UK Flatland Championships Day 1

Text: Effraim.
Photos: Matti Hemmings.

Today I made the 6 hour trek from Southsea on the south coast of England to Harrogate, in Yorkshire. Harrogate is in the North of England for all of you across the world that might not know. Harrogate is the home of “Yorkshire Tea”, my favourite brand of tea in the world and what by and large fuels Flatmattersonline updates on the daily. It was pretty awesome to drive past the home of YT today on the way to the Yorkshire events centre for the UK Flatland Championships.

The trek to Harrogate was eventful, with Matti planning my route via the underground (bikes aren’t allowed on the underground) so I missed my train and after a stressful hour or so trying to figure out how I would get to Yorkshire. The guard was nice enough to let me on the train and all was well with the world once again.

When I arrived I was greeted by the man with the largest seatpost in BMX, Matti Hemmings and Davis Dudelis. Matti is out injured so is hobbling about with a swollen ankle. I got in a nice three hour session with Davis getting used to the floor. We have a decent sized floor, fast stone floor, super smooth! After brushing off the initial travel stiffness, I really enjoyed the session, nailing a couple of new lines I am working on whilst Davis was slaying big hop bars to manual bar out with ease, once my session started winding down Davis started playing with rollback grip rides again. Davis is one of the most chilled pros on the scene, Matti wanted to get some more content for the UK Flatland Championships so we fired out a pretty funny short interview that I will get posted as soon as I can. I’m feeling pretty tired now from the travel mostly, a 4am start will do it to you. But I wanted to update you across the globe and let you know what’s going here in the UK, the venue is dialled and we are set for tomorrow’s contest. It’s time for a Yorkshire tea in Yorkshire!

Repo: UK Flatland Champs / Dreamlands Kent

Text: Effraim.
Photography: Jim Cossey.

Round 1 of the 2018 UK Flatland Championships took place last weekend in Margate, Kent. Margate is a seaside town about an hour and half from central London for all of you reading this outside of the UK. Matti Hemmings once again is the man behind making the event happen, this year a different location and a better set up. Dreamlands, an amusement park smack on Margate seafront which somewhat bizarrely to me, goes in land rather than out towards the sea, two years ago we sat on the seafront having fish n chips after the Wheels and Finns festival and wondered what Dreamlands was. A great use of space and in terms of planning, this place is epic. You wouldn’t know this amusement park was even there, if you drive along the seafront road.

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Wheels and Finns / UK Flatland Championships Day 1

Text: Effraim.
Photos: Effraim and Matti Hemmings.

Day 1 of the Wheels and Finns today in Joss Bay, Kent for the UK Flatland Championships organised by Matti Hemmings and myself. Matti was already on site a day earlier to check everything was running according to plan. I made the trip over to Broadstairs via London on the train, the weather was not looking too good on route.

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Repo: UK Flatland Championships

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Text: Effraim.
Photos: Matti Hemmings.

Nothing but good vibes this past weekend at the UK Flatland Championships in Birmingham. I made the trip up by train on the Friday, with just one change at Southampton, the train is on the doorstep to the Birmingham NEC venue.

When I arrived Matti was already dialled in with banners set up, PA ready, just the floor to clean again, and judging sheets to organise which I was one of my jobs to do. I’m still injured so I watched as Matti, TGM Maz and Chris Brook enjoyed an empty floor. Mario wanted to arrive early and get used to the fast floor, and even learnt a nice new line, flail boomerang to hang 5, looking forward to seeing how he develops that move. in the future. Chris coasted no footed manuals across the floor with ease and Matti who was suffering with a bad back was working on stemrollers.

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Wheels & Finns Festival Day 3

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What an epic weekend over at the Wheels and Finns Festival in Joss Bay, Kent. After two days at the event, most of the hard work was done. We woke up to blue skies, and with the festival being so close to the beach, meant only one thing. Chilled breakfast on the beach, before the day really got started!

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UK Flatland BMX Championships Trailer – 23/25 September 2016

UK Flatland BMX Championships is back! Last year’s Cycle Show was the biggest in its 14 year history, hosting a record-breaking number of bike companies and welcoming over 27,000 bike-loving visitors over four days. Hit play to check out the new trailer Matti Hemmings just put together, we are working hard already to make sure this years event is much better! Stay tuned!

Level Vibes 2015!

Yinka Thomas just came through with the first edit from Level Vibes, and it’s a banger! Plenty of amazing riding from the likes of MK, Michelle Maiolini, Jason Forde, Matti Hemmings, Steve Green, Keelan Phillips, Alex Jumelin, Jussi Laukkanen, and many more! Below I’ve highlighted some of my favourite lines from the edit! Big up Yinka for this treat!

Highlights:

Martti Kuoppa: 6 stem lashes at 2:49 + fakie stem rebate to double opposite stem lash at 6:25!

Michele Maiolani: pedal one handed 5 grabbing the cross bar to one handed cross bar whiplash out at 5:42.

Keelan Phillips: 1080 nose manual at 3:36.

Matti Hemmings: No hand no foot dork wheelie at 4:30.