, and when it comes, it tells me “it’s time to switch things up”.
Every rider is different and that is one of multitude of things that we all love about flatland. I found something as simple in concept as learning something with bars forwards or backwards, learn something opposite or sometimes ride a different spot than I normally would. I have this saying in flatland, “learn everything you can, there are no bad tricks to learn, as flatland will catch up and bite you on the ass when you need that trick the most. I wondered about what other riders do to overcome this natural process of riding flatland over the years. ”
Happy New Year everyone! It’s time to announce the nominees for the editorial and reader choice 2017 Flatmattersonline Year end awards, thank you to everyone who took the time to vote. As always it is interesting to see what you the reader of Flatmattersonline thinks compared to my editorial votes. And last not certainly not least congratulations to all the nominees.
Flatmatters!
Effraim Catlow
