Just got back from a great weekend at Lodi in Central California for the
juggling festival - my 10th Lodi festival in a row. Besides great juggling
and jugglers, there were a number of unicyclists.
John Foss gave his usual excellent Unicycle workshop on Saturday. People
loved seeing all the different types, trying them, and his hints and
examples for learning tricks and techniques. John also performed in the
Public Shows Saturday night. Working with the cramped stage, he managed to
put on a great performance that I heard many people talking about positively
afterwards. He included jumping off the stage which is a little dicey with
all the kids sitting on the floor in front. The next morning, the first
juggler I asked “How did you like the show?” responded, “That unicycle guy
was really awesome, wasn’t he?”
Bruce Bundy and his son Solomon were there and during the festival, Solomon
(age 8) went from a max of 20 feet of riding to pretty much as long as he
wanted. It was great to see him break through like that. He went on the
unicycle tour of the park that I led on Sunday, about 1 mile of riding, and
he learned about the absolute purity of the pain when you fall on your knee
really hard, twice in the same place.
At the Lodi Games Sunday afternoon, there was a “Best Trick” contest. 3
tries, any single trick. After the adults, there was a juniors contest (12
and under) which my son Beau won by idling his ultimate wheel - it was great
to see such a response by a bunch of jugglers to a unicycle trick.
All in all a great weekend and thoroughly recommended for any unicyclist in
the area next year. See the website at http://www.bullwhip.org/lodi/
—Nathan