International

A message from Nic Vevers (AUS President) for all Unicon Participants!

I thought I would make a Australian Team Tshirt for Unicon. Picture is below:

If you want one you will need to pre-order within the next week, and pay by the 19th Dec 2009.

You will need to send your order to:

balance-ent [at] hotmail [dot] com

I will then get back to you with my details for payment by Bank Account Transfer.

You need to tell me:

• How many you want
• What size(s) you want (s m l xl xxl) or a chest measurement may help

They will be exactly the same size shirts as Uninats so if you have one tell me the size on that shirt.

• It will be around the same price as the Uninats one depending on how many order (around $25-$30).
• The shirts will be available to collect on the first day of Unicon.

ALSO: If you are in the Australia A Hockey Team and Australia A Basketball let me know if you are interested in a team jersey.

Sorry its late, but if you want to be guaranteed a t-shirt you will need to put in an order quickly.

Nic Vevers

If you want to participate in hockey or basketball at UNICON in Wellington, you need to indicate this on your registration and put down the NAME of your TEAM.  The team name you put down needs to be the same as the one other team members are putting on their forms!  You cannot add a team after 14th November, and if you don't put down a team name you will be put in a scratch team.

Please contact chickenloaf_au [at] yahoo [dot] com (Ashley Curtis) or the AUS to find out the team names if you want to be included in one of the 'official' AUS hockey or basketball teams.

Huge congratulations to all the Australian team members for their efforts at the Asia Pacific Unicycle Convention and successfully defending Australia's title as Asia Pacific Hockey Champions!

The second Asia Pacific Unicycling Convention took place in Hong Kong this year with an expanded program: a full-day unicycle hockey tournament, featuring seven teams, and a full day of track and field events including 100m, 400m, 1600m, long jump and 50m backwards, as well as informal competitions such as unicycle sumo and longest still-stand.

Four teams competed in the hockey A-league: Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong. The A-league results are as follows:

• Singapore vs Australia 3-7
• South Korea vs Hong Kong 6-0
• Hong Kong vs Singapore 7-0
• Australia vs South Korea 4-4
• Hong Kong vs Australia 2-6
• Singapore vs South Korea 3-6

• Final: Australia vs South Korea 4-3.

The Phillipines won the B league comp against Hong Kong B and South Korea B.

Ruben recieved an award for best young rider of the competition. Ashley Curtis, team captain said,"I am very proud of the team, we were all exhausted but no-one gave up. Everyone did their job and more."

The next Asia Pacific Unicycle Convention will be held  in 2011 in South Korea.

Check out this amazing performance  - unicycling and cyling on a trampoline - the backwards somersault's got to be favourite.  Viva Les Espoirs du Cirque - Vélo Trampoline!

Fifteen year old, Samuel Farmer, from Scotland has just ridden from Lands End to John O’Groats on a unicycle - he is the youngest to do so. He did it in just 12.5 days.  Sam broke a Guinness World Record and raised money for the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Southampton Hospital, Hampshire and The Peanut Ward at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead. You can read about the ride at:

End to end

'Teenager completes unicycle End to End challenge in 12 days'

'Unicycling teen on course for Lands End to John O'Groats record' 

Good luck to all members of the Australian team heading to Hong Kong this weekend (21 - 23 August 09) for the Asia Pacific Unicycle Convention - Ashley, Nic, Ty, Rod, David, Tom and Ruben.  No doubt the hockey will be fast and furious - so enjoy!!

Last month, 7 unicyclists spent 12 days riding through northern India; we had a fantastic time. Since then, we've worked on assembling photos, newspaper articles etc and I'd like to share some of these with everyone.

First up, here is a listing of the participants, showing showing the tour's elevation profile, and a table of links to GPS data that Nathan Hoover assembled, with links to view each segment in GoogleEarth and GoogleMaps.

From the rider's point of view, this tour consisted of 7 riders (plus Jason Williams of Grasshopper Adventures on bike, 2 support vehicle drivers, and a local guide).

Here is Nathan Hoover's journal, which he wrote during the tour. Day 5 (3rd riding day) was the "money day", with a 40km climb that ascended a full 2000m. We got some great photos that day and it was incredible riding. We started that morning in the hot lowlands and finished in the afternoon in the Himalyas in a little town that could've easily been high in Nepal.

Ken Looi organised the tour and has more information available at the official website.

Ken Looi would like to extend a warm invitation to all AUS members to attend Unicon XV, The 15th Unicycle World Championships and Convention. It takes place in Wellington, New Zealand, from 27th December 2009 to 7 January 2010.

UNICON is the biggest event in Unicycling, with hundreds of unicyclists attending from up to 30 different countries. This is the first ever Southern Hemisphere UNICON, and the first UNICON held over New Year. Come and celebrate with other unicyclists, ride in spectacular scenery, duel it out on the hockey court, or just meet other unicyclists from around the world. It's a great opportunity to represent Australia in your sport, or enjoy the many unicycling activities so close to home.

Registrations are now open on the Unicon website: www.uniconxv.co.nz

Enter early and save with a reduced entry fee before 1 Sept 2009.

For more questions, email: unicon15 [at] gmail [dot] com

See you later this year!

Ken Looi
UNICON XV
Organising Committee

Tasmanian Unitour

After Uninats, Tony Melton and Tynan Rollo have headed straight to Tasmania  to join Aubin Gill and a few other keen Australian riders in a ride from Launceston to Hobart via the scenic route. You can follow their progress at the 2nd Tasmanian Unitour website.

India Unitour

Geoffrey Huntley from Sydney is with Ken Looi and 5 other big wheel riders in the last few days of their 12 day, 500km ride across north-eastern India. Internet access has been rare, but you can see some photos and follow their adventures on the Induni blog.

Registrations for Unicon XV in Wellington, NZ are open, as of 1 March 2009. Registration costs will increase over the year, so register early!
 
Competitor
01-JAN-2008 to 01-APR-2009 Fee: NZ$ 200
01-APR-2009 to 01-SEP-2009 Fee: NZ$ 250
01-SEP-2009 to 01-DEC-2009 Fee: NZ$ 350
01-DEC-2009 to 08-JAN-2010 Fee: NZ$ 500
 
Non-competitor
01-JAN-2008 to 01-APR-2009 Fee: NZ$ 75
01-APR-2009 to 01-SEP-2009 Fee: NZ$ 100
01-SEP-2009 to 01-DEC-2009 Fee: NZ$ 125
01-DEC-2009 to 08-JAN-2010 Fee: NZ$ 150
 
At current exchange rate:
NZ$1= US 49c = AU 77c = UK 35p = Euro 39c
Register Here
Hope to see you in Wellington this year!

Sunday 5 April 2009 (Day 1) - Thursday 16 April (Day 12)
Ken Looi is organising another fabulous Unicycle Tour for April 2009, this time in India. Numbers are limited to 30, so best in, best dressed. For information about the tour, cost, itinerary and registration, see the unicyclist.com website and the tour website.

For those who are heading off shore, here are some events to keep you entertained...

British Muni Weekend '09

Hosted by JUST
27 February - Sunday 1 March 2009
Hamsterley Forest, County Durham
For more information about the first British Muni Weekend for 2009 and how to register, see the unicyclist.com website. 

Coupe de France de Monocycle 2009

Reims, FRANCE
11, 12 and 13 April 2009
Information is available about this event (in French).

North American Unicycling Convention & Championships 2009 (NAUCC09)

Sunday, 26 July - Saturday, 1 August, 2009
Kennedy High School, Bloomington, MN
Hosted by Twin Cities Unicycle Club
See the NAUCC09 website for information about this event and how to register.

In the British Medical Journal, Sam Shuster, Emeritus Professor of Dermatology, analyses the responses he received from the general public over the course of one year when he was out riding his unicycle. Public responses to unicycling were quite different between people of different genders and ages - from openly supportive and praising to verbally and physically aggressive.

See the entire article in the BMJ 2007, vol 335 (22 December) pp. 1320 - 1322. Thanks to David Buchanan for sending this one in!

While UniNats is only a few months away, don't forget that next summer UNICON is coming to a country near you. Check out the website for information on the program, registration, venues, and accommodation in Wellington and have your say in the forums:  http://www.uniconxv.co.nz/about/unicycling/
Hope to see you all in the land of the long white cloud.

Down the Mountain

The Chronicle (14 November 2008) reports on on Kevin Wharton's ride down Toowoomba's Table Top mountain on his unicycle. Footage:

We welcome our robotic unicycling overlords..

It was only a matter of time before we saw the first unicycling robot. At the Ceatec electronics show which opened in Japan in September 2008, the Kyoto-based electronics company, Murata Manufacturing, showcased Seiko, a robot that rides a unicycle.