STK- King of Finland

Like some of you, I don't know a lot about the riding scene of Finland, so I asked my friend Seongtaek to give me a glimpse of the scene over there. Mr. Kwon recently earned first place(CONGRATS!) in the flatland competition held there.

Seongtaek was kind enough to write a few words about the contest, flatland, and the scene in Finland. Much respect!

"Thank you so much for your request. I'd love to write up some glimpse of the flat scene in Finland for you.

First of all this contest "King of Finland" is an official Finnish Championship of BMX.

There are Park (JR), Park (senior), Flat, Dirt, Vert, and Mini ramp as the disciplines.

This contest's main sponsor is Monster Energy and other sponsors are
Osiris, Signature bmx, Syndicate Bikes, Continental, Kampi BMX, Pihlajamäen Nuorisotoimi, Bahco Tools

As the title of the contest says, it is to look for the King of BMX in Finland. There are winners from each discipline but only 1 guy who has gained the most points will win the whole contest and get the title "King of Finland". So today one ramp rider who didn't win any of discipline but the one who joined every thing gained the most scores and won it.

Today there was also Martti Kuoppa participating this comp but he seemed he wasn't thinking to do the run. He practiced just little by another's bike and he did his run with again totally different bike. He did not pull anything. It seemed to me that he just wanted to "participate" the comp and support it.

Flatland in Finland is hardcore. In fact those riders who really ride are mental. You already know Martti, Aleksi and Kimmo Haakana. Maybe you are not too familiar with Aapo Airas or Erico Melo but these guys are really one of the top level riders in the world.

-below just my personal info to introduce to myself to you :)
I myself was having great times back in 2002 to 2004 competing at KOG (1st place from novice class), Asian extreme championships with 8 countries (4th place), ESPN Asian X-Games (10th place). But once I moved to Finland in 2004, I started hardcore studies and working which hindered my riding and eventually almost removed the "flat" from my life. I could really not ride. Maybe once a month average during 6 years?

Now I realized anything (be it study, tennis, working with big bosses, etc) won't make me feel fulfilled. Only flat does!
I deleted all my videos online cause I thought they are just too old tricks of mine and I wanna show new hardcore original tricks to the world. I will try to learn what's in my mind and post them soon!

Jim thank you again for your words. It really makes me feel happy!

Cheers,
Seongtaek"



Seongtaek is super rad. I look forward to seeing and hearing more from him.
~jm