The E-Fise Competition is very fun to watch and lets you the viewer vote for your favorite video. Its important to recognize that one should vote the video not their favorite rider, because that really makes a difference. For instance we all know Terry Adams is sick rider, but if his video is weak then you should probably not vote for him…wait, this is no way suggesting not to vote for Terry Adams LOL he is a great human being, funny dude and all around amazing rider, anyways…the contest.
These are my takes on it so far and how Im going to judge it is based on a series of items. Back in the day when The UND Crew ran the King Of New York Contest we judged contest different so here are the items that FlowZine is looking for: a. originality b. bike control c. overall flow and my scoring system is from 0-100.
Alex Jumelin – he just jumps right in, no music, no gimmicks just a display of skills like no other. I like the front wheel action and the links to some perverted backward elbow glide, then finishing off the set with a burly decade. His originality is mostly on the style of riding and how he connects it all but I didnt catch any new NDB tricks. Alex bike control is clearly his greatest strength, all front wheel action with a nice nose wheelie bonk just to send home a message. The overall feel is almost as if you were invited to ride with Alex Jumelin and witness the smoothest flowing rider ever, my score card has him at 90.
Yu Katogirl – All about the back wheel, this kid rides at a nice spot. The music is pumped and gets you into the riding style. I liked the (42 second marker) connection Yu made, it was very original and unexpected. Yu used his time well but kept everything on the back wheel with the usual spinning combinations of in-and-out or over-and-under types of things. So for originality only spotted that connection part on 42sec, Yu definitely has good bike control, would like to see what he can do on the front wheel and his overall flow was fun, felt like hanging out with a fun kid. My score card has Yu Katogirl at 89.
Matthias Dandois – oh yeah! I’ve been waiting to see Matthias, he’s a favorite rider but I promised to judge it fairly and only based on the video clip, so here it is…booooo his video has technical difficulty, doesnt play back properly. 🙁 Oh man…can’t score nor review what you cant see. Will check back on Matthias.
Pakphum Poosa-art is gritty to another level, the riding spot is uneven and with cracks so that added a degree of difficulty kudos. Yeah I like watching Pakphum his front wheel riding is burly, the music kept me waiting for Scarface to jump cut. His handlebar grab move is pretty cool to watch as Pakphum flows in an out with links and whats up with that homage to the old school riders with the boomerangs that was very fun to watch and scary at the same time. Scary because after doing like five of those insane boomerangs Pakphum drops into a backpacker, I mean could you imagine the amount of blood that would be all over the floor had he missed during that switch. Then Pakphum wraps it up with a bar flip, even all the grunting sounds he made didnt prepare me for that move, killer without a doubt! On originality Pakphum has some original positioning but its really been seen or done before, he just added the degree of danger into the trick, Pakphum bike control is without a doubt locked in and gritty, overall flow kept me waiting for Al Pacino to appear wearing some colorful tropical shirt and a very large weapon. My score has Pakphum Poosa-art at 91
Terry Adams – I have a funny story about Terry Adams from back in the days at the KOG event in Japan but I will save that for another time. Ok Terry jumped right in, superman/suicide jump cross footed hitchiker (I dont even know what to call this monstrosity), its the signature jump that only Terry does, only this time he’s up-ped the ante by making it cross footed. Insane! Just nuts! All those jumps are his, the steam roller jump into double pegged hang5, yeah no that just Terry. Its probably the only trick that I can attempt to be honest. But then Terry changes it experience into yet another jump backpacker, by the time you get to 51 seconds Terry would have already completed 10 crazy jumps into his run…who does that! The music also delivers a strong message “tell me how you like it, imma put it on you” breakbeat to finish off a monster jump that just had be the best build up ever. Why is Terry so angry, such a delightful young man but on originality Terry took the top honors so far because he’s pretty much invented all those impossible combo and has now mastered them like never before. On Terry’s bike control, even his wobble parts its only because he’s about to do another impossible jump combo, yeah bike control like no other and on the overall flow of the video I think Terry has a personal vandetta cause he’s linked up killer music with his killer style and doing killer impossible jump combo’s. Terry whats up man….kidding of course. My score of Terry Adams is at 92.
Lee Musselwhite – I often wonder what goes on inside the mind of Lee because he’s just not in the same place as most other are. Every contest I’ve seen Lee ride at he’s let me puzzled and sure enough his video clip repeated that experience for me. Lets go! The music is ominous in tone, almost as if the alien invasion has just begun and of course Lee is doing the most original wheelie ever – backward facing, so he’s already off to a good start with originality. The setup time im between is a nice build up because at 1m6sec Lee brought the alien life form right onto the screen. It was insane looking! WTF! Then Lee does it again a few more times with demonstrating a new bike control nose wheelie, Lee has down packed the originality and bike control, my only wish was for a better ending because the audio build up was really working. My score of Lee Musselwhite is 89
Jean William Prevost – First impression is clearly Jean has invested personally on his own private backyard flat spot. It cost lots of money to pour that much cement on that yard. So kudos on the commitment level to Jean. Only 21 seconds into the video and Jean has made me dizzy with the countless spins, they are cool and all but old folks like me just cant keep up LOL. Then Jean did something very unique, he switched up camera angles, that was clever. Showing off the different camera angles worked pretty well for Jean but again, some of the cuts almost made me wonder if that was multiple takes for the same trick. I know that was wasn’t the intention of Jean but still that’s kinda what it felt like. Jean back wheel death truck variant dump truck variant on the pedals is crazy to watch. I hope no kids watching that trick take it for granted, that stuff is DIFFICULT period. Jean riding speed is much more accelerated than the others competing this weekend. I noticed he likes to crank up some speed making the trick even gnarlier than it already is take for instance that time machine at 1m22sec how Jean just DROPS, like plattttt. I didnt get the closeups but I did get the final trick combo, he’s pulled that one off at other events so it was nice to see Jean bust that one out again as he shouted YES in his backyard. I wonder how many times his neighbors heard the bike slam on the concrete. Jean originality is on the low side for me, just because its the same tricks repeated but sped up, its not say that it was wack its just on the low side for me. However Jean’s bike control clearly above others as Jean rides faster than most and has very scary back wheel action going, overall flow was nice, kinda want the camera tricks to go away. My score of Jean William Prevost is 88.
Varo Hernadez – Who is this guy and why hadn’t I heard about him before…oh its because FlowZine went to sleep in July 2018, duh. Well here is the bluntness of it, its about 30sec in and still waiting for the intro to finish. Varo has skills but Im waiting for the reveal. Varo put some Adobo on that pedal twist, that was cool and the camera trick is helping follow where the technical parts to focus on. Varo has style and good bike control so but originality will mature Varo over the years, he’s off to a good start without a doubt. I like how Varo demonstrated his back wheel control then switched onto the front wheel, kid’s got talent especially at the closing of the video where he puts it all together nicely. Varo is a little on the low side of originality because there really weren’t any real original tricks that I could see, Varo did bust out some nice opposite side foot stance but nothing really that sets him apart. Varo’s bike control was slow and smooth, you get a sense that he has good perspective of his surrounding and wants the spectator to enjoy the trick instead of racing thru it like a fast magical act. Varo’s overall flow was relaxed, I liked how he showed the passing traffic and some people wearing their face masks in the background, it showed how contemporary his video is, no edits no retakes just life happening as Varo flows with it. My score of Varo Hernandez is 88.
Alright now its time to cast my vote at www.e-fise.com today September 19, 2020
First Place: Terry Adams
Second Place: Pakphum Poosa-art
Third Place: Alex Jumelin
Lets see what the rest of the world thinks! Peace and stay healthy!
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