BMX Flatland Finals at Urban Games

Back at the end of July, I took a last minute decision to blow off Festival of Peace and meet up with Eva & Emily at the UK Urban Games (it was Emily's idea; I'd totally forgotten about it). The galling £15 entry for the last few hours turned out to be worth it for the excellent company, BMX flatland, FMX, and B-Boy (breakdance) finals, not to mention slamming hard on my ass trying out an Indoboard (like a physio's balance board but wildly overpriced, sketchier, and intended for skate/snowboarders: of which I'm neither :-).

I've now finally got around to mixing the video of the flatland finals, and putting it online!

Rather than take pics I shot some video on my little camera of the flatland finals. After six years of procrastinating over learning a movie editing suite I was chatting with the Legg early this morning and started playing with Windows Moviemaker. Man, what a sweet piece of free software! Within maybe a half hour I'd gone from total n00b to this 2 minute mix:

2004 Urban Games BMX Flatland Finals

Enjoy!

It's too bad I only had a 64MB card in my camera (since rectified) as there was a ton of even more sick moves later.

It was quite strange having not been in the scene for nearly ten years to come back and recognise riders from the early/mid nineties still riding. As strange as that, I can remember my last proper flatland bike before it was stolen in great detail: every part, nut, bolt, cable, feel of the grips, how its weight moved, my trainers on the tyres, the indescrible sensation of balancing a roll. It must be quite a mix of emotions for a real athlete to give up after so long. I still occasionally have flatland dreams to this day, busting moves I was at the time years of practice away from ever pulling.

(By real I mean as in someone more skilled and dedicated than me, rather than the sport: BMX flatland is one of the most physically technically complex sports in existence, up there with dance, gymnastics, ice skating. Those moves in that video are done by finalists, each with 5+years of obsessive practice.)