The Toque Report (pix and vids included)

Tell your story.

Here’s mine…

Right now I am recovering from a totally awesome weekend at the Toque Games. Wow, what a fun trip.

It started last Wednesday when my Dad drove me to Brian Lundgren’s house. Brian and I realized we were on the same flight, and his parents were kind enough to take me to and from the airport. I spent the night with Brian and his family, and the next morning we drove to San Francisco and spent 5 hours on a plane flying to Toronto.

After we arrived Brian’s parents rented a car and drove all 4 of us to their hotel. Jeff’s parents and Lilfunky1 (what’s your real name again?) met us there, and I loaded my stuff up into their car. We drove to Phil’s (HungfromHooks) and met up with a bunch of people: 2 Dan’s, Ben, Mike, Joey, Justin, and others. I was really hungry, so I gobbled down some delicious chili. We had a jolly good time, and after awhile we rode some of Phil’s unis outside in the snow. Jeff’s parents left at one point and picked up Jeff from the airport, and brought him to Phil’s. Eventually, we piled into a couple cars and drove to Jeff’s where most of us were staying.

On Friday I went to the Expo center with everyone else at the Groves’ House, and met a bunch of people, and rode around a bunch.

It’s hard to remember EVERYTHING I did the whole weekend after that, plus it would take forever to write, and forever to read. So I will just write some of the parts that really stick out in my head:

-It was fun when we did a little “street ride” and there was about 4-5 small groups of riders outside the expo that ended up all converging near some handrails into one big group.

-Eating some really “creative” food at this traditional-vegitarian Chinese Restaurant with a big group of unicyclists. Unexpectedly expensive, but a really fun meal.

-The craziness and intensity of the Groves’ house. The crowded-ness didn’t bother me, it was kind of fun. Although the wait for the shower sometimes was frustrating.

-The trials comp. of course. A lot of really cool lines. I wish I could have spent the whole weekend trying the challenging lines, there is never enough time for me in a comp.

-The awesome chili party at the Groves’ house Saturday night, where a ton of people came.

-Watching TheDan’s rap music video over and over with everyone!

-The unicycle film festival at the local cinema!

-Driving around getting lost with Ben and Joey.

-UMX, it was way more fun than I thought it was going to be, and I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to ride pretty well in the snow.

-Souping up my BC wheel with a pink tire and pink grip tape (Darren Bedford has everything!)

-Going out and eating pizza with Ben, Jack, Joey, and TheDan. I finally got to see the famed “2 pizzas in 1 box” and it was more amazing than I could have ever imagined.

-Having a blast Sunday night at the Groves’ then walking around town.

-Waking up at 5:30 on Monday morning … oh wait, that wasn’t a highlight of the trip. hehe.

*I’m sure I forgot some other awesome moments, but oh well.

Here are my photos and videos!
http://www.unicyclejester.com/gallery/toque_05

132 photos, and 11 video clips.
Make sure to see the video clip called “Expo Center”, it shows the location of Toque inside the giant expo building.

Thanks again to Jeff, Pete, and Maggie Groves, they were so INCREDIBLY nice to let us all in their home. Big thanks to Carl for putting on this monster event. Thank you Brian and your family, Ben PS, Dan Heaton, The Groves, and Nick Mandrapilias for giving me rides. I owe a huge thanks to Isaac LeMasters for making the TeamPrimitive shirts (and at short notice!). Thank you TheDan and Joey for some awesome safety meeting gear. THANKS Darren for being super rad, and selling the best equipment. Lastly, thank you to everyone I forgot to thank, as well as each person who came to the Toque Games.

Later,

Jess

toque_05.jpg

Hahaha. I’m such a nerd that wants to drive traffic to my own personal blog! That and I’m too lazy to copy and paste.

TOque Day 0 (Setup)
TOque Day 1
TOque Day 2
TOque Day 3

P.S. My name is Angela. :slight_smile: And my unicycle’s name is Danielle.

Jess thanks for the writeup and photos and vids. That’s excellent you got to enjoy the fantastic hospitality at the Grove’s house and the excellent double pizzas. The videos are funny and cool.

Now let’s see the results of the comps.

—Nathan

What an awesome event. Well worth the price of admission, and than some. I gotta thank Carl and Sara and the Groves and everybody else who was involved in putting this together. From what I’ve heard, Carl in particular put in a huge amount of behind the scenes work with getting the event insured.

If I’m inspired later I’ll post more about the trip. Jess has a pretty good write-up.

Ben

I’m glad you guys enjoyed it. A lot of work always goes on behind the scenes to pull things off (and this was just a little event compared to an NAUCC or UNICON).

Official results are up at www.toquegames.com.

You could be the proud new owner of a 2005 TOque Games t-shirt as we have several large t-shirts left for CDN$20 or US$18 plus shipping. E-mail me if you want it.

Carl

The link got an extra dot and slash tagged on which breaks the link. Here’s a clickable link: TOque Games

Thanks John. I forgot about that period in the link problem.

Let me try that again …

As the 3rd Toque games that I have attennded I must say that this one was the best hands down.

I personally would like to thank Carl and Sarah for taking the time out of their lives to orgnize such an event. The whole event seemed to run smoothly and the level of the courses were set up so they were both challanging yet incredibly fun to ride at the same time. I really can not thank you guys enough. I personally cant wait untill Toque 06 and may I suggest that it goes on a world wide tour in 007

Cheers
Mike

perhaps i should take the video on jesters page of my tongue and use it as an animated avitar? sadly i see no pictures taken of the fiasco at my place… then agian somethings that happened at TOQUE will remain at TOQUE :slight_smile: cough cough

either i wasn’t paying attention to “what happened” or i don’t want to know where my freestyle unicycle has been. either way it was some great times!

Awesome pics Jess! Two pizza’s in one box is amazing.

Does anyone know the total number of unicyclists that were there?

–Irene