{"id":51,"date":"2016-06-21T10:22:27","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T10:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/06\/21\/flatland-not-just-sport-first-foremost-way-life\/"},"modified":"2017-02-14T14:59:36","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T14:59:36","slug":"flatland-not-just-sport-first-foremost-way-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2016\/06\/21\/flatland-not-just-sport-first-foremost-way-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Flatland Is Not Just a Sport! It Is First and Foremost a Way of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Bob Haro put freestyle BMX flatland on the map in the early 1980s with the help of \u201cAction Now\u201d magazine, formerly \u201cSkateboarder\u201d. When mullets, the Walkman and Duran Duran ruled the world, the sport of flatland BMX was disappearing. But as the years passed and bike sports progressed, with BMXers following skateboarders into skateparks and halfpipes, flatland became more popular. The sport had reached its peak in the late 1990s with the X Games, after which officials decided to clip flatland in 2001.<\/strong><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>However, this was the year when Martin Drazil, our own ambassador and enthusiastic collaborator, came upon this sport for the first time. It was love on the first sight. And while he has achievements that he\u2019s very proud of, for example 1<sup>st<\/sup> place in Nokia FUSE or 17<sup>th<\/sup> place in BMX Flatland World Circuit, he still keeps his regular job. Because flatland is not only a sport for him, it\u2019s a way of life, which is reflected in everything he does.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BGvt0bEK2cf\/?taken-by=martindrazil\">https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BGvt0bEK2cf\/?taken-by=martindrazil<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember it as if it was today. I was working at Slavia \u2013 a famous caf\u00e9 where the first Czech president V\u00e1clav Havel used to sit for hours, and one day I saw some kids doing tricks in the open space behind the modern building of the New Scene, which is a part of the Czech National Theatre in Prague. I was totally stocked about that, it was the coolest thing ever and I fell in love with it immediately. And I still have the exact same feeling today, fifteen years later,\u201d says Martin.<\/p>\n<p>Martin got interested in flatland because the tricks those kids were doing looked impossible. Flatland is a very complex form of BMX that involves using your mind and your bike to create original tricks. \u201cIt was so different from anything I had ever seen,\u201d Martin remembers.<\/p>\n<p>As soon as Martin saved up enough money, he bought his first bike. It wasn\u2019t exactly the flatland model, but it was still BMX. It took some time for him to train enough to get at some level and to dare to come to the New Scene for the first time. \u201cYou know, I was pretty shy to ride in front of more experienced guys back then,\u201d Martin says. Since that day, you can catch him riding there, whenever he\u2019s got free time. \u201cIt\u2019s outdoor, so we\u2019re limited by the weather. If it\u2019s not raining, snowing or freezing, we\u2019re there,\u201d Martin explains. It seems it can\u2019t be a coincidence that one of the few good places to practice flatland in Prague is situated right on the piazzetta of the Czech National Theatre. Almost as if the riders were magically pulled to this place of art. And from a certain point of view, their activity can\u2019t be described as anything else.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-134\" src=\"http:\/\/skoda-tdf.s3.amazonaws.com\/2\/2016\/06\/G0061381_1456684370099_high.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cIf you want to manipulate the bike into more imaginative positions, without failing, you have to be patient. I\u2019ve trained almost every day for at least fourteen years! And it still makes me happy to nail a new trick for the first time,\u201d Martin explains.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the early years of the Internet, it was harder to gain some relevant inspiration. The most important thing for Martin\u2019s style evolution was watching movies on VHS cassettes, brought to him by a friend from a trip to the US. \u201cIf I were to name two greatest heroes, without doubt, it would be Martti Kuoppa and Viki Gomez. Both are widely recognized as the most original riders in the history of the sport. They have invented and innovated many tricks on their quest for originality,\u201d Martin says. According to Martin, the key thing in contests is the style, as judges mostly appreciate riders with a unique and genuine style of riding. Martin describes his own style as smooth and flowy.<\/p>\n<p>Professionals like Martin are often very dedicated and will spend several hours a day perfecting their techniques. You can get injured very easily by the pegs, pedals or bars if you loose your balance. In a competition, talent and skills are judged by the ability to maintain coordination and balance while performing a variety of difficult and elegant moves. According to Martin, it takes at least a month to learn a bigger trick, well, if you have several years of experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you want to manipulate the bike into more imaginative positions, without failing, you have to be patient. I\u2019ve trained almost every day for at least fourteen years! And it still makes me happy to nail a new trick for the first time,\u201d Martin explains.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-133\" src=\"http:\/\/skoda-tdf.s3.amazonaws.com\/2\/2016\/06\/AG9C3084.jpg\" alt=\"As soon as Martin saved up enough money, he bought his first bike. It wasn\u2019t exactly the flatland model, but it was still BMX.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" \/><\/p>\n<p>For Martin, flatland is not only a sport, but first and foremost, it\u2019s a way of life. Thanks to freestyle BMX, Martin has had the opportunity to travel to many foreign countries and meet a lot of new friends. \u201cIf I was sitting at home or in a pub, it wouldn\u2019t have been possible,\u201d Martin believes. He names Barcelona and Paris as his favourite spots. \u201cIt\u2019s usually sunny there and both cities have an enchanting atmosphere,\u201d Martin says. During his career, Martin took part in more than one hundred contests in many European countries. Martin considers the second place at the Czech and Slovak National Championship as one of his greatest achievements. Also this year, he\u2019ll take part in at least ten international contests with the highlight being the iBMXff World Championships at the NASS festival near Bristol, UK. \u201cI\u2019d like to ride as long as I can. There are guys doing flatland even in their late forties, so why couldn\u2019t I?\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bob Haro put freestyle BMX flatland on the map in the early 1980s with the help of \u201cAction Now\u201d magazine, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":146549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[330],"tags":[845,846,433,844],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urban-cycling","tag-tdf","tag-tdf-2016","tag-tour-de-france","tag-tour-de-france-2016"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Flatland Is Not Just a Sport! 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