Ross Smith: 2010s

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Golden footage from the archives around the 2010 period, from one of the best to ever do it. Non other than Ross South, double rolaids, check, double straddle-ronis, check, backwards xft-ed hitch jugglers, its all here! Ross is one of the masters of feathering the brake, a technique sadly lost and overlooked in the brakeless era!

Yu Katagiri wins the UCI World Championship 2025: Men’s Elite

Congratulations to Yu Katagiri who held onto the first place spot from qualifying, thus taking the UCI World Championship title back to Japan in a tense final that right down to the wire.

Yu nailed his 360 bikeflip line to seal the deal with a score of 91. Closely followed by Jean William Prevost from Canada, who carried the fight for the title with his insane back wheel pivot skills, and third place went to Dustyn Alt from Germany who had one of the most impressive runs keeping the tempo high for the whole 3 minutes. What a contest, great to see the Riyadh crowd loving flatland and the level getting pushed in the contest pressure cooker atmosphere!

Thanks Ryan Russell for the podium shots!

Chiaki Todaka wins the UCI World Championships 2025: Women’s Elite

Congratulations to 15 year old Chiaki Todaka taking the UCI World Championship title back to Japan, followed by Carin Hommura and Sona Yoshimura in third place with Hungarian Veronika Kadar in the fourth place spot. The level was the highest I’ve seen so far in the Women’s class, really exciting to watch the progression each event. (Check the socials for some mind blowing lines from these shredders!).

Chiaki Todaka takes top spot in Women’s Elite Qualifying at the UCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Japanese domination in the Women’s Elite class with the top three all Japanese, out here at 2025 UCI World Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Chiaki Todaka in the top qualifying spot, ahead of Carin Hommura and Sona Yoshimura and Veronika Kadar from Hungary in the fourth place qualifying spot. Good luck to all the finalists tomorrow.

Must Watch: Dez Maarsen / Riding Days

Oh, how I love surprises running the Flatmattersonline website. And yesterday, when my phone started blowing up I knew something good just dropped from Dez Maarsen.
There’s something Dez touched on in his description that made me say out loud “yeah!”, he chose to document his riding over the last few months and rather than throw out line by line on social media, he put it together in edit form.

So much depth in this edit, from who in my opinion is one of the most skilled riders in the flatland scene right now, Dez can handle business front and back wheel.
Great camera angles, and the editing is on point too, edits in my opinion can help inspire and grow flatland grow again in my opinion, and help give us all motivation as we lean into the winter months.

Let’s talk about the riding Effraim!
The Must Watch concept for me, is something as simple as something that makes me hit the rewind button, and quite a few times I hit the rewind button watching “Riding Days”.
The line at 1:53, steam backwards spinning crack step over one footed backwards spinning half packer pivot inside foot steam pivot spinning hitch is one of the most technical lines I’ve seen all year.
2:47: only a move I’ve seen Hiroya Morizaki do, opposite steam step into half packer pivot inside switch foot spinning steam at the blink of the eye then out to straight line opposite backwards switch foot Karl!
I like how Dez mixes, all styles of riding, which of course you can with one of the most vast tricktionarys in the game, this is one of the best edits of the year so far.

I could ramble on, but let’s as I say grab a cuppa and talk about this one, share this one on your socials nd let’s grow flatland!

Thank you Dez!