Flatlanders: Future Dinosaurs?

I recently read an article in Dig Magazine #8 where Brian Tunney noted the disappearance of the freestyle skateboarder: a semi-popular branch of skating in the 80's is now nothing but a memory. Parts of it have been incorporated into street skating, but on its own the small boards just don't exist anymore

Is this the future of flatlanding on bikes? In 10 years will everybody be riding street, dirt, and ramps? It's a possibility. Flatland tricks have already found their way into other forms of riding: tailwhips, decades, G-turns, even the most basic of flatland tricks, the wheelie (manual).

The problem with flatlanding (and, I assume, freestyle skating) is that it's not easy to get started...which probably explains why there are so few new riders joining the ranks of flatlanders. Ask any ground rider how long they've been riding, and they'll no doubt tell you 7 years, 10 years, often more. A kid starting flatlanding today has to learn so many lame (but necessary) foundation tricks — involving balance, scuffing, gliding — that it's often a couple of years before they've really got something to show for their perseverance — if they even last that long. Meanwhile, a kid who's been jumping for a year or two can place in an expert-class street contest.

I'm certainly not saying that street and ramps are easy (if they were, I'd be able to ride them) but it takes more guts and trusting of your skill, while flatland takes more patience and practice. And I'm sure most new riders prefer learning 360s and impressing everyone over riding for months (or years) to perfect a flatland string...which goes mainly unnoticed by both the media (riding magazines and videos as well as ESPN and MTV) and non-flatland riders.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe right now, as I write, there are tons of unknown kids practicing ground tricks who will still be annoying people in parking lots long after the current bunch of flatlanders get too old to carry the torch. Maybe there's even another Kevin Jones or Chase Gouin to bring flatlanding to a new level (but I doubt that). Maybe flatlanders won't die out completely...not everyone has the guts to bunnyhop big gaps clear huge doubles.

Uploaded August 1998