4th of July Parades!

General
1

I had the good fortune to ride in two parades today. I rode with the Unicycle.com crowd in the Marietta parade which started around 10:00am and then met downtown for the Atlanta 4th of July parade that started at 1:00pm. These were my first 2 parades as a Unicyclist and I had a real blast. If you haven’t ever done one I highly recommend it.

We had about 30 people for the first parade and lost a few gained a couple for the Atlanta parade. Casey Drummond was definitely the show stopper. He would stop every so often and have 3 people lay down then he would launch over them. I would try to get the crowd into it by shouting how dangerous the trick was and someone may not walk away from the trick. THe crowd would start cheering him on and as he completed the Jump it would erupt into much louder applause. I wonder what the reaction would have been if he missed? He did this over and over about 5-10 times each parade. BIG HIT with the crowd. Of course being the joker I am I would say something along the lines that just around the corner I would attempt 8 people if I could get some volunteers from the crowd. Curiously nobody volunteered. Good thing to since I couldn’t clear a 2X4.:smiley:

I was really impressed with the number of people that showed up since there are no organized clubs here in the Atlanta area. Who knows, maybe there will be one in the future.

Hope everyone is having a great Fourth of July.

Chad

2

Parades!!!

Parades are a blast, just like Bugman says! I was the ONLY unicyclist in the 12:01 AM Gatlinburg, TN Midnight Parade last night (morning :D). It was so much fun.

The parade route is about 2 miles, but I rode 4.87 miles. Being 40 years old, I was very tired at the end. I only fell off 2 times, both near the end when I was starting to see pink elephants and the bear had jumped on my quads. The second time I fell, I had the whole crowd’s attention. I was going backward, up hill and did a 1 1/2 spin out of it to forward, and then my legs just couldn’t keep my forward motion going. I end-o-ed, but landed on my feet and caught the unicycle, but the whole crowd gasped. It was awesome, because I was right between a 7 store building with tons of balcony space and a two story patio, plus the sidewalks were packed, 10 to 15 people deep.

As I regained control, I waved to the crowd, and promptly sat down on the curb of the parade route. I exclaimed really loudly, “Wheew weee, I’m tired!” That got a lot of laughs too.

My favorite 6 parade crowd pleasers. 1. Riding really fast. 2. Riding really fast while doing huge figure eights, acting like you can just barely make the radius inside the edges of the crowd. 3. Riding circles , making them tighter and tighter until you end up doing a spin at the middle. 4. Waving at little kids 5. Riding right at the edge of the crowd, just inches away from the extended feet of the seated crowd, and finally, my favorite #6. Acting as if you lose control as your headed straight toward a tightly packed crowd of people. Arms flailing wildly (see, there is a use Andrew) in a windmill type action, mouth in all kinds of distorted and fearful expressions, then stopping just inches from the crowd. That one really gets huge laughs.

As always, the little kids and elderly love seeing Unicycles in Parades. But last night, I was amazed how many teens had wonderful, in awe, comments. I was a wonderful parade.

Like Bugman says, if you’ve never been in a Parade, do it. It is awesome!!! --chirokid–

3

Crowd JUMPING…

Forgot to mention, Casey Drummond sounds awesome. If anyone lays down in front of me, they would be squished.

One fellow did say, “Hey, do a wheelie” So I stopped, spun around and looked him in the eyes, and did a tiny 1/2 inch hop. That is my height record, 1/2 inch :D, but they liked the hop. --chirokid–

4

Caddy

Casey was definately the highlight of the day. While I caddying for my brother with his 20 inch (while he was riding the 36), I stopped to watch him entertain the crowd. BTW Chad, when we got home, I tried his 20 with the miyata seat, I rode it absolutely perfect, I just wished I’d tried it earlier. Although I still require assistance (the mailbox). We will definately have to get together and ride soon! Hope to talk to you soon.

Chris

5

Re: Caddy

Send me a line, I am also here often. PM, Email whatever. Glad to hear you are getting better… wish I picked it up as quick as you are. Too bad you had not started 2 weeks ago, you probably could have done both parades. There is always Christmas! and it won’t be nearly as hot.

I had a guy at the very end of the parade say to me as I was on my way to find my wife and daughter “I’ll give you $100 if you can pop a wheelie!” I think he was driving the Grand Marshal. So I promptly popped up about 4 inches off the ground and continued riding.(Amazing what you can do for $100) anyway he welched trying to say I didn’t pop, but hopped. What is the difference?

6

Wheelie

Bugman, you jump about 700% higher than me. --chirokid–

7

Our 4th parade was awsome!

We had a great turn out, weather was great and the crowd was too.

We had the Big Wheel, Coker, Drill Team, Jump Rope, Jump Overs, Jugglers, Giraffes, and of course the world’s cutest little girl brigade. We took first in “Best Marching Unit”.

My wife took a few Pics .

Here’s to to a great start of the three day weekend.

8

King Muni-Man crashed our 4th of July Parade. There was quite a bit of space between some floats (like a block) so he just started riding for the entire block and everyone watching started spontaneously clapping and cheering him on. Later when we were watching the Parade a husband and wife came along riding Pashely touring uni’s. I told my son he should go join them and he did. The woman looked real surprised when he came motoring up and rode with them. He had a great time and really turned some heads. My doughter brought her unicycle as well but decided to leave it in the auto when we arrived. I think she was a little intimidated by the crowds which were really large by our standards. It was fun.

Cheers,
Jason

9

Re: Re: Caddy

You tire didn’t “pop.” Too bad. $100 would buy you plenty of tubes! :slight_smile:

10

I had the biggest group of unicyclist ever in the Aspen parade with me this year. Ages ranged from 7 years old to me. We had a blast, got our faces painted, had ballons, r/w/b wigs, etc. Fun was had by all. Pop a wheelie was heard allot. Check out my daughters, Lily, face painting on the attached jpg file.

lily 4th july 2003.jpg
lily 4th july 2003.jpg886×608 115 KB

11

Whoever painted her face did a great job.

12

there’s a couple in Aspen that are air brush artist, and yes they do a great job. all seven of us that day had our faces done by them. :slight_smile:

13

Being an overachiever, I did a 4th of July parade on the 3rd! Actually, one of my professional entertainer friends got me a gig. They wanted a unicyclist clown, and I was the first one that come to mind. So I had a blast riding around.

Chikroid, you missed one of my favorite gags. You go to the float in front of you, hang onto the back, and pretend to be pushing it along. The crowds love it. Oh, and riding along the edge of the crowd giving the kids high fives, or with your stomach on the seat, low fives. I love parades, and I love that I got paid for being in a parade.

14

One more thing. I can’t do the 3 person rolling hop, but the horses had come before us in the parade, so there was a nice little offering in the road. I rolled up to it, pretended I didn’t see it, and at the last moment, hopped over it. Good thing I didn’t miss. I think I got more applause for that than any other trick I did.

15

Paco, that is an awesome idea. I had never thought of pushing a float along. I shall do that in the next parade. ( I do however use the float just in front of me to carry my Camel Back H2o )

In fact, in all parades, I befriend the driver of the float in front of me, letting him know that I may periodically zoom in front of his vehicle, etc… With your idea, I will also see if I can get permission to tie a big fat, but short, rope onto the front of the pull vehicle. Then we can also grab it and act like we are pulling the truck and the float along. I can hardly wait!!! How long until Christmas?

I agree on the high and low fives. I love doing those to the crowd. Everyone wants to get a high five from the uni-rider. Sort of makes you feel like a professional athlete.

Whoops, you were getting paid to do the parade, so YOU WE’RE A PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE!!!

Lastly, it’s “CHIRO KID”, not “CHIK ROID”. LOL --chirokid–