I’ve known The Big E for quite a few years now having had the time of my life living in Southsea, UK for over a year & a half just hanging out & riding with him. If there is one thing I know for sure, the dude is down with Flatland like you wouldn’t believe & motivated like crazy! We’ve had awesome sessions at his home spot in the Southsea Skatepark (home of the King of Concrete) & also at the infamous lab during the long cold winters. No matter what it’s like out, E is ready to ride.
His knowledge of BMX Freestyle is endless; as OG Marton once told me “He is a Flatland lexicon!!!”
So I distracted him long enough from working on Flatmattersonline to get a few questions down….
Shane Badman, Dec2009
1) So how long have you been involved in BMX & Flatland & what got you involved in the first place?
Lets see Shane… well I got into riding just after my tenth birthday,im 35 now,I always remember seeing bmx for the first time in BMX Action bike magazine, Andy Patterson (racer) was on the cover, a few weeks after that I discovered Southsea Skatepark. It was there really that I was first visually hooked on BMX freestyle, I remember seeing Craig Campbell and Carlo Griggs practising flatland and quarterpipe riding, and i used to sneak down after school just to watch whilst I didn’t have a bike…
2) Describe your impression of the scene both locally & globally when you first started…
Well when I started there were maybe 20-25 flatlanders in Southsea, with visiting riders such as Craig and Carlo that I just mentioned, I didnt really have any idea of the global scene at that time, until few years later, watching riders like Eddie Fiola then I saw the Kelloggs competition with guys like Ron Wilkerson, Brian Blyther from the USA competing in a contest in England, then im thinking wow this is a global sport. Seemed more showmanship orientated back then, like I always remember you got marks at contest for Style/Presentation, ie, uniform or not…The sport as a while seemed glamourous. I guess the 80’s was in some ways very glamourous, in fashion, and stuff like that.
3) You’ve been involved in the King of Concrete forever & Southsea skatepark is legendary for that. What are your most memorable moments? How does it feel to call that place your home riding spot?
Well King Of Concrete ran for 17 years, when you talk about memories there are a lot, for me personally my run from KOV 1997, was one of my best ever, I remember just being on it all day every day the week leading up to it, at that time I was riding a lot at the lab, and would only ride in the rink occasionally, was kind of a treat to ride there, so I was excited just to be riding that floor. When you talk about other memories, I guess winning the overall title twice, dropping in on vert with Dave Mirra on the deck asking me why im entering vert, “for the overall dave haha”, good memories..All the riders over the years that came and rode, Standard army (Degroot, Osicka, Kurt Schmidt), Mirra of course, Bestwick, Martti, OG marton, theres so many memories I could probably write a book on it. Zach’s wall ride from the Pool bowl to toilet wall (made the cover of my zine back in the day)…
To call it my home riding spot is amazing, for me the magic happens there, thats where im comfortable,the rink is fast marble, but also grippy enough to wear i can ride in the damp, I don’t think i’ve ever ridden a better spot, im lucky in the fact i can ride there when the parks closed, suns shining (or not) and nothing else matters, sounds cliche, i’m addicted to that, not only is the floor fast, but I can have music there, and it’s closed off from public and distractions you get at other riding spots of course when we are not open so its a real blessing.
4) I remember seeing you on the X-Games & a lot of other contests in years past. What is your take on contests back then compared to now? Is there a chance that you could start competing hardcore again?
That was an awesome time period for me, back and forth to the states a lot, lot of saving up intially, sometimes over there for two months at a time on the contest circuit, looking back on it, the appeal for me was the x games and x trials, B3’s whatever you want to call them, they were professional, you knew the run times, you knew there would be awesome riders, you knew what to practise for, coming from the UK it had that holiday factor to it as well, and you were chasing an end product, to be in the x games. One of my proudiest moments was qualifying in first at the Louisville Kentucky X trials, beating guys to be honest I was totally in awe of at the time, Andrew Faris in particular springs to mind, the guy showed up at that contest with a whole arsenal of new tricks,and was very inspiring in his attitude, all or nothing, I kind of always think about that, and what he brought to flatland.
Contests now are a strange one now, I don’t get that feeling like I used to, the only time I have recently was the gypsy games, people were there for the right reasons, people actually sessioned with other riders, the sessions have vanished from most events, and I personally miss that.
I’m still riding more hardcore than ever, just back from four hour session at the lab whilst its pissing down outside, kind of feel strange about that sometimes, 35 year old man on a small bike in an undercover car park, what am i doing? I’d love to make it to more events next year, I missed competing this year to be honest, so hope to hit up a few next year definitely. Its difficult to get to all the contests with no sponsor helping out. And I can’t really expect a sponsor at my age, ive had my glory years I guess.
5) It’s been a recurring theme over the years that flatland has been slowly edged out from mainstream media. With the exception of Fat Tony & few others, there are few pushing it. Do you think this has been good or bad for flatland & in what ways?
The timeless question… Well…from my outlook I think flatland contests on their own is helping isolating an already small sport and making it even smaller, wheras i think there are lot of crossovers within the sport of BMX, thats why i think events like the masters are good, flatland is involved in the bigger picture,I can’t expect flatland to have its own magazine. So then why do we try and have flatland only contests, i think we’ve tried it which is fair enough, and for the most part it didnt work, there’s less and less people everytime, there are of course events where it goes off, but what does that mean? It went off for a few people? Or it went off for a new generation in the sense they got psyched and got into it.
Flatland for me would be more exciting if riders kind of took Martti’s attitude, it’s back to the hard tricks!!! Thats what makes flatland exciting.. If you look at the flatland coverage of this years worlds, in the media, i.e Props, Freedom mag, etc, the one thing that has got coverage everywhere is Martti’s rolaid, it had excitement, I love flatland more than anyone probably, but I dont go away from events like I used to, this guy did this, this guy did that, flatland is so small i think the riders naturally are toning down there contest stuff to try and win what money there is, but that doesnt make flatland exciting. All these new videos for groundtactics, new trick videos from martti etc, this is exciting,this is leading flatland in a new direction, riders all over the world are getting motivated even the top pros even though they probably wont come out and admit it, but they are all watching. Im rambling, so to answer your question, it’s good that
flatland is in the public eye, but I don’t think its always represented in the right way when it does get in the public eye, and gets watered down and to most people looks boring. To summarise flatland being isolated isn’t healthy, kids get into bmx and look at flatland as another sport completely, its just too small to be so isolated and sustainable.Flatland needs to be involved in BMX!
6) There has been talk of flatland becoming involved with mainstream BMX again at events – what do you think of this?
This is definitely the way forward, flatland is bmx right? Let’s have it in the contests, i was psyched to hear and see flatland included in the jomopro event last year, and it looked like it went off, the crowd that were there most likely to see the park contest were able to get exposed to flatland, i’m not sure if we will see flat in the dew tour, i’m not sure flatland is organised and professional enough to be taken seriously enough. I think flat in someway was has lot of growing up to do, and also riders have to understand at the highest level what flatland is, there’s too many riders not understanding that flatland is about originality and hard tricks, people are bitching about the judging everytime, that’s what got it out of the x games you know, what would be different if flat was included in the dew tour?..
7) Ground Tactics has been instrumental in bringing the hardcore progression aspect of flatland back into view. Now that it’s here & people are seeing what the soul of flatland really is – where is there to go?
Where its to go, well myself and martti talk a lot, and i dont want to give much away as at the moment just ideas, but the ball has only just started rolling, i think a lot of people are realising, holy shit, this guys hurting himself, hes pushing, Martti is a leader, he always has been since i can remember, lets just say that things hopefully will get really progressive within the next year, and we will see a new type of contest coming, and flatland represented in a progressive way with commercial sponsors on board, new faces, new tricks, new motivation….
8 ) FlatmattersOnline recently celebrated it’s 1 year birthday recently. What are your thoughts on the internet for flatland?
The internet as a tool for the progression of flatland is so great, it’s vast, the blogs been going a year, when i started out i was getting max 50 hits a day, now i have days where its 3000+, that is still a tiny audience on a global scale, but in terms of flatland, pretty big, posting daily updates fuels riders motivations, thats what im hoping to achieve, what does concern me, is the artists that create, just get ripped off, and not much payback for it, Martti springs to mind on that topic, but i guess that is the price you pay. Bottom line, people are riding, the sport becomes bigger.
9) As with everything, the next generation are always looking to push through. Who would you say are your top 5 riders & why are we going to have to look out for them?
Thats a hard one because I honestly dont see much in the way of new faces on the scene, what I would say is that the level is so high, that it will take a few years to see new guys come to the forefront, look at Martti, his stuff over the years on intrikat, 3 times x games winner, kgb parts, groundtactics videos, who can touch that?? Also Simon O Brien, his ‘made you look’ dvd is banging, and pretty much untouched, overhere of course Im going to say Sam Foakes, his new riding style with no pumps, i havent seen anyone push that type of riding like he’s doing, it will take a while, there’s Moto and Hotoke in japan that im psyched on, but they’ve been around a fair few years, if there was one guy i think has a potential spark i would say Dez Maarsen, he’s hungry, and whilst he was pissed at me for marking him down on originality at the worlds, i think he does have a bright future if he sticks at it, and goes in the right direction.
10) What does the future hold for Effraim Catlow, BMX & Flatland?
More blood, tears and good times! Plenty of ideas of how to take things forward with flatmatters and also now working with Martti on groundtactics is motivating in itself! I miss competing, and the whole mindset behind competing, the whole thing about competing is tough, but a challenge that im always intrigued by. So hopefully few more contests, more travelling, and way more time riding that marble surface at the skatepark!
11) Final words & thanks….
Thanks to Shane for the interview, I miss riding with you buddy, Thanks to Sam for the hook up with the frame and giving me a chance to give input on his new frame, Thanks to mislav at Zion, Andras and Marton at OG, my parents for all support over the years, my girlfriend alex for putting with me always riding or if not online working on the flatmatters blog.
Newcircle | Global Online BMX Flatland Store + News & Media from Australia!
Tags: Friends, Interviews