National

And the winner is .... Canberra!

With Australian riders full of enthusiasm after the Unicon World Championships in New Zealand, the AUS has received a firm proposal from the ACT Unicycle Riders Association to hold Uninats in 2010 in Canberra, ACT.

The proposal has been accepted by the AUS committee, so lock in October 1st-4th for Uninats 2010!

Canberra is the birthplace in 2001 of both the AUS and the Uninats event. The number of different disciplines and events at Uninats has grown a lot over that time, but Canberra is ready, with the new Mount Stromlo Forest Park mountain and trials courses a key part of the weekend, plans for a larger hall to accommodate freestyle, basketball and hockey and workshops.

The venues and schedule are close to being confirmed, so look out for more news soon.

Uninats is the Australian National Unicycle championships and festival, the biggest event on the local unicycling calendar, so put it in your diary, and spread the word!

Remember, if you are keen to host Uninats in your part of Australia in 2011, start planning now and bring your proposal to Uninats 2010!

The AUS has received an update from Sid Rajan, who is unicycling from Perth to Sydney (yes, that's right), to raise funds for Australia's Humour Foundation Clown Doctors and an Indian Art of Living Foundation project. A little over three months ago, Sid Rajan rode into Adelaide after 58 days on the road. Since then Mimi the Unicycle hasn't received too much attention. But that's about to change.

Sid is back on the road, having set off from Adelaide on 11 November 2009, in what seems to be the middle of a heat wave. While Part 1 of the ride involved riding through remote areas in winter, this section is going to have a lot more people and traffic, and the heat... One pedal stroke at a time is what they say. Sid sends his thanks to all his friends for their support in getting him back on the road again and raring to go (special mention to Jack O' Neill). We wish him well and smooth roads....

Check out Sid's blog to receive updates on the trip.

So much fun, we exhausted ourselves!  Sydney, Revesby, Canberra and Melbourne teams slugged it out over two days in a unicycle basketball and hockey tournament held on 22 and 23 October in Sydney.   Male and female riders of all ages demonstrated amazing skills and endurance as they played in a round robin and then second round for the finals.

Sydney were the unlikely winners of the basketball on Saturday (ringer Luke's precision goal shooting may have been a factor...).  Sydney also just managed to take out the hockey on Sunday - beating Revesby in the final (avenging their loss to Revesby at Uninats in Wollongong in April this year).  Other highlights: Dylan's hockey goal, skill demonstrations by Jamie and Marie and Marie's when-in-doubt-hug-your-opponent technique.

Huge thanks to Ashley for organising the event, to Rebecca for excellent score keeping, to Cris and Rochelle for staffing registration, to those who refereed and to all the competitors for your participation! Special thanks to the Melbourne and Canberra teams (and Ruben and Dylan from Albury) who ventured to Sydney for the event - that really cranked up the competition. It was a fab weekend - lots of sore muscles and sweat - can't wait to do it again!

Here are the results of competitions held at Uninats 2009

Winners of each event are the current Uninats Champions, and current Australian Champions if they are resident in Australia.

Standard skills

Cycling across this country is a big enough challenge for anyone but doing it on a unicycle takes real determination and hardy bike shorts. Twenty-four year old, Sid Rajan, is planning to do an Australian first by unicycling from Perth to Sydney, to raise funds for Australia's Humour Foundation Clown Doctors and an Indian Art of Living Foundation project. 

This amazing ride will be done in stages to accommodate Sid's university studies. The first stage from Perth to Adelaide will run over June and July, and he'll complete the second stage from Adelaide through Melbourne and Canberra to Sydney in November. Sid will start out with a support crew (big thanks to his mum and dad!) and then finish the ride on his own.

If you want to help out, come to the fundraiser in Melbourne on 7 August. The main event will be the live music of Better Than The Wizards.

Keep up with Sid on his blog: www.3oceansunicycletour.com

Some of the media coverage he's received so far:

The Morning Show on Channel 7

The Today Show on Channel 9

The Age

Emma sent in the first group shot from Uninats 2009. Click on the image for the full size version.

Image (C) 2009 Emma F

If you were awarded any ribbons or the Uninats medal and were not able to collect it at one of the presentations, we'll be posting it out to you at the address recorded for your membership. Make sure you let us know ASAP if you've moved and haven't updated your details.

For some reason we managed to run out of 2nd place ribbons, so we'll be ordering some more, which means it will be a few weeks before we can send those out - this will affect 2nd place winners in Trials, Street and Muni.

Cheers,
Cris

Photos

• Keith Mckay's Geared Unicycle & 10K

Videos

• Uninats 2009 by Emma

• Australian Uninats Wollongong 2009 by Sam Dessen

Video Comp entries

• 1st place, Christian Huriwai
• 2nd place, Isaac Conyers

Press Coverage

There are 2 Uninats articles in the Illawara Mercury

• from Friday Unicycle Convention Converges on Wollongong 
• on Monday Unicyclists ride in for convention with a photo of Jaryd Harris in the long jump 

There should also be coverage of the event and footage of the Trials on the WIN evening news on Monday 13th, according to the cameraman. We'll post it here if we can get a copy.

If you have photos or videos to add here, send them to aus_newsletter [at] unicycling [dot] org [dot] au (the editor) (photos or links).

Uninats 2009 is over! It was great to see both familiar and new faces at all the events and we hope you all had a great time.

Thank you to all the people who helped organise Uninats 2009 and made it run as smoothly as it did, including whoever organised the torrential downpour this morning to stop on cue in time for the Street comp to start!

Please send us copies or links to all your photos and video and we'll start putting together the picture gallery...

Cheers,
Cris & Rochelle, Sydney and for Scott, Wollongong

The official program of events for Uninats is now available in PDF format. Printed copies will be available at check-in, but if you want to read or print your own advance copy, you can download it here.

(This file is intended to be printed double-sided on A4 landscape to give an A5 booklet).

Unicycle.com will be at Uninats 2009 & look forward to catching up with clients new & old!  We will have an assortment of stock, including gloves, armour, saddles, DVD’s magazines, and of course a range of unicycles. We will have some demo stock that can be tried out & we will have some “show special” prices over the weekend of Uninats.

All participants in Uninats 2009 need to sign a participation agreement and waiver and hand it in at the check-in desk.
To save time at check-in, you can download and print the form from this page.
If you are under 18, this form needs to be signed by a parent or guardian. If a parent or guardian won't be with you at check-in, you should make sure you print out this form before hand and have it signed to bring with you to check-in.

Join us for the traditional Uninats party - open to all - at Smith’s Hill High School on Saturday night.
 
Theme:  The theme is red and black, so get creative!
Catering:  You can bring your own food or pre-order pizza (fixed menu) at the registration desk on Saturday.  Pizza will be served during the video comp at the party.

For the first time, Uninats will be holding a flatland competition. The flatland comp will be held at Smith’s Hill High School on Saturday 11 April, and will be judged by the judges of the freestyle comp. Not sure what flatland is? Here are the official IUF rules:
3.4 Flatland Overview
AGE GROUP: Junior (0-14) and Senior class (15-UP), male/female separated (3 riders are the minimum requirement for each category). If there are less than 3 riders for one of the categories, those riders will compete in the older age groups. If there are less than three females or less than three males overall, the male and female categories are merged.
TIME LIMIT: Two minutes. Competitors are allowed to go over the time-limit (as long the line was started before the limit elapsed, and as long the line is continued without interruptions).
UNICYCLES: Any type and any number.
MUSIC, COSTUME AND PROPS: Riders are encouraged to bring their own music, but it is not judged. Costume is not judged. Host can provide props (for example: a grind bar) for all, and they can be removed easily for riders who want them out of the way. Competitors are also allowed to bring props (for example: a Basketball, second person for acrobatic assistance, special small obstacle.....) but these props must be available for all competitors. Competitors must announce any planned props at least four weeks before the competition starts. If the host allows the announced props, he should also inform all registered competitors about it immediately.

Here are some updates for Uninats 2009:

• the 10k race is confirmed for 7am Sunday, 12 April 

• the street comp will be held at 8:30am Monday, 13 April, at Fairy Meadow skatepark, (Guest Park, Cambridge Road, Fairy Meadow, Wollongong)