1998 National Unicycle Convention Report - Day 5
by Craig Milo Rogers

This report covers the fifth, final day of the Unicycling Society of America's 1998 National Unicycle Convention, in Monrovia, California.

When I arrived at the track at 0829, the air was still a touch cool left over from the overnight low. Thin clouds provided humidity, but no shade. By 1000 it was *hot*; later, a light breeze cooled us down a little.

I talked to Jim Hahn and Beirne Konarski about Monday's MUni ride.

Monday, Brett and friends took the Echo Mtn. trail, 3500' elevation gain in 2.5 miles. They didn't make it all the way to the top; Brett rode up the trail, while Jim and Beirne walked up (about 2 miles, leaving the final .5 mile unexplored). This was high enough to see a (hazy) outline of downtown Los Angeles.

It was a lovely trail, I was told. The first half is in excellent condition; steep but not technical, it has benefitted from recent trail maintenance. The second half is well defined, but not very solid. It's crumbling away, which is why there's ongoing trail work.

The trail work is being protested by a group that wants to reserve the trail for hikers only. Jim had some political action materials on this issue.

Brett encountered a hiker that told Brett some of the history of the railroad they passed. This is part of the Scenic Mount Lowe Railroad, which was part of a hiking and entertainment development of the early 1900s. It is well described in Robin's guide to hiking the San Gabriel mountains. One online site with lots of information is:

http://www.aaaim.com/echo/v3n1/index.htm

Returning to Tuesday's events, two activities proceeded in parallel at Arcadia High School in the morning. The track saw the 800 m and 1600 m races, while a nearby outdoor basketball court area had the obstacle course and slow boards.

The 800 m and 1600 m races ran pretty smoothly. There was one bit of excitement in my race when the tire blew out on Ken Fuchs' unicycle. He completed the race on an alternate unicycle.

Cathy Wrobel, age 30-39 (I didn't pry for anything more exact), after completing her first mile race: "It's not even dark!"

On the obstacle and slow area, we had a problem with summer school students cutting across our course! We laid out some cones and various odds and ends (plastic pipe, metal pipe) to try to ward them off.

Another problem was the lack of a practice setup.

I saw a very touching tableau on the slow backwards board, which is also used as the kids' slow forward board. Our youngest competitor, Bridgette Bibler, age 4, was assisted onto her unicycle by her mother at the starting end of the board, while her father stood at the far end. Then, "Come to daddy!", she was encouraged to ride the length of the board. She DQ'ed on her first attempt by leaving the board, but made it all the way on the second attempt. I wish I'd taken pictures!

After the 800/1600 m races were over, and while the obstacle/slow races were finishing off, a height hopping competition was held on the track area. There were two height hopping setups. The first consists of a base and a couple of vertical posts. There were slots in the posts that may be used to insert supports for a horizontal crossbeam. In the other setup, little pieces of wood were stacked, like a kid's block set, and used to support a crossbeam.

There were problems with both setups. The vertical posts seems threatening, and might be the source of an injury if a rider slipped while attempting the height hopping race. This setup was also holding the horizontal bar a little too firmly, as evidenced by the bar being snapped in two on one practice jump.

The block setup suffered by requiring more intrinsic human setup time. It also had problems because the blocks weren't cut precisely enough. "When I was given wooden blocks to play with as a kid, I didn't know it was all leading up to this."

The jumps themselves were generally, so far as I saw, performed by bouncing on the unicycle a few times next to the par, then squatting down and leaping upwards in one Mount-Saint-Helens-like release of pent-up energy (for those of you who don't know, that was a poetic reference to a volcano on the west coast of the United States that blew up a few years ago.) The leaper (temporarily not, in my mind, a rider) arches up into the air, tucking their legs in dragging their unicycle up with them. If all goes well, the leaper will land on the ground on the other side, without disturbing the delicately balanced horizontal bar. The leaper will once more resume the role of rider, and will demonstrate control of their unicycle by, say, riding away.

In order to facilitate the squat-and-leap phase, the riders I saw preferred to use a seat-in-front riding posture.

I observed Dustin Kelm hop over the bar set at the following heights: 34 cm, 38 cm, 44 cm, 48 cm, 50 cm. He failed 53 cm, and so did his nearest competitor.

Workshops were scheduled for the early afternoon. I don't recall anything about precisely *which* workshops were happening, and where they would be held. However, I did hear someone commenting on how helpful the level testing workshop had been. I suppose that the workshop(s) were held somewhere shady, while I foolishly continued to run around in the hot sun.

The next item on the agenda was the Muni race and workshop at Trask Boy Scout Ranch. Unfortunately, I received a page, called it back, and ended up leaving the meet to solve someone's computer crisis. By the time I had returned, I'd missed the Kids MUni Race and the MUni Race on the Mountain. I did, however, participate in the Uphill Race and deerfly feeding festival.

The Uphill Race started at the bottom of a hill, with a finish line at the top of the slope; this probably doesn't surprise you. Someone kindly pointed out to me the sandy area at the base of the slope, and indicated where to traverse to catch firm ground for the rest of the race. I didn't actually have any trouble with the sand, but I *did* have trouble riding up the rest of the slope.

Finally, it was time for the "Artistic Awards and Party", located at the Monrovia Community Center, near where a prior day's parade had ended. After several NUM/NUC experiences, I am now firmly against combining a unicycling awards ceremony with a buffet; 'nuff said.

The age group awards were presented as follows: 1) Jenni called the riders for a particular age/sex group; 2) each person received an awards envelope, individual accomplishments were not acknowledged. 3) The group posed for photos and applause, then left the stage. The process was slowed a bit because the awards envelope were filed by name, not by age/sex group.

Some medals were not ready in time, and will be mailed out later, Jenni said. My awards packets was missing a 5th place ribbon to which I was entitled. At the end of the evening, I added my name to a list of competitors and missing awards. I was told that nothing would happen until some undefined time after Andy Cotter, et al., return in mid August from their UNICON IX trip.

Jenni presented various championship awards (plaques). Here's a list of the first-place awards:

Standard Champions	Dana Schneider	Ryan Wood
Artistic Individual Freestyle
Jr. Expert	Ashley Wood	Michael Owens
Expert	Dana Schneider	Dustin Kelm
Artistic Pairs
Jr. Expert	Dedra Divine and Ashley Wood
Expert	Dana Schneider and Andy Cotter
Racing Champions	Dana Schneider	James Bernard
Artistic Group	EJC (from TCUC)
Artistic Club	TCUC
Artistic Parade	TCUC

Then, Jenni repeated the awards announcements, in a slightly different format that emphasized the fact that Dana Schneider walked away with all the top female awards.

There was a brief speech by Geoffrey Faraghan, thanking Jenni White, John Foss, Andy Cotter, and Brett Bymaster for providing Mountain Unicycling events at this NUC. Part of the speech had the following theme, approximately: "I was a top bicyclist, I'd done it all, ridden across the country, etc., and I was bored with life, until I discovered Mountain Unicycling." Whet a powerful endorsement!

Andy Cotter introduced the Championship Club, and why it was worthy to receive some of your hard-earned cash. He then presented T-shirts and certificates to the top 5 Jr Experts and Experts in each event. First place experts and Jr. Experts received special T's with their title embroidered on them.

Andy then presented Best Time certificates, for the best time overall in a race. (The best time can occur in an age/sex group race, rather than an Expert or Jr. Expert race. This, the person with the best time might not have received a "top 5" award.

Andy is starting a new records database. I assume that it will be integrated with his other NUC support software, and that it will replace the records database maintained up till now by my brother, Bruce R. Rogers. Andy presented certificates for age group, convention, and world record achievements.

The world records that were set at NUC '98 are:

Forward Slow	Ashley Wood	34.28
Backwards Slow	Colin Schworer	40.63
Juggling	John Foss	8.31	*** John said that this is *not* a new record after all. ***
	Dana Schneider	10.15
One Foot	Dana Schneider	8.93

Jenni White received a recognition speech and flowers from her committee members.

John Foss announced the following MUni awards. He said that actual awards will be mailed as necessary.

Uphill Race Ashley Wood (21.47) Kevin Gilbertson (14.09) and deerfly festival

Kids MUni Race Mark Mundrick

MUni Race on Mtn Dustin Kelm

Andy Cotter announced that 1998 Racing Packets will be available for $5.00 each, while supplies last.

Rick Hill, photographer, presented a slide show, with music, of his view of many of the highlights of the last several days. There were a lot of photos, most of very good quality. Why did I bother taking pictures? :-}

We were told at the start of the Awards Ceremony that we should watch (TV) Channel 11 at 2200. Many of us were still at the Awards ceremony at the time, though.

Well, that about covers the final day of the USA's 1998 NUC. There were many more groups present that I'd never seen before at an NUC, such as a Pomona Youth program group, but I didn't have time to interview them.

I hope you enjoyed reading these messages. They might be published in On One Wheel.