1995. ESPN gets involved... Matt's attention was being divided between his bicycle company and his contest series so he decided to do away with the contest series and focus on making the best freestyle company ever. Hoffman Bikes continues on under Hoffman and ESPN now controls how the 'fun' BS contests will be handled. The first thing that happened was that ESPN eliminated the lower amateur classes. They have said that they would like to also get rid of flatland. Somebody wrote a letter to Ride Magazine questioning the value of doing such a thing and here is as good of a place as any to give it proper merit. McGoo gave the poor kid a thorough amount of crap on how it is the pros that sell the bikes and what a waste of time it was for the contests to allow beginners.
      
      McGoo was usually an idiot and, unfortunately, was granted permission to speak to the public on a regular basis encouraging kids not to ride. The bottom line is that exclusivity has NEVER driven freestyle bike riding. Amateur riding with pros is what makes this sport so great. It isn't about competing to be better. It is about having a contest and having 500 kids show up to jam for three days straight. A beginner will spread the word in this sport MUCH better than ESPN or any magazine ever will. There are kids that would travel 500 miles to get last place in the beginner class and go home more stoked on riding then ever before. Now they don't have anything but small local events to go to or the big ESPN contests that they can go to but can't ride their bikes at. Regardless of this ESPN has still managed to rape the riders for all they are worth getting HUGE financial gains from the 'Extreme Games' while putting out pro purses that are great for the sport, but nothing for what ESPN is earning.

1996- Present... Not much has changed. ESPN still holds its contests on a regular basis. The amateur events have been pushed back to Thursdays and there is talk of how ESPN wants to get rid of flatland at its contests. Hoffman Bikes now appear in thousands of bike shops across the country. Mongoose bikes now appear in WalMart. Huffy is making bikes that have crept out of the department store and into some bike shops. Most of the better bike shops won't touch the Huffy products. The X-Games have become the premiere contest in freestyle and have put the gleam in many kids eyes as they think of the possibilities that they may attain by dedicating their lives to freestyle. Dave Mirra's face is plastered on the pages of magazines in an attempt to make Haro a household name instead of GT and Hoffman now goes to Taiwan to get his bikes made.

Magazines are getting thick again and coverage is all of street, vert, and dirt. If you aren't in the sky they don't want to take your picture. The days of 13 flatland pictures in one contest article are gone and replaced by the days of being lucky to see 13 flatland pictures in an entire magazine. Flatland deserves better photographers (sorry Losey) or better editors. Vert is getting center stage coverage on ESPN despite there really not being any noticeable progression on vert in the last five years. Some, small progression... and more better riders... but the 900 has been done and the Flair is old news. Not much left but to do it all again, only higher. Nothing new. Street is one of the most exciting things to see at contests since the course changes from location to location. The layout of ramps means that riders will have different lines and different possibilities at every contest.

To really deter the riders ESPN now limits the X-Game qualifiers to 30 participants in each class in the pro and amateur level. All riders must pre-register. They are throwing skaters and booters out on the same courses that riders are trying to use. As bad as this sounds it isn't the end of the world. Local contests are growing in popularity again. Elsinore (the annual contest at the bike convention in Toronto) has become a must ride for flatlanders. Ron Wilkerson has continued the tradition of fun contests with the 2-Hip series capped off by the Burning Bike Festival all in the name of fun. I don't love ESPN but the contests ARE still fun to attend since I can ride at them. I don't think they would be fun if I was a beginner. The turnout for 2-Hip events and other local contests isn't enough to really motivate a beginning rider either. If we could talk Hoffman into convincing ESPN to allow a full amateur class, or have one or two events in the year that allowed all of the classes then I believe that it would really get younger riders to stay motivated in a sport that can be grueling, painful, and more often than not- frustrating.