BMX - Do you think flatlanders deserve as much credit as park & dirt riders get?

hey, im just curious wut everyone else thinks. i personally think they deserve more credit than everyone else beacause they just amaze me every single time i see them. :)

any involved in the sport in any ways get "credit" from me

Sure they do. I wouldnt say they get as seriously injured as other riders, but theres alot more work and devotion and technical skill that goes into what they do. Alot more.

Flatlanding is the most progressive area of BMX, and always has been. However, it has never gotten the respect it deserves for the obvious reason: aside from a few tricks (ex: kickflips), the bike is always on the ground.

theres alot more work and devotion and technical skill that goes into what they do. Alot more.

you can say that again

You know, I've been riding flat for 18+ years... But I definitely don't think flatlanders deserve MORE credit than any other part of freestyle - or any other sport. The best riders of dirt, vert, street, park, and flat are all pushing the envelope of what is possible on a bike in their own way. Flatland is definitely not as dangerous, but the most technical street and park stuff usually isn't as dangerous either. Flatland blows others away for technical difficulty, but we are given that chance because of a lot less of a chance to maim ourselves and because most pros really can practice hours a day without being completely wiped out - and they are practicing their hardest tricks.

Other forms of riding are usually more jam session times. More relaxed and fun in their own way so the harder tricks tend to require some building up to instead of just being part of the routine. The cost for a vert rider learning a trick and bailing 100 times is measured in broken bones. For flatlanders it is usually just a few scrapes bumps and bruises.

It is a real disappointment that flatland isn't included as standard fare at every event, but vert and dirt are often pushed to the side as well. Park... there is a LOT of park events around. I get it, but I don't like it, for sure.

I think that is has to do with the fact that most people don't have vert ramps readily available to ride anymore; there's one vert ramp in all of Northern California at the moment, for example, and it's only 9-feet tall and about 16-feet wide, and it's connected to a 5'/6' bowled in miniramp.

As for dirt, I'm willing to bet that it's that dirt simply isn't as popular as it used to be. Every other picture in the magazines used to be of trails, but now it's more like 1 out of every 10. Videos used to be filled with dirt clips (ex: Expendable Youth, Standard Domination), but now you don't see much of that. Street and park are pretty much all you see anymore.

Dirt's too dirty.

You know, I've been riding flat for 18+ years... But I definitely don't think flatlanders deserve MORE credit than any other part of freestyle - or any other sport. The best riders of dirt, vert, street, park, and flat are all pushing the envelope of what is possible on a bike in their own way. Flatland is definitely not as dangerous, but the most technical street and park stuff usually isn't as dangerous either. Flatland blows others away for technical difficulty, but we are given that chance because of a lot less of a chance to maim ourselves and because most pros really can practice hours a day without being completely wiped out - and they are practicing their hardest tricks.

Other forms of riding are usually more jam session times. More relaxed and fun in their own way so the harder tricks tend to require some building up to instead of just being part of the routine. The cost for a vert rider learning a trick and bailing 100 times is measured in broken bones. For flatlanders it is usually just a few scrapes bumps and bruises.

It is a real disappointment that flatland isn't included as standard fare at every event, but vert and dirt are often pushed to the side as well. Park... there is a LOT of park events around. I get it, but I don't like it, for sure.


I agree with you man, every aspect of BMX deserves respect and credit. None of them should get more than the other, they are all hard on different levels and on different areas. People may have a preference over another, but they are all cool, and all take devotion, and all desevre credit.

i personally think that vert is the most boring thing you will ever see. park looks fun, but ive only been to a park once. i rarely dirt jump , and it seems pretty easy.i think flatlanders deserve more credit because its probably the hardest.i ride street, and i think street is 50% talent and 50% balls

Flatlanding is the most progressive area of BMX, and always has been. However, it has never gotten the respect it deserves for the obvious reason: aside from a few tricks (ex: kickflips), the bike is always on the ground.

I have seen some crazy "flatland" tricks that don't seem to fit into the catagory of flatland, like this one guy who did a 180 nose pivot to fakie, then after riding fakie for a while he did a bunny hop tailwhip!, then he landed fakie and rolled out. If you want to see it get Props issue 53. It's near the end.

flatland is super tech.
street/park is getting more and more tech.

the two areas are merging, with guys doing nosewheelies and stuff on street. whiplashes on street (which have been doing YEARS ago, but never really caught on) and other 'flatland specific' tricks are being done by street/park guys.

I never rode for anyones respect.I rode because I enjoy it. I still ride because I enjoy it. As long as people try to improve on their own skills, it doesn't matter if your just learning to ride off a curb or trying triple tailwhips, you get respect in my book.

I don't think I posted this pic here yet. my friend Mark, 38 years old, still riding, still progressing. pic taken over the weekend screwing around in my backyard....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v157/pnj666/markTap3small.jpg

I don't think flatlanders deserve anymore respect than any other kind of rider and I ride flat. There is one thing I notice but I don't know how to fully explain it but I am going to try anyway. If I am practicing flat and can't get something I look like an idiot as I stumble to the ground but some kid riding street can go for something like say a grind and fall off and the fall is kind of big so it still looks kind of hardcore. Not knocking anyone but just something I've noticed. But hey no one told any of us to spend hours alone in parking lots.

I think flatlanders are around the same and I would just respect them for what they do as bikers. I really don't think that they are better than us, and that they are worse than street/park riders. Well, in my opinion. Yes I agree bmx freestyle is alot harder than just park/street, but you gotta think clearly and say that the two different areas are merging together. Many of the tricks today are combined with park/flatland tricks, especially in vert and in park.

I have seen some crazy "flatland" tricks that don't seem to fit into the catagory of flatland, like this one guy who did a 180 nose pivot to fakie, then after riding fakie for a while he did a bunny hop tailwhip!, then he landed fakie and rolled out. If you want to see it get Props issue 53. It's near the end.
That's probably Joe Schiavi and he's the flatland instructor at Woodward. He rides pegless and can do 180 rollbacks to whopper to rollbacks all from the pedals. His skills run deep and he's a really great guy. But, have no doubt that a lot of tricks that you look at as 'technical street' are flatland tricks that finally made it to the street course half a dozen years after flatlanders did them.

For example: The tailwhip: Flatland trick, then Joe Johnson started doing them on vert... Then Bill Nitchke started doing bunnyhop tailwhips. This was all OVER 16 years ago! It was several years before tailwhips hit the launch ramp, and years after that when it was taken to true street with stairs and gaps. Now it is a standard part of a lot of street riders tricks and most don't know where it began.

Now you do. :)

have any of u, who dont think flatland shouldn't get the same respect, tried to do a flatland trick. do so and then see what u think of flat landers.

have any of u, who dont think flatland shouldn't get the same respect, tried to do a flatland trick. do so and then see what u think of flat landers.



That's like asking a baby to run in the olympics, it kind of silly. But the reason it is silly is because that baby has never been in the olympics, not necessarily because he couldn't win. That's basicly the same for what you just said, if you've never praticed flatland, or you just haven't put much time into it, you can't do it very well. That does not mean that it is extremely hard, it just means you're not familier with the motions and moves. So go out and ask a professonal flatlander to jump a 20 foot dirt doubles and see how he does. He's most likely not going to do very well unless he's practiced that sort of thing before. So that doesn't make him bad or not skilled, it just means he's not as familier with that area of BMX as others may be. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not putting flatlanders down, I think that what they can do is AWESOME (and immpossible from my point of view) but NOBODY deserves this and that more than anybody else does in BMX, they are all good, and all deserve credit for what they do, and they are all good at what they do. So there is my 2 cents.

Please dont kill me for digging up this thread, but im doing it for a reason. I want to see what all the other, newer people think. I think it says somewhere in the rules where you can dig up a thread if you have a reason.

You can also see where racerk9x blah blah blah stole the quote from (bmexican)

Me being a flat lander, am amazed by street, vert, dirt BMXers, just as much as I think other BMXers are amazed by flatland. And just so yall know, ive seen people do hangfives right into face plants, so if you flatland is not dangerous, just ask the parked car and mail box I ran into last week.

You might fall on your face, but not at 15 mph or from 12 feet in the air.

You can get hurt doing any thing anywhere doing any type of riding, It dont matter if your jumping dirt, on a vert ramp, in a park, or doing flatland in a parking lot. You can get hurt. And sxe, I'd rather fall going 15mph or 12 feet in the air than fall doing a time machine or a death trtuck (flatland tricks for the few of you that don't know).

You can get hurt just by stepping the wrong way. I really don't know what to think about flatland, but am impressed when watching it.

full credit to flatland bmxers I find it amazing to watch but its a bit removed from what the essence of bmx is about,riding a bike!Street/vert/dirt IS bmx,but flatlanders have become like acrobats and the bike the apparatus.

Dirt's too dirty.
Thats why I love it

i cant flatland and i reckon its great .
alot of practice needed thats for sure

full credit to flatland bmxers I find it amazing to watch but its a bit removed from what the essence of bmx is about,riding a bike!Street/vert/dirt IS bmx,but flatlanders have become like acrobats and the bike the apparatus.
How is flatland not what the essence of bmx is about. Its just as much part of bmx as street/vert/ dirt. Just because someone can grind a rail dosn't meen they're more a bmx rider than the kid doing squeekers in the parking lot.

if im not mistaken flatland was pretty much the start of bmx

racing

if im not mistaken flatland was pretty much the start of bmx

You're mistaken.

i'm mistaken.

you're mistaken