Madrid Session with Guelo & Moya

Moya sent this in today, he and Guelo busting out in Madrid, check it out!!

Reason DVD review

Editor: Yasushi Tanabe
Camerawork: Yasushi Tanabe
Hajime Yamazaki
Makato Shiraishi

We previewed the trailer for the Reason dvd a few months back, and this week the dvd was kindly sent to me by our japanase flatland correspondant Takuji Kusahara. Thanks Taku!!



The dvd features full sections with:

Hirokazu Miura
Shintaro Misawa
Shinichi Kiba
Yoshiro Nishikawa
Hideki Kawai
Susumu Morioka
Yoshiki Uchino



The opening section goes to Hirokazu Miura, the back wheel assassin. Miura has refined his riding a lot over the last year, cutting out the scuffs on the backyards and gerators, the links as a result are mindblogging and flow even better than before!!, some links huh? The opening combo is banging... inside switch b pivot to upside down wheelie xft stubbleduck pivot one kick to two footed backyard 360 barspin pivot to upside g roll to two footed backwards spinning upside down wheelie and out, f'ing emmense!!! Sets the ton for the whole section...Multiple gerator stubbleducks with no pumps 360 bar spin to upside g-rolls and repeat to xfoot stubbleduck out, he's cut out the bike laying down after, so this so clean!! Amazing!! All back wheel combos from Miura.Many think he has one of the best styles in flat, i'd have to agree based on this. This looks like was filmed all in one session.. Killer opening section!!



The next sections falls to Shintaro Misawa, Shintaro's style sometimes I feel makes people overlook what he's actually doing, he makes everything looks so smooth!! These guys are blessed with incredible riding spots, indoor marble spot anyone? Looks like a shopping mall, i've seen this spot on a few of Shintaro videos so i'm presuming it's a regular spot for him. In contrast to Miura's opening section, Shintaro's section is all front wheel, and equally as complex. Shintaro's combos are almost all massive in length, the last combo is like a video part on its own: Halfhiker to steam walkover to left hand halfpacker 360 to right hand halfpacker to switch hand steam to hang nothing whiplash to no handed messiah to left foot pumping mccircle turbine to right foot mccircle to forward karl to halfpacker to inside xft steam pivot to steam (are you following this seriously??!!!) to spinning halfhiker grabbing tyre to karl 360 to steam no handed one foot under frame whip around to spinning cliff!! Like i said Shintaro is so smooth and complex, I think he's largely overlooked!! And of course that combo did involve pumping by the way...



Susumu Morioka intro is so nice, with close up of the tiles on his riding spot, again looks like an indoor mall!! This guy made the trip to the worlds this year, made the cut killing it with his unique back wheel style..Infamous for his xft mega spin one handed on the bottom bracket! His section is two combos, the last combo is again like shintaro's.... massive!! forward death truck carved into forward death truck multiple turbines to gerator to two footed backyard pivot to pumping xft peg wheelie flip to upside down megaspin degroot style exit but pivots back to gerator back to two footed backyard and out...Susumu brings a different back wheel style than Miura, good to see the differing styles these guys all have..Left me wanting to see more from him!



The pedal steam master, Hideki Kawai has the next section, great location again!! Looks like underground subway, his tricks and style is unique and refreshing,what I love about japan is the diversity of styles, and these guys are pushing it as far as they can go. Stalled one handed pedal steams anyone? Inside halfhiker 540 flip to pedal steam!! xft steam flips out. Short and sweet!! The tricks are appreciated for their difficulty and beauty. Effortless pedal steam walkover to crackpacker on pedals to crackpacker and out, Hideki's pedal steam variations blow me away, and good to see someone continue to explore that trick, when most forgot about it.



The next section falls to Taka, another backwheel rider, and has one of the best riding spots,fountains in background, seems to be ongoing theme here!! One of my favouritre links from his section is the Inside dump truck glide pivot to left armed two footed dump truck pivot to xft upside down wheelie to junkyard glide hands round the back to mega spin to perverted out! Taka gains insane amount of speed on his pumping, amazing flow!!!



The next section goes to one of my favourite riders, Yoshiki "Hotoke" Uchino, and the "reason" I wanted to see this dvd (sorry bad pun but couldn't resist). Hotoke's part opens with a fantastic panning shot of 14 whiplashes to xft pedal hang five to xft boomerang out, amazing intro!!! As you'd expect Hotoke's part is mega tech, one of my favourite switches is Steam to left arm crackpacker step to yammer style xft steam to opposite side forward karl immediate jump to halfpacker (insane buttery!!) pivot to xft opposite hitch barflip out, and the ender is so tech, opposite xft whiplash to xft pedal hangfive xft turbine whiplash whipped direct into opposite side xft halfhiker 360 pivot to left arm halfpacker(!!!) pivot to xft whip jump to steam fire hydrant front scuff out, f'ing combo and a half!!! Flow for days, sadly it seems Hotoke is overlooked in japan, more should be made of this guy for sure. I know many agree what is the deal?? seriously!! Incredible section!



The next section goes Tsutomu Kitayama, he has the task of following Hotoke, as in japan, completely different style, more turbine based style, lot of Desroche influence in his riding (turbine karls, steam jump to teakettle etc, love his x hand one hand steam to karl back and forth all one handed, so stylish!!! He does Adam Kun's xft one foot cliff barflip to x bar cliff jump to steam whip to hang to crazy jump to steam mis whip out exit!!! Awesome exit!!



The last section goes to Shinichi Kiba, also known by many as "Russia", hes had great year so far, 2nd at the KOG round 2, and made cut at the Worlds, opens with Osicka inspired 540 endo direct to flap jack (sick!!), you could say he's taken off where Osicka left off, he's pushing this style of riding, crazy nosewheelie boomerang to right arm halfpacker to two footed frontyard to left arm halfpacker to switch hand hang five 360 flapjack turbine out to left foot mccircle to hangfive 360 cowboy scuff out, evidence of Russia pushing it can be explained with this combo, two footed multiple turbined hangfive whip out to left foot mccircle whip turbine pivot to inside xft karl turbine (so fast) pivot back to steam whip around bars to left foot mccircle to triple turbine whiplash to hang five xft boomerang exit!! So high in the techinical and difficulty department!! Russais section is filmed in variety of locations, and looks like he's found his direction in riding!!

The music for the video is provided by: Foo Fighters, Crystal castles, Smashing Pumpkins, Wasley Matsell, a well constructed soundtrack.

Thats the end!!
Reason is professionally edited, sections are filmed in some amazing locations. Seems like Japan is blessed with marble spots in every major city. There's plenty of variety between each of the riders and their styles, so the video doesnt get boring. Indeed I would say the video has a feel good factor about it.
It gave me the feeling I had when I watched Props Groundworks for the first time, that's how good it is!! Theres nothing half arsed about this dvd, great rider list!! This gets full marks from me!! One of the best dvds since the KGB dvd! Great job by Yasushi Tanabe!! The camera work is so professional, it adds to the incredible riding.
I hope Pat at Flatland fuel gets this in!! Everyone needs to see this!! The end credits even tell you where the riders are filmed at, nice touch!!

One handed xft whiplashes- New Martti Kuoppa edit

MK! What else to say?......Groundtacticcssssssss http://www.groundtactics.com

Untitled from Ground Tactics on Vimeo.

Nora cup awards

Fat tony at http://bmx.transworld.net did a great job of covering the Nora cup in vegas, heres pretty much the whole show. Flatland Fugitive Nate Hansen presented the award for flatlander of the year, each year the guys from US ride put on the Nora cup, huge party in vegas, drunken bmxers claiming there awards. There are some great moments.. Lee Reynolds announcing best ramp rider, Mike Aitken wining dirt, and generally Paul Roberts as the host... If you have time to spare, watch this...

Shintaro Misawa wins the One cup in Akita japan

News in from Shane Badman's http://flatlandaustralia.blogspot.com


Final results:

1st: Shintaro Misawa
2nd: Kentaro Nishiwaki
3rd: Keiji Nakamura

Begs the question, just how many contests are there in japan??!!! Congrats Shintaro!!!

The japanese Green Mile!! Secret spot jam!

Taku and Moto Sasaki discovered this spot in a Tokyo public park, $1 an hour to ride there, they likened it to the Green Mile. Killer video, Moto's last link is crazy, Moto is smashing it!!!

God save flatland!! Whitey at it again!!

Mr White is working overtime to promote Level Vibes, check this out!! Awesome!!

God Save Flatland from James White on Vimeo.

Toon from Thailand practise edit

Toon is one of Martti's students when he was coaching flatland in Thailand, super dialled, and now bringing few original switches to the game, just saw this on http://www.ground-tactics.com. I'm enjoying the grunts between switches haha...

Yesterday at TGM

We brits are having a late summer, so Im personally making the most of it. Yesterday I made the two hour trip up to West Norwood to ride with Phil Dolan and the rest of TGM locals. The weather couldnt have been better, first time i've been to the mile and there wasnt any wind, the sun shone all day, good vibes, and plenty of riding went down. Here's a few photos from the day. Enjoy..

When I arrived just before mid-day, the first person there riding was this kid, Yinka Thomas-Jagi, all the locals at the mile hooked him up with parts and bike, the kid rode non stop, which was so good to see, I hope this kid sticks at it!

Chilling after five hours of riding..

You might say Phil Dolan is having a second wind of riding, super motivated, and busting new tricks each time I see him, Cliff g turns...

The ever present TGM local Jason Forde. spinning hitch...

Moya's fieldcontrol edit

Great edit by Moya on the underrated fieldcontrol contest!!

Chris Bohm New Era edit

NEW ERA Supported BMX Flatland "Chris Bohm" PromoVID from Chris Böhm on Vimeo.

Cream 35 is out now

The new cream arrived yesterday, and it is full of flatland content! One of the better issues I'd say. Heres what inside...
Editorial from Martti "the thief of life"
Articles:-
A historic day, the opening of the sanctioned flatland park
New school and Next level interviews with Aleksi Ritsila, Denes Katona, Joris Bretagnolles, and Toon from Thailand, check out few of photos I've posted, incredible shots of each rider. One of the best features in a long time in Cream, stoked on this!!
Og summer camp contest report by Shane Badman
Made in Quamen article, interesting look at the us based company and their philosophy..
Riders wife article, with great interview with Terry Adams wife Vanessa, interesting to read her perspective on riding and how effects their relationship..
In la gazette, Bobby Carters repo on the neverland jam, Bike project interview with Karl Hughes..
And lot more flatland related ads, Og, Quamen, Twenty, flatland fuel, Ground tactics, Deep, Kunstform, Khe, the number of advertisers reflects the increase in the diverse flat coverage in Cream.
Theres also a 80s Haro show pictorial from the worlds in koln.

Of course there is much more, but those are flatland articles. As always Cream leads the way in the media, go get this, you will be stoked!

Matthias wins the Nora Cup!

The awards went down in Las Vegas last night, and the early hours in Europe. This year the outstanding flatland rider of the year was definitely Matthias Dandois, he got my vote and everyone else I know!...Congrats La Brie!!!!

NoraCup: Video: Nike
Street: Garrett Reynolds
Ramp: Chase Hawk
Dirt: Mikey Aitken
Racing: Maris Strombergs
Videopart: Garrett Reynolds
Flatland: Matthias Dandois

Shows us some skills whitey!!

Old school classic footage of Mr white from "Show us some skills", thanks for sending this in James!!

'Show Us Some Skills' James White from James White on Vimeo.

Dez Maarsen learns whoppers and then some...

Fakie whoppers, peg wheelie to whopper... Dez is killing it!! enjoy...

More videos from the Red Bull flow combo contest

Waldemar Fatkin & Frank Lukas Red Bull Flow Combo 2009 from arpad ikuma csizmazia on Vimeo.

Matti Röse Red Bull Flow Combo 2009 from arpad ikuma csizmazia on Vimeo.

Adam Kun Sevisual fieldcontrol practise edit

Check this out! Tom just kindly sent this in this morning, whilst I was riding, Adamn going off at the fieldcontrol contest, banging!

Adam Kun practice @ Fieldcontrol 09 Portugal from sevisual on Vimeo.

Matthias Dandois bikecheck on flatland.hu

Nice bikecheck with Matthias on the http://www.flatland.hu, straight tubes, big 2 piece bars, straight up bmx look is fully in vogue right now. And seems to work well for Matthias, check it out!

Riding in Tobago Part 1

Michael De Peza sent in his video journal to his sister island "Tobago" for a weekend trip of riding, enjoy!

RIDING IN TOBAGO PART#1 from Michael De Peza on Vimeo.

New face: Arnaud Gravey

Good to see new faces in the scene, check this out from agoride, feeling the 3 flip steam turbine...

AresBykes style 002 edit

Just saw this on Scott O'Briens Ares site, all about Hiro!!!

ARESBYKES STYLE 002 from YORK UNO on Vimeo.

Bmxboze Karakkaze jam edit

The bmxboze guys rule!!! enjoy!!

James Smith quick edit from Fieldcontrol

Qualified riders list announced for Tokyo World Classic 2010

Congrats to James White, invited to the Tokyo World classic!!! Theres some surprising names not on this list, not sure what criteria was. Wheres Moto? Hotoke? Argueably the two best riders in japan not invited, kinda crazy!

1 Matthias Dandois: France
2 Youhei Uchino: Japan
3 Viki Gomez: Spain
4 Terry Adams: USA
5 Hiroya Morizaki: Japan
6 Shintaro Misawa: Japan
7 Raphael Chiquet: France
8 York Uno: Japan

Matt Wilhelm: USA
Martti Kuoppa: Finland
Yuki Sakai: Japan
Jeff Boullianne: Canada
Alexandre Jumelin: France
Shinichi Kiba: Japan
Adam Kun: Hungary
Justin Miller: USA
Tomokazu Morinaga: Japan
Tsutomu Kitayama: Japan
Pete Brandt: USA
James White: U.K.

Michael Sommer wins fieldcontrol!

Pro:
1st Michael Sommer
2nd Matthias Dandois
3rd Adam Kun
4th Daniel Fuhrmann
5th Sebastian Pospischil

Congrats to Michael Sommer, contest looks great from the video!!

New Ciaran Perry edit, Level Vibes promo, Hotoke wins the A style jam!!

Ton of good stuff today! New Ciaran Perry edit, this guy is awesome!! Great hang nothing lines!! Nice to see some different riding styles in the mix!! James White sent in a promo for Level Vibes, sick back wheel combo, check it out!! And Hotoke just won the A style jam in japan, flatland is great!!

Feel The Vibes from James White on Vimeo.

Jams in japan every weekend, hope there is video footage of this sometime soon! Congrats to Hotoke for winning the Jam. And also my main man Hanawa for second place!!
Open class:
1st Hotoke
2nd Hanawa
3rd Enoyang
4th Tanmen
5th Ikkou

Australia's first online flat store opens!

2009 heralds the birth of a new beginning for Flatland in Australia with the country's first online Flatland store, newcircle. Specific to Flatland, newcircle recognises the wants of riders, the needs of the scene and contributes to the future of the sport. We have pooled our network of resources and industry contacts from around the world to bring you ultra competitive prices with personalised service and advice to Australia & the world.

newcircle: Online BMX store. Flatland specific.

http://www.newcircle.com.au

Terry Adams - @ Ann Arbor, MI

TA just sent this in, enjoy!!

Terry Adams - Flatland BMX @ Ann Arbor, MI - Red Bull from Ian B. Line on Vimeo.

Level Vibes is on!!

Great news for the Uk scene in from James White, read on!! Also blogspot set up already!!


Feel the vibrations. The time has finally come.....From the creators of the modern day flatland contest (Level Vibes) comes 'God Save Flatland'. A no frills contest with Vibes.

Novice and Expert will be competing for all manner of prizes and cash.

Pro's will be battling for the honour of holding the coveted title! Yep No money!! No prizes! just pure Love..Only for those true to the sport!

The Venue is indoors and will have a pratice area next to the contest area.

6th December 2009 From 11am at Crayford Leisure Centre, Stadium Way, Crayford, Kent. DA1 4HR.

It's On!

http://gsf-levelvibes.blogspot.com

Groundtactics

Martti bored in his apartment, i love the whispering groundtactics, so funny!

Untitled from Ground Tactics on Vimeo.

Jomopro flat documentary

Came across this on the agoride site, ton of documentaries on the Jomopro contest, and the lifestyles within each discipline, check out the flatland related edit...

JoMoPro 2009 Documentary (6 of 7) from JoMoPro BMX Contest on Vimeo.

Woozy edit from The Red Bull flow combo contest

Nice edit from Dominic from Woozy bmx, enjoy!

Nora Cup top 5 nominees announced

Top five nominees for this years Nora Cup are just in, congrats to Dane Beardsley for his nomination.

Matthias Dandois
Waldemar Fatkin
Terry Adams
Hiroya Morisaki
Dane Beardsley

The award goes to the rider who had the best year, my vote went to Matthias. Stay tuned next week for the results from interbike in Vegas! Agree with those nominations? Who would get your vote?

Moto Sasaki wins the "karakkaze jam" in Gunma.

Three contest wins in a row for Moto! Congrats. Results below, plus few photos from Aki's blog.
http://blog.livedoor.jp/back_drunkers

1　Moto Sasaki
2　Takahiro Ikeda
3　Yasushi Tanabe
4　Yosuke Sakuma
5　Yorihisa Shiota
6　Yasunari Ishijima
7　Syuichi Osada
8　Takashi Issy
9　Takuzi Kasahara
10　Takahiro Higaki
11　Akihiko Takahashi
11　Tomoyasu Nozaki
13　Naoki Watanabe
14　Ryosuke Takagi
14　Koji Takahashi
16　Akira Iijima
17　Masahiro Noro
17　Takumi Matsumoto
17　Masaki Morikawa
20　Yosuke Sano
20　Tosiyuki Yoshioka
22　Yoshitomo Ishiuchi
23　Soshi Mizutani
24　Shigeo Ichikawa
25　Naoto Kiyohara
25　Kikumaru Honda
27　Takashi Kasahara(SJC3号)

Akira Okamura fixie vid

This has caused a bit of a stir on the come up, to me just looks like Akira's having bit of fun, lighten up peeps!!!

Martti & Viki Bike n' Mic Hong Kong shows

Enjoy this, nice insight into what goes into the Bike n'Mic shows, plus of course a bit of show riding!

Red Bull flow combo edit by Markus Wilke

New Matti Hemmings edit

Ares Bykes Style 001 edit

Shinde puts down the camera (from the migle edits) and takes the roll of rider, banging link from Hiro, as you'd expect!! Awesome!!

ARESBYKES STYLE 001 from YORK UNO on Vimeo.

First videos coming from the Red Bull flow combo contest

Couple of vids up online already!! This one pretty cool, Waldemar and Frank busting, few mistakes, but shows the vibe of the contest, and the speed Waldemar was cranking into tricks, crowd was into it!!

Red Bull flow combo contest repo part 3

Matti Rose barely rode most of the weekend, but come the contest, Matti and Camillo(Team Berlin) were dialled and upped the ante every round.

Waldemar and Frank were the favourites, and Waldemar was smashing it all weekend, the winner took a prize of a flight to the KOG finals courtesy of Red Bull. Lots of pressure on his shoulders being on hometurf, second place, stoked on the jumplash photo!! Below that long no handed tea kettle glide jump direct with pivot to whiplashes, so good!!


Matthias Dandois was at the contest with Alex Jumelin (judge), super fun banter with Matthias all weekend long, Saturday nights party antics will be laughed at for a long time, on the way to the club, Matthias grabbed my bike and said to me if I pull a time machine (he was drunk) you owe me a beer, first try the time machine was smooth, and boom straight to his ass on the rideout, La Brie fell to the ground pretty hard, he took it good. Francais!!

Major props to Andy Zeiss and Frank Lucas, they worked their asses off for the event, great location, good tunes, great riding, friendly vibe, had it all.

Michael Sommer spun the tunes for the day, keep an eye out for Michael's contest concept for an event next year in Vienna, skills!!

The weather tried its best to ruin the fun, but luckily it was just showers throughout the day, it did mean, myself and Martti almost missed the flight, which made the trip home pretty stressful, but at same time, super fun! Was great to get away for the weekend, I was surprised to see Alex from TGM at the contest, flew out for the day for £20, unreal!

Red Bull flow combo repo part 2

View from the top of Wilhelm the great monument as the regional flags are giving to the riders, spectators packed the area as the contest began, friendly vibe, the clouds were dark and looming as practise came to an end.

Sevisual Tom in the house, super cool to hang out with Tom a little bit this weekend, from Koblenz, he will travel down to the fieldcontrol contest in Portimao Portugal this coming weekend with the Carhartt trip on a road trip filming at different locations on the way.

The regional teams was a great concept by Andy and Frank, good friendly vibe between the riders, made for an enjoyable weekend.

Germany would not be Germany without Mike S, dialled as ever, pedalling timemachine during the practise, his team with Sascha Haydeman (Hamburg) ended up in third place.

Hanging out with Martin from Global-flat is always fun, sadly we don't get chance often, this weekend was good chance!! Good times!!

Red Bull flow combo photo story part 1

I was invited over to Koblenz, Germany to judge the Red Bull flow combo contest by Andy Zeiss and Frank Lucas, a team contest consisting of teams from all the different regions in the country. Nice concept. I flew out on friday night, I arrived slightly later than planned due to the flight being delayed. Andy Zeiss and his crew were working hard on the friday and Saturday getting the contest floor ready, check that location!! Amazing!!

Myself and Martti went riding the whole day saturday whilst the crew set up the floor, this spot in Koblenz had a nice vibe right next to the train station, we met Waldemar there in the afternoon. The spot took a bit of time to get used to, pretty severe slope. We had two sessions there on saturday, martti learnt a few new killer tricks, and Waldemar of course on his home turf was incredible. Both were pretty close to one handed jump lashes, insane!!

After the first session at the Koblenz train station we headed to Waldemars basketball court, famous for his deepbmx promo videos, Martti filmed a few combos for groundtactics with Waldemar. I landed one new trick there so I was stoked,and martti worked on new back wheel combo..Saturday was a fun day away from the contest, just sessioning, was so awesome to hang out with martti the whole day, and also to see Waldemar killing it, nosemanual jump direct to halfpacker, stook out in my mind, the guy just rides fast, bounces around the bike, so good to watch!