Hello everybody, I am Javier Ruiz from Puerto Rico. I have been riding the
unicycle for nine years and I competed in UNICONs II thru VII. I just bought a
computer for my room so now I can spend more time reading (and writing) Email
messages. Well guys, see you later. Keep on riding. Bye. Javier
Re: Introduction
Name: Peter Philip E-mail: peterp@foe.co.uk Birthdate: 1967 Location: London, UK
Occupation: Geographic Information Systems Officer at Friends of the Earth, the
environmental organisation Hobbies: Guitar, Juggling, Reflexology, Travelling
WWW: http://foe.co.uk (not me personally, just yet)
finally getting around to it… :^)
Hi,
I’m Peter Philip and I play unicycle hockey with the LUNIs - London’s Unicycle
Hockey Team.
The seed of unicycling was really planted in my brain around fifteen years ago
when I was walking through the town of Witney, near Oxford in England and saw
some guy come along the road on a unicycle with a big bag of shopping in each
hand. He went round a roundabout in the middle of the traffic and swept out of
sight so gracefully… I never saw him again, but the image stayed with me.
When I learned to juggle I looked at unicycles but they were just too expensive
seeing as there was no guarantee that I would be able to ride the thing…
Then, after I started working at Friends of the Earth, I came across a big
Australian called Rob (who later became my boss) and he also had unicycling
ambitions. Between us we got together a syndicate of seven people who each paid
10 pounds and we bought a Pashley 20" and set about teaching ourselves to ride.
Four weeks later the Pashley was destroyed (cranks, pedals and cotter pins - I
said he was a big Australian) and at least two of us could ride. We both bought
24" Sem XL Trainers.
After several attempts to find a group of people who (it was advertised) played
the improbable sport of unicycle hockey, we finally met up with one January
night in 1993 in an old church hall in East London. That was the night that the
current LUNIs team was born. We have since won the British Championship and at
Eurocycle 94 were only beaten by the legendary Lahimo club (who claim to be
unbeaten in 14 years).
Unicycle hockey has become the greatest obsession in my life and I only wish
that there were more teams of a better standard to keep us pushing ourselves
to improve.
My unicycling career (and my life) was nearly ended abruptly last year when I
leant against a window while I was playing hockey on my uni and went straight
through. I ended up with a large cut in my arm and a smaller one on my throat. I
narrowly avoided having a skin graft and now all I have to show for it is a
pretty scar, a mild phobia for windows (our new practice venue doesn’t have any)
and a more thankful attitude towards life. It hasn’t stopped me playing hockey
though, or riding on the streets of London and I hope that, every now and then,
as I ride home from the supermarket, that someone will look at me and
think… and remember until the opportunity arises.
Peter Philip
Peter Philip Workshop and Team Practice (all welcome) of the LUNIs 8-9.30pm
every school-term Wednesday London's Unicycle Hockey Team Acland Burghley School
Burghley Road peterp@foe.co.uk (opposite Tufnell Park tube) All views expressed
are my own London NW5 United Kingdom