I've become quite cynical when somebody tells me that they are going to learn to ride flatland. I think it is just a spur of the moment phrase for them.
There were two kids a few years younger than me who started riding at various points. The one that I talked to directly ended up stopping due to football scholarship and afraid of injuring himself and losing scholarship. The other, however, I've never had the chance to speak to; my mom once spoke to him after seeing him trying tricks in a vacant parking lot. I was informed that I was his inspiration, yet I've never met him.