1998 National Unicycle Convention Report - Day 2
by Craig Milo Rogers
Saturday, 18-Jul-1998, was the second day of the Unicycling
Society of America's 1998 National Unicycle Convention, in Monrovia,
California.
This was another day of hot unicycling. The National Weather
Service reports that the high today was 103° F in Monrovia. It's cool
at night, 67° F, and it's dry, so it's not so bad as some places I
could name, but it's still rather difficult. I faced a constant
battle to keep drinking enough fluids, even though I didn't do anything
more strenuous than take pictures.
There was no air conditioning in the basketball gym of the
YMCA, where most of the day's competition was held. There are some
big fans, but they weren't enough. The south side of the gym was
distinctly warmer than the north side.
The total number of registrants is "pushing 250", I was told.
There are representatives from 13 US states, but no one from outside
the US. It is possible that one-site registrations have increased
that number. I don't know if I'll get a definitive answer to this
question, though. I think I was told that there are about 40 people
from Minnesota alone. Both the Twin Cities Unicycle Club and the
Unicycle Team of Minnesota have sent sizeable contingents.
In answer to the question I posed yesterday, "What if you
don't have a car?", yes, there's a public bus line that runs right by
the YMCA, but more importantly, the Holiday Inn provides a shuttle
service to members of the convention that are staying there. Speaking
of the Holiday Inn, though, I was told that it's sold out!
The day's activities started out with a very nice opening
ceremony. I arrived about 10 minutes late, so I missed a little of
it, particularly since it was difficult to find a place to stand in the
audience area in the gym. The acoustics were a problem, too, I'm
afraid, so I couldn't really tell what was said. The Mayor of
Monrovia was there to start us off; I understood that much.
In our registration packets there were little pieces of paper
with name of the registrant's state on them, and other information
about their state. It turns out that these were part of the the
opening ceremony: each state was given a different color of paper, and
we were supposed to wave them around and cheer our home state. Let's
see, what would be the appropriate California cheer: "Rah, dude!"?
The opening ceremonies included entertainment by Drew Tretick,
the amazing unicycling violin player. He plays a "Zeta" digital
violin, and is an (the?) official Zeta demonstrator (normally, without
riding a unicycle at the same time, I imagine). He played for the NUC
1998 opening ceremony while riding, sort of zooming around the gym
while zooming up and down some scales. The digital violin includes
both MIDI controller and synthesizer functions, and the combined sound
was quite rich.
For more information about Drew's violin career, see:
http://www.drewtretick.com
The morning was devoted to the Standard Spills, er, Skills
competition. What can I say about this event? I have not yet
accepted it into my heart, even though I recognize that resistance is
futile. We are the Standard Skills. You will be assimilated.
By the way, only non-marking tires are allowed on the YMCA gym
floor. Did I mention that the gym isn't air conditioned? Anyway,
Jennie White told me that Miyata black tires are actually non-marking,
according to Tom Miller, so my unicycle is OK. I do have a white
non-marking tire for my 24" unicycle at home, and was planning to
install it, but I'm glad that it won't be necessary to do so.
There's a current thread on the Internet unicycling mailing
list asking where to get non-marking tires. I got mine from the
bicycle supplies section of Target, a large discount department store
chain.
Also during the morning, Brett Bymaster led 7 riders on a
small MUni trip. I believe he took them to the park where Tuesday's
competition MUni will be held.
Eventually the Standard Skills competition drew to a close.
The last, highest-level competitors were interesting to watch, due in
part to the difficulty of the skills that they were attempting, but
also, I think, due to the fact that everything looks more graceful
once you are skilled enough at it. Meanwhile, I finished my 1997 CA
Muni photo albums and started passing them around.
A half-hour lunch break was declared. I chose to go to the
Tommy's Hamburgers that had recently (March 1997) opened a few blocks
south of the Y. Tommy's, for those of you who haven't lived in Los
Angeles, is a local chain that's famous for: 1) the gang battles at
the Original Tommy's home location on Rampart, and 2) a particularly
greasy chili that they dump to their food. I chose a chili tamale, my
favorite.
There were a Coker Classic Cycles big wheel unicycle and an
"ordinary bicycle" that were available for riding. A Big Wheel and a
Miyata Flamingo are being raffled off, and someone (hmmm, I need more
details here) had units available for test rides.
The amazing (to me) thing about the Coker "The Big One"
unicycle was the 36" pneumatic tire. That's right, a real tire!
Unfortunately, the guy with the demo units left before I gave them a
ride. :-(
For more information about the Coker Big One, see:
http://www.coker.com
The afternoon featured the group and club artistic
competitions. The real hit of the day was the TCUC club production,
Thriller. It featured very good costuming and makeup, and, of course,
fine choreography and riding.
As usual, there was quite a bit of variety in the group and
club competitions. Of particular interest was the group from Seattle,
Washington (more or less, I think). They are new to NUCs, I think, but
clearly not new to performing on unicycles. There's a rumor that they
might bid on next year's NUC.
The afternoon's competitions ended around 1530, about 2 hours
ahead of schedule, I think. I headed over to Monrovia High School,
where preparations for the evening's show were being made and where
show participants (not I!) were allowed to practice. Hurray! It's
air conditioned!
The 1998 NUC public show started with the Jr. Expert and
Expert Pairs Artistic competition. This is the first ever time that
these events were incorporated into the show. I was one of the
judges, sitting in the balcony seats, and consequently don't take in
the way of photographs during the evening.
Someday I'd *love* to have a judging session, followed
immediately by a videotape instant-replay Judges Workshop.
These competitions were followed by an awards ceremony, also
presented as part of the public show. Dedra Divine and Ashley Wood won
the Jr. Experts Pairs category. Dana Schneider and Andy Cotter took
the Expert Pairs prize with their excellent Riverdance-based routine.
Irene Genelin and Michael Owens were the only other Jr. Expert Pairs
competitors. The team of Lindsey Johnson and Colin Schworer took
second place in Expert Pairs, and Dillon Divine and Preston Ulmer took
third.
John Foss, our evening's host, presented a multimedia
(PowerPoint) projection TV presentation of unicycling photos taken by
himself and others. It was not fully visible where I sat in the
balcony, but was entertaining and instructive nonetheless.
Speaking of entertaining, John gave us his "how to ride a
unicycle" and "how to ride a small unicycle" routines. Very funny!
"Men in Black", a group performance by some of the young UTM
riders, came next. They did a pretty good job, too. If you haven't
seen the movie, then you probably won't understand the significance of
the camera flash at the end of the routine. What routine? :-)
Dr. Orland Reynolds presented his rope and diabolo skills. At
76 years of age, Dr. Reynolds was the oldest entertainer in the show,
is the oldest rider at the meet.
The juggling act, "The Incredible Cohens", was canceled due to
a mixup, 'nuf said.
John Foss pitched Dustin Kelm's line of apparel. Yes, you,
too, can own a Dustin Kelm T-shirt. If you were here at the NUC, you
could own it today. Dustin, himself, was pretty good, too. His first
routine was a romantic courtship number with a random (?) audience
member as the target. His second routine was his usual stylish solo
presentation. He did very well, too, and if he can just iron out the
bugs in his giraffe side ride (?), he stands a good chance in the
individual artistic freestyle competition on Sunday.
Teresa and Sem closed out the evening with their usual
polished, graceful, well-timed, athletic, thrilling performance. What
a treat! Words fail me (quick, where's my thesaurus?).
That wraps up the day. Some of us gathered at the local
Souplantation (an all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar chain) for a bite
to eat and a bit of socialization.
Did I mention how it's gonna be in that gym tomorrow?
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