1998 National Unicycle Convention Report - Day 4
by Craig Milo Rogers
This report covers the fourth day of the Unicycling Society of
America's 1998 National Unicycle Convention, in Monrovia, California.
Against my expectations (and the prior day's forecast), the
day started out wet and a little cooler than the prior day. The
scattered light rain, and the shape of the clouds, made me concerned
that the monsoon season had started, and we'd get thunderstorms.
The National Weather Service reports a high temperature of 96°
F. It also confirms my suspicions regarding a monsoon effect.
The clouds thinned as the day went along, and it got hotter
and hotter... though not as hot as Saturday in the gym. There was *no
shade* to speak of for use by the general rider. Sunburn was a
significant problem -- even my SPF 45 sunscreen was not enough.
Today was the first race day. We started at about 0800 at
Arcadia High School. It has a rubberized track, somewhat old but not
overly warn. Apparently access to this track is jealously guarded, and
that's what's kept it in such good condition. I'm told we had trouble
getting approval to use it!
There was a major schedule change: the mandatory races were to
rescheduled for the AM, when it was cooler, while the fun races were
scheduled for the PM.
Things started off well, and, in fact, we seemed to be getting
some remarkably fast times in the races. Eventually it was discovered
that the starting line had been laid out using yards instead of
meters; ie the "100 meter" race was really 100 feet long. The first 9
or so races had to be re-done, although there's a positive side to the
problem: new records were being set with each race! (John Foss)
The actual order of events today was:
100 M, 400 M, One Foot, Fast Backwards, Wheel Walk (30 M, 10 M),
Ultimate Wheel, juggling, coasting, relay
There was no 200 M race this year -- it's been dropped!
Geoff Faraghan showed me his MUni-to-track conversion. The
knobby mountain bike tire was replaced with a thin tire, while the
Telford mountain unicycle's shock was given the stiffest elastomer
insert.
There are 19 riders with Wood One Wheelers. They all flew;
their giraffe unicycles were packed, disassembled, into two bike
boxes. They had a difficult time acquiring the bike boxes, too, and
one of their boxes was later destroyed (and replaced) by their
airline, TWA, evidently in the process of checking why the contents
had so much metal.
There was discussion in the stands on how to raise $$$s for
hosting a meet.
The Anderson family of Wahpeton, North Dakota, chose to drive
to the NUC. They reported good driving, perhaps a little warm, but
the car's air conditioning took care of that.
Knee pads and gloves were required for the juggling fun race.
Have they been required uniformly in the recent past?
I interviewed Pat and Gary Cassel and others from the Gold Bar
Husky Hotshots Unicycle Club.
Gold Bar is located in Washington, about 40 minutes NE of
Seattle. The club is an official school club in the elementary (K12)
school. It started 3½ years ago with 3 riders, and now has more
that 175 current riders in it. 7 riders, all kids, came to the NUC,
in addition to Gary, of course.
Gary's a Physical Education teacher, but this is an after
hours club. They meet 4 days per week before school, and 4 days per
week after school. Some middle school kids still participate after
graduation from elementary school. The youngest riders are 5 years
old.
Although Gary's been a USA member, and attended last year's
NUC, today was the first track racing experience for his club's
members. When they get home they'll look for a track on which to
practice.
Gary and the other Gold Bar riders aren't officially competing
as a "club" in this NUC, due to liability issues with the school.
They needed school district approval for their travel plans, hotels,
adult supervision, etc., and didn't get it arranged ahead of time.
The club has been using the 10 USA skill levels. They've
been testing riders, and plan to start ordering level patches soon.
In addition to the 10 USA levels, they use a 5-level ranking system
of their own: beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced, expert.
The club performs in local parades and assemblies, There are
40-50 riders in a typical parade performance, limited to advanced and
expert riders. Sometimes they do shows that allow all riders to
participate in some way.
A typical parade performance has the giraffe riders forming
arches, and the standard riders riding underneath. They form
serpentine and reversal patterns, as well as stars. One foot riding,
idling, and other skills are also included in their performances.
They're seeing a lot of new performance material at the NUC, which
they'll take home and practice.
For some reason the club is mainly composed of girls. "Girls
learn faster and have better balance," said the girls who were present
when I interviewed Gary. The parents are very supportive, but only
one parent rides a unicycle.
About 60 of the current riders own their own unicycles. The
club owns about 150 unicycles, which members may borrow for the day.
These are Savage (16", 20", 24" and giraffe) and Zephyr brands
(Taiwanese), and the club is happy with their performance.
The club buys its unicycles from Tim's Bike Shop in Everett,
WA. Tim's a unicycle rider himself, and gives a 10% discount to them.
Typical prices are $159 for a new 6' giraffe, and $74 for a 20"
Zephyr.
Pat: "This has been inspiring, totally inspiring. Next year I'm
going to ride."
The NUC is being videotaped by two separate groups. Clifton
Middle School, Monrovia, CA, has a video production class that's
taping the NUC as a project. They'll produce the official video
condensation of the NUC; pre-order forms are included in the NUC
program book. I have more notes about the video production class,
but they aren't directly relevant to unicycling, and in the interest
of time I'll skip them of now.
The NUC is also being videotaped by a professional crew for
Trailblazer Video Magazine. They are producing footage for a cable
sports show that covers biking. They spent a lot of time with Brett
Bymaster and the MUni workshops, and came back dirty from climbing
trees for camera angles.
Today's races were fairly routine. They ran pretty smoothly,
except for a fair number of false starts. Sem did a good job of
staging the racers. Here's a summary of some of the results:
| 100 M Expert Male: | 1st place: Andy Schwartz | 14.10 sec |
| 100 M Expert Female: | 1st place: Dana Schneider | 15.09 sec |
|
| 400 M Expert Male: | 1st place: Jim Bernard | 1:02.86 |
| 400 M Expert Female: | 1st place: Dana Schneider | 1:09.03 |
|
| One Foot Expert Male: | 1st place: Ryan Wood | 8.53 sec |
| One Foot Expert Female: | 1st place: Dana Schneider | 9.25 sec |
|
| Walk the Wheel Expert Male: | 1st place: Ryan Wood | (time not posted) |
| Walk the Wheel Expert Female: | 1st place: Dana Schneider | 11.41 sec |
|
| Fast Backwards Expert Male: | 1st place: Andy Schwartz | 10.25 sec |
| Fast Backwards Expert Female: | 1st place: Dana Schneider | 10.94 sec |
See any patterns? :-)
Coasting: 1) Andy Schwartz, 2) Dana Schneider, 3) Andy Cotter.
The track events finished up more-or-less on schedule (I
think), giving the participants time to swim, shower, change clothes,
eat dinner, etc. before the USA's annual general meeting.
The annual General Meeting of the Unicycling Society of
America started at 7:09 PM in a conference room at the Holiday Inn.
56 members were present at the start of the meeting, enough for a
quorum. Here are some of the meeting highlights:
1) The USA continued to have about 845 members; this has been
unchanged for the last 10 years.
2) Andy will take over leadership of the Rule Book committee
this year.
3) If you want multiple copies of On One Wheel (OOW), you can pay
multiple membership fees. You still get only one vote per member
at the General Meeting, however.
4) First Class mailing of OOW will be available for $10/yr extra.
5) Election of officers:
Dirt Iwema was re-elected President without opposition.
Andy Cotter was re-elected Vice President without opposition.
Dick Harden was elected Secretary, over
the incumbent, Rick Anderson.
Carol Brichford was re-elected Treasurer without opposition.
Connie Cotter was re-elected Newsletter Editor without opposition.
Jenni White was elected Director, replacing Nick Messemer.
Her goal is to increase western states involvement.
6) It was mentioned that the Merchandising Manager was retiring,
but no discussion of a replacement occurred (as far as I know).
There was no discussion of the open position of Historian.
7) Alan Tepper presented a very professional PowerPoint proposal
for the Panther Pride Demo Team to host the 1999 NUC. The
audience was overwhelmed by the amount of planning and detail
that was already demonstrated.
The proposed dates for the 1999 NUC are 31 Jul - 4 Aug 1999.
The daily schedule is patterned after the 1998 NUC's.
George Peck has promised to come, and to give special MUni
instruction.
Panther Pride Demo Team will also host an all-Washington unicycle
riders convention on 03-Oct-1998. Expert guests are solicited.
The proposal was accepted.
8) Tim Johnson, a Director of the Unicycle Team of Minnesota,
presented a written proposal to make helmets mandatory for
racers under 18 years of age. After a fairly divisive discussion,
the proposal failed, 36 to 43.
The idea behind the proposal was resurrected by Andy Cotter in the
form of a general membership paper ballot, to be conducted by
the Rules Committee in conjunction with On One Wheel. The
OOW Editor, Connie Cotter, committed to print all letters, pro
and con, on the issue. This proposal passed in a voice vote.
The General Meeting adjourned at 8:46 PM.
The LCD screen/overhead projector used by Alan Tepper for his
1999 NUC proposal gave much better results than the video projector
that John Foss used in the Public Show on Saturday night. John and a
few other people stayed in the Holiday Inn conference room while John
ran parts of his PowerPoint presentation off a zip drive.
There was a scheduled Renegade show at the YMCA. I didn't
attend, but I heard that it went well after a slow start. Sem
demonstrated freestanding ladder techniques; Guy Hansen (Utah)
demonstrated hand peddling a standard unicycle; and other good stuff
happened.
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