Rolling Tuff from James McGraw on Vimeo.
Before the Battle in the Rockies contest, James McGraw had Bruno Zebu & Mates Tucek staying at his house and of course, riding the Tintadome they got this fun edit done as a pre-hype to the contest. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch it in China, nevertheless all three riders kill it in their own way and this definitely worth a watch. That intro tho….
A real treat tonight from over ten years of footage primarily from the Mid West scene in the USA. Anthony Schneidewind is not only one talented rider, but also quite the film maker. Featuring the likes of Chris Armstrong, Ron Monis, Todd Gully, Seth Johnson, Chad Gale, Kestrel Roopnarine, Dan Hamilton, Marty Clark, Anthony Schneidewind, Chase Gouin, Jean William Prevost, Mates Tucek, Will Redd, James McGraw, Matt Wilhelm and many more.. This one is well worth your time and attention, and all in dedication to a special man who touched all of our hearts, RIP Hiro Tsuchida.
The exclusive content here on Flatmattersonline keeps coming. Whilst I was out at the annual Battle in the Rockies contest a few weeks back, I caught up with some riders to ask them who they thought was the Rider of the Year as a prelude to the up and coming FM year and awards that will be open to vote from 17th December.
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.
Text: Effraim.
Photos: Effraim, Art Thomason.
Day 5 of the trip, it’s Friday. The build up to the contest is getting real, everyone is moving just that one step faster. We woke up to sunny skies again, and I wondered if I would get through this annual trip to Colorado without seeing the snow. James, Todd, Will Redd, and Bill Nitschke started to talk about making an edit for the week, of the best clips, but needed an intro. After much laughter, James started playing the Geto Boys “Damn it feels good to be a gangsta”, next thing the house and the cars outside made it feel like a movie set. It started the day off continuing the great vibe that’s been here all week in Monument.
Text: Effraim.
Photos: Effraim, James McGraw.
Day 4 was the best day yet, I got the flatmatters daily updates done early and walked outside to sunny, but windy as hell conditions. I started washing the floor, which felt like it has become a daily operation. You gotta do what you gotta do to get the best out of riding spots, and James spot is literally perfect. Once his garden gets grassed, I would imagine this spot will stay for the large part dust free. Mates Tucek joined me and helped sweep the spot, I said to Mates I wanted to pull something new today and right as we started filming the winds picked up. Tumble weeds flying past us, and dry leaves smacking you in the face. It felt a little bit like this was a bad idea riding the spot today, but it passed and I really wanted to get back on the progression trail.
Harutada Shimoyama, Will Redd, Sakis Doumas, Bert Ribul, Romain Dodelier and Joe Cicman turned up the notch to get a place in the finals of the most progressive contest of the year. Get ready for the top 5…..
Just over an hour and a half of raw contest footage from the Pro Class at the AFA Round 1. You can watch Jean William Prevost’s flawless winning ride on the second video at the 15:25 mark, incredible. So much good riding went down, when you have spare time it is one to watch for sure!
If you missed the livestream from the AFA Round 1 contest in Detriot, Michigan. Fear not, you can catch it right here, thanks to Mark Mundt for the heads up. You can see Jean William Prevost’s wild new spinning undertaker line at around the 9:46 mark, plus of course a ton more great riding.
13to6 MOC from Martti Kuoppa on Vimeo.
The level went up several notches for the final round of the 2016 Master of Creativity contest, so amazing to see every rider push their level, and ultimately bring a whole bunch of new tricks to flatland! Here is the 13th through till 6th place edit Martti Kuoppa just put together, so proud to be involved in this amazing event for flatland that has without a doubt brought the most progressive riding of the year out and motivated us all! Respect to everyone!!
My personal favourite lines:
Forkone: Fire hydrant chick whips stem lash at 00:28.
Kevin Jacob: Nose stemlash nose g-turn at 00:58.
Hidenori Ishizaki: Xft pedal backwards facing backyard jump to pegs backwards backyard degroot undertaker out at 1:07.
Sakis Doumas: Hitch darkside to no footed dump truck kneeling on pedal at 1:51!
Will Redd: The Mix of the old school with Xft forward side glide to the contemporary 360 pivot to halfpacker + the following elbow glide turbine line is so good!
Sean Fontenot: Xft cab line to decade off the pedals around the 2:57 mark!
James White: Xft lawn flip gliding gerator to whiteski smith decade to xft hitch juggler flip back to xft lawn gliding gerator to whiteski decade out at 3:06!
Kazuya Hirayama: The opening xft backward spinning lawn stubble duck to gliding gerator to forward death truck out at 3:40 is beautiful! Followed by backwards opposite spinning lawn direct to pedal death truck! Wow!
