Matt Wilhelm, a world-class pro rider, created Ground Rules, a flatland instructional video that will help beginners advance their skills. Here's what Matt had to say about the video.
DTV: What was your motivation to make this video?
Matt: I just wanted to make a video that riders could reference to help them learn tricks. When I was growing up I had a bunch of fellow riders around to help me learn. Most of the time they would give me small pieces of advice, but those small tips would dramatically speed up the time it took to learn the tricks. Why not take out the guessing of how to do it and just go straight to the answer? The sooner you master the basics the sooner you can make up your own style of riding.
DTV: Tell us about the soundtrack in the video.
Matt: Most of the music in the video was produced just for “Ground Rules.” I didn’t want to deal with licensing, so having a musical background I produced most of the tracks myself. I also got wonderful contributions from BR79, Spank, and Sudden Dark.
DTV:What motivating advice do you have for riders out there learning tricks in parkinglots around the globe?
Matt: Don’t skip the basics. I see some beginners now wanting to skip ahead and do tricks way out of their league. I was riding with a beginner who was trying a barflip to halfpacker, and they couldn’t even do a halfpacker. You have to learn the positions first, then you can learn the switches and combos. The tricks riders are doing today are still the basic positions just done faster. When I started riding I wanted to completely master the bike and learn every trick. I would go with mindset of complete mastery rather than doing what is trendy.
"Road Fools 17," The latest full length video offering from Props visual, sets up the street battle between the Kink and Etnies Teams and….BIG DADDY! If you watchedProps 70, you’ve been introduced to the one man wrecking crew, who calls himself the Jack Hammer. If you haven’t seen Props 70 check it out.
The 3 teams take a trip from Tennessee to Georgia. A lot of originality went down on this trip. I have to give bonus points to Cat Fish for doing a steamroller double peg grind down a handrail. Kachinsky takes a gruesome rail to face grind on the sidewalk, but pulled some burly moves for the Etnies team. Morgan Wade also hit a gap to wall that’s so big, even he got the chills, it was so high! For the Kink team, Chris Doyle kept everything real smooth with some amazing variations out of wall rides and slid some of the longest, steepest handrails out there! Let’s not forget about Big Daddy, holding it down against Etnies and Kink. His riding style is different than the others. He had the innovative flow out there with 180 to reverse crooked rail grind to 180 out to dead stop tire tap to abubaca off the curb. Innovation is what it’s all about! Besides the street battle, the teams had to endure confrontations with upset locals at the skateparks along with the other usual suspects you can find on a BMX tour. In the end, I give the win to Big Daddy, but you need to check out the video and find out who wins for yourself! The battle format definitely added an exciting aspect this episode of Road Fools, but it all comes down to having fun on your bike!
FBM knows how to have fun and the Ghetto Big Air Challenge is no exception! Build ramps and huge quarter pipes out of whatever scraps you can find. Bring your friends, blast some tunes, and you have an event you'll never forget! Even Mat Hoffman, Chad kagy, and Simon Tabron came out for this jamboree in the junkyard!
Day Smith is a legendary flatlander from Long Beach. With his innovative riding style, he not only brought flatland to BMX videos games, but to this DAY, he is still one of the most well known names in flatland around the planet. Check out this classic interview from Props issue 8!
Mat Hoffman, the living legend. He is the man who pushed the level of BMX riding through the ceiling and shaped the BMX industry as we know it today. Props gets up close and personal with the man himself, Mat Hoffman!
DTV: What was your motivation for making "Like Brothers"?
Amrit:There were different stages of motivation for making "Like Brothers". At first I really wanted to put out a video showcasing all the underground talent I was surrounded with. It was wild because I was only filming 2 or 3 skaters. I wasn't sure what the exact line up was going to be for the video. But from those 2 or 3 I kept meeting more skaters and ended up overwhelmed by how many heads were gonna have parts in the vid. I think there is a total of 12 parts. I started filming with Ryan Stangland on and off around 2004. He was the reason I started filming and why I chose to put out a video in the first place. He moved back to Seattle around the end of 2005. At that point I had somewhat lost the motivation to keep going. I was filming with Robert Santamaria and friends but it was going slow and I was working side jobs trying to stay afloat financially. I had some footage of almost everyone that was going to be in the video but no one's part was done and I still wasn't sure who exactly was going to have parts. At the beginning of 2006 I broke my jaw into 3 pieces and lost some teeth in a really bad accident while bombing a hill on my skateboard. It was f***ed up but in the end it kinda helped spark the motivation back up. I had this feeling of dying and not being remembered for doing anything. I didn't want that to happen and if it did, I wanted to have something to leave behind. I recovered after 2 months and started working hard on the video. I flew to Seattle and filmed with Ryan for 2 weeks. I really wanted to represent where I came from so I then flew to Pittsburgh, PA to film with Nick Panza for 2 weeks. When I got back to LA I would drive down to San Diego every other weekend to film with all the Sk8mafia heads. Around June 2006 I met this kid named Justin Guillen. His skateboarding was amazing. He had a dope Style and super hard tricks. He already had a bunch of footy and was down to grind out and try to finish a full part. This was the last bit of motivation I needed to wrap everything up. I started editing everyone's parts and I set up a premiere at the Vine theater in Hollywood for November 15th 2006.
DTV: What part stokes you the most?
Amrit: Whose part stoked me out the most? That's a hard one to answer. I watched the video like 100 times before premiering it because I was trying to get in the mind state of what the video would be like for someone who hadn't seen it. That was basically impossible and drove me crazy. After the premiere I didn't watch the video for about a year. When I watch it now I would have to say that Justin Guillen's part hypes me up the most, as well as Kellen James, the Friends section, Ryan Stangland, and Shane Jenks. DTV: Is there a message you're trying to get across in the video?
Amrit: The message that I was trying to get across was that we are skateboarding. All of us. We are all like brothers. In skateboarding and in life in general. We are all One reaching out and trying to fulfill our dreams. I also felt like skateboarding had gotten to such a 'who can do the biggest drop/rail' and wanted kids to remember what street skateboarding is. You don't have to kill yourself. It's about you, your homies, your skateboard and having as much fun as possible.
DTV: Are you working on any new projects?
Amrit: Yes I am currently working on my 2nd full length video. I think I'm going to call it "Hard Times". It will have full length parts from Vincent Alvarez, Justin Guillen, Jesse Silvey, and Kellen James. I'm calling it Hard Times because all of us have gone through or are still in some Hard Times. We as a people are in Hard Times. I also launched a website/wax company to help promote my friends and the new video. It's called Skate Sauce. www.skatesauce.com
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