I haven’t seen any posts about last weekend except for John Foss’s excellent
pictures - I ordered a few. Here’s a letter I wrote to John Drummond the day
after. It was hard to be at work that day as the weather was, again, perfect.
—Nathan
Wow, what a weekend. After picking Kris up at SFO, we headed directly to Bruce
& David’s house. As we pulled up, we saw Adam and Dan, Adam with big red rock
bites from the morning rides. Eventually we made it over to De LaVeaga Park
and pretty much did the Saturday expert ride from October. From the start,
Kris amazed everyone. He’s gotten lots better since NUC99. He makes it look so
easy that it’s really deceptive. He tried and failed on several sections that
don’t appear to be humanly rideable, but probably in 6 more months, he’ll be
riding them. He rode on top of a board where the width was much less than his
tire. He rode off an 8’ drop, getting it second try, rolling away nicely. Dan
tried a similar one, and cratered very impressively. He’s indestructible. We
rode until dark, ending with trials on picnic tables etc. At one point Kris
hopped onto a table and was getting ready for something. I couldn’t even tell
what he was going to try. Suddenly he flies to the side, to a pedal catch on a
metal barbecue railing, about 5’ horizontally and 1’ higher than the table he
took off from! Then the swing technique he posted about recently to get up on
top (of the 2" wide bar) - he didn’t quite do the whole thing cleanly, maybe
because it was just about dark. On one attempt, he broke one of the supports:
“Oh dear, I broke something.” So all weekend long, “Oh dear” was heard
endlessly. And of course the famous, “Darn, I meant to roll that.” Adam had a
new variation on the swing technique: from a pedal catch, let the unicycle
fall forward and make a 360 revolution. Catch it on the up, using that
momentum to end up on top of the table. I can see the future - the unicycle
spinning happily many times before the rider hops onto it and up. Ho hum.
Dinner was pizza with many videos. You’re in for a treat later this year when
Dan and Adam finish their video. Absolutely phenomenal footage and great
editing. They got LOTS of footage for it this weekend too. Saturday morning
was trials at Frederick St Park and the jetty until about 1pm. David finally
pulled off a uni spin, and managed to swear like Kris rather than himself on
all the failed attempts (good since there were a ton of kids around). When
Kris and Adam hopped along on top of a play structure, jumped 6’ off landing
easily, the moms and kids watching were incredulous. At the jetty, Kris did
one long section on those huge concrete jacks that was like watching a long
5.12 solo rock climb. Gaps so far, drops onto sloped landings, incredible!
After lunch, we did the ride to Mailbox (now named Mailboxes Etc) from Sunday
afternoon last October. Adam ran the whole way filming. I can’t describe the
amazing log riding and cliff riding Kris did. Dan rode down the trail, over a
bump spinning a 360, landing and continued - of course on video. After showers
and dinner at the brewery, videos again until late. By now we had lots of
people: Dan, Adam, Kris & Daniel Hopkins staying at Bruce’s. Geoff, John & Tim
Bustos stayed at our house that night (plus we had 5 houseguests from Japan -
maybe a record for us). We made it back to Bruce’s before 10am Sunday to find
people waking up. Since registration at Sea Otter to compete was something
like $75, we decided to hit the jetty and beach for more riding in the
morning. Again, Kris caused dropped jaws - just wait for the video is all I
can say. You also would’ve been impressed to watch Beau, riding a slippery
plastic pipe, about 12" in diameter with sand on his wheel, for a long way.
John signed his name beautifully in the sand too - I wish I had a shorter
easier name, like Joe or Ed or just O. It was a 5 car caravan to Laguna Seca
raceway. About an hour with heavy Santa Cruz beach traffic at first. 4 cars in
contact by cell phone. I call Bruce, “Your back window is open”. Bruce passes
and Kris yells out the window, “What was that?!” Since we arrived late, people
were already leaving and parking and entry was easier than last year. We went
right to the trials area and Kris, Dan, Adam, Bruce & David got on the
practice area as the competition was still going. This year the obstacles
seemed much harder, although they were less varied than last year - mostly
boulders. I believe that some of the courses did not see clean runs from
anyone, and they modified them Sunday morning to be easier. Many of us went
over to the dual slalom course after a while and took quite a few runs down.
The two courses are just about identical, right next to each other, snaking
down a big hill. Not as big drops as last year, but the double jumps were
still challenging for most people. The bikes hit the first jump and land on
the far side of the second. For unicycles, it’s pairs of humps to get over and
down, preferably without getting any air. Beau and I rode about 5 times - it
was great! Then back to the trials area which was finishing up, so Kris and
the others could now play on all the courses. Watching Kris ride on a 3"
diameter steel pipe, about 15’, both directions, was amazing. He also took a
couple of wild spills, but he falls like a cat. Finally, we took off and drove
back. At one point, you could turn your head left and see the sun’s orb just
setting over Monterey Bay. Turn to the other side and see a perfect full moon
rising. Dinner was at a funky sushi place - 15 people or so, just great. we
said good-bye and 5 of us piled into my truck. Kris packed his 2 unis into his
new Roach unicycle bag then took off with Geoff. He had a 7am flight Monday
morning…I would’ve had a lot of trouble getting up at 5pm, that’s for sure.
This weekend was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.
Another interesting thing was the equipment. Someone could do a whole write-up
just on that. Dan and Adam’s 20" “Smonty” unis are great. These are a Schwinn
frame with a 20"x3" BMX tire. Those guys can hop for days on them. But Adam has
destroyed 5 sets of steel cranks and blew huge holes in a tube on Sunday…
There was a prototype Hunter with 26"x3" Gaz (just under 29" in diameter) which
is amazing for trail riding. Geoff had a 26x2.6 Telford with a brake (same as in
October). Daniel had his 24x3 Hunter with a brake. Kris had a DMATU and his own
heavyweight with brake. We all agreed that the equipment has a long way to go.
—Nathan