Flatland Australia - News & Media for the masses!

Looking for news? Newcircle BMX got you covered!

2010-12-08T21:52:00.004+10:30

You heard it right, all the news that was previously run on this blog is now being continued over on www.newcircle.com.au - Australia's premiere BMX Flatland mailorder webshop.

These cats know what's up: they ship the latest & best BMX parts to Australia & the world

Head over now & keep up to speed on what the down low is -- WorldWide--....

Flatitude - January - 2010

2009-11-18T21:41:00.002+10:30

Jimmy is holding a contest in Melbourne in January 2010. Presented by Little Black Bike & supported by many others, it looks like it's gonna be good!!

Check the flyer for more info or by clicking here.

August in Europe, 2009

2009-11-15T19:42:00.001+10:30

Shane Badman put together an edit from his recent travelling through Europe.

The guys over at Newcircle have posted it up, you can check it out by clicking here now.

Brett Dighton in Japan..

2009-11-14T10:23:00.009+10:30

Brisbane rider Brett Dighton just spent a few weeks over in Japan recently. While over there he checked out the final stop of the King of Ground, did a bit of travelling & also got married in true Japanese style!

Check the pics below....

The above pics are from the Spaceark shop in Kobe that you can check by clicking here.

Here is a shot of the new proto Ares Garuda that according to Brett is yet to be released...

Above is a Chimera bike with custom front sprocket

Above is the new Kuwahara flatland bike

Above is Brett & his wife Sachie in traditional Japanese dress at their wedding

Newcircle Down Underground round 1 writeup on Global!

2009-11-14T10:08:00.003+10:30

For those of you who missed it, Shane Badman wrote a review for Global-Flat earlier this week.

Check it out now by clicking here.

2010 Flatland Calendar

2009-11-10T23:12:00.006+10:30

For the second year in a row Fat Tony and Flatland Fuel are proud to present an exclusive Flatland BMX Calendar. The 12-month 2010 wall calendar features 15 original flatland photos of riders from six countries shot all around the world. Each month features a different rider in a unique location including Japan, Monaco, France, Australia, Czech Republic, Panama, and the U.S. In addition to the twelve months, there is also a bonus poster so you can keep flatland on your wall even after '10 has passed. As the only calendar of its kind the 2010 Flatland BMX Calendar is a must-have for flatland riders worldwide, but the only way to get one is to place an order with Flatlandfuel.

The best part about the '09 Flatland Calendar is that the calendars are absolutely FREE when you place an order with Flatlandfuel (while supplies last)!

For a preview of the calendar, click here & for an interesting interview on how it all came about click here.

Riders Include: Dominik Nekolny, Terry Adams, Chase Gouin, Moto Sasaki, Adam Kun, Kotaro Tanaka, Max Roth, Denes Katona, Matt Wilhelm, Dane Beardsley, Chad Johnston, York Uno, Shane Badman, Matthias Dandois, and Bobby Carter.

The 2009 Flatland BMX Calendar is proudly sponsored by Flatland Fuel, Cream, Flatware, Suelo, KHE, Fourthirty Clothing, Quamen, OG Bike Co., Hoffman Bikes, DK, S&M, Ares Bykes, and Colony. A huge thanks goes out to each company who helped make the calendar possible. It is support from companies like them that keeps flatland growing!

Newcircle DownUnderground Round 1 - Final Results!!

2009-11-07T00:10:00.004+10:30

The finals have just gone down for the first round of the Newcircle DownUnderground in Perth. Awesome turnout, awesome crowd & great level of riding went down!

Middies Class
1) Jason Parker
2) Mike Brandt
3) Shaun Jarvis
4) Andi Fontini

Advanced Class
1) Shane Badman
2) Brett Dighton
3) Ben Moran
4) Andrew McDermott

Detailed report including photos & video will be coming soon!!!

Thanks to all the riders that came to ride & hang out, to Shaun Jarvis & Freestyle Now for setting it up, Newcircle, Colony, Rebelyell & Airwalk for supporting & everyone that was there!

So much going on over in West Oz!

2009-11-05T20:38:00.005+10:30

The crew over in West Oz have always got a tonne of stuff happening. The Freestyle Now! posse have been busy doing demos all over the place with Shaun Jarvis, Andrew McDermott & Ben Moran handling flatland duties.

Photos courtesy of Freestyle Now

For more info on what's been going down over there check out Freestyle Now.

Also don't forget this Friday the first contest of the Newcircle DownUnderground series is going down in Perth - be there!!

Kevin Browne interview

2009-11-03T20:01:00.004+10:30

Thanks to Mizo for hooking this up! Great to see Kevin getting out there, first met him when he was in a Australia a few years back, then at The Green Mile in London a while later - top bloke!

It was a nice hot summer day when me and my friend Reverson, after days of riding at the same location decided to get our bikes and head to a different spot. We choose Waterford, the capital of the Sunny South East of Ireland Founded in 914 AD by the Vikings (??). Well the fact is that we didn’t expect to find a flatlander riding over there! We know the Irish scene is not big but for our surprise we were wrong. From far away we noticed a guy riding a BMX, and I first thought it could be a street rider (there are a lot of riders around so we didn’t care) but suddenly we saw flatland moves going on so we looked at each other and shouted "WHAT THAT HELL?" . After finishing his tricks, the dude who looked completely shocked at us was Kevin Browne.

Kevin has experienced untold tragedy in life. He lost employment and went out of control after the passing of his mother, father and sister . He got himself in a lot of trouble with the law and had to get out of the country moving to the UK, then Australia. There he made new friends and started flatland. Over the years he has changed, matured and learned a lot. Now he's come back and moved on, cleaning up all the trouble that was left and found in BMX a new life.

Fair play to you man, ride on!!!!

Mizo 2009

Kevin Browne from mizo on Vimeo.

Colony signed Poker Kit Giveaway!!

2009-11-01T22:50:00.003+10:30

The guys over at Newcircle have a ONE OFF signed Poker Kit from the final of this years DownUnderground series in Brisbane to giveaway.

For more details on how to go into the running to win this, click here now.

Karl Hughes & WBP now on Newcircle!

2009-11-01T13:59:00.003+10:30

The following was taken from the Newcircle site:

Karl Hughes has been committed to the World Bike Projects (WBP) for some time, providing riders in developing countries with the opportunity to put together flatland bikes. For more info about Karl & what he’s been doing check out his interview here & his recent interview in Cream.

Karl’s commitment to flatland is easily recognised through the WBP & in addition to this he also acts as moderator on a number of forums globally as well as being an active rider. His enthusiasm & passion to help has inspired many & we at Newcircle felt it was time a company supported his projects & provided him with a bigger platform through which he can now reach more people around the world.

Newcircle are stoked to now have Karl Hughes & the WBP as part of the team.

Ross & Shane

Fl!pbykes Flatmaster 2K9

2009-10-31T14:03:00.003+10:30

The guys over at Fl!pbykes in the Philippines are holding an international Flatland Contest over December 12 & 13. Shintaro just let me know that he's going to be making it & the word around is that there are going to be a whole bunch of other well known riders involved as well.

For more info check the flyer below & click here.

Bike Check: Ronnie Rampton

2009-10-30T09:52:00.004+10:30

While on the theme of super light bikes started by Ginny a few weeks ago, Ronnie has stepped up with his own ride. Ronnie digs a light bike, but this one gets used on the daily.

Frame: Ares 09 AY Spear
Fork: KHE 09 Tanaka
Handlebars: 07 Ares AY Bars
Grips: Demolition
Barends: Colony Konka
Brake levers: Odyssey medium
Cables: Shadow Conspiracy
Brake: Suelo
Headset: Ares Headset
Spacers: 1/2 degree spacer in bottom of fork to adjust offset & carbon fibre spacers under stem
Stem: 07 Ares (Ti bolts)
Seat: KHE Watanabe
Seatpost: Thomson

Seatclamp: Ares
Cranks: St. Martin Holloway cranks
Bottom Bracket: Road bike BB w. Ti
Sprocket: St. Martin 20t (w. 10t grinded off)
Pedals: Odyssey Chameleon
Chain: KMC hollow-pin chain
Pegs: Magic Fruit
Front Wheel: Proper magnalite radial laced to Alienation PBR using regular stainless black spokes with black aluminium spoke nipples
Rear Wheel: Ares Boo freecoaster with Ti axle with black double butted stainless spokes with black DT aluminium nipples 4x laced to Alienation Deviant rim

Rim strip: Odyssey rear & electrical tape front
Chain Tensioner: -
Front tire: KHE Mac 1 1.75"
Rear tire: KHE Mac 1 1.75"
Tubes: Standard

Mods: nope, all standard
Weight: 7.2kgs

While we were out getting the pics, Ronnie's wheel exploded & actually destroyed the rim in the process....

Troy Williams interview

2009-10-29T15:52:00.014+10:30

I've known Troy for quite a few years now, first meeting him in Whyalla maybe back in 2002 or so. He lives in a small town with one skatepark a few places to ride flatland & a long way from other flatlanders. That hasn't stopped him though, he's kept with riding & being involved & he recently came over for a day to Adelaide so it was great to spend a bit more time with him for a catchup.

Shane Badman

1. Full name & years involved with flatland
Troy Williams, been riding since 2002ish

2. How did you get introduced to flatland?
its actually cause one of my classmates at school had a BMX so I got interested and picked up a copy of 2020 and it had a interview with Shane Badman in it and I was hooked, I wanted to start riding after that

3. Describe living in Whyalla? How is the riding scene there?
the riding scene here is good, we got a couple of youngin's coming up that are mad good and in summer chill sessions down at the park and the bowl go well. As does street on any decent night. We are all a fairly tight bunch and help each other out, everyone jumps on my bike every now and again and now everyone here has learnt how to do Fork Glides!

4. What are you biggest influences in riding?
I'm a big fan of the whole Aussie scene, Shane Badman, Simon O'Brien, Stumpy...pretty much everyone from here. But Shane opened my eyes to it all, he happened to be in Whyalla like the day I picked up my first 2020 and I e-mailed him and he came to the park and rode...it all started from that. Mike S and Matt Wilhelm are big influences too.

5. Travel destinations?
I loved Melbourne when I went there for the Games this year, IMAX is awesome! besides that I want to try and get to every round of the DUG that I can...going to the worlds or Circle Of Balance would be mad, even just to watch

6. Goals with flatland?
I don't really have any goals, I just want to have fun and I do, even if I am on my own. I mean, if I land something new no one is going to know except me, haha.

7. How would you describe your approach to flatland?
I'm pretty laid back I guess, I get frustrated that I cant progress some nights when I think I'm close but I don't get mad and throw my bike and stuff like that, it just makes me want to try more. I'm really more into back wheel links but I'm too lazy/broke to put back brakes on and I love the look of a bike with just fronts.

8. Any one to thank?
Thanks to Shane for the interview/inspiration/good times, Thanks to Clint for going through the effort of getting my frame painted, thanks to Ross Lav for painting it for me and thanks to all the guys at IMAX for cheering me on to come last! haha. Like I said in forums, someone had to do it!

9. Final words?
Get off the computer and ride your bike, unless its raining or too hot or something!

oh, and have fun!

Ginny's new ride... world's LIGHTEST bike?!?!

2009-10-23T09:42:00.006+10:30

Ginny has just finished work on his latest ride which is possibly the lightest flatland bike i've ever heard of. Total weight is 6.7kgs.... you heard that right.

Frame: Abadthing Slim Fit
Forks: KHE Tanaka brakeless
Fork bolt Carbon capped, ti bolt, alloy jam plate
Bars: KHE Swiss Miss (drilled griptubes, alloy bolts)
Bar ends: Fly bikes Nylon
Headset: Kink Intergrated
Head spacer: Custom made 34mm Titanium
Grips: Ares 88
Pegs: Ares Uma plastic
Front hub: Proper Microlite (blue six flush fit Titanium bolts.. milled down with allen key head) Double butted stainless spokes, alloy nipples
Front rim: Alienation Deviant
Tyres: KHE mach 1 Premium foldable
Crank: Ares 130mm, 19mm alloy axle, alloy tension bolts, titanium clamp bolts, hollow alloy sprocket bolt.
B.B. : plastic with custom made teflon inner bearings
Sprocket: Modified St Martin 16t English sprocket
Chain: KMC X9SL hollow pin, drilled plates
Pedals: Wellgo WR1 alloy body, titanium axle, sealed bearing.
Seat: Severely cut down Odyssey Senior, Blue six hollow Titanium bolt, custom made plastic bolt anchor point.
Seatpost: Abadthing cut.
Seatclamp: Proper with titanium bolt.
Freecoaster: KHE Geisha lite 36h, 9t. ceramic balled steel caged bearings. Double butted stainless spokes, alloy nipples, titanium stub axles, Dragonfly modified titanium nuts
Rear Rim: Alienation Deviant
Tubes: KHE twiggy, st martin tube liners.
Weight: 6.7kg (14.7 lbs)

Where can I start? Maybe the front?

First off, The Ares plastic pegs will only take the smallest flange nut you have ever seen. (I can't even get a 17mm socket down them) I could have used a standard 15mm steel nut, but no It still won't fit properly, and yeah.... I have the Proper Microlite female setup on the front. So here we go...

I turffed the original 17m steel socket bolts, and hooked myself up some smooth faced titanium Bluesix 6mm hex key (no socket head) bolts. After ramming a lubed chunk of clay on a stick down to the bottom of the peg, I realised these still didn't fit the small landing on the bottom of the peg. I lathed them (and the alloy washer) down to 13mm. The absolute maximum diameter the pegs could take.

I had to make a custom Titanium headset spacer (34mm) to get maximum spacing, as well as optimal clamping area for the drilled griptube KHE SwissMiss bars. I fitted them with purple alloy bolts as well. I opted against the original KHE fork bolt, I used a carbon capped, ti bolted, alloy 'jam plate' to clamp itself on the inside of the forks... It's surprisingly powerful. And even lighter than a Tree alloy bolt.

The crank was a fair drama as well, the plastic bottom bracket 19mm hole fit for the Ares crank was as sloppy as a shithouse. I bought some 30mm solid PTFE (teflon) white tubing and custom lathed the inside hole to be the tightest interference fit I could get onto the alloy spindle.

I drilled (4 holes) 2mm deep blind holes around the perimeter of the bearings and ground some dry lube into the divots... Far superior to the solid nylon inner bearings. The inner runner actually hangs onto the spindle, and runs super smooth on the outer... I can actually clamp the crank tension bolts down alot harder as well... It's how it should be.

The St Martin 16t sprocket was also a bit of a nightmare to mount up as well, I had to grind away a small part of the crank arm so the chain could run around it and also grind away part of the mounting bolt.. That sucked lining that thing up. The tolerances are so close. But it seems to have worked!

Even the Proper seatclamp, I replaced the steel bolt with a titanium one but it wouldn't seat properly... Back to the lathe... I champhered a slight edge onto the bottom edge comparable to the original one. That was an absolute shit to do. I could barely clamp it in the lathe. It took me near an hour solid of light as all hell lathing with out damaging/bending/stripping anything. Just to take the equivalent of .005grams (or 0.02mm) off the bottom edge of the bolt...

I Cut 3" of the Abadthing pivotal post, and replaced the hollow steel bolt with a Bluesix hollow titanium one. Cut and ground off the seat nose, and ground off the uncomfortable edge on the back of it. I even replaced the unnecessarily heavy 'half barrel' alloy seat for the bolt with a custom made plastic one... That last point right there is like 20gm straight off for something so retardedly unneeded.

Pedals not everyone may like, but they are sealed bearing, alloy bodied, titanium axle jobbies... Wellgo WR-1's with purple anodized end caps of course. 175gms a pair.

The Geisha freecoaster runs steel caged/ ceramic bearings, as well as titanium stub axles with Dragonfly titanium nuts.. (lathed down to 13mm on the flanges of course ... *sigh*).

New Shintaro Misawa Autumn 2009 edit!

2009-10-22T11:46:00.003+10:30

Spied this over on Effraim's Flatmattersonline blog, Shintaro has just put out a new Autumn 2009 edit & as always with a bunch of super tech switches thrown in....

King of Ground photos

2009-10-20T21:12:00.004+10:30

Shintaro Misawa has had a great year. He's travelled all over the globe & been consistently placing in nearly every contest he's been in & rounded out the year with a 3rd place finish in the series result for the 2009 King of Ground.

Shintaro also sent over the following photos from the weekend. Great to see Brett Dighton, Ronnie Rampton & the Queensland crew in amongst it all - look forward to hearing the stories from their trip soon!

Good luck to Brett Dighton who will be having his Japanese wedding shortly!

King of Ground Round 3 - pro results!

2009-10-18T21:05:00.004+10:30

The finals have literally just finished! Get the world exclusive Pro final results here:

1. Shinichi Kiba
2. Hiro Morizaki
3. Nao Yoshida
4. Tomokazu Morinaga
5. Yoshiki Uchino
6. Akira Okamura
7. Shintaro Misawa
8. York Uno
9. Takahiro Ikeda
10. Yoshihiro Nishikawa
11. Tsutonu Kitayama
12. Moto Sasaki
13. Yoshihiro Shinde

Ronnie Rampton at King of Ground

2009-10-17T21:00:00.002+10:30

News just in from Brett Dighton over at King of Ground in Japan is that Ronnie Rampton is having a good weekend!

Ronnie qualified in 4th place in the Novice class out of 51 riders throwing down near flawless runs. In the finals he touched a couple times but still finished in 8th place... awesome effort.

Looks like he's gonna be on a mission for round one of the Newcircle Down Underground going down in Perth next month....

Colony/Focalpoint giveaway competition!

2009-10-17T20:44:00.004+10:30

Colony is working with Focalpoint on their Monthly Giveaway competition with the winner receiving a full pack of Colony goodies.

To enter & a full run down of what's in the prize pack click here.

Karl Hughes interview in Cream Magazine!

2009-10-17T20:27:00.004+10:30

Karl Hughes aka Paradoxium on the forums, does a lot for flatland. By now his work on the World Bike Projects is known world wide so it wasn't going to be long before a big name magazine recognised his efforts & wanted to know more.

Click on the pic below to read the full interview....

Attila Godi from Hungary!

2009-10-17T20:14:00.003+10:30

Ok, so this isn't directly involved with flatland but Shane Badman was recently over in Hungary for the OG Summer Camp & Contest & while over there he spent a day with fellow Colony rider Attila Godi in his hometown of Pecs.

While there he put together the following edit...

Attila Godi - Hungary - One Day in Summer 2009 from Colony BMX on Vimeo.

Newcircle Down Underground round 1 - November 6!

2009-10-14T19:14:00.005+10:30

Round one of the Down Underground series is only a few weeks away, this time brought to you by the crew over at newcircle with support from Colony & a host of others.

Check the flyer below for all the details.

R.I.P: Parris Whakarau

2009-10-12T22:43:00.002+10:30

It is with great sadness that on October 7, 2009 well known New Zealand flatlander, Parris Whakarau, passed away.

He was known as a very talented rider in both the New Zealand & Australian scenes & beyond. He was also part of the group of riders that included Kerry Gatt, Dylan Worsley & Dion Geaney.

A Remembrance Page has been set up for him on A Memory Tree - please stop by to pay your respects by clicking here.

Our thoughts & condolences are with his family & friends - R.I.P Parris Whakarau

Newcircle now has Zion products in store!

2009-10-09T11:01:00.003+10:30

We are pleased to announce that Newcircle is now the sole distributor for Zion products for Australia. Not only do Zion have a great flatland team that includes Sam Foakes & Akihiko Takahashi but their products have always stood the test of time & hard core riding.

Take a look through the store & check out the great prices we are able to offer!

Stock is limited so be quick!

Zion owner Mislav Streicher

Australia & beyond news roundup!

2009-10-09T10:05:00.008+10:30

The KOG finals will be going down in Japan over the weekend of October 17-18. Colony rider, Shintaro Misawa will be there along with a bunch of Australians: Brett Dighton, Ronnie Rampton & 4 other Brisbane riders will be making the trip over. Brett will be going over for his wedding & luckily the KOG was around the same time. Good luck to all the competitors, i'm sure there'll be some good vids coming out of this!

Simon O'Brien recently had a few pics up on the Colony site of him on his new Colony Deja Vu ride. Check it out by clicking here & if you're looking to sort yourself out with Simon's signature Colony parts then click here!

Kit McKenna has been working & riding over in the UK for the best part of what must be coming up to a year now. Having just finished in the UK, he's currently dodging bad traffic, over enthusiastic street vendors & cold, Northern European weather by spending time in Egypt before coming back to Aus in the next month or so.

Spotted this awesome photo of Andrew McDermott throwing down in front of his new baby on the Freestyle Now! site.

The new Colony catalogue is also out now carrying their whole range including the complete flatland line. Also has a great photo taken by Cooper Brownlee of Focalpoint of Shane Badman doing a blender on top of a mountain in Queensland. Check out the catalogue by clicking here!

Speaking of Focalpoint, Issue 18 is out now so get along to your nearest bike shop & pick a copy up - they're free to a good home! Click here for more info.

Shane Badman's new ride!

2009-10-06T17:34:00.006+10:30

Colony & newcircle rider Shane Badman recently put together his new 2010 ride featuring his signature Colony Cube frame & bars along with a whole list of Colony parts to round it out.

Superman provided the inspiration for the colour scheme... ;)

Frame: Colony 2010 Cube 18.85"
Fork: Colony Cube Fork
Handlebars: Colony Cube bars
Grips: Macneil
Barends: Colony Konka
Brake levers: Colony Transformer x 2
Cables: Odyssey Slic
Brake: Suelo Front
Headset: Colony
Spacers: Carbon Fibre
Stem: Colony T.L.D
Seat: Colony Pivotal Flatland
Seatpost: Colony 330mm
Cranks: Colony Colonial 160mm
Bottom Bracket: Colony Spanish 19mm
Sprocket: Colony Jam Circle 22t
Pedals: Colony Fantastic Plastic
Chain: YBN half-link lite
Pegs: Colony Jam Circle
Front Wheel: Colony Clone wheel (Clone rim & rub laced with stainless steel spokes)
Rear Wheel: Alienation Deviant rim laced to a KHE Geisha lite coaster with 36 double butted spokes
Chain Tensioner: KHE Dubz
Front tire: Odyssey Frequency G P-Lyte Kevlar 1.75"
Rear tire: Primo Comet 1.5" (rides the same as a 1.75")
Tubes: KHE Twiggy x 2

Mods: Back to double front brakes, trimmed 1/2 inch of either side of the bars
Weight: lite!

National Flatland Championship - Peru

2009-10-03T22:29:00.004+09:30

Francisco Lindo does a lot for flatland in Peru. A good friend of Melbourne's Karl Hughes, Francisco sent over a video from Peru's National Flatland Contest that went down over the weekend.

The contest was really nice. We had some problems, because this is our first contest in a lot of years, but the riders are really inspired to ride the best they can. The floor doesn't help too much, because it's a parking lot and not as flat as we expected but what ever, all of us do our best effort to make what we all do, riding flatland.

Some problems with the tires, like four of us had holes in the tubes, but when the problems are resolved we start to ride. The contest took like 2 and a half hours, hard to judge, but here are the results:

1st place Williams Perez

2nd place Antonio Marrache

3st place Jorge Nazario

Congrats to you guys, and keep the good riding!

One Cup 2009 videos now up!

2009-10-03T11:10:00.004+09:30

The One Cup 2009 event that went down recently in Japan was crazy as always with the level of riding always off the hook.

Thanks to Shintaro for sending these vids over...

Qualifying Round including places 5th to 23rd & more..

Top 4 finishers..

Videos thanks to Zols Entertainment.

Simon O'Brien update & Reason DVD review up!

2009-09-30T21:35:00.005+09:30

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.

Shintaro wins the One Cup 2009 in Japan!!

2009-09-28T12:48:00.003+09:30

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!!

News from here, there & everywhere...

2009-09-26T20:55:00.012+09:30

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.

The Tassie to Melbourne Roadtrip... by Lenny

2009-09-23T08:06:00.020+09:30

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

General news round up...

2009-09-22T09:47:00.004+09:30

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!

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

2009-09-20T09:09:00.012+09:30

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.

www.newcircle.com.au

DownUnderground round 1 date announced!!

2009-09-16T09:40:00.004+09:30

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

2009-09-16T09:27:00.005+09:30

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

2009-09-16T08:58:00.006+09:30

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

Badman in the UK - part 2!

2009-09-13T08:35:00.016+09:30

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

TGM's newest rider, Yinke

Trevor Lacey

Rasta Dave

Trevor Lacey

The Green Mile

Flatland Brotherhood - UK, Australia & Brazil represent!

Griff

Gabor Szmetanko

Random news from Queensland...

2009-09-12T21:10:00.005+09:30

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!

2009-09-12T20:53:00.004+09:30

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!

2009-09-12T20:35:00.002+09:30

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.

Andrew McDermott's new ride!

2009-09-09T22:05:00.004+09:30

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

Shintaro Misawa on a roll...

2009-09-08T21:01:00.007+09:30

Colony rider, Shintaro Misawa recently got a 3rd place in the Paseo Cup 4 - one of the biggest local contests in Japan... huge congrats to Shintaro!

Final placings:

1st place Moto Sasaki
2nd place Yoshihiro Shinde
3rd place Shintaro Misawa

Thanks to Effraim at flatmattersonline.

New 2020 out now!

2009-09-08T20:36:00.002+09:30

The new 2020 is out.

Flatland highlights include a feature article on the one and only Ben Moran and the Colony D.U.G round 4 report.

Head to www.2020bmxmag.com.au for a preview or pick up a copy for $9.95 AUD.

New OG video out!

2009-09-07T04:54:00.003+09:30

OG Bike Co. from Hungary have just put out a new web video! Featuring Denes Katona, Matthias Dandois, Shane Badman, Michael Sommer, Camilo Gutierrez & more.

To download the video click here or check below.

OG Bike: Project "B" from Denes Katona on Vimeo.

Badman checks in - Part 1...

2009-09-04T17:17:00.018+09:30

Shane Badman has been clocking up a few travel miles recently. After leaving Sweden he spent a month in Hungary riding & travelling a bunch. From Hungary, he's in the UK at the moment, riding on the south coast with a stop off in Cornwall, Bristol, Southampton, Portsmouth & this weekend off to London to ride & hang out with the Jason Forde & the TGM crew.

Here's a few snaps from along the way...

Hanging out with Tom @ SEVisual in Szeged, Hungary

Riding at SEVisual Tom's home spot (photo: SEVisual Tom)

At the wake boarding cable park with Peter Sarlos

Riding at the Gypsy Spot in Budapest (photo: Peter Sarlos)

Sessions at Southsea Skatepark (UK) (Photo: Chris Hall)

Effraim Catlow - riding dialled as ever at his home spot, Southsea Skatepark (Photo: Chris Hall)

Part 2 coming soon!

Paul Chamberlain: TGM/Brighton Jam weekend

2009-09-02T08:11:00.008+09:30

This weekend in London was a banger!

Phil Dolan announced a jam at the Green Mile on Saturday and people came from miles around to attend it.

Being particularly keen to ride with some other people I headed down at about 10am and was greeted by Lee Wilson and shortly after that by a new by the name of Yingke. Within the next hour or so there were about 10 of us which eventually became about 20. The weather was lovely and we rode all day. Manu Massabova was filming and James White, Phil Dolan and Jay Forde were busting out. The Green Mile is a great spot to ride. It’s massive and less windy than surrounding areas. Phil’s backwards nose manuals are immense. It’s great seeing them in real life. Anyway, I won’t say too much more about the Saturday because I’ve got no pictures!!! A great day was had by all.

On Phil’s word we all headed to Brighton (a seaside town that hosted the infamous clashes between the mods and rockers in the 70’s) the following day.

A few of the Londoners made the trip over and we were greated by a different cast of around 20 riders that included Effraim and Lincoln Blacksley (Southbank legend). The session went down again and ascended into drinking as the sun went down. It was the coldest day I’ve experienced since I left England and was a real taste of things to come in the autumn here!!! OH dear… I was stoked to be riding though and stoked to see how stoked Effraim is about riding. Phil went for a swim in the sea which was cold and England-rough.

The following day I hit the mile and rode mostly on my own. I was joined by Yingke after a few hours. On Saturday Phil told him that if he learned a new trick by next Saturday he’d give him frame. Well he’d already learned one on the Sunday and then Mario showed up, taught him another one and gave some ammo for the rest of the week! Now that’s flatland!

I met loads of new riders over the past few days who have started in the past couple of years. UK flat is alive and the jam was a great demonstration of that. Phil and Effraim were talking of getting some more jams going soon. Count yourself lucky guys. Soon it will be highs of 5 degrees and getting dark at 4 O’clock here!

I’m pretty stoked and have made good progress over the past few weeks. Time to re-flatland the bike setup! I’m on Flatlandfuel right now putting an order together. Some pegs over 10cm long and some Freq G’s should do the trick!!! See you at Down Underground!!!!!!

Some of the people who attended on Brighton beach - No sand? Welcome to England!!!

After the shoot and back to riding! It's cold!!!

I gave this to Phil because he was pretty stoked on it. DUG worldwide baby!

The end of the event and Trev Lacey falls asleep in the bar once again... Oldies? Can't take 'em anywhere. .

Paul Chamberlain 2009

Imax Jam report - Rob Barker

2009-09-01T20:39:00.011+09:30

Melbourne rider Rob Barker sent through some great pics & a few words about a jam they had recently..

Augest 30th Sunday at 1.30 pm myself and partner Kylie (aka camera girl..lol). And the young bloke Markus got to Imax. Most people arrived around 2.00pm with Shaun, Karl and Grant arriving soon after and Jim around 3.00pm. It was a fairly cold day with a little bit of wind and a few raindrops here and there but luckily winter is slowly leaving us. There was some nice afternoon jamming: Grant was dialling combos as usual... I was doing my usual..not too much..lol... Markus was getting some tricks out... Shaun was clean with some new things up his sleeve.. Karl was just warming up and got a puncture(bums and their bottle smashing) and Jim was powering his combos out. The weather stayed average so we headed for a feed and checked at the Bali spot for a half hour afterwards.. loads of skaters and not much room with all of us guys and them there so we all headed back to faithful Imax for the rest of the arvo...

Great day!!

Most of us were there..and the rain stayed away as best it could!!

Grant Cruise

Jimmy Couwenberg

Markus

Rob Barker
Photos: Camera Girl Kylie

Colony Down Underground finals vid by Mike B: part 2 - Middies

2009-09-01T20:34:00.002+09:30

Mike B has sent through the 2nd vid he has made from the Colony Down Underground finals for the Middies class - check it!

Colony Down Underground finals: Mike B vid!

2009-08-28T07:37:00.002+09:30

Mike Brandt outta Perth made the epic trip across the continent for the finals of the 2009 Colony Down Underground Series in Brisbane. He put together this little edit from the contest featuring the Advanced Class...

Paul Chamberlain update - Part 1!

2009-08-26T16:01:00.010+09:30

Paul sent in this great update of where he's been at around the world in the past year...

Shit. I never told Paul Knox that we were going away… Better ring him up!

Anyway, that aside. I’d like to start at the beginning even though it’s so long ago and see if I can make it to the present before the future happens. Luckily Jen kept a travel diary so I’ll just nip off and locate that. . . . . . . . . . . .Hidden!!! Like everything else that I need. . .

I’d like to warn you all that this will probably be relatively uninformative as it’s currently all wrong over here in Blighty. I’m in England. In reverse order it’s been Iceland – New York – Mexico City – Other parts of Mexico – Cuba – More Mexico – east coast USA – west coast USA.

So now we’re at the start. We’re in LA. I’m carrying a lot of shit. Well I’m not actually. I’m just carrying what Jen’s carrying plus a bike and all the trimmings. Let’s hope that I ride it!!!

My first impression of LA was completely aromatic – the pollution is pretty bad compared to anything you could experience in Australia. We’re pretty lucky really in this respect. We stayed in Hollywood right off of the main strip and did some stuff for a few days – AND THEN – I randomly bumped into Bobby Carter at Venice Beach and had a ride. Venice Beach – so many facial tattoos. Everybody here is advertising something. That’s LA. Walking advertisements. It’s all external here. Met the twins – Identical twin flatlanders. Lovely people. Wished that I had my bike. Was very happy to meet Bobby. I tend to like people who don’t change their bike parts very often. They’re always interesting – just like people who change their bike parts often.

Bobby Carter's ride...

Shortly after dark we got the hell out of LA. I was stoked to be driving a hire car on the wrong side of the rode through the night on Highway 1 all the way to San Fran 2 weeks after having passed my driving test in Ballarat in Ben Moran’s dad’s car. Saw a mountain lion!!! Rad! There’s hardly any left in California. Shit! I’m driving through mountains. A sty begins to develop on my eyelid. We spend the night in some highway town in a motel.

Wake up in the morning and resume driving après donuts – that’s all that’s available in Onehorseville, CA. Coffee. Coffee2. The coast here is beautiful. As we get further north everything becomes lush and green. It’s very wet here. Reminds me of Tassy. Wet and beautiful. It’s getting colder. A huge seal colony halfway to San Fran suggests that San Fran will be chuffing freezing compared to LA. That’s ok though – I’m really looking forward to getting to San Fran. LA has absolutely no soul it’s a completely vacuous place. Get over it! Sorry… The beach had needles on it! Shut up! Stop LA bashing!

Where was I.

Seal Colony. Yes. Very beautiful. We saw lots condors in the sky. They’re one of America’s big eco-success stories. They were hunted to the brink of extinction with only one bird remaining in the wild in 1987. That bird was taken into captivity where it joined 26 others. A captive breeding program later and now I’m bored of seeing them – I can’t enough of being bored of seeing condors!

After passing the seal colony the rode began to wind through mountains. It was raining heavily which caused a huge landslide. We were stranded in a log Cabin restaurant where the brews were flowing in a ‘hamlet’ called Big Sur. There are worse places to be stranded on Earth I’m sure. Expensive food but I don’t care at this point. We eat and get invited to a dinner party. A Harvard lecturer needs novelty backpackers to show his country club buds that he’s a man of many shades – he was good company though – In his own novel way – and It was an incredibly beautiful spot – with a petrol station! 12hrs later and we’re going again. Or was it 4. Who cares. Let’s get to San Fran. We’re in San…No were looking at America’s largest coastal waterfall. As I look more closely at the water and draw closer through my minds eye I can see the individual water droplets. I slow the image down to a standstill and now I’m surrounded by mist.

The same mist that envelops San Francisco every morning.

The same mist from which everything emerges each morning and descends into and dusk.

China town’s abustle with people 24/7. You can take the the the out of the but you can’t take the the… That. We’re staying next to the red light district a couple of doors down from that bookstore – City Lights. It’s a beautiful city with lots to do. I go a ride flatland at the clocktower early every morning as it’s a small busy spot frequented daily by fixed, wooden and pegged warriors aplenty. I get up at 7 and do a lot of riding in the days that I’m in San Fran. I met a rider called Sean Parker. We have similar thoughts on riding and seem to want to do similar things. It’s a shame I can’t ride with him more I have good session on that day. I don’t see Pete Brandt.

Enjoying a gourmet meal in San Fran...

Street in San Fran is crazy. The level in Tony Hawk’s or Hoffman’s or whatever is pretty accurate. I hit the hubba hideout spot, China banks, the ledges under the bridge that Justin Burns shredded in Stu’s DVD – best section in the past year. A bunch of other spots too. Went round a curved wallride a couple of times on my elbow just to check that I still couldn’t do them – I think I’m too intelligent for them – I secretly know that they are impossible which holds me back. I thank Gerald for guiding me around San Fran. He was the nicest dude I met in all of my travels and I hope that he’s doing well in Charlotte now.

I’m sure I missed stuff…San Fran…Lots of bikes. I rode down one of those crazy fucking hills without a brake and it was a mistake – I got really lucky with the traffic lights and was going too fast to stop with feet. I could have died. It wasn’t the biggest one either. Nuts. The street riders in San Fran hit those hills daily. Jen was too scared even to drive down them…

We go out and drink micro brews and some other stuff.

A rider and comedy genius called D-Block tells me that I’m not allowed to leave San Fran unless I hit his blunt – of which I’m assured he has means to construct many more of. He says of lot of stuff that doesn’t make much sense but is really funny. His friend Berto tells me that there is a video on the comeup site which is basically just him talking. I’m yet to check it out. San Fran is a blast!

We leave San Fran. The plan is to head towards Yosemite National Park. I killed a couple of extra days in San Fran and from Jen’s look of anxiety the world may end as we frantically pursue the present as it runs away into the future.

We spend the night in Fresno. It’s not a nice place. I make sure everything is out of the car and the hotel door is locked to the highest common denominator.

The END…of the beginning. . .

This is probably a bit of a mess. Next instalment coming tomorrow!!

West Oz checks in...

2009-08-26T06:17:00.009+09:30

Andrew "Buff" McDermott has been on a mission lately. Not content with the infamous down town marble spots in Perth, he & Mike Brandt have been exploring the city looking for more... & here's an example of what they've found already:

Shaun Jarvis also sent through some pics from a jam that went down the past weekend at the Scarbrough undercover spot. So good to see there is always stuff happening in W.A!

Aaron Bandy

Andrew McDermott

Eric Effinger fixing his bike & Russ chillin..

Joel Kennedy

Russ - hang nothing

Sydney exposed...

2009-08-25T07:10:00.015+09:30

Sydney has been made infamous over the years as being the second home for Michael Steingraeber. Beyond that though is a tight scene that regularly session together. There are a bunch of cool places to ride around Sydney & local rider Kilmer was kind enough to give us a small tour of these along with a couple of short bios. Stay tuned for more to follow....

NAME: Val or "Kilmer"

AGE: what does a number really say about someone?

YEARS RIDING: started out 97, got serious in 99, lost brakes and on/off for years. as of last 3 years ride weekly

RIDE: 99 GT Show - most components changed for weight and handling

STYLE: brakeless, mostly front wheel, working on bar-flips

OTHER: saw a dude doing a time machine on TV in a sports store and been riding since.

NAME: Alwin

AGE: oldschool

YEARS RIDING: on/off since 89

RIDE: Ares Garuda

STYLE: bit of old, bit of new, learning to "pump" rolling tricks

OTHER: inspired to start riding watching RAD videos

Riding spots in Sydney...
MEADOWBANK
Is under an office building. It's lit and sheltered and can hold 6 riders-good when it rains-2 mins from train station

CHERRYBROOKE
Where it all started - Sydney's most known BMX spot-half hour ride from any station-has a skatebowl and plenty of room

HEFFRON
Huge number of netball courts newly surfaced-not accessible without car (near Maroubra)

HYDE PARK
Middle of the city - easy access - many like the spot if you can put up with skaters, people, gaps between the tiles.

AUBURN COURTS
the new GO TO spot. easy access, heaps of space and good surface

Ben Moran in The Courier!

2009-08-24T17:45:00.003+09:30

Top Australian Flatlander, Ben Moran recently got an interview in major newspaper, The Courier. It's a great read to learn a little more about one of Australia's most original riders - check it out by clicking here.

Photo: Daniel Hartley-Allen courtesy of The Courier

Random Oz News bits...

2009-08-23T19:58:00.006+09:30

Eric Effinger is enjoying things over in W.A & has been regularly hitting up the infamous Scarborough undercover car park that was also the venue to the West Oz leg of the past Colony Down Underground stop.

Shaun Jarvis has been busy painting his house & through Freestyle Now!, organising a bunch of BMX stuff for upcoming months - more info to come! More problems with his elbow are meaning he's having to take it easy for the moment, but no doubt he'll be back to full force before long...

In Jason Parker news courtesy of Freestyle Now!, a belated Happy Birthday goes out to him & he's also working at Tom Price & the mine there. He's able to take his bike, so sessions are still going down.

Kit McKenna is also keeping busy in the UK. He recently visited London & Southbank & rode with the TGM crew as well as hitting up a bunch of street along the way including sessions in Birmingham. He'll be finishing his job in the UK at the end of September before doing a bit of travelling & back to Oz on October 13. I'm sure the guys at Imax will be stoked..

Colony rider Shane Badman is riding hard/travelling hard - currently in Hungary. Colony have an update on what he's been doing recently by clicking here.

June Dungca over from New Zealand!

2009-08-23T05:50:00.010+09:30

June Dungca has been in Melbourne, Australia the past week riding & hanging out. He's a constantly busy man, also responsible for the New Zealand's flatland website, NZFlatland. While here a couple of the Melbourne guys caught up with him & James (Jimmy) Couwenberg put this little piece together from their day....

We (Rob and I) met up with June on Wednesday, 19th August 2009 at Imax at 10am. We knew the day was going to be great: the weather was on our side, a sparkling 19 degrees - just perfect except for a little wind. We rode at the famous Imax spot in Melbourne for about 2 hrs then headed off to the Bali memorial. This spot has a marble like surface that is so smooth you wish you had the memorial in your own backyard... :). The atmosphere is excellent and great for photos as you can see in the pics of June - I recomend some jams here especially if you're an interstate/international rider looking to get some great photos for back home or a BMX magazine (2020?). Maybe Matty Holmes will decide to do an Australian flatland scene cover and have all of Australia's riders in it?

June - Backwards Half-Hiker

Back to June, when asked about his reason for being in Melbourne and how long will he be here? he replied: "i'm in Melbourne for 1 week visiting my parents and to get some riding in with the Melbourne crew". When asked what he thought about Australia and its flatland scene, he responded with a huge smile and said he loves it and was thinking about moving to Melbourne :). He also said he wanted to meet up with long-time friend, Karl Hughes (aka Paradoxium) but was a little sad to say he has going back to NZ too soon, and will catch up with Karl next time he's in town.

Jimmy - Hang 5

We spoke about the the riders and he talked a lot about Ben Moran and the level of skill he is showing. He said Ben is on a level all his own, and also replied on my riding saying that he has to watch out for little old me! (Jimmy) hmmm as i'm competition to him...hahaha I laughed! He also spoke about Paris (the NZ rider, not the city!), saying that he is riding a lot & progressing - maybe we'll see him at the 2010 BMX games??

June - Hang Nothing

On that note June did say he will be competing in the next BMX Games in 2010 and also the Melbourne Downunder Ground. June is a superb guy with such openness to any fellow rider. He was great to ride with and have a chat and more than I expected. Keep an eye out for June in future updates, this rider takes no prisoners and has a lot to show the Australian scene. I won't say anything about what tricks june is doing but rest assured he will be a getting a lot of YEAHS when he comes to the BMX Games in 2010.

Rob, Jimmy & June

Photos: James (Jimmy) Couwenberg

Ausbike 2009 - Melbourne, Australia

2009-08-22T07:04:00.017+09:30

Held at the Melbourne Showground’s over Sunday 16 and Monday 17 August, Ausbike Australia 09 was a bike expo covering all things cycling, including BMX and even a little flatland.

Mike D and Kickass were there, Kickass had probably the best range of flatland gear at the show with Taka’s seat tubeless Giga frame and slotted everything from St Martin as well as nice stuff from Mankind.

Ummmm, and that’s about it. In fact that is the total extent of flatland specific stuff on show at Austbike 09.

However had Mike’s van broken down on the Hume it is completely likely that an event essentially designed to bring everyone involved in the industry together would actually be an event the brought everyone in the industry together, except flatland.

Whist physical flatland product was lacking, talk abounded… well, talk only abounded when people were poked for it, as it turned out.

In media news, a prominent flatlander is getting a feature article in the next 2020.

Both 2020 and Rebel Yell had stands at the event and both were probably the best stands at the expo. 2020 had a Spartan setup with a sofa, free copies of the mag and a camera so you could take photos of yourself sitting on the sofa and presumably doing any number of wacky things.

Rebel Yell had a fair bit of furniture that looked like it came from the op-shop arranged in their space as well as free back copies of most editions of the magazine and even stupidly small free coffees. The coffees were stupidly small because of expo politics and when it was suggested that they setup a bar instead, Pollack said that he had planned to but were told they could have nothing so they bargained to the 30mil cups of espresso.

The rep at the DK stand said that they had about 50 complete flatland bikes for sale at $699rrp. The bikes are the model after the DK Signal and contain a number of upgrades including three piece cranks but they did not bother bringing them to the show because they were part of the 2009 products.

Paul Knox from Elite Cycle Imports informed us that that he was expecting another child, that S&M were doing more LTF’s and that he was unaware the Paul Chamberlin had left the country six months ago saying “that would explain why he hasn’t been round to pick up his wheels”.

And again, that’s about it. Attending these events really shows the third world country that Australia is when it comes to flatland.

Whist you often come across riders complaining about the lack of flatland products available locally, a trade show like Ausbike reveals the other side of the coin.

Almost every distributor had a well founded horror story about loosing a large amount of money on flatland products. Whether it is because of low consumer numbers, high minimum stock purchases or the way the Aussie dollar goes up and down like a hookers panties, each seemed reluctant to invest large amounts of time and money in flatland products.

But can you blame them? Scottish John from Triple Six said anecdotally “for every 1000 BMX frames we sell, only one would be flat”.

The non flatland news worth mentioning to come out of Ausbike is short and sweet. The SE PK Ripper and Quadangle re-releases are a mish mash of the old and the new with things like US bottom brackets, 48 spline three piece crank sets and external headsets. There were a lot of cool arty helmets available for the consumer including some sparkly Nazi style ones. There were some cool wooden bikes for toddlers with 12” wheels and inflated rubber tires. The most contrived head tube ever invented (even for a track bike) was on show. And lastly there were these cool camper trailers for bikes that include a huge bed and solar panels (the perfect Christmas gift for Ben Moran).

The highlight of the event was the Freestyle BMX Australia stand which was completely empty except for a large steel crowd control barrier and whilst it was not great in the traditional sense, it did set up a fantastic metaphor and made important self comment on the relationship between FBMX Australia and the rest of the community.

The biggest trend for the event was plastic pedals, fucking plastic pedals, everywhere you looked it was plastic pedals in every imaginable colour. Matt Holmes said all the plastic was part of a twenty year cycle in BMX part design however it is possible that BMX riders are just cheap.

Last observation, it is unknown why a bicycle expo, held in Australia and called Ausbike would need to suffix its official title with “Australia”, but a guess would be so nobody confesses it the Austrian event of the same name.

Ausbike is set to be in Melbourne for the next five years as well as another expo type event in Adelaide in January 2010.

ali

Photos appear courtesy of: David Apostol

2009 OG Summer Camp & Contest

2009-08-20T04:20:00.026+09:30

The OG guys sure know how to put on a good event. They've had a lot of experience in the past with running the Gypsy Games for many years & it long had the reputation as possibly the most laid back, fun event you could hit on the contest calendar anywhere in the world. Long may the Gypsy Games RIP.

But with the passing of the GG, the demand for a chilled out event was still there so the OG guys again stepped up & put together the OG Summer Camp & Contest. Where previously the GG was held in the small city of Ajka, the Summer Camp was given a new location in the beautiful city of Szombathely. As a much larger city meant more things to do & for the first time all the riders where able to ride together in the same place.

Running from the 12 - 16th of August it gave everyone a chance to ride hard, get used to the surface & catch up with friends from around the world you don't get to see too often.

I arrived with the OG guys, Andras & OG Marton on Tuesday to get some riding in & help setup. Denes Katona (who is pulling the craziest nose-wheelie, whiplash variation combos you can imagine) & Zoltan "Buri" Barta who runs the Hungarian BMX website where already there having arrived the Saturday earlier. Not a lot of people had arrived yet, but many were expected in the coming days.

The format for the camp was simple. Wednesday to Friday was riding & chilling with a lot of people visiting the water park & down town in Szombathely. The weekend were also practice days but Saturday also held the qualifiers for the Expert, Master & Pro class with the finals for each to be held on Sunday.

By Friday the 2,500 square metre mega-court was getting packed. The Czech Republic had the biggest turnout with some 30 riders showing up - awesome! As always, the turnout was global with riders coming from Slovakia, Brazil, Chile, Croatia, Russia, Germany, Austria, France & Australia & of course the Hungarian scene was well represented.

The contest placings can be found here so I won't go into any detail on those & i'm sure there'll be many vids coming online in the next few weeks too.

What I will talk about is highlights from the week.

Denes Katona currently owns rolling tricks. Any & all whiplash variations from the pedal, the rear peg - you name it he's combo'ing it some way. Oh, & he's also rolling cross-handed nose-wheelies as long as he wants....
The Czech guys have a really healthy scene. So many riders, everyone is really motivated & they were out there everyday pushing each other & smiling the whole time.
Speaking of Czech guys, Dominik Nekolny is dialled. I mean really dialled - he's got the hardest switches on lock & is also one of the nicest guys you could meet.
The Deep crew know how to have a good time. With Frank Lukas & Matti Rose at the helm they were always on a mission to get something done: photos/video/riding/partying - in any order at any time.
When it comes to putting on a top notch event the OG guys have it sorted. The fact that roughly 100 riders came from many countries & everyone had a good time is testament to this.

Here's a bunch of random photos from the week....

Waldemar Fatkin

Denes Katona

Dominik Nekolny

Alexis Desolneux

All photos courtesy of Andras Pentek at OG Bikes. For more photos click here.

A huge thanks goes out to Andras, OG Marton & all the OG crew for putting on another great event. As it was the first time run in Szombathely on the mega-court & with the hostel, things all went surprisingly well. Bigger & better things are planned for next year so hope to see everyone there again!

Badman.

Hiratsuka Beach Park Jam 2009

2009-08-18T04:22:00.002+09:30

Great edit of a recent jam in Japan. Shintaro has the last few combos & shuts it down!!!

Hiratsuka Beach Park Jam 2009 -BMXboze- from BMXboze on Vimeo.

Video thanks to BMXboze

KGB/Intrikat Online Contest

2009-08-15T19:44:00.003+09:30

Maybe people have already seen this but everyone needs to get behind it in some way!!

Martti and Chad are working hard to bring flatland back to what its all about, hard tricks and creation. This online contest will hopefully bring some crazy progression and push the sport to new levels and bring out some new talent for the online commuinty to see, yours truly is helping judge this, which im pretty stoked on.Let me finsih by saying this is just the start, Martti has bigger stuff planned for next year already, that will be released soon!

Dear pro rider/friend/company owner/business men,
please find on the flyer what me and Chad Johnston has been up to lately. As you can see that we really care for the future of flatland and we want to see it going to a positive direction. And what would be the best way to make things happen in a worldwide scale? Internet competition. That makes it possible for poor and rich riders all over the world to be part of it and show their skills.

As we all know the size of flatland scene pretty much then you realize that we are not after big benefits out of this project. We want to help. We want to push people to go next level and talk to their friends to get involved in flatland.

So, why I write you all this?

It is because now I am offering you a fair change to be a partner in this project. You can be involved as a sponsor with your company. You can be involved as a supporter (you get your name mentioned on our website along with a photo) or you can be just a hang around guy. We do not require oblications from you. Just if we can use your name/company name on the sponsor/supporter/friend list on our website and if you feel like donating something you can do so and the rider at the end will remember who donated.

Ok. There is one more thing I need to ask if you would like to be part of this. It is 50 EUR entry from you. The riders don´t need to pay to enter but as we all have been to the scene long time and we all have some other things going on in life besides hardcore riding only I know that all the guys can afford 50 EUR. If not, then donate smaller amount. I am cool with any donation (if you are rich, donate more and you get a special award).

But the reason to get this 50 EUROS is that we want to pay the plane ticket to the winner of this competition to a big pro competition where he/she can proove his/her skills.
I could get this plane ticket money from a bigger corporate companies but to be honest, I do not want such image for this one. This is strictly from riders to riders competition. We share good things in life.

Please e mail me your answer by 25th of august and after that date we are ready to roll and launch our own website.

I really appreciate your help in this one and hope your participance!
Best regards,
Martti

Contact: tieto@kgbflat.com

OG Summer Camp - Hungary

2009-08-15T19:30:00.003+09:30

Badman recently left Sweden after nearly a year spent there. Next stop is Hungary for a month riding, hanging out with the OG guys & checking out the OG Summer Camp held in Szombathely.

First week in Hungary was pretty chill. Local street riding legend Ben Shenker had his bucks party that got pretty loose including go-karting, BMX street racing & long board diving at some huge swimming complex. Good times by all.

I'm currently at Szombathely riding on the mega-court. It's crazy hot for the past few days that we've been here but a lot of riding is still going down. Along with the Hungarian riders, there are a heap of riders from the Czech Republic, Germany, Croatia, Austria, Ireland/Brazil & Australia!

Such a laid back event, it's cool to see everyone again, hang-out & ride. There is a chill contest this weekend that the OG guys are putting on... stay tuned for more updates soon!

Badman.

Has Shane Badman found the world's best summer spot??

2009-08-13T21:06:00.003+09:30

Badman was living in Sweden for the past year or so. As is always the way, only a few weeks before he was due to leave, this AWESOME spot was found. Perfect surface (marble), right on the beach & when the when the sun is shining is maybe one of the best riding locations anywhere in the world??

Best riding spot in the world?? from Shane Badman on Vimeo.

Voodoo Pre Jam edit - courtesy of Eric @ Monolithic

2009-08-13T21:01:00.003+09:30

Eric at Monolithic Entertainment put together this great pre-jam edit from Voodoo a couple weeks back featuring some the worlds finest including Pete Brandt, Eric Wright, Ucchie, Hiro, York, Terry Adams, Viki Gomez, Yuki Sasaki, Matthias Dandois & Colony rider, Shintaro Misawa.

Voodoo Pre Jam 2009 from Erik Otto on Vimeo.

Clint Millar ties the knot!!!

2009-08-13T00:13:00.003+09:30

Colony main man Clint Millar tied the knot with his wonderful girlfriend Niki yesterday. Click here to check the full story & on behalf of all the Oz flatland crew & beyond: good luck for the future mate!

Eric Effinger... now in Perth!!

2009-08-12T23:57:00.005+09:30

Canadian traveller/nomad/dope rider, Eric Effinger is now spending the next few months chillin' & riding with the crew in Perth, Western Australia.

Plenty of things happening including a photo shoot he's already had with Chris Polack & the Rebelyell BMX magazine crew - keep an eye out in upcoming issues. Check out the Freestyle Now! site for the full down low...

Image courtesy of Freestyle Now!

Ucchie vs. Shintaro - Voodoo Jam '09

2009-08-09T08:02:00.002+09:30

Great battle between Ucchie & Shintaro at the recent Voodoo Jam 2009 in New Orleans, USA with Shintaro finishing in 6th place. Full placings can be found here.

Video thanks to TNM Group.

Voodoo Jam Pro Battle 4 from T/n/m/ Group on Vimeo.

The Hour Glass Blog

2009-08-09T06:54:00.003+09:30

Infamous Australia flatland identity & Cutting Room Floor media spearhead, Stewart Munro has recently launched his new blog for all things BMX & beyond.

Some great videos already up, take a look at the site by clicking here.

Wireless Headphone reviews

2009-08-06T03:30:00.019+09:30

Nearly every rider out there runs some type of personal music setup. Whether it's a stereo next to their practice spot or headphones running off an MP3 player, there's many ways to get the job done. Here we take a look at the Monster iFreeplay Shuffle wireless headphone & Sony's NWZ -W202 model.

Ben (Ginny) McGinnes & Shane Badman have put together reviews on both models....

NWZ-W202 Cordless Walkman review

Who's a fan of riding bikes here?

Cool.., I thought so!

And who else is a fan of listening to their favourite tunes while throwing down some wicked turbines?

Excellent...

So then, is it safe to assume that all of us here at some point have had our earphones ripped from our ears, and felt the blinding, white-hot rage that comes along with it?

Sony, having heard everyone's girlish tantrums have nailed it here with their new release 'wearable and cordless' Walkman.

Having worn these pretty much every day since getting them over 3months ago, I can honestly say it's been the best $120AUD I've spent... I've been whinging my arse off for ages now (to no-one inparticular) longing for a nice set uncomplicated all-in-one mp3 player/earbuds... I've rooted around with every conceivable set up... From shuffles clipped to short corded cans and even the phallusy of hi tech/ hi annoyance bluetooth headphones.

So to start off, these are an all in one (albeit screen-less) earbud/mp3 player that simply sits over your ears.. and well, plays your selected beats. The added convenience of not having to install any extra programs as well as boasting a fairly decent memory of 2GB is always a bonus.. It will automatically sync straight up with Windows Media Player, but if you're an itunes fan... Do the work around... Make some mad playlist in itunes (or select an existing one), select it all, copy it to a new folder on your desktop, then simply drag that folder over to the 'music' folder on the Walkman... Piece-a-piss. Yeah it even plays AAC apple files.

The usual over packaged headphone jive is continued here, including a huge plastic blow mould retail blister pack, three pairs of different sized rubber ear pieces.. (awesome!), a neat little charging/data transfer stand with attached lead... along with all the usual standard, pointless paperwork. So far available in 5 different colours: white, barbie pink, green, purple and 'best in black'.

Mac-o-philes.., I can't personally tell you if these will work with Apple operating systems. I've read some reviews that they will, but I don't want to be burned at the stake for misguidance. So don't quote me on this.

The best part is that you can actually bend the connecting wire to suit your ill-shaped melon - this is where the player really dictates it's authority. It might take a few minutes, or maybe hours of subtly tweaking it to sit perfectly in your ears while staying still and efficiently executing it's job of pounding the sides of your brain... But if done right, the difference is astounding in terms of comfort, sound reproduction... and well, staying where you put them. This will give you the most advantage of it's huge 13.5mm speakers, (trust me, that's a massive driver when it actually lives inside your ear).. It really has a wicked amount of bass when seated properly.

The controls all sit on the right side.. volume, play/pause, even the always open (therefore slightly worrying) USB port... It is a standard 'mini' USB connector, so I suppose that's a muffled hurrah. Another handy point is that there is no on/off button.. Weird hey?

For automatic power-off just connect both earpieces together via the inbuilt magnet. Disconnect the two earpieces (to put it on and,) power it on. Wow, leave it to the Japanese.

A new and bizarrely useful feature I've yet to see on any other DAP (digital audio player), is the ZAPPIN function... Instead of constantly hitting the fast foward clicker to find a suitable 'flat-esque' rythm. You simply hold the play/pause button in for just over a second and let go, then a sultry English... Yes, a sexy, brunette, blue eyed, female voice, informs you that she is 'zappin in' with a 3 second sample of random tracks, when you hear the track you want to roll with, press the clicker again.. Even if just to hear her voice one more time... 'zappin out'...

She'll be back...

In a perfect world I wouldn't hesitate in giving this Walkman 5 skyward thumbs.. But I'm not perfect, I sweat.. Alot. I just find the open USB connector a worrying point. Electrical power ports and moisture weren't meant to co-exist peacefully, but the silent war rages on with my imitation sideburn acting as some sort passive buffer.

Just wipe it over after a good ride, It's lasted me this long, so that's a start. I'm happy, and I really hope this player battles on.. I love it.

Hit it up here.

Ginny.

Monster iFreeplay Cordless Headphones for iPod Shuffle

iPod Shuffles are a popular MP3 player. Their clip on design, decent memory (available in 1GB & 2GB) & ability to take hard crashes all give them strong appeal to any flatlander. And not to mention they also have the marketing juggernaut of Apple behind them & a legion of devotees that would make Osama proud & you have a product that is hot on anyones wish list regardless of whether they know how to work iTunes or not.

Yet even using a Shuffle, there has still been the age old problem of wires. They're annoying, distracting & often waaay to long. If you're a person you rides shirtless then they tend to get even more distracting always flinging about & getting caught on things.

Monster have taken care of this little dilemma by creating a headphone that allows the Shuffle to sit in the left earpiece. Ingenious concept with much potential, but does it actually work?

In short, yes. The Shuffle sits neatly in its little dock that is cleverly moulded to allow total access to all the switches & buttons. My initial concern was the Shuffle would jump out of the dock with all the constant movement, but the design has provided an incredibly snug fit that sees it sit firmly in place until you choose to remove it.

The pin that the Shuffle docks to is gold meaning the best possible conductor for sound. The headphone unit is sturdily built & folds down to a convenient travelling piece when necessary. Weather proof to some degree the speakers have are covered in a soft fabric liner common to all street-style headphones.

The Monster comes in a one-size-fits-all model but found to fit better if you have a larger head. It sits comfortably over your ears with the thin piece bridging the two speakers going unobtrusively behind your noggin & unfortunately like the Sony model reviewed, there is no adjustability. One concern I had before buying it was that the headphone would become heavy on the left earpiece (where the Shuffle sits). While noticeable, I personally didn't find it unbearable even after several hours of constant wearing.

Photos thanks to Andras @ OG Bikes

Though it has some great points, there are also a few negatives. I found the sound quality to be ok – it wasn't bad, just wasn't great was all. I guess when you're used to using ear buds then move to speakers you'll notice the difference. Also being a lad who tends to sweat a hell of a lot, I often had to squeeze the fabric covering the ear pieces dry. I've had these headphones roughly a month & no problems from sweat so far, but I'm sure that much moisture so close to electronics can't be good? Also the left ear piece with the Shuffle can jump about on your ear if your riding style is a little energetic. Not a problem per se, but annoying when you're mid-combo & your wondering if the headphone is going to jump off (which it hasn't so far).

You can find the headphones here.

I would give these a 3/5 rating.

Badman.

Tasmanian Scene Report

2009-08-04T18:35:00.024+09:30

It's been a long time overdue for the tight scene down in Tasmania. It was great to catch up with a few of the fellas so big thanks to Matthew Wootton & Chris Letchford for getting this piece together & out there!

Introducing..
My name is Matthew Wootton or (Wooto) for short and have been riding since I was about 15 years old (now 26) but went cold turkey for about four years in the middle of that due to the love of bodyboarding and a bit of travelling. I was born in Adelaide but moved to Tas when I was five and grew up in a small country town with about three or four riders. Now reside in Launceston, I didn't get seriously into flat until about five years ago when Twaff pulled me up at video ezy and saw I had a semi flat bike . After hookin up with him, Lenny and Dame I haven't looked back. As for what makes me tick Id have to say travelling, bodyboarding, mates, Coopers Pale Ale, My Girlfriend Brogan and of course Flatland!

Chris "Lenny" Letchford gives the down low on the scene...

It's well known that the overall BMX scene in Tasmania is strong. How does flatland compare to all this?

Flatland is already well known to be an individual sport, but in the land of Tas there is only a small handful of us here, compared to other disciplines its harder for young people to start probably because its not he cool thing to do or the difficulty and dedication or a bit of both.

How is the relationship between flatland & the other BMX disciplines?

The whole BMX community in Tas is still real close regardless if you are a dirt, street, park or a flatlander rider, we often have sessions down the park just to get some other riders involved and to take some interest in the other side of bmx, there is a few guys down there learning some basic moves like hang fives so they can link up some park riding and make it a bit more tech. But there are still some people who just don’t understand it all, I (Lenny) got teased for having pegs on my bike ha ha and been called an old school rider and shit like that but all you can do is just laugh it off.

Would you consider Tassie one big scene or made up of many smaller ones?

Up until maybe 10 years ago BMX was just one scene: everyone rode flat, jumped the local jumps, rode some vert and terrorised security guards with riding something somewhere you shouldn’t be. At the moment I think it’s made up of a few little scenes. There are the guys that are hardcore/dedicated to riding street/park and absolutely rip it up and don’t give a shit what anyone think and just love to ride, then there are the guys on the most expensive bikes with least skills. Then there is the older guys who rip by doin' there own thang, Then there are us the flatlanders who keep to their own little car park in suburbia hiding from the publics eye rarely seen.

Who are the key riders/players in the scenes?

In my eyes everyone is playing there part in maintaining BMX for the future and hopefully being role models for the next generation of rippers.

Considering Tasmania is somewhat separated from the rest of Australia to a degree, do you feel this has some impact on the local scenes?

In my experience I have seen a lot of people come in and out of the riding scene but there has only been a few who really take it to that next level, I think that isolation is a big key with companies not wanting to invest any money into riders that live on an island, therefore these riders aren’t getting pushed hard enough to meet there potential.

Tell us a little about your video project? When can we expect to see it?
The Camera has been put down for a while at the moment and I (Matt Wootton) have just been focusing on riding and getting new tricks down but It should be all finished by Christmas time. The Vid is really all about getting not just the Tassie scene out there, but hopefully Flatland in general because there are not many (pretty much no) young riders paying any attention to this side of BMX. Apart from that we do want to show off a bit of this beautiful state we reside in because it has heaps to offer and check out if anyone is up for a holiday down south.

Where would you like to see flatland going in Tasmania?
I’d like to see a new generation of younger guys take it on and help push the scene to that next level, and to realise that it is actually sillier than it looks and more frustrating, but that’s why we love it

How would you go about getting the flatland scene to that point?

Just hanging out down the local skate park encourages some of the younger guys to start trying some easy tricks which is a good start, whether they keep practising more and more tricks is up to them, I’d like to try and organise a jam/comp here at some stage very soon and get some of the mainland crew over for a visit to our island. It would definitely open some of the younger guy’s eyes.

Any final words or thanks?
I’d like to thank mongoose for my first bike, diamond back for my second and Haro for my 3rd 4th 5th 6th and so on and my wife for loving smashed up shins. I’d also like to thank the support from our local bike shop in the past and to High Roller BMX just for being the one and only soul BMX shop in a Tassie. And thanks to flatlandfuel for having parts at our fingertips. Also like to thank Back bone BMX, Colony BMX, Freestyle Now and all the other kind hearted companies that have noticed flatland in the past few years, Cheers to ya all, Peace!

Shane Badman & Simon O'brien bars & forks update!

2009-08-02T16:54:00.006+09:30

Simon O'brien & Shane Badman have their signature bars available through Colony. While Simon's is already available, Shane's will be dropping September & available somewhere near you.

Simon's Deja Vu bar...

*Flatland specific 4 piece design.
*6.8” rise with 23.25” width.
*6º back sweep.
*1º up sweep.
*Weight: TBA.
*Available in Black, White and Assorted Limited Edition Colours.

Shane's Cube bar

*Flatland specific.
*7.9" rise.
*24.4" wide.
*2.5 degrees up sweep.
*2.5 degrees back sweep.
*Weight: TBA.
*Available in Matt Black, White, Candy Red & Candy Blue.

And here's a sneak peak at the new forks available shortly....

Deja Vu fork (offset)

Cube fork (zero offset)

Sequence Hook stem & pegs - reviewed by Ali

2009-08-01T05:16:00.004+09:30

So I get this phone call a few months back, it was a flatlander asking me to review some pegs and a stem that Sequence had set him up with as part of some shady contra deal.

This flatlander also tells me to get some good photos taken of the products to go with the review.

‘Sure’ I say, ‘send ‘em on down’.

They arrived a few days later and I ripped into the package with all the excitement of anyone who loves getting free BMX parts in the mail.

After looking them over I paused thought to myself ‘humm, they seem to have been used quite a bit’.

Now used is okay for a written review, dings and missing grip tape don’t generally matter when no one can see them. What’s more if you’re unimportant like me, you’re often at the bottom of the list so it’s not uncommon to get a trashed review copies.

But really, how was I supposed to get good photos out of products that I’d sell for less than half price due wholly to visible wear and tear?

I jumped on the phone to the flatlander, ‘what’s the deal with these parts?’ I said, ‘they look like they have been used for ages’.

‘Yeah’ comes the reply, ‘sure have, I rode them for about six months’.

‘So why didn't you write the review?’ I asked.

‘Couldn’t be bothered’ he said.

There was a pause, perhaps even an uncomfortable silence.

‘Oh’ I said, ‘well, what did you think of them then?’

‘Honestly, the stem didn’t slip once and pegs are pegs’ was his evaluation.

Never have more profound words been spoken about BMX products. I’d suggest that at a minimum, when deciding which stem to buy, one that does not slip would be a great place to start.

I too ran the stem for a few months and sure enough, I can confirm that it didn’t slip once and I had no remarkable issue with it, indeed when installing it, it went together like Lego.

Which surprises me considering that the top part of the stem only had about 5mm of steer tube to grab hold of.

You see I run forks with a 165mm steer tube which I’m convinced were designed back when things like ridiculously long head tubes with oversized novelty internal cups were the domain of guys who wore cleats and shaved their nut sack.

As such, I don’t have a huge amount of slack in my steer tube, I don’t use spacers and the Brickhouse stem I’ve been running forever (which has a lower height than the Sequence Hook), grabbed hold of the whole tube. The Sequence did not. If I was going to run this stem over the long term I’d make sure there was sufficient room for it to fit to my forks.

Which would piss me off had I paid money for it – having to buy new forks that is. But it’s all a trade off, the stem is light because its had all sorts of bits cut out of it, so it has to be big to compensate for the missing material that would have provided contact and in turn grip.

I guess the law is: the more you remove of something means whatever is left behind is all the more important.

According to the Sequence website, the stems come black only and have 26mm and 50mm reach options, Flatlandfuel has them in other colours for some reason.

The pegs? Well, pegs are pegs aren’t they. I’m not a fan of grip tape, even the softer rubberised type used on this product. One of my main gripes is that the adhesive melts in the hot summers we get here in Australia. I personally think knurled is the way to go with pegs, if a little bit of knurling is hurting you hands then perhaps you should harden up.

Each peg is made from two different materials, I think its aluminium with a steel cap insert. I’m not sure how they get the cap to stay in (and I have seen it fall out on other models). They come in 1.5 and 1.65 inch diameter options and black only.

The thing about both these products is they are very flatlandy. By that I mean they are really trying to place themselves on the leading edge of flatland products.

The stem and the pegs both scream ‘I’m up with the latest in flatland products (or trends) and I care about weight’. This is not a bad thing, Sequence are clearly trying capture a part of the market but these products exist in the domain of pretzel top tubes and tiny chainrings.

Will I run the Hook stem and self titled pegs after reviewing them? No, but that’s not because they are bad products, it’s because they are not to my taste. I’m a wedge bolt skeptic and prefer knurled pegs.

You can’t buy Sequence products in Australia, so no supporting your local with this purchase, check out Sequence for more info.

Ends.

Roll Call: Oz riders!

2009-07-31T01:19:00.002+09:30

Shaun Jarvis has been keeping a close eye on the Oz Flat Scene of late. He just worded me up on what's been going down of late...

The Tasmanian crew love the rain and the cold...
Leigh “Twaff" Waddingham is riding in the paint and panel workshop
Matt "Woodo" Wootton is almost getting hang fives to half packers on lock
Chris “Lenny” Letchford said that when he is not platting his pubes and eating beef he’s been outriding.

The Brisbane lot are rollin it hard...
Brett Dighton wants a video camera pointed his way to show the progression
Roni Rampton is learning cross foot whip to cross foot hitch hikers and opposite karl kruzers.
John Walsh is keeping it and Roni said some other groms are getting involved

The Sydney siders are mixing it up...
Simon O’Brien is going hard and has recently been riding with Tomacz
Rhys Mason - ex Sydney rider now living in Alice Springs has been riding and keeping it up to date.

In West Oz Aaron Bandy has been riding so hard that he and his wife have made a baby and that he and Russ are riding as often as they can. Trent Karrow said he has been on 92.9fm radio and at channel 7 don’t know what for but I don’t think its bike related. Could be casting for a show??

Canadian Eric Effinger will be arriving in Perth in a few more days time. Looking forward to that.

Ben Moran throwing down...

Shane Badman featured in major Swedish newspaper!

2009-07-29T06:28:00.009+09:30

Colony rider Shane Badman has been living the life in Sweden for a while now. While flatland is not huge in the country, the interest for it is definitely there. Recently Shane got asked to do an interview for one of the major Swedish newspapers, Sydsvenskan (South Sweden). Here's how it came about....

I was riding at my local spot in a small village called Staffanstorp in the far south of Sweden. Randomly a couple of people came up to talk, interested in what I was doing. One was a journalist, the other a photographer: they had seen me here practising regularly & were curious to know more about the sport & myself.

So we sat down & went through some details about myself, my riding history & flatland followed by a quick photo shoot. Their plan was to do a full page spread in the Sydsvenskan paper that would be released over the next few days.

A few days go by & I get a message to give the journalist a call. After a short conversion, the word is they would like to do a little more than just a paper interview - but do something for the web too. Great! We scheduled to meet the following the following Monday at their studios in Malmo.

10am Monday arrived quickly. I was welcomed & introduced to the "video guy" & "another photographer" saying they would be with me for the next few hours. The plan was to get a few clips riding & few photos on site.

Riding outdoors in Sweden can be tricky business. I love the country, the people & everything about it, but the weather can make life tough. Even in the middle of summer it can be sunny one moment & raining the next. And the wind.... whoa - if you own a wind farm I imagine you'd be doing pretty well. So we headed down to a place I'd been a few weeks earlier & though thankfully it wasn't raining, the wind was making up for it. We filmed a few things, talked a little bit & headed back to get the photos done.

So after a few short hours since walking through their door I was thanked for my time & advised the final product would be available in the next 24 hours.

And here it is:

You can read the translated article by clicking here.

The short web vid is found here.

And the article was also printed in the daily newspaper - full page no less!!

So a massive thank you to everyone who has made my stay in Sweden an amazing experience. Though I'm leaving in less than a week I'll always remember my time here & the close friends that I've made.

See you all soon!!!

Game of B.I.K.E... West OZ style!

2009-07-28T03:40:00.003+09:30

As always, the guys over in Perth are keeping busy through the winter. Progression sessions seem to be going down on the daily - cross handed 5's the trick that's opening doors for them right now. Check out the Freestyle Now website here for the downlow....

Andrew McDermott vs. Shaun Jarvis

King of Ground: Round 2

2009-07-25T06:08:00.004+09:30

Congrats to Colony flow rider, Shintaro Misawa who finished 9th at the KOG recently. Awesome contest, awesome riding... check the vid below for the highlights....

Product highlight: Colony T.L.D stem

2009-07-24T06:39:00.003+09:30

Great stem, currently on the rides of many of the Australian flatland riders... take a look here for more info.

One sunny Winter session at Melbourne's Imax

2009-07-21T07:07:00.007+09:30

A few of the Melbourne crew got together over the weekend to session the infamous Imax spot. Enjoying the winter sun, they snapped a few photos to share with us all. Good to hear & see the scene is holding together strong & sessions are still going during winter...

Riders: Jimmy, Karl Hughes & Grant Cruise

Simon O'brien bikecheck!

2009-07-18T15:23:00.002+09:30

Dane Beardsley over at Same Thing Daily has just posted a sweet bike check with Simon O'brien on board his Colony DejaVu which is due out in only a few short months...

Head on over for a looksy!

Colony Down Underground: Final tally & points score

2009-07-18T15:06:00.003+09:30

The series has come to a close & the points have been tallied. It's great to see such a depth in Australian flatland & an interest from international riders to visit.

All the feedback so far has been hugely positive & if there is something you would like to contribute take a look at this thread on the forum & have your say!

COLONY DOWN UNDERGROUND - ROUND 4 THE FINALS

Beyond the Black Stump - The Lee McCormick interview

2009-07-16T07:24:00.011+09:30

I've been lucky enough to know Lee for quite a few years now. I can still remember the first time we met at some random jam in the Salisbury Suburb of Adelaide. He was busting out on a blue KHE Premium Lager & I was stoked to see another rider close by! Lee is a busy man - he is married with a family & has a full-time job as an arborealist (aka tree surgeon), but still finds the time to get out for a session on a regular basis.

I caught up with Lee recently to see what he's been up too... read on for more.

1. Full name & years involved with flatland:
Lee McCormick, I'm 29 yrs and have been riding flat for around 14 yrs.

2. How did you become involved in flatland?
Well, some mates of mine had just bought a new Dyno Slammer and a Torker Kickback and after riding one and being the odd one out, I pestered the parents to help buy me a freestyle bike for Christmas. So, went down to the local bike shop and grabbed myself a hot new Torker flipside. After buying the vid Ride On and watching the likes of Agroman and the Dorkin vids, it wasn't long before I was hitting car parks late at night trying cyclones, forkstands and fire hydrants.

3. I understand that you've moved around Australia a bit. Tell us about the places you've lived & travelled & has the bike always gone with you?
The bike has always been there for me, through the good and the bad. Grew up in the land of the Mania (Tasmania) and was lucky to have great mentors like Damon Fox and Leaping Lenny Letchford. Moved up the coast to Queensland and lived in Boyne Island for a while not far from Gladstone before residing further up north to Airlie Beach for 5 yrs. Rode quite a lot up there and being almost the only flatlander apart from the occasional ride with a mate, It was a very newish thing for people passing by. I was doing various demos for schools and events organised by a retail sport shop. Was great weather all the time so it made riding very easy and being not a very populated place at the time there was ample places for riding. Then to the flattest state in 03/04 to Nth Adelaide where I currently call home.

4. Out of all the places that you've been where have you most enjoyed the riding scene?
Definately Tassy. Great riding scene there, great people and riders whether it be a flatty or a street/ramp rider or a skater, we would always ride together! Just crappy weather would have to be the only fault. Whilst in Thailand not so long ago was spewing I had no bike as that is a flatlanders dream there!

5. Now that you call Adelaide home, how do you find that for living & flatland? Adelaide is a great place to be, live and ride. An abundance of flat spots, great people and a laid back atmosphere. Unfortunately there are next to no flat riders. Was never a really big scene here I've been told though. But was definitely a highlight when The Badman and Dave Sayer used to meet up with me for shenanigans and a good ol' roll.

6. Flatland is not the only thing in your life - what else keeps you busy?
Well my occupation is an Arboriculturist (tree monkey/surgeon) for the last 7 yrs so I work hard and long hours. I'm currently schooling every second weekend for my level 4 in Arb. Married to my beautiful wife, have a 14month old disciple and a 19yr old step son. Play basketball socially and regularly go to music concerts/festivals.

7. Describe a typical day for Lee:
Wake up, climb to top of tree, work, have lunch in tree, work, climb down, come home, exercise, walk dogs, see family, but finally get to ride on weekends

8. Describe a dream day for Lee:
My mind boggles too much to answer this question...

9. As you've been involved with riding for sometime, what advice would you give new riders?
Always do what makes you feel good and don't worry bout the parts you have or how good the bike is. Just ride and have fun

10. Final words & thanks...
Big thanks to my parents for letting me buy a bike when they thought i would just ride it once then leave it in the rain. Big thanks to all the Flatheads and friends that i have rode and had fun with on the way.

Just go ride or go home!

Do not try & race this man to the riding spot... he'll beat you every time!

BMX Worlds 2009 - Haro Old School demo

2009-07-14T06:49:00.002+09:30

The guys over at Woozybmx put together this edit featuring the Haro Old School demo from the past weekend at the BMX Worlds 2009 in Cologne, Germany. Featuring Ron Wilkerson, Bryan Blyther, Dave Nourie, Mat Hoffman, Bob Haro & Kevin Martin for many this was the highlight of the weekend.

For those of you (like myself) that grew up with or were introduced to BMX freestyle by the movie Rad, watching this edit gave me goosebumps. BMX rules.

BMX WORLDS 2009 VIDEO from woozybmx.com on Vimeo.

Colony Down Underground finals: writeup & photos!

2009-07-12T18:59:00.015+09:30

Ross D Lav just put together this short writeup over the recently ended first series of the Colony Down Underground. A great day was had by all as most have no doubt seen from the video - read on for the low-down!

On Saturday 4th July, 2009, riders from Australia, Japan and Canada emerged to the site of the famous Milton Bowls bowling alley/tennis centre for the final round of the Colony Down Underground contest series in Brisbane, Australia.

Japan's Shintaro Misawa and I prepared early, ate a decent breakfast at my girlfriends place a block away from the contestand headed down for early registration and warm up.

Arriving I was stoked to see Andrew McDermott, Mike Brandt, Leigh Waddingham, Matt Wootton and a few others setting up the venue & getting the riding surface up to top-notch quality. The vibe was relaxed but everyone was pumped and excited to get things rolling and there was a definite energy about the place.

Things got under way around 11am with the Middies class. Riders worth noting include Mike Brandt, Blake Peacock and a few new fresh faces to the scene that is always great to see. Andrew Lightbody made the trip up from Sydney with his trusty S&M Sabbath and with some smooth and con

sistent runs landed himself 4th place. 3rd went to Matt Wootton from Tasmania - this guy was fluid and a definite rider worth watching out for in the future. Shaun Jarvis, one of the creators & organisers behind the Colony Down Underground series nailed some tight combos to land 2nd place but it was Leigh Waddingham from Tasmania took out 1st for scoring high on all three judging criteria – Creativity, Difficulty and Consistency. I have to say that one of the highlights for the day was watching Leigh and Matt ride - Tasmania has proved it is a force to be reckoned with! Hopefully we'll be seeing Damon Fox back at the events soon?

After a short break it was the Advanced class up next. Event sponsor and Colony BMX owner, Clint Millar has recently returned to flatland after a lengthy absence to pull out some of his oldies but goodies – pedal dumps, no handed hitchhikers etc... it was great to see him back on it. Ben Moran from Victoria was his usual diverse and creative self earning much respect from his peers. For the Advanced finals we saw the top four battle for 1st place. Tomasz Hantke from Sydney landed 4th while the ever smiling Canadian traveller Eric Effinger worked hard with a bunch of clean and consistent combos to land 3rd - nice work mate! Shintaro qualified first with almost flawless runs and some original Shintaro switches which led to the show down between him and Simon O'Brien. This was a difficult one to judge with Simon winning by only one point! Check out Simon and Shintaros contest run for the low-down!

After the contest, everyone went back to Ronnie Rampton's place for beers and pizza around a backyard bonfire. People got happy, drunk and had a great time talking and laughing into the wee hours of the night - good vibes.

As always, there's a big thank you list involved for organising an event & series like this: Shaun Jarvis who spent many hours organising and getting everyone motivated - he's done a brilliant job and it's possible none of this would have come together if it wasn't for him. Brett Dighton and Ron Rampton for being great hosts and looking after everyone during their stay in B-town and finding the contest site. The sponsors – Clint at Colony BMX for donating such generous prizes & support, Freestyle Now, Miklav and Richard Crossley and Crossley Cycles and Bobby Carter at DiversionTV. Also a massive thanks & shout out to all the riders that travelled from across Australia & the world to attend - much repect & we look forward to having you all again for the next series!

A special thanks also has to go new Australian resident, Paul Chamberlain. Even though you were out smoking Cubans somewhere in the America's, your drive to push Flatland in Australia the last couple of years has not gone unnoticed - we wish you could have been here!!

Stay tuned for more announcements on the next Colony Down Underground series coming soon....

Photos credits: Mike Brandt & Tweekend

World Bike Projects: Updates!

2009-07-11T05:31:00.015+09:30

As most of you are no doubt aware, our very Karl Hughes (aka Paradoxium) has been overseeing the majority of the World Bike Projects. Karl just sent me a quick update of what's been going on around the globe recently with a bunch of riders getting their rides seriously pimped!

The Philippines Bike Project is currently underway with contributions coming globally. For a complete rundown of the project & where it's at, click here.

Here's a few "before" photos...

Rider: Chino

Video courtesy of DAVAO FLATLANDER

Rider: Jose

Here is the finished Trinidad Bike Project:

Plus one bonus bike...

And the completed Panama Bike Project for Gilberto Perez:
Before:

After:

Thanks again to everyone that has contributed in some way - stay tuned for more updates!

Simon O'brien vs. Shintaro Misawa - Colony Down Underground final

2009-07-09T06:07:00.002+09:30

The Colony Down Underground finals happened this past weekend in Brisbane, Australia. The final was a well fought out dual between Colony team mates Simon O'brien & Shintaro Misawa from Japan.

The final placings saw Simon win by 1 point!

Down Underground Finals - Brisbane. from Colony BMX on Vimeo.

Thanks Shintaro - see you soon!

2009-07-09T05:22:00.005+09:30

It's great to see that Shintaro had an awesome time while he was in Australia for the Colony Down Underground finals the past weekend. Check out his blog here to see what he has to say!

Ross D Lav & Shintaro Misawa

Shane Badman Winter 2008/9 edit

2009-07-08T06:13:00.006+09:30

It was a long, cold winter in Sweden & I was lucky enough to have a short break to Australia mid way. Along the way I got a few things filmed that I wanted to share with everyone...

Shane Badman Winter 2008/9 from Shane Badman on Vimeo.

Focalpoint issue 17 out now!

2009-07-08T05:35:00.005+09:30

The new issue of Focalpoint is out everywhere!! Click here for all the info & great to see that Focalpoint is getting behind flatland with some solid content in this issue - support those who support you!

Colony Down Underground: video & photos online!

2009-07-06T18:21:00.005+09:30

The first video of the finals of the Colony Down Underground series has emerged along with a bunch of photos that you can see by clicking here.

Thanks to Anthony Shorten for putting this together.

Colony BMX from Anthony Shorten on Vimeo.

Colony Down Underground finals: results!

2009-07-04T16:38:00.007+09:30

The Colony Down Underground finals happened today in Brisbane. A solid turnout with riders from all over Australia with internationals from Japan & Canada.

As one of the best contests in the series, Shintaro went into the final in the number 1 spot, but Simon worked hard, pulled the hard stuff when it counted & came out on top.

Big thanks to Colony for all the support, the riders that make it happen & everyone that works hard in the background. Big things to come for the new series - stay tuned!!

Here are the results:

Advanced:
1. Simon O'Brien (Australia)
2. Shintaro Misawa (Japan)
3. Eric Effinger (Canada)

Middies:
1. Leigh Waddingham
2. Shaun Jarvis
3. Matt Wootton

Massive thanks goes out to everyone that made the day happen... roll on the next series of Down Underground!

Full results, writeup & video from the day coming soon!!

Shintaro Misawa in Brisbane!

2009-07-04T16:25:00.006+09:30

Shintaro Misawa from Japan is over for the Down Underground finals that are happening this weekend in Brisbane. While in town he's been doing some sight-seeing & also dropped by Colony headquarters to check out the range. Courtesy of the Colony site - Clint grabbed a few photos...

And the results of the Colony Down Underground finals will be available shortly - so stay tuned....

More brakeless decades from Andrew McDermott this weekend? Photo: Shaun Jarvis

Tim Lee - Bangkok scene report

2009-06-29T17:01:00.027+09:30

I've gotten to know Tim over the past few months through the wonder that is the internet. This soon-to-be Australian resident has been doing a little travelling of late before he ends up in Sydney over the next few weeks.

Currently in Thailand, he has been spending his time constructively visiting the various riding scenes & getting to know the riders & the culture personally.

Tim was kind enough to grab a few shots & put some words together for us all... enjoy!

Welcome to Bangkok, here is a small scene report on this amazing City.

It is basically my second home, as I went to school here and have lived here, on and off, for the last 10 years.

In this huge city of a population of around 6.5million people, you feel quite small in comparison to the massive skyscrapers and the hustle and bustle of everyday life. From Street Vendors selling Roaches to the Market places and Malls where you can buy pretty much anything under the sun, to massive 5 star Resorts, to the slums on the Klong (River).

It is an amazing place with Dynamic Contrasts of the good, the bad and the ugly!
But it is not impersonal it is culturally Alive and Vibrant.

Getting around is quite easy with a host of transportation means - buses, taxi's, Tuk-Tuk’s, skytrains, subways, Riverboat taxi's, motorbike taxi's (which you wont catch me dead on - seen
way to many accidents!) only to mention a few!

--> Crazy Tuk Tuk Drivers

The Riverboat Taxis<--

--Flooding in the City--

It is now the rainy season, and when it rains - it pours.

Where sometimes the rain is so heavy, the streets flood and you could swear you were in Venice (so roll your jeans up take your shoes off and hope for the best) but i think it is the best time of year... after the rain everything is refreshed, its humid as hell and the best time to ride!

3 things in Bangkok you never leave home without is : bottled water, money and Camera.

The scene here is alive and kicking....with many pro's like Toon, Ping, Da, Tailwhip, Louis just to mention a couple.

Now getting to the spot to sesh is another story..... Everything is so spread out......

Either you risk life or limb and pedal in constant 6 lane rush hour traffic or you catch a cab/ Tuk-Tuk and waste about an hour maybe two in traffic. One of the most famous spots in Bangkok is the Kings Monument (Saphan Phoot)

--> Only way to sesh in the
back of a Tuk-Tuk

Traffic, traffic & more traffic!! <--

--> Saphan Foot - Legendary Spot

Victory Monument <--

This is Toon's local spot a Thai rider and a legend, Martti Kouppa himself came out here a couple years back picked a handful of guys and trained them for the Thai National team. Toon will ride here every weekday twice a day - his routine is relentless. But Consistency is the game. He aims at every link/ combo to be solid five times in a row. He and Ping are off to the worlds in Cologne soon - watch out for these cats!

Another awesome Spot is on the River – The Chaophraya, under the King Rama the 8th Bridge.
Plenty of Riders out that way too.

At Rama IX Bridge

The European and Japanese influences here give these riders a unique style.
All the riders are so friendly and stoked to see you when you rock up @ the spot; it is easy to make friends.
Usually how the session works out is, ride, ride, ride, chill out - mess about, ride some more, then afterwards everyone hangs out and usually has something to eat nearby.
In aspects of all extreme sports everything seems to be so well organized....
With many demos and expo's being held to make the public aware of our BMX culture.

Here are a few photos from one of these events...
Toon & Ping Rippin it up

Well, it’s off for me to Sydney in a few weeks time and i hope to meet a lot of you guys out and about!

New Colony website launched!!!

2009-06-29T16:56:00.003+09:30

That's right - the whole site has been completely re-done & re-vamped. Find information on the whole Colony line of products, regular news updates & contact info. All the team pages are now also complete with bios & pics to brighten your day.

Check it out by clicking here.