1977 | DOB: february 15, 1977. Birthplace: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. | |
early years | Brian Tuney, Dig may 2005: Andrew emerged from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada as a flatland rider in the mid 90's. I can recall one particular contest in Oklahoma where Andrew entered amateur flatland. It was one of the first comps Andrew entered in the US. He blew everyone away in his class and probably could've won the pro class on top of that. He was riding for 2-Hip bikes, quiet in his demeanor and hellbent on riding flatland as much as he physically could and the stuff he was doing as an am was already highly original ... 1st place stuntboys flat @ 1995 BS round 3, september 1-3, 1995, Hoffman Bike Park, Oklahoma City, OK. Andrew Faris took first with backyard switch footed on the pedal combos, forward rope to darkside tailwhip standing on the frront of his stem back to his rear pegs and into a cross footed stick-b. |
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1996 | Andrew Faris is now riding for 2-Hip. On the cover of FAT zine #33. 8th place stuntmen flat @ 1996 BS round 1, South Padre Island, march 1996. Andrew did his tailwhip to darkside stuff and front wheel stuff with his foot on the inside peg. Vancouver/Seattle scene in Ride BMX US april 1996. 2nd place stuntmen flat @ 1996 BS round 2, july 19-21, 1996, Seal Beach, Los Angeles, California. 2nd place stuntmen flat @ 1996 BS finals, San Diego, september 1996. There was only one pink Basic bike at the contest. That one bike belonged to Andrew Faris, who rode with his original flow, pulled his darkside strings, and ended up with second place. |
1996 BS finals. vimeo.com/bmxfreestyler: Andrew Faris in the 1996 Hard Core Sick Flatland. |
1997 | Moving picture in BMX Plus! february 1997. 4th place stuntmen flat @ 1997 BS round 1, march 26-28, 1997, Providence, RI. Roni, Ride BMX US june 1997: Andrew Faris rode a pink Basic, and rode well. Andrew did a lot of front wheel links along with his darkside tailwhips, and kept it together with his usual slow and smooth riding style, but after a tie with Nate Hanson, fourth place was where he ended up. Profile in Props 19 may june 1997. www.propsbmx.tv, february 2011: Adorned in a pink cardigan, Canadas fruity flatland legend Andrew Faris talks about his body problems, high maintenance girls, contests, foosball, the Celestine Prophecy, his attraction to wearing female attire, why he parks his bike in the same place every night, and more. Andrew was 20 at the time of the interview, which was shot in the spring of 1997. He continued his flatland career hitting the contest circuit before fading off a handful of years later. Highroller 6 Journey video. Allied Loiter video. 3rd place @ 1997 X-Games San Diego, june 1997. Chris Hargrave, Ride BMX US october 1997: Third place went to Canadian, Andrew Faris. Andrew's probably one of my favorite flat riders to watch, because he's got such a crazy original style, and this comp was no different. During his run he was seen doing hitchikers rolling backwards to barflip to forwards hitchiker. Figure that out if you can. Besides that, he also did a steam roller with the bars backwards to body varial to halfpacker. Andrew's tricks are as limitless as his collection of ultra-stylish bandannas. Todd Lyons, Neal Wood, Matt Hadan and Andrew Faris on the cover of BMX Plus! july 1997. 1st place stuntmen flat @ 1997 BS round 3, july 1997, New York. Roni, Ride BMX US october 1997: First place went to Andrew Färis, my favorite flatlander to watch. I would defy anyone to try to explain Andrew's tricks. He rides so differently from everyone else, and all of his tricks are amazingly difficult. Andrew touched a few times, but it didn't matter. He had clearly won, and when the placings were announced, I thought his smile was going to cut his head in half. Basic bikes has introduced a new signature frame for pro flatlander Andrew Faris. It is called the Aura. Flatland pro world champion @ 1997 BMX Freestyle Worlds in Holland, July 17-20, 1997. Effraim Catlow, Ride BMX UK october 1997: Riding his new prototype signature Basic frame, Andrew Faris fresh from a third Place finish at the X-Games, ripped to a World Championship winning run, complete with his Walkman that never left his side. Faris hit almost everything with that slow controlled style that we have all come to love, with a mere one slight touch towards the end. Trick lists may be 'boring' to some people but as he won I'll write it anyway as I know some flatlanders will get stoked on it. Here goes: switch foot gerator to switch foot caboose starting easy making sure he pulls it, then the hard shit starts 360 barspin steamboat to backwards hitchiker to backwards switchiker barflips straight to pedals; hang five to straight bar, switch-handed steamroller to opposite side blender back into straight bar switch handed steamroller to candy bar mc circle to crossfoot frontyard to pedals: fire hydrant to cross-foot blender to cross-foot cowboy squeak to cross-foot elephant glide to tomahawk to frontyard to squeaker to tailwhip to backwards switchiker barflipped to hitchiker if you are following all this, 'nuff respect - switch-foot dump truck to two footed no handed forward death truck, regular steamroller to cross foot straight bar steamroller flipped to halfpacker to cross foot elephant glide, to switch foot blender to pedals; backwards switchhiker body varial to halfpacker [sick!]. Faris rules, he touched just three times in three runs BIG respect to him. 1st place stuntmen flatland @ 1997 BS round 4 and finals, august 29-31, 1997, Seal Beach, California. Roni, Ride BMX US december 1997: First place once again went to Andrew Faris. Andrew is an amazing human... Firehydrant to double-footed turbined deathtrucks, barflips to hitchikers to barflips... Andrew is the man. Portrait d'Andrew Faris dans le magazine Urban de septembre 1997. Interview in Ride BMX UK #31 october 1997. Interview in Ride BMX US #31 december 1997. Brian Tuney, Dig may 2005: During the winter of 1997-1998, Andrew disappeared into the Vancouver underground to work on a steady diet of new tricks for the upcoming contest scene. What would emerge from this diehard dedication was a completely new repertoire of tricks including every trick he had already learned at twice the speed, plus every sort of bunnyhop tailwhip imaginable even fakie whips and half -cab whips. Andrew's riding also expended into street riding around the same time, throwing himself down rails and stairs while still retaining his skills on flatland. And naturally Andrew's partying had became legendary at this point. I can even remember Andrew getting up on stage with a Guns and Roses cover band one night at a comp, playing air guitar throughout their entire set and later snorting a condom up his nose and pulling it out his mouth before passing out drunk under a mattress. |
Props interview. Andrew Faris at the 1997 BS round 3, New York. Photo by Marky Clark. |
1998 | Andrew is leaving Basic to ride for Schwinn. 4th place stuntmen flatland @ 1998 BS round 1, St Petersburg, Florida. Interview in BMX Plus! march 1998. 2nd place stuntmen flat @ 1998 BS round 2, may 8-10, 1998, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Interview in Multiprise #8, spring 1998. 1st place pro flat @ BS NY 1st place stuntmen flat @ 1998 BS/B3 round 4 and finals, august 1998, Oceanside, CA. 2nd place pro flat @ 1998 X-Games, San Diego, California. Andrew rode super-good as always but tried his backpacker to G-turn to switch feet hitchiker three times unsuccesfully. Flatland pro world champion @ 1998 BMX Freestyle Worlds in Portugal, september 1998. Andrew succesfully defended his '97 World title on a pink Schwinn. Full barspin to hang five and his slow-motion rolling tricks were very impressive. | |
1999 | Schwinn Andrew Faris 36-24-36 flatland frame. Renting renting a warehouse with Dan Rigby ? 4th place pro flatland @ 1999 BS round 1, april 22-25, 1999, Louisville, KY. Probably the most talked about rider in practice was Andrew Faris. Andrew basically quit doing everything he used to do and started completely over. All of his new moves are pretty much quick, one-hit tricks. He is now doing things like rollbacks to bunny hop tailwhips! He got 4th place only because he touched. He did a 180 bunny hop to rollback then did a 360 bar spin and immediately went into a backwards hang five. From the backwards hang five he did a backwards backpacker and then somehow did a 360 bar flip and landed in a forward squeaker on the pedal. He also did his gliding junk yard to death truck. 4th place stuntmen flat @ 1999 BS round 2, may 6-9, 1999, Richmond, VA. Art Thomason, www.theflatlander.com: Andrew Faris was riding really well, but still only got 4th. He pulled his inside gliding junk yard to death truck, rollback to 540 bunnyhop, and his 360 bar flip to backpacker. Interview in Chase magazine may 1999. Andrew Faris explains everything in Ride BMX US june 1999. 5th place pro flat @ 1999 X-Games, june 25 - july 3, 1999, San Francisco. 3rd place pro flatland @ 1999 BMX Freestyle Worlds, Spain, july 1999. Andrew Faris probably had the most original tricks of the contest. The whopper is a rad trick but it didn't work out in his run. 2nd place stuntmen flat @ 1999 BS finals, july 29 - august 1, 1999, Oceanside, California. Got a letter from the Hoffman crew about getting rid of the flatland discipline at their contest series ? | |
2000 | Schwinn Andrew Faris Azrael flatland frame. Inside Andrew Faris' Schwinn Azrael in BMX Plus! march 2000. 10th place stuntmen flat @ 2000 BS/B3 round 1, spring break, march 23-26, 2000, Lake Havasu, Arizona. 15th place stuntmen flat @ 2000 B3 round 2, april 14-16, 2000, Louisville, KY. 8th place stuntmen flat @ 2000 B3 round 3, may 19-21, 2000, St Petersburg, Florida. 12th place stuntmen flat @ 2000 B3 round 4 and finals, june 15-18, 2000, Nashville, Tennessee. 13th place pro flat @ 2000 BMX Freestyle Worlds, Cologne Jugendpark, Germany, june 28 to july 2, 2000. Andrew Faris fait la même routine que l'an passé et rentre son cab bunny hop tail whip ! Interview on www.fatbmx.com. Andrew Faris has been coming over to the World Championships for the last couple of years. Last year in Spain, Andrew was really bummed about the whole flatland and contest situation. The letter from the Hoffman crew about getting rid of the flatland discipline at their contest series didn't help in that case. He was going to quit riding. ,Surprisingly the tall Canadian showed up in Cologne for the Playstation World's. I heard he had only been riding street but in practise he turned some heads again. Andrew jelled in the final and didn't finish in the top of the field. At that time FAT asked him for an interview. Half cab whip on the cover of Soul BMX magazine #9, juillet 2000. 3rd place stuntmen flat @ CFB round 3 Woodward, july 2000. 6th place pro flat @ 2000 X-Games, august 17-22, 2000, San Francisco, California. Schwinns Andrew Faris has joined the Split BMX team. bmx.transworld.net, july 2000: Split has built a pretty good BMX team with, Ryan Nyquist, Rob Nolli, Day Smith, Nathan Penonzek, Jay Eggleston, Ben Snowden, and Gabe Weed. It looks like Split is giving a lot of respect to flatlanders, they have four on their team. Focus in Ride BMX US november 2000. Moving picture in BMX Plus! november 2000. |
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2001 | February 2001, Andrew leaves Schwinn for Volume. Andrew Faris: I just didn't feel a good fit at Schwinn.(...) Volume is not concerned with summer tours and contests, wich is good for a guy like me. BACO 9 video released in may of 2001. Shane Neville, www.backlashbmx.com: Andrew Faris stars as people get to know who this Billy Boo/Monster guy is. When Andrew drinks, he tends to get loose and let things get out of hand. That's all I have to say - Andrew got loose. Let's leave it at that. Flatland Manifesto issue 2 video released in september 2001. Andrew Faris had some stuff like his 360 barflip into a half-packer. Interview in Transworld BMX october 2001. Volume Mid, Andrew Faris' final signature frame before exiting the BMX scene at large. | |
2005 | Lookback: Andrew Faris in Dig BMX magazine may 2005. Brian Tuney, Dig may 2005: From what I can gather, Andrew now lives back in Saskatoon, where he repairs Volkswagen vans for a living, and he doesn't care to talk about riding too much. He may have burned out pretty fast, but the legacy he left behind still shines bright. In fact, there are tricks and combinations that no one aside Andrew has ever come close to executing. And his dedication to changing the direction of flatland will forever be seen in today's world of flatland riding, even if he was dressed as a woman at the time... |