I suppose 20" would work… there could be 2 classes (20" standard & 20" giraffe)… but I’m really enthralled with the idea of cometing on the raffies! If you don’t want to UPD with sabre in hand, you could always throw it off to the side (not in the direction of the other competitor) as you’re falling to the ground.
Regarding remounting… it should be a freemount in my opinion. The sabre could be held by putting it through a belt loop on your pants while you freemount. Alternatively, there could be a holder for it attached to the frame of the giraffe… or in an actual competition, you’ll need a ref - so the ref could hand the weapons to the fencers once they mount. During practice, if there is a third person watching or taking turns fencing, you could have that person hand the weapons to the fencers.
I, too, haven’t fenced in a while. I fenced sabre back in HS and College… and haven’t fenced since. There’s quite a resurgence of interest in NY with a whole bunch of clubs and schools popping up in the City and on Long Island.
I don’t think fencing on giraffes would pose any more danger of a blade breaking than regular fencing. I assume the danger you are referring to is if the blade breaks and then you UPD (with broken blade in hand) into your opponent. I believe this danger can be minimized by ALWAYS dropping or throwing the saber to the ground at the onset of a UPD.
Besides the danger of raffie fencing is nothing compared to the danger all you lunatics expose yourself to on a daily basis… riding crazy trials lines, conquering all sorts of Muni terrain, riding BC wheels, etc., etc.
A little danger doesn’t seem to have dissuaded too many of you so far!
(I’d very much look forward to hearing Mikefule’s comments - I hope he reads the thread and adds his two cents!)
I was thinking more of falling onto the blade, breaking it and possibly being stabbed. It probably wouldn’t be that likely to happen, but I’m just a terrible pessimist
In my (biased) opinion, however, I think it would be even cooler if this game of “Capture the Hat” were sort of merged with my idea for Uniball (see thread: Uniball instead of Rollerball)
Instead of having a ball (and the basket I proposed to carry it)… using the Hat would make the “Capture the Hat” version of Uniball a much cleaner, simpler, and cooler sport.
You’d still have to complete 3 laps around the track (with the hat on your head or your teammates head) before you’re allowed to score.
To score, you’d have to ride up to the top of a straight ramp that had a “hat holder” (a simple cylindrical dowel or something of the sort) within arms reach from the top of the ramp… and hang your hat on the hat holder.
You’d have your teammates to protect your head from the opposing team who are trying to steal your hat while you ride the requisite 3 laps and you can pass the hat off to your teammates to complete the required three laps before your allowed to “hang your hat” (score)! When passing the hat to a teammate there would be a limited timeframe (say 3 seconds) for the hat to change heads.
Hopefully we can find a top hat to fit over a bike helmet… otherwise I suppose we could always tailor one!
how about dodgeball or rugby, for dodgeball you could try and knock people off the uni insteado of just hitting them, could get either really technical (people aiming for the wheel) or really brutal.
Thanks, Matt! I’m not so sure that it would be too difficult to find a place, though. There’s a skatepark not too far away on Long Island that will soon have a Roller Hockey arena:
“Recently Oil City has torn up what used to be a 90 ft. by 34ft. long turf field, and is now being turned into a roller hockey rink with a scoreboard! The rink is available for team practices, games and even personal use. The price is 80$/per hour. Please give us a call for reservations, availability and any other questions. 516-594-1888”
The management was totally keen on having unicyclists utilize their skatepark (though I haven’t been there yet because it doesn’t seem so great compared to other parks in the area, albeit a bit farther away), so there’s a decent chance they would allow their Roller Hockey arena to be utilized (especially if they’re looking to generate more business - which they seem to be real interested in doing) for a “Capture the Hat” arena. Being they already have a skatepark on the premises as well, it may even be possible to have a (movable) straight ramp setup in the arena.
The harder part will probably be finding enough (ideally eight, but six would probably work) Coker riders in the area to make two teams. There are already two Coker riders residing on LI (JustOneWheel and Shibumi), plus David Stone lives in Brooklyn… so we may have enough to form a NY team. Maybe the Philly guys would come down a couple nights a week to compete against us? If we had eight riders (four per team) it would only cost us $10 each per practice!
don’t see how that would work… unless:
A) The riders all carried sledgehammers or
B) Everyone rode on torker cx’s until they just fell apart, or
C) Both of the above.
the one time I tried fencing I really stank and it was quite frustrating. An incredible workout though. As for lacross and polo, I’m not really that familiar with them, although polo seems a lot like basketball, and may work great on kokers. However, ultimate unicycle frizbee sounds like a winner. the two common team sports played on unicycle (hokey and basketball) both require a hard surface to play on. Unicycle ultimate frizbee wouldn’t. It could also be played on rough terain with trials or muni’s! How about a combination of ultimate and polo?
if you somewhat understand french have a look at this movie it is funny!
explanation: this is an extract from a main tv sports event and they wrote
a paper on “hybrid sports” (such as polo-cycling) so the film is a quizz “does this hybrid sport do exist?”
there you would find “uni-fencing”
(thanks Mark Z for initially posting this film)
(and thanks Glenn for the uni-fencing!)
I bought a lacross stick today thinking that it just might be fun. And it was!
I’m on my AX-29 with the seat up pretty high so I had to bend over considerably to reach the ball. At first I couldn’t scoop it up but only pushed it along in the grass. Finally I figured it out. Throwing it far IS a challenge.
The best part is that even though it would be more fun to play with someone, it is still fun working at it alone. What a workout!
I was about to start a thread but came upon this oldie but goodie. It deserves to be put back into circulation.
Tug-of-war sounds great. I’m up for it… um… after I learn how to ride backwards.
Lacrosse pick up skills are coming along great. I throw the ball out in the field while riding, chase it, head it off if it goes in a curve, and then throw it in any direction I fancy. No rules … just what I want to do…
So finally my AX-29 has a name. All year I thought it was a she; who knew that it was a he and a tiger at that. I call him Hobbes as our game of lacrosse has no rules… just like Calvin Ball.
Hobbes and I love playing… what are the chances that someday we’ll run into a unicyclist and unicycle pair that we can play against? By our rules?
