Organisation and preparation for UNICON XV is well underway, with the registration system being tested at the moment.
We are already beginning to work on designing the trials obstacles that we are going to use, and are sourcing the materials with some professional trials obstacle builders.
What i’m after, as a bit of a point of reference, is any photos that people have of the trials obstacles from the Denmark Unicon XIV. It doesn’t matter how big they are, or what’s in them, just so we can take some construction pointers from the last Unicon and perhaps incorporate some of the trickier lines into new, even trickier lines at Unicon XV.
If you have any, or know anyone who does, then could you please send (or get your friends to send) their photos to me: joe . dyson @ gmail . com mentioning something about Unicon Trials in the subject.
That would be grand! Look forward to hearing from you all. Even if you only have suggestions or improvements from last year, it’d still be great to hear from you.
There are many more I took; only the top ones are online. If you need more detail of a specific obstacle let me know, and I can look through the others.
I think if you’re making some “trickier” trials lines you should make sure not to leave the beginners out. I’m not saying to spend as much time on a beginner course as an expert course, but you should build something. At CMW there was nothing for real beginners. They just used the same obstacles and had a different way of scoring.
All the cmw lines were beginner to advanced. Unfortunately there wasn’t anything very hard so all the good riders cleared all the lines. There were also quite a few easy lines that didn’t even require the ability to hop.
This is the trials competition for unicon, the world championships of unicycling, why should there be easy lines?
Also, did anyone get any photos of that crazy line I kept falling on? The one that involved knocking over the pallet and landing on it? I’d love to have another go at that in NZ.
I’m of the opinion that an event like Unicon should cater for everyone, not just the super to super-elite riders. Granted, those riders need to be tested and pushed to deserve the title of champion but we don’t want the beginner riders not being able to compete in their own skill levels while they’re still learning.
A good mix of easy to super elite is a good way to go IMHO, and it’s something i’ll be aiming for this year in the trials. Not to say that it won’t be challenging though You will have to work.
Don’t look at me, it’s your face! Did you notice this one of you knocking over the pallete?
Yes, it’s important to have a few killer sections to hopefully obviate the need for a tiebreaker. At the Unicon level these need to be harder than at the CMW level, for instance. And I like lines that don’t require hopping! I can do those. Trials isn’t all about hopping, of course.
Someday, Unicon will have enough elite riders that the Trials competition can be all super-hard. But today, Trials is very much a growing event and it’s popular in only a few countries. Including easier lines is a great way to give new riders/countries a taste to develop their interest.
Of course you can also have a “Trials playground” type area, like there was in Copenhagen, that gives riders even more opportunity to hone their skills while surrounded by other riders they can learn from.
The water surely added a level of difficulty to that Trials course, but it was the same wetness for all riders. It did tend to dry off as the time went by though. The section I was judging was particularly tough because it involved steel drums the riders had to jump on and off of, and they were really slippery. They also made cool “water art” when the guys jumped on them and vibrated the little puddles on top.
I just uploaded all my trial pictures from Unicon and Nationals here. I purposely took photo’s of every single line so when I host an event, I have ideas on what to make and how to make them. I have some other pictures from past events I could post to if you’d like them…
Go to www.krisholm.com/sections for more input. Would be nice if the parcour is not completly finished before riders arrive. I like it if the top riders build the parcour partly themself. It is also important to look that right and left jumpers have the same advantages or disadvanteges and that all trials abilitys are tested out. Technic lines are nice to, at unicon we buildet to much just big jump lines. Professionel trial parcour builders are not a good idea in my eyes because bike trial competitions are completly different (bigger jumps less skinnies…) at unicon we had two proffesional wood workers to make the parcour stable that helped us a lot.
You will have to work.
Trials isn’t all about hopping, of course.