I woke up this morning with steak breath and a Texas-sized hangover. Too much line dancing and whiskey made me both irritable and disoriented. Luckily, the X Trials starts off a little slow on the first day and I didn't miss much by showing up late to the event, just in time to catch a few big ass sessions of BMX half before they cancelled the prelims due to strong winds.

The skateboard street practice was amazing and, lucky for me, was not effected by the gusts. Rippers in attendance were having a good time on the new $1.2 million park, and the only complaints I heard were about the coping being a little too gnarly. Caballero was there and made it all good. In the top ten for the finals on Saturday are Rob Dyrdek, Chris Senn, Pat Channita, Steve Berra, and Caine Gayle, all looking very solid and confident.

Dave Mirra bummed on the wind.

Only mad dogs, Englishmen and BMX flatlanders (from all over the world) go out in the midday sun. The only constant besides the heat (temperatures exceeded 90 degrees) here in Grand Prairie, Texas, has been the flatlanders sessioning. For the past two days, the flatlanders have been riding 10-plus hours a day. Beginning before I arrived and ending after I left each day, the flatlanders put in their time leading up to tonight's finals. According to Hoffman Bikes' Steve Swope, logging long hours is a way of life for the competitive flatlander, perhaps more so than any other stunt bicycle discipline. Besides the heat, other conditions the riders had to contend with were a slick surface that made fast spin moves tough and a course that had was humped in the middle.

Martti Kouppa on his way to a first place finish.

Like inline skating, BMX flatland competition has become international. This was evidenced in tonight's final where only two of the ten finalists were from the states. Four riders represented Japan, Canada had two and Finland one. But it was the sole Finn, Martti Koupa, who dominated this world class comp. His smooth consistent riding combined with innovative runs took the competition. Fellow competitor and owner/founder of Powell bikes, Scott Powell, commented on the winner's creativity.

"Everybody respects what Martti is doing because he's thinking of new ways to use the old (tricks)."

Coming in second was Vancouver's Nathan Penonzek and third was taken by Stephen Cerra out of Los Angeles. Notably absent was the dominant Trevor Meyer, who up until last summer had won every X Games gold in flatland.

FLATLAND FINAL
1. Martti Kuoppa
2. Nathan Penonzek
3. Stephan Cerra
4. York Uno
5. Alex Jumelin
6. Hiroya Morisaki
7. Takahiro Enoki
8. Dan Rigby
9. Ryoji Yamamoto
10. Leif Valin

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