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It's very difficult and pretty pointless to talk about who is the best, but I honestly can't think of another rider who compares to Martti in terms of originality, difficulty and productivity. The were other riders who were the Martti of their time (like Kevin Jones for example) but these days I would say that no other rider even comes close.

[quote="flatnatics":2klhht3c]every rider in the recognized level has something to bring to the table as far as being enjoyable to watch and having something original to contribute...
even the lower level riders can even make pros look twice and ask questions... Ive seen a few riders in Aust. that made me(surely others) look twice and think that they got something...
only problem is that they didn't realize it and let it go... such a shame!!! I could name a quite a few and why, but would it change anything??? probably not...[/quote:2klhht3c]

Yeah I'm totally agreed with you. I think that around 1 in 10 riders that I've seen has some special spark that I notice but as Martti says "I don't believe in talent, there is only hard work". An extreme stance, but I get his point. He says that when there are no rules and no set methods there are an infinite number of ways to overcome your own personal obstacles and work around them. I believe in talent for ballet where there are set rules and methods - a definite right and wrong. For flatland though, I don't believe in talent either. It's a mindset and work ethic that you can build.

I see the spark in Sean, I saw it in Mik too, in Kev for sure, Mike B, Shaun Jarvis, Bielecki etc etc etc... I see it in lots of riders here to be honest - not just in your obvious high level Ben Moran's, Ginny's, Vinnie's and Jay Parker's. If Mik hadn't broken his arm who knows what he would be doing now - and that's the point - we'll never have any idea at all because he was going his own way. Sean - who knows what we'll see? He thinks about where he wants to take his riding in the future way too much instead of just being open to seeing what happens. Kev, he's probably there now. Bielecki, what can I say, nobody really does his stuff and he has some very interesting tricks.

Originality has nothing to do with ability. I've seen flairs of originality and creativity in riders right from the beginning on the first day because you see the mindset. My main man Eddie Chan decided that his first ever trick would be to fakie down a set of stairs. I was so angry with him for being that hard-headed but he stuck with it and after 6 months he pulled it. I respect him a lot now.

Mik, as another example, always strived to do things his way and build his own style from the start. That's something I really respect in any rider of any ability. It has nothing to do with Australia at all - it's just a numbers game - we really feel the loss of 1 rider because we're few. I see it everywhere in flatland though. We don't deal our own cards in life unfortunately...

[quote="flatnatics":2tqhs50y]Eddie still riding???[/quote:2tqhs50y]

Of course. He's gone long periods without doing it but he'll never stop entirely.

Now he's riding up stairs. . . [Image Can Not Be Found]

His latest thing he's working on is ride up a set of stairs to hang 5, turbine it backwards and drop fakie into the stairs and smoothie out at the bottom. He's done all the bits but not put it together yet he said.