Last week we featured Alexis Desolneux’s amazing part from the Intrikat “Flatsphere” DVD, this week its a full video: Mark Eaton’s master piece “Balancing Act” that dropped in May, 1997. This is a video that showcases all forms of BMX, and with Eaton’s editing skills this doesn’t get old at all. For the purposes of Classic Monday’s I will just stick to the flatland standouts…

There’s so much flatland, from the intro that kicks in at 00:37, Leif Valin section at 6:07 (look out for the fire hydrant to pedal ice cream at 6:20), that was a move that was ahead of the time for sure. Kevin Jones section at 11:51 showcases all different styles of flatland riding, fixie, roller coaster and regular front and back brake, cross handed hang ten step to steam (this might be unnoticed, go back and watch this one, never seen it done like this), and my favourite move from the Jone’s section double whiplash to switch handed steam bar flip to forwards tomahawk (this move like most of Kevin’s career was widely copied).

The standout section flatland wise has to be the Chase Gouin part (17:26), for many of us this was the first time we saw brakeless riding. We saw tricks that normally would require brakes performed in Chase’s aggressive style, Eaton captured not only Chase’s amazing riding but the hardwork and frustrations that is all to familiar to us all. The “No excuses” Alice in Chain track fits Chase’s riding perfectly, and it’s something Mark Eaton seemed to capture over the history of Dorkin’ videos again and again.
It’s a timeless action for sure, if I had to highlight anything though it’s during the last section jamming to Social Distortion, (23:19) brakeless g-strings to backwards Karl backwards cliff, and the following dump truck pivot x-ft ice cream to the pedal x-ft body varial inside opposite caboose was groundbreaking for the time and hugely influential for the direction modern day flatland has gone.
Eaton’s editing skills really shine bright in this one, certified classic that makes me want to spend the whole day watching the Dorkin’ box set, but it’s time to go ride!