2011 Evolution of Balance Award Winner

General
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Hi All,

I’m happy to announce that the 2011 KH Evolution of Balance Award will go to Daniel Burón.

The annual EOB award supports riders seeking non-competitive mountain unicycling adventures around the world. It includes $1700 cash, a KH unicycle, and a set of KH pads and gloves.

Daniel proposed to ride 900 km of mostly offroad terrain along the St. James Way pilgrimage, from St.Jean Pied-de-Port in France to Muxía in Spain.

The trip is also a fundraiser for Doctors without Frontiers, Clowns without Frontiers and Greenpeace. More info is at Daniel’s website here:
http://www.santiaciclo.com/en

Sincere thanks to Nathan Hoover for contributing to the annual grant, and to Unicycle.com for sponsoring logistics.

Congrats Daniel!

Kris

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I’m excited about Daniel’s ride and very happy to be a part of this award! I hope his plans to shoot 3D video work out.

—Nathan

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Thank you very much Kris and Nathan. I’m really happy and I’m gonna train even harder to not let you and the whole unicycle community down.

The route can be followed live on its website with speed, pulse and other cool information and I will update it with more info in the following weeks.

Besides the fund-raising there will be also an environmental study. I will star by the end of June/beginning of July but due to the problems in Fukushima nuclear plant maybe there will be some delay with some sensors I need for the environmental study.

The 3D filming is a bit difficult but tests are working fine so far. I’m using 2 ATC9K from Oregon Scientific with a custom rig for my helmet and a monopod. Unfortunately it weights too much for using an extended helmet pole :frowning: I will upload to YouTube some short videos as soon as I can.

I’m not yet sure if I will film everything talking in English, Spanish or German. I suppose I will talk in Spanish and use English subtitles but maybe I will try to combine all of them.

Thanks again and I invite everyone to visit the project website and comment what do you like and don’t like about it. I will try to improve as much as I can. Regards :slight_smile:

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Congratulations Daniel! Sounds like a most challenging and wildly fun adventure! Thumbs up also in the fundraising efforts! :slight_smile:

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May be, French uni community should plan to join you at St Jean Pied de Port for your start !
Buena suerte!

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Great idea! I’ve been thinking about taking Camino de Santiago one day on the uni… but up to now it didn’t get out of conceptual phase :slight_smile:
Good luck guy!

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Well done!!
Good luck, looking forward to following your adventure here on the community.

Adam

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Congratulations!

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Thanks Terry, you have been an inspiration to me and I’ve learnt plenty of tips for filming watching your incredible videos. I hope you like my 3d videos.

Bouin-bouin, as soon as the start date is confirmed I will post it. Just a tip, the Pirineos mountain pass could be a bit dangerous in foggy days, some pilgrims have died there so please if anyone decides to join me there make sure of having experience.

Vookash, I’ll explain my whole planning, equipment, problems and tips so any unicyclist will have enough information to try it. If I can I’m sure anyone can.

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First 3D test

Hi everyone, just to inform I uploaded a test 3d film on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC21ZaAGbg8

I know its quality is bad (really shaky because my current monopod is really bad, it flexes and the head ball moves) and it’s quite boring (3rd person and too close) but it was just to test how long does it take to do everything.

I’m also uploading another one with lens correction and a subtle vignette effect so if you can tell me how do you prefer them I will produce them so.

All Santiaciclo’s videos can be found in its Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/Santiaciclo and in its website www.santiaciclo.com

PS: Sorry if posting the website is against forum rules, it’s a fund-raising project so I hope it’s ok. Thanks :slight_smile:

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By the way, to watch 3D videos propertly you have to see them directly from YouTube (aspectratio is right there and you can change your 3D vision)

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what are ya going to be riding?

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Hi knoxuni, I’ve been training with a 29" but a 36" is a possibility. I couldn’t try yet a 36" offroad so depending if I can train enough and get used to it I would use a 36" or just go with the 29". The St. James’ Way goes along some mountains so training uphills and muddy paths are my first concerns with the 36".

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what cranks are you using on the 29?

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Right now I combine 145 and 114 (changing cranks), but thanks to Kris Holm and his excellent double hole cranks I will be able to try more combinations. Anyway, I will post all the information about the gear that I will use in Santiaciclo website.

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Lens correction and vignette:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTBzchgvVUI

If some of you are not used to 3D, one of the best ways is “cross eyes”, just crossing your eyes until the white dots converge into one. No glasses required and full color. The only problems is that with long videos it can be a bit exhausting and you cannot watch it in full screen (tip: move close and far from the monitor until you can focus right)

The second best way if you don’t have glasses and crossing eyes gives you headaches is mirror mode, just having a perpendicular mirror to the monitor in front of your eyes and focusing with both eyes to one of the images, one will see the monitor the other will see the reflection. Voila!

In the 3D button in Youtube you can find the most used 3D systems, from anaglyph to shutter glasses.

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Congratulations Daniel, and welcome! Not sure how long you’ve been around these forums, but your low number of posts suggests not too long. From your posts, it looks like Kris made the right choice in picking you for this years’ award. Good luck on your adventure, and I look forward to reading about it, and watching your videos with my eyes crossed! :slight_smile:

Equipment: The downside of the 36" is the heavy wheel. For offroading, they are best suited to non-technical (or less technical) riding and are most fun on swooping singletrack. Depending how much mountain there is, I’d probably go with the 29" or smaller. Especially since it’s a MUni-type thing.

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WOW :astonished:

That 3d when crossing your eyes works brilliantly!

I tried it on the first page before you mentioned ‘cross eyes’ and was sooo surprised it worked, i thought i was special! :smiley: Then i saw you explain it on the second page and didn’t feel as special any more :frowning:

It’s great fun to watch though and it does work on full screen for me :slight_smile:

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Hi John, thanks for your kind words :slight_smile: Besides the Uni I hold a 10kg backpack, protective gear, 2 cameras, one Android phone, an external GSM antenna, position lights, a solar panel with a 20.000mAh battery, a customized pollution sensor and maybe some other small sensors.

I have trained with nearly all the equipment on me but maybe I will have to free myself a bit to “survive” :smiley: All this gear is the reason I will follow a bit easier offroad paths and not so long stages (20-30km everyday for 35 days)

I wasn’t here for long, just nearly a year. I have read a lot but I haven’t post besides a few posts about some questions and being attacked in the streets while riding (I think I have too much to learn before writing worthy things :D)

What I can write about is 3D filming, Santiaciclo’s planning and strange gadgets for unis (one of my jobs is writing for Gizmodo techblog) So I think that after some more testing I can explain how to film in 3D easily.

I also hope to go to Unicon 16 (Spain is really near from Italy) and if people think is interesting I can organize a “3D filming for unicyclists” or “gadgets for unis” workshop.

The only reason I’m filming myself the whole time in the tests is because I need to check the convergency and minimal distance of my first custom adapter, an aluminium support for the ATC9Ks and a reinforced threaded hole in the middle. I could have uses the 3D kit of GoPro but you cannot change the distance between the cameras, and the ATC9K allow autosync with the IR remote so despite being heavier, I think the ATC9K are better for 3D.

Next tests will also use helmet and fixed shots. (If anyone knows a good helmet camera mount for tripod screws besides the Flip one it would help me to send me its info)

Thanks to everyone for your support :slight_smile: Please, if you have time write some comments or messages in the Guestbook so people start seeing some participation in Santiaciclo.com and feel encourage to donate a bit. Btw, we had the first donations for the NGOs today!

@Juni: I’m glad you like it. I will post far better videos as soon as I tweak the system. Watch the videos directly from Youtube for getting the right aspect ratio.