Excelent Stourport Day

General
1

First may I thank all at the Stourport day you were very welcoming and helpful
you made the day a excellent experience.

To all you uni newbie’s out there quietly watching the group trawling for
information on the net etc( like I did ). If you want to shorten the learning
curve and get to look a very many different uni’s then this is a place to go to.
Every one is happy to let you try out what’s around . You can even start
learning there and then. As for all the people who think there is a lot of
falling off, then yes you do cone off mostly forward and on your feet. I only
managed to fall on my rear once with some two sore fingers as a result but in
6-8 hrs (ok not constant) practice, so don’t hold back just get to the next
meeting and do it.

There is another excellent benefit that is the food run near the end of the day.
I have to say my pizza was very good indeed If you don’t know the area and want
to have food/drink to hand, hey its a day out pack a picnic.

I will now be ordering my first unicycle in the coming week

Has any one used the term “Unibie” before as it sounds good and in some ways
gives a good sense of belonging. We are the ones who can’t yet take the stage
exams and pos who don’t want to, but belong to the community. I would possibly
include the people who just like admiring from afar. If it does not cause to
much controversy I will consider myself a “Unibie” and ask what do you think?(
is it a capital U or not )

My final word goes to Steve, partner and all, thanks mate excellent day see you
again soon

Paul Green

Ps. first time I have posted don’t be to hard on me about the Unibie bit.

2

Re: Excelent Stourport Day

Paul,

Welcome to the world of unicycling!

Glad you appreciated the day, I think they are great, but I can already ride so
might be a different experience. It is good to hear from someone who is
learning. I was away this weekend and rather missed going down. I am looking
forward already to the one after Christmas.

Roger

The UK's Unicycle Source <a href="http://www.unicycle.uk.com/">http://www.unicycle.uk.com/</a>

----- Original Message ----- From: “pegreen” <pegreen@ntlworld.com> To:
<unicycling@winternet.com> Sent: Sunday, December 03, 2000 12:21 PM Subject: Re:
Excelent Stourport Day

> First may I thank all at the Stourport day you were very welcoming and helpful
> you made the day a excellent experience.
>
> To all you uni newbie’s out there quietly watching the group trawling for
> information on the net etc( like I did ). If you want to shorten the learning
> curve and get to look a very many different uni’s then this is a place to go
> to. Every one is happy to let you try out what’s around . You can even start
> learning there and then. As for all the people who think there is a lot of
> falling off, then yes you do cone off mostly forward
and
> on your feet. I only managed to fall on my rear once with some two sore
> fingers as a result but in 6-8 hrs (ok not constant) practice, so don’t
hold
> back just get to the next meeting and do it.
>
> There is another excellent benefit that is the food run near the end of
the
> day. I have to say my pizza was very good indeed If you don’t know the area
> and want to have food/drink to hand, hey its a day out pack a picnic.
>
> I will now be ordering my first unicycle in the coming week
>
> Has any one used the term “Unibie” before as it sounds good and in some
ways
> gives a good sense of belonging. We are the ones who can’t yet take the stage
> exams and pos who don’t want to, but belong to the community. I
would
> possibly include the people who just like admiring from afar. If it does
not
> cause to much controversy I will consider myself a “Unibie” and ask what
do
> you think?( is it a capital U or not )
>
> My final word goes to Steve, partner and all, thanks mate excellent day
see
> you again soon
>
> Paul Green
>
>
> Ps. first time I have posted don’t be to hard on me about the Unibie bit.
>

3

Re: Excelent Stourport Day

pegreen <pegreen@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> First may I thank all at the Stourport day you were very welcoming and helpful
> you made the day a excellent experience.

Seconding that, yep another god day was had by many.

This time we managed to get out to the woods for a little muni ride, eight
people came on that others remained playing back at base. The muni was fairly
easy riding but rather muddy and slimey at times, with a few huge puddles, and
the odd stream to bunny hop over / ride through / fall in (delete as applicable)
and some gloopy mud to rool in if you were Alan or Tom . That pair vied for the
muddyist munier award , tome had more honest landings, Alan went for the smear
it around cos he landed on his hands in
it.

Interestingly the non muni riders with their 20 inch slick tires stayed cleaner
than the knobby riders , they lost traction on the gloopyest bits tho. The ride
ended with a sharp hill climb to test the legs and lungs, Paul and I managed to
over take some MTBers on this hill, hurrah.

Back to the school and we were just in time for the hockey mini tornament. Team
Wobble won candy canes and a fine cup , which will be kept in all its plastic
glory by young mark. Some games were played, many rounds of Gladiators and some
sumo. A raffle was drawn, congratulations to who ever won the rather tasty yoyo.
USA level patches were awarded , unusal in the UK, as we only have one "
approved " tester in the country and most people don’t live on the Isle of Wight
as he does.

Later we had fish chips /pizzas and watched vids, a rare copy of George pecks "
Rough Terrain Unicycleiing" was on the menu. It seems strange to remember how
ground breaking this vid was in its time, looking as it does rather tame next
to the antics of Chris and Dan in Universe. Can any one enlighten me as to When
RTU came out?

The evening was roundind off with some danceing , an old favourite and also a
new challenge as a small group learnt the eightsome reel, handling it very
well, even the tricky maltesse cross change over not presenting toomuch
difficulty . The Wyre Forest kids were practising there latest dance when Paul
and I had to leave .

We drove home, happy tired unicyclists, and had a long sleep in the next
morning.

sarah

4

RE: Excelent Stourport Day

Sarah wrote:

> Seconding that, yep another god day was had by many.
(snip)

Sarah, please don’t ever start using spell-check on your emails… the typos (if
they ARE typos) are priceless!

-Rick

5

RE: Excelent Stourport Day

Sarah,

Thanks (you and pegreen) for keeping us enlightened with your stories of the
great stuff going on out there.

> Some games were played, many rounds of Gladiators and some sumo.

I don’t think I have seen Gladiators played as I’ve heard it described. You may
have seen my form of Sumo at UNICON. What is the difference?

> Can any one enlighten me as to When RTU came out?

I first saw it in 1992. But as it was a hand-made video and distributed rather
informally by Tom Miller, I don’t know exactly when it was finished.

Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone http://www.unicycling.com

“Palm Beach County: We put the “duh” in Florida” – just having fun,
don’t flame me!

6

Re: Excelent Stourport Day

Yes, thanks for the nice writeup. I believe George’s video came out in 1989, but
am not positive. WAY cutting edge back then, for sure. We showed it at Muni
weekend this year and the people who hadn’t seen it before LOVED
it.

—Nathan

“John Foss” <john_foss@asinet.com> wrote in message
news:631B3F1D150FD3118E4D00A0C9EC1BDA481431@SERVER…
> Sarah,
>
> Thanks (you and pegreen) for keeping us enlightened with your stories of
the
> great stuff going on out there.
>
> > Some games were played, many rounds of Gladiators and some sumo.
>
> I don’t think I have seen Gladiators played as I’ve heard it described.
You
> may have seen my form of Sumo at UNICON. What is the difference?
>
> > Can any one enlighten me as to When RTU came out?
>
> I first saw it in 1992. But as it was a hand-made video and distributed rather
> informally by Tom Miller, I don’t know exactly when it was
finished.
>
> Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone http://www.unicycling.com

7

Re: Excelent Stourport Day

John Foss <john_foss@asinet.com> wrote:

>> Some games were played, many rounds of Gladiators and some sumo.

> I don’t think I have seen Gladiators played as I’ve heard it described. You
> may have seen my form of Sumo at UNICON. What is the difference?

John

Isn’t Sumo 1 on 1 in a small defined area?

Gladiators (as we play it) is a large free-for-all in a rather bigger area. It
is a good leveller as you can gang up on the good people. There also seems to be
a very wide level of tactics - sumo-style grappling, saddle grabbing,
quick-releasing a seatpost (apparently!), falling over in front of someone and
hiding in a corner until almost everyone else is off. The only rule we run with
is no kicking or punching - although a good shove is perfectly acceptable.

Incidentally, I found Sumo rather painful, but this may be because I’m stubborn
and if about to lose, make sure I hang on, twist and do everything possible to
make my opponent come off with me. This meant that I landed hard on my back with
Richard landing on top of
me. I never seem to have this happen with gladiators.

Paul

Paul Selwood paul@vimes.u-net.com http://www.vimes.u-net.com

8

Re: Excelent Stourport Day

Yes. tome and I particularly enjoyed rooling in the mud.

BTW, Sarah, I was cleaning my hands in a vain attempt to protect my camera. Mr.
Wiggins will confirm that I fall off far too much to require any form of
cheating :slight_smile:

Arnold the Aardvark

http://www.foxholly.demon.co.uk ICQ# 30592054

9

RE: Excelent Stourport Day

> Isn’t Sumo 1 on 1 in a small defined area?

Yes. The area is usually marked by painted lines on the floor, or seams in the
pavement. There is no official size I’m aware of. Also we have a basic set of
safety rules, which are basically intended to keep the game from being too
destructive to bodies and clothes. In short, no pulling on clothes and no
inflicting of pain. The idea is mostly pushing and pulling.

Also we have a three second rule, which means the victor must stay on the
unicycle for three seconds after vanquishing the opponent. A rider who is
obviously down should let go, but when you are still grappling you can
definitely use your weight as a tool to pull the opponent off.

If both riders go down the match is a draw and you start again.

> Gladiators (as we play it) is a large free-for-all in a rather bigger area. It
> is a good leveller as you can gang up on the good people. There also seems to
> be a very wide level of tactics - sumo-style grappling, saddle grabbing,
> quick-releasing a seatpost (apparently!), falling over in front of someone and
> hiding in a corner until almost everyone else is off. The only rule we run
> with is no kicking or punching - although a good shove is perfectly
> acceptable.

We also have an anti-shove rule, but only against pushing the rider in the same
direction he or she is riding. If you push them faster than they can ride they
will crash rather nastily so we disallow it for safety. This isn’t possible in a
small-area Sumo.

How do you fall over in front of someone and still stay riding? Or is this a
sacrifice tactic as part of some overall strategy?

> Incidentally, I found Sumo rather painful, but this may be because I’m
> stubborn and if about to lose, make sure I hang on, twist and do everything
> possible to make my opponent come off with me.

I think Sumo is also more focused, as it is just you and one opponent. Also if
you have a bigger riding space there is usually less grappling.

Someday I should write up some “official” rules. But then again that might take
the informal fun out of it… :slight_smile:

Stay on top, John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone http://www.unicycling.com

“Palm Beach County: We put the “duh” in Florida” – just having fun,
don’t flame me!

10

Re: Excelent Stourport Day

Rick Bissell <rick@tridelta.com> wrote:

> Sarah, please don’t ever start using spell-check on your emails… the typos
> (if they ARE typos) are priceless!

Typos, no , real speling mistakes by a real dyslexic . sorry to disapoint but
they are mainly the result of not being very good at writing. sarah