From: julian@cs.uq.oz.au (Julian Orbach)
>Some guy just saw my unicycle while I bought a sandwich, and struck up a
>conversation with me. He claimed he had “not so long ago” seen a successful
>world record attempt on television.
>
>“About 1500” (!) unicyclists holding onto each other, all staying up at the
>same time, crossed a road.
>
>Can anyone give me any more details about this? When? How many unicycles?
>What lucky locality could manage to get 1500 unicyclists (not to mention
>their unicycles) together at the same time? I have my bags packed, and I am
>ready to move!
Has nobody responded to this post? If not, my response is below.
COOL! Someone in Australia saw the piece that Amazing Games did on unicycling!
This is an ESPN show that features unusual sports, and treats them with
respect. A crew from this show came to UNICON VI in Quebec, Canada in 1992.
They stayed for the first few days, but were unable to stay for any artistic
events or the final basketball games. This means that they only saw half of
what we do. However, they did a wonderful 10 minutes or so on unicycle track
and field, and on some of the other events there, including the big group ride
through Old Quebec.
Now for the 1500 riders. Put this in the 20’ unicycle category. When most people
see a 6’ unicycle, they tell people they saw a 10’ unicycle. If they see a 10’
unicycle, they report that it was a 20 footer. We did a unicycle chain at UNICON
VI, based on the ones previously done by Sammy Hellwig in Germany. His chains
consisted of riders going separately through a small gate, to count the number
of unicyclists present at an event. In Quebec it was decided to make it a “real”
chain, and have all riders hold hands with each other. Frankly, I didn’t think
it would work.
At the time, the total was not known to the camera crew. Bob Chandler said that
there were about 250 riders assembled for the chain. The actual number was 191.
The chain was over 100 meters long. It was so big, I ran as far away from it as
I could to get a picture of the whole thing, and I still couldn’t fit it all
into my camera, and had to take two pictures. you can see them on the cover of
the UNICYCLING Quarterly issue that covered UNICON
VI. It took two tries, but the 191 unicyclists rode from one side of the road
to the other, and set a “hand holding” chain record that has not been
broken. Sammy Hellwig had 196 riders in one of his chains in Germany, but
they were not holding hands.
Stay on Top!
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone unicycle@aol.com