Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Simon O'Brien update & Reason DVD review up!

Simon O'Brien is always busy. Not just with finishing renovations on his house, working on his solo DVD, putting his new Deja Vu rides together, but up on the Colony site is some more info about a recent demo he did in Sydney. Click here for more info....


Also, the new Reason DVD from Japan is out featuring a ton of great riding from the following:

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

Effraim has done a brilliant review on the whole DVD - you can check out flatmattersonline by clicking here.


Monday, September 28, 2009

Shintaro wins the One Cup 2009 in Japan!!

Colony rider, Shintaro Misawa just won the One Cup 2009 in Akita, Japan.

Final results:

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

Congrats Shintaro!!




Saturday, September 26, 2009

News from here, there & everywhere...

newcircle have an interview on the Rebelyell website - you can check it by clicking here. Also in Rebelyell news, don't forget that Issue #4, the Flatland issue, is still available - contact Chris Polack for more info...


Stewart Munro is currently over in the U.S for the next month & a bit. He has a few pics up on TheHGB.com from his US trip so far..

Paul Chamberlain got really psyched on this clip of Sean Parker. Click here, then click on Visual (works best on Internet Explorer) to check it out. Progression. Paul is still currently in the UK, but is heading to Asia in under a month for their next stage of travel before (hopefully!) coming back to live in Aus.

Melbourne's own Karl Hughes, famous for his work on The World Bike Projects, has an interview in an upcoming edition of Cream magazine. Karl was very humble about the whole thing, but expect it to be a great read into one of flatlands biggest assets.


In other Cream magazine news Shane Badman also has an article from the OG Summer Camp that recently went down in Hungary.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

The Tassie to Melbourne Roadtrip... by Lenny

Its 5 in the morning car is all packed on my way to pick up Wootto so we can make it for our 6.30 flight to Melbourne to ride and to catch up with everyone, checked in our luggage grabbed a coffee now we are set to leave the mania. We arrived jumped on the sky bus and was greeted by one of our good mates and fellow Taswegian the Batchmeister.


Trying not to leave our bikes anywhere for the weekend. We jumped on a train got to batch’s set up our bikes and then headed to Mik Dwyer’s Tattoo studio Purity in Thornbury for some ink, was very stoked with the end result, was good to catch up with Mik too, I would highly recommend it if you were keen on getting some lifetime art.



Whilst at the studio the infamous Ben Moran turned up to ride for the weekend. After that we headed straight Back into town for a ride, we sessioned some crazy place that was definitely designed with flatland in mind just near the crown I think, don’t know exactly where or what it was but It was short lived, Mr security guard wasn’t very happy though.


This photo was too good to leave out. We made our way to the famous Fitzroy bowl, but first we grabbed a long neck each and dropped in to see another fellow Tassie Leigh G at Anchor Bmx we didn’t make it to the bowl, but we did have a lot of laughs and a bloody huge parmy for 8 bucks at the Rochy up the Road. Very tired by this stage so we headed back to batch’s watched Agroman for a laugh it was great even for the millionth time. Ok now its Saturday time for breakfast Luke and Ben took us to a really random place called lentil as anything where they have kickass fresh food cooked and you only pay what you think it was worth, we all made pigs of ourselves, as you would too.


The weather was definitely on our side apart from a bit of wind, rocked up to Imax, had a roll with Grant, Karl, Robbo, Shaun, Luke Wootto, Ben, Jimmy and Marcus, it was an awesome turnout, heaps of rad manoeuvres went down, and there was even a few mechanical technical problems but it was all good, ya get that on the big jobs.

Grant Cruise mid pinkie

Karl - backward steamer

Robbo doing a little pose.

Ben Moran - pedal time machine

Shaun rolling some sweet backward half-hikers

We all decided to go and check out the Bali spot I was pretty impressed, a little small but very smooth and made for riding.



Wooto with a big steamer!

Jimmy with a no handed hang ten, who is a very hard man to take a photo, so I took this when he least expected it, funny guy with a very unique riding style with many tricks up his sleeve.

Ben Moran definitely pulled the weekend’s best trick, a bunny hop nose wheelie across this ledge, everyone was so stoked to have witnessed that, and Ben was pumped too.


We headed off grabbed some snags and proceeded to cook the shit out of em at Luke’s, it ended up being a long night, lots of laughs and random shit went down, I even got to sing a song about Ben Moran’s nose wheelies All in all it was a choice weekend and cant wait till the next trip, cheers to everyone who was involved in making it what it was.


And yeah this was the next day on the way home.

Chris "Lenny" Letchford 2009

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

General news round up...

It was great to hear that Colony rider, Shintaro Misawa has qualified for the BMX Flatland World Classic in January, 2010! For the full rundown of riders & other information, click here. Congrats!!

Other Colony rider, Shane Badman is also back in Australia & currently in Brisbane where he will be living from November onwards. With newcircle online Flatland store now running & the Down Underground series about to start in Perth in November things will be busy!

Brett Dighton, Ronnie Rampton & bunch of the other Brisbane crew will also be making there way over to Japan next month for 11 days on a riding trip & also hitting up KOG round 3 in Kobe - all the best & look forward to hearing about the travels!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Australia's first & only dedicated flatland store opens!!

2009 heralds the birth of the 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 and the world.

newcircle: Online BMX store. Flatland specific.


Wednesday, September 16, 2009

DownUnderground round 1 date announced!!

Shaun Jarvis, one of the lead guys behind the DownUnderground series, has announced the first round for Western Australia. Details as follow:

Friday night - November 6: Perth, Western Australia
Warm up from 1pm
Contest from 5.30pm
Contest finish 8.30pm
Location: Canning Showgrounds
$500 Advanced Prize Money

A flyer, full list of sponsors & all the finer details will be available shortly...

Martti Kuoppa, Ground Tactics & the Future of Flatland

The MK, Martti Kuoppa has, along with Viki Gomez & Chad Johnston recently started Ground Tactics - a website aimed at assisting & promoting the good direction of Flatland around the world.

Everyone should at least check it out & sign up to the forum. There is some great information in there about practicing/training techniques, trick ideas & generally everything you could or would want to know about Flatland is available.

Martti has also written a well thought out observation of the current state of Flatland. While sensitive, there are many areas that will make you think - you can check it out by clicking here.


Introducing James "Jimmy" Couwenberg

James "Jimmy" Couwenberg
37 - married with 3 kids
Melbourne rider - mostly Sundays at Imax.

My favourite all time Australian riders would have to be - Brett (Stumpy) Mason, Grant Cruise, Chris Carver, Lindsay Brown, Nick Watts, Matt Hodgeson, Raiford Stott, new skool Paul Chamberlain, Michael (Frenchy) Husser, Karl Hughes, Koichi (Japanese rider) and all the guys at Imax for staying true too the sport.

I started flatland in 1988 until 1993, then on and off till 2008. The guys who got me started were Grant Cruise, Matt Hodgeson & Raiford Stott. They introduced me to the city square scene and I met a lot of guys: Chris (Tristan) Carver, Brett (Stumpy) Mason and many more. We rode there every Saturday from 11am to late then on Sundays we would go to Nunawading skate ranch where we would get a 2 hour session on a roller skating ring. That was pretty mad times: I met a lot of people there especially Matt Holmes (founder of 2020 magazine), Nick (the legend) Watts who was only 11 years old at the time and his riding at the time was at an American pro level. We would head off to knox bowl after the ranch session, many would tag along including Trevor (the king) King, Dave Scott, Scott Hodgeson, Lindsay Brown and an insane dude called Jason for which for the love of him I can't remember his last name.

My 1st flatland bike was a 88 Haro sport black /chrome, nice bike but I never liked the rear dropouts as they would restrict you from doing certain tricks.
My 2nd was a 88 Haro Master the green /chrome with hp 48's and knee saver bars. I learnt hang 10's on this bike.
My 3rd was a prototype General designed by RL Osborn and made for the Australian freestyle team, it was actually a frame given to Matt Hodgeson (the co founder of Little Black Bike) from Dennis Caddy. I've got some pics so i'll upload them when I hook my scanner to my PC,
My 4th was my babe: an 89 GT Pro Freestyle Tour full chrome. I ended up trading this bike with Nick Watts for a Skyway Street Beat (yes huge mistake).
My 5th was a 93 Haro Master I bought in Adelaide when i visited Kim Fielke (an ex - Adelaide flatlander I met at the skate ranch during a comp).
My 6th was a GT/Dyno from Grant Cruise in 1998. The 1st day I rode this babe I broke my wrist at the Swanston street skate park rofl...:)

So that was my old skool/mid skool bikes...

I started to ride again in 2008 and started on a Hoffman Rhythm EL2. Was great to just ride again but way too heavy. I then bought a Dragonfly Alex Bender frame and that was a good weight but the TT was too long. I then bought the Sick Child from Mik and it was nice but I wanted back brakes so I ended up buying the Colony Cube from Michael (Frenchy) Husser: the one he won at the D.U.G 2 in Melbourne. That has been an amazing frame to ride & I have bought many Colony products and have come to rely on their quality. I have now bought a Mankind Alive from Troza for which i'm now getting powder coated white and should have that babe up and running soon.

ps: just a brief word to my fellow rider Grant Cruise, without you brudda, my flatland passion wouldn't have as much flavour: props to you bro.

My current set up consists of

Frame - Colony Cube
Forks - Odyssey 08 zero offset
Cranks - Colony 160mm
Sprocket - 25t Snafu
Pedals - Primo plastics
Seat - Colony
Seat post - Thomson 330
Headset - Colony internal
Bottom bracket - Colony
Headstem - Quamen Macross 26mm
Handlebars - Suelo v2 170
Grips - Eclat with Odyssey barends
Rims - front Gsport rim with latest Fly hub
Rear: Gsport with giesha light 9t
Tyres - Odyssey plyte foldables 1.75
Pegs - front Fly
Rear - Colony one ways




Sunday, September 13, 2009

Badman in the UK - part 2!

With only a week & a bit in the UK, I had to make the most of the time I had. After traveling through the South West, hitting up Bristol, Southampton & Portsmouth I made my way up to London for a few days chilling & riding with the TGM crew.

TGM, or The Green Mile, is the infamous spot in south London. It's the size of a standard soccer pitch & is perfect for any style of riding, but especially good if you're into rolling tricks as past videos of Phil Dolan will prove. You can find it by clicking here.

Always good times, it was great to see Paul Chamberlain who's been busy traveling with his wife through the Americas for most of this year. Luckily the English weather came through with the goods & it was bright sunshine for most of the time I was there. Big thanks has to go out to Jason Forde, his girlfriend Penny, Paul Chamberlain, Mario, Trevor, Marcello, Griff & the rest of the TGM crew.

Marcelo Nardi
Griff
Mario
Paul Chamberlain
Paul Chamberlain
TGM's newest rider, Yinke
Trevor Lacey
Rasta Dave
Trevor Lacey
The Green Mile
Flatland Brotherhood - UK, Australia & Brazil represent!
Griff
Gabor Szmetanko

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Random news from Queensland...

Stewart Munro of Cutting Room Floor media, responsible for past flatland videos Here Comes The Sun & From The Sky Up is heading off to the U.S.A tomorrow for the next few months for filming duties.

Also in other news, it's just been announced that there will be a future Back2Basics Jam to be held in Brisbane towards the end of this year... more info to be announced soon.

With the new Down Underground series due to be launched soon there it's great to see so many events on the calender!

Paseo Cup 4 video now up!

A video is finally available thanks to the guys at BMXboze in Japan of the recent Paseo Cup that Shintaro placed 3rd in.



Word is that Shintaro will also be featured in the upcoming Same Thing Daily 2 video by Dane Beardsley... definitely something to keep a look out for.

Robert Voller promo vid now up!

Hungarian flatlander/photographer, Robert Voller has a promo up avialable for his new website that will drop shortly. Check out his website by clicking here.

www.robertvoller.com 2.0 from robert voller on Vimeo.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Andrew McDermott's new ride!

Andrew McDermott outta Perth just picked up this awesome new ride. Stay clear if you see this coming up in your rearview mirror...