Not strictly a team sport, more of an ‘everybody in’ game that I have considered would be “Capture the Hat”
It’s a simple concept really, it’s vaugely like mass-sumo with an added element. Not only do you need to be the last one riding, but also the one who has the hat. Hat must be worn on your head, so that it’s stealable. There should also be strict rules on no pushing/shoving/grabbing of seats - it’s not sumo people! It’s a challenge of manouverability, and how long you can ride for. Basically you have to outride the other players, do something crazy that they cannot catch you, or perhaps have once it gets down to the final people a certain amount of time you must hold it for.
That does sound interesting, although potentially quite dangerous
People manage to break blades and stick them through themselves and each other in normal fencing - the thought of falling off a giraffe onto the blade is not a nice one…
I used to do quite a bit of fencing (mostly foil, bit of epee) but haven’t done for years (not since I was about 20 I don’t think). I know Mikefule fences regularly so perhaps he’ll have some comments if he reads this thread.
There’s some interesting ideas popping up here. I think I’m with Rob on the fencing though…It sounds fun but I reckon it’d be atleast as dangerous as trapeze fencing. I used to fence epee (chess on legs), myself though haven’t done any for a few years now. The club we got started in my town has since closed down and the unicycling obsession’s taken a hold.
I love the idea of coker polo! specifically the idea of invading a proper polo match on a coker and seeing the faces on the posh polo people. (I say you’re mount looks a bit lame, where’s your other hooves?)
some other thoughts I’ve had: Unicycle kabbadi (an Indian team game. We used to play it as a warm up for judo although it could end up in a few nasty collisions).
Badminton could be do-able
As could volley ball.
Has anyone else seen hurley…I’m still pondering on it after watching it for the first time at the weekend. Even if it’s unworkable on unicycles I’d like to give it a go sans cycle.
You could build a “horse shoe” wheel, like the ones people build with normal shoes, then you’d have more hooves than them… and it would leave authentic horse shoe prints on the ground, and be just as bumpy as riding a real horse
Careful. I said that once, and it got twisted into “Let’s play hockey on cokers”. All the speed, still on a walled pitch, none of the wide open spaces. No injuries from the last two times, but I’ve no idea how that happened.
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.
