I'm not ok with the lack of funds for these skilled riders, and I don't expect them to be, either. But to suggest we should be satisfied with just being fit and active is sort of a slap in the face to guys that devote their entire lives to riding with no hope of being supported.
Like if we look closely at Chase as you suggested, you'll probably find that he doesn't really have a booming career outside of riding.
As far as the highlighted stuff there, all I can say is ask an NBA player if he'd be OK with no paycheck. Mentioning just being physically fit and getting personal satisfaction would probably get you punched. hahaha
I just want to again highlight the difference between riding hard and being the best. Both Martti and Justin were intensely competitive riders. They weren't gifted and happened to speak flatland naturally, they worked for it. Paul O or Chase or Kevin J ride in a different way. The reasons you mention for riding are all great, but M and J rode for different reasons. My point is that riding like they did to be the best has shown to be a tortuous and somewhat unfulfilling undertaking.
We are not all a bunch of deranged, obsessive, anti-social hermits as the stupid stereotypical morons have classified us in the past.
I don't mean to say that money was the reason Justin and Martti left...I sort of went on a tangent there
Quote from: Flatgod on October 31, 2013, 11:17:55 PMWe are not all a bunch of deranged, obsessive, anti-social hermits as the stupid stereotypical morons have classified us in the past.but i am. i'm just deranged and obsessive with lots of different things other than riding.
Contrary to what most people think, Chase is not a natural rider. He just simply rides hard. Riding hard and being the best are practically no different. You ride hard to be the best that you can be at what you want to do because you f*cking want to. This is exactly what Chase did. No other reason is needed.
Justin also never rode for riches or fame or anything. He just seriously wanted to be the best. Honestly I think he got there.
Quote from: Flatgod on October 31, 2013, 11:09:50 PMContrary to what most people think, Chase is not a natural rider. He just simply rides hard. Riding hard and being the best are practically no different. You ride hard to be the best that you can be at what you want to do because you f*cking want to. This is exactly what Chase did. No other reason is needed.Lol I'm not tryna be argumentative but riding "to be the best that you can be" wasn't even what M + J were after. It was just to win contests. Maybe not their whole life or that that is what got them into flatland originally or even at the very end, but at some point it became this way for them, or maybe i'm misrepresenting history with my own story. Entirely possible. I'm not saying Chase was a natural at it, but I wouldn't characterize his contributions to flatland to be a trophy hunter. He was more of a "soul rider"? Lol that's corny. Like he rode for the stimulation, the puzzles, trances, and mastery things. Anyway the era he is most known for is not really the same kind of heated contest-atmosphere that Martti and Justin rode in post 2000.
The REALLY crazy trick era of Martti was after he cooled off on the contest circuit, no? I mean, he was always a monster and inventing things but the truly weird inventive magician stuff was not that long before he recently signed off, but back in the Red Bull COB bird flipping days he was fierce. When you ride like that for contests, you gotta be inventive with new tricks yeah, but not in the same way you would just out on your own. You're riding for consistency and it's brutal and i'd imagine the fun really starts to drain out of it. Maybe the 90's had heated contests, lol i don't know I wasn't there, I'm just judging by the videos where it just looks like everybody's growing their hair smoking pot in a parking lot kind of intensity.