The 2010 New York City Unicycle Festival the first unicycle festival to take place in the north east was a huge success. Our NYUC first Sunday of the month meeting played a huge part. We had more than 100 unicyclist come to the meeting in front of Grant’s Tomb.  Featured from two days of the three day festival we have on our Flickr site an Unicycle festival album with more than 240 images taken at the main festival that took place on Saturday on Governors Island and at the NY unicycle club meeting on Sunday. If you have the time take a look at the slide show of all of the photographs of unicyclist that came from all over the country to visit with us in support of sport of unicycling.

We were quite please to have had the opportunity to participate with so many other unicyclist in this event. We look forward to next years event that should be even better.

On the Sunday preceding the 2010 NYC Unicycle Festival, the New York Unicycle Club received a nice write up in the New York Times. The article Spokes| When Two Wheels Are Too Many, written by Sean Patrick Farrell.  The online version features video interviews of members present at the third Saturday meeting that took place in August. This was a nice summer meeting that featured just a few unicyclists that showed up, many for the first time.

Pictured above trying out unicycling for himself, Patrick as he prefers to be called really enjoyed his visit with the club. Along with his partner J. David Goodman, Patrick  is responsible for writing  the cycling feature column in the NY Times Metropolitan section entitled Spokes. You can follow Spokes on their Twitter feed.

Encouraged by my recent spate of meeting updates, I’ve decided to continue the trend by writing up today’s meeting just hours after the fact:

Despite the lovely weather — the first really warm meeting day of the year — we had a smallish turnout. I’m guessing that many of our young’uns were off playing baseball, softball, soccer, and the like. Or just at the beach?

Still, it was a great day to meet new members who had found us because of this great website (thanks, Mitch, Ken, and Dave Lowell!).

CAROL had finally decided that she had to join us (after having decided two years ago). She and her friend ANDY (I think he’s our 11th Andy, but it could be an even higher number!) borrowed some unis and practiced for hours, and both of them did quite well.

ADAM also worked on a borrowed uni for a long time, and he did quite well considering that it was a bit too small for him. That, plus the heat, probably made for a pretty exhausting day. Stay hydrated, Adam!

And CHET (short for Chetan) joined us for the first time, too. His amazon.com-ordered uni is set to arrive tomorrow, but in the meantime he practiced for hours on a borrowed uni and is planning to put lots of time on his new one before we meet again on May 15th. Good luck, Chet!

We had several returning guests:

CHRIS worked on idling. He’s been riding a bit for the past two years and has decided to devote more time to this healthy hobby. Similarly, KEVIN put in many hours to improve at the basics. Good to see you again!

New member JONATHAN came out from about 1:00 till 2:15, at which point he had to dash off in order to get ready for the concert he was playing (violin) for … at 2:30! That’s dedication. He’s the one who came out a month ago and learned in basically 45 minutes. Wow. Not surprisingly, he did even better today.

Our great young pal JAMES S put in many hours at the club working on some skills that are pretty basic for him but quite difficult for almost everybody else. He also worked on some of the weird unis that I had brought, including the Super Trick Cycle (STC), impossible wheel, and ultimate wheel, which of course he rode backwards, just to make it harder for himself.

New member and rider ZACHARY did quite well, working on his basic stuff. Good to see you again, Z!

KATHRYN joined us for the 5th time and continued to make good progress. She’s at that stage where she needs to take off the proverbial training wheels and just ride on her own, but it’s always scary. I can relate, since I spent 7 months learning to wheel-walk, partly because I kept holding the wall and just didn’t want to let go.

Our dedicated pal MARCUS brought a 6.5′ giraffe and two others that made that one look puny! I think both of them were 9-footers, meaning that a rider’s butt would be that high off the ground). Marcus rode around on one for a bit, thus demonstrating the tallest uni to be exhibited outside of a circus in over two decades, at least. There was no way I was going to get onto one of those with my wonky knee. Marcus’s wife, Leaf, and son Zhizhuo seemed confident that he’d do fine, and he did.

SPENCER brought out his teeter-totter again (thanks, dad!), and I rode over it a few times, as did Spencer and several others on the day. Spencer also worked on some basic skills.

PETER stayed cool on the day by only riding in shadows, while his daughter XIA worked on wheel-walking.

MIRON came around with two large ultimate wheels; one is 29″, and his other one looks like a converted Coker. Unfortunately, it needed a new inner tube, so it wasn’t rideable. Miron is in great shape. When I grow up, I want to be Miron!

TYSEN came by once again, sporting his summer haircut. He worked on his standup wheel-walk, which he can do with an unusual method that involves a sort of hurky-jerk motion. I was impressed; I haven’t put much time into standup ww, but it’s hard!

KURT joined us for the first time in awhile, and like many others, he’s hoping to really get into uni’ing and is doing pretty well. Good to see you again, Kurt!

As for KEN S and myself, we basically hung around and enjoyed ourselves while watching and helping others. Thanks for everything, Ken!

Late Breaking News! Mary Jane made it down from Rochester, arriving so late that most of us had left. Sorry, MJ. We’ll see you next time!

It’s taken me months, but I’ve finally caught up to our last meeting. Phew!

My right knee has been jiggy lately. I may have a tiny tear of the meniscus. In any case, I can’t really ride around a lot, but I never did too much riding at the club, anyway!

MAEVE, going on 6, had almost mastered riding when we met early last month. Since then, she’s turned 6 and gotten a new uni for the big day, but she can’t yet ride on her own. She did manage to ride quite nicely while holding my hand. I love that. Her brother, EMMETT loves playing uni basketball, and we did a lot of that on the afternoon along with JAMES, my brother JOHN, and a few others. And for a rare treat, FIONA joined us, too, tho she ended up loaning her uni to some new riders for much of the time. I was also happy to have SHIRRA join us for the first time in many moons. She can ride but hasn’t put any time into it lately. Maybe now that the weather has cleared up…

Our new pal DEREK came out with a ‘kangaroo’ uni (where both pedal arms are side by side, forcing you to ride most awkwardly). He did that for a bit before putting the crank arms back to normal, and he also worked on wheel-walking.

CHRIS worked on freemounting, idling, and riding backwards. That makes for a busy afternoon!

KATHRYN came out once again. She put in a great effort and has really learned the basics. Woohoo!

ZACH the ELDER was with us once again. He’s admitted to riding only while with the club, but amazingly he’s gotten pretty good. Just goes to show….

TYSEN, who is even better than I’d initially suspected, worked on wheelwalking and other high-level stuff. Thanks for joining us once again; it’s always nice to see you.

We had a lovely coincidental rider: HAITEM. He didn’t intend to ride a unicycle on this day — he just happened to be in the area when he spotted us. He hadn’t ridden since 15 years ago in Sweden, but he picked it right up again and looked really proficient.

KEN was on hand to take snaps, play some basketball with Emmett, play with Maeve, and instruct noobies. Great to see you again, Ken!

LOUISE worked on riding backwards. I gave her a few tips, but she’s almost there. Her dad, POTTER, rode around, too.

We were also graced with the presence of ADAM, ZIGGY, and IKE once more, with mom Renie cheering on her boys (and hubbin). Thanks for making the trip!

EDDY B worked on freemounting and has pretty much got it.

Our new best friend MARCUS was on hand once again, bringing his family before having to skeedaddle a bit earlier than usual. I hope you can stay longer next time!

JONATHAN came out for his first time and was quite good for a rank beginner. Wow!

I was thrilled to see one of my good friends, JOANNA and her younger brother ALEX visiting us just moments before Joanna’s bat mitzvah. Congrats!!! Thanks for inviting us to the party, and enjoy the unicycle! Jo and her bro did quite well for their first afternoon of uni practice.

I hope to see many of you again this Sunday at 1. Ta-ta till then!

We had a great turnout for a crisp March afternoon.

I dragged my younger two out with me once again. As usual, MAEVE zoomed around on her bike most of the time while EMMETT and I worked on fun stuff like playing uni-basketball.

New member JAMES, 12, worked on hopping. He’s a really fast learner and hasn’t been riding very long. Well done, James!

After a brief hiatus, we had a lot of our rock-solid teen riders out in force (we missed you, Emele!). WILL worked on cool back rolls, triple flips, and a whole lot more. JAMES did his amazing seat-drag and, like Will, many tricks that I can’t even do in my dreams. JASON is working on uni-spins of the 180-degree variety (and lately has been going for the full 360, as I know from facebook). And new member DEREK is proving to be a very solid high level rider, too.

NJ BILL joined us again — you’re becoming a real regular, Bill! — as did our old pal BOB. You may have seen Bob on his uni in the bad weather as shown in a photo from a local paper. It took all of us quite awhile to figure out that it was Bob – the photo wasn’t close-up.

KEN joined us as he almost always does. He’s become more of a regular than me lately, but that’s because my local Scrabble tourneys often conflict with our first-Sundays.

KATHRYN joined us for her 2nd time. Good to see you, K! She told me later that her legs were exhausted for four days after this afternoon. I know that feeling — like after you haven’t skied in years and then hit the slopes. Then the next morning, oof!

XIA worked on wheelwalking, accompanied and doted on by her dad, PETER, who mainly worked on some basic skills. It was also nice to see some of our older regulars like ZACH the ELDER along with our newer ‘regulars’ like TYSEN. And there were several new riders like MARTA joining us on the day.

Speaking of new members, TOMMY was there with his friend EILEEN. I think she’ll learn fast because of her background in gymnastics. Another new member on the day was HANNAH. Thanks for joining us!

My brother, John, rode over on his Coker to hang out with his friends as well as his nephew and niece. He had been performing with his group The Paper Bag Players.

Finally, I’ll mention an impressive visit from a young man from London named TONY. Not surprisingly, this was his first time with us! I was glad that he decided to visit the club while in NYC for just a few days. Thanks for stopping by.

And that goes for all y’all! See you soon!

I missed the previous meeting (first Sunday in Feb) because I was busy coming in 2nd in the expert division of a local Scrabble tournament. Not that I’m bragging….

The club DID meet in early Feb, and I think Ken took photos to prove it. In fact, if I recall, the weather was better that day than on the 20th. When I arrived for this meeting, I was glad I’d brought my shovel. We borrowed a few more from the nice guards at Grant’s Tomb and cleared away a good deal of the snow.

I brought EMMETT and MAEVE for some fun in the white stuff. Emmett worked on his uni’ing with both 20″ and 24″ unicycles (one of which belongs to his older sister, Fiona) and also used Spencer’s teeter-totter for some trials practice. Maeve rode over the obstacle on her bike and was surprisingly good at it. She also worked on her puny uni and rode a bit on her skateboard.

As noted, SPENCER was there, riding on his teeter-totter and generally having fun in our limited space.

PETER spent much of the day shoveling but managed to get in a little riding and also watched XIA as she rode over the seesaw or zoomed around in the track we’d carved out of the snow.

New member JAMES came down from Poquague for the afternoon. Thanks for joining us!

We also had a too-rare treat of seeing ADAM and his boys ZIGGY and IKE, both of whom are under 4 years old. They’ll be the youngest riders on the East Coast in a matter of months (in fact, they’re already doing some riding, but not much at the club — too shy!). Thanks, Renie, for lending us the boys for the afternoon.

My pal Marco’s entire family was on hand again: PHYLLIS and the daughters MIA, LAILA, and TALIA. It was so nice to see all of you again!

Others on the day included new-ish member DREW as well as JASON, who worked on hopping while showing off his brand-spanking-new unicycle.

And of course it wouldn’t be NYUC without our beloved friend KEN, helping noobies and snapping photos of it all. Thanks, Ken!

Yeah, these notes are WAY overdue. We’re going to play catch-up here before another meeting passes me by without notes. Speaking of other meetings, we’re on again for this coming Sunday (May 2)!

Back to the notes of Jan. 16….

Well, it was my mom’s birthday, so I didn’t stick around the whole time (happy birthday, Mom!), but I was there long enough to see XIA working on riding one-footed. Here dad, PETER, was there, too, riding a unicycle that he’d bought for her — the silly one with the really fat wheel. He did surprisingly well on it; it’s not easy to ride.

Another father/daughter team was on hand later: POTTER and his daughter LOUISE. You can’t miss her: wonderful orange hair to match her yellow and orange Converse sneakers (or maybe it was the other way around). She’s getting to be a very solid rider!

Our cool pal JEREMY was there with his girlfriend. She gave unicycling a try, and he worked on one-foot idling.

ANDREA joined us for her first time at the club (and first time trying to unicycle) and did quite well for a noob. Other neophytes included TATIANA and her friend BRIAN. Come out and join us again soon now that the weather is nice!

My bro, JOHN, was there with his wife, YUXIN, and their friends JIANYU and SONG FEI. It’s nice to see so many friends who unicycle — reminds me of when I was a teenager and all of my pals (Russell, Ben, and Paul) learned to ride after I did. We all used to ride around Central Park or hang out in front of the Natural History Museum.

New member (but old rider) TYSEN worked on one-foot wheel-walking. That’s a skill I somehow find easier than regular two-foot wheelwalk. Go figure.

As for the old men:
I worked on crank idle and wheel-walking one- and two-footed (I’m still really bad at both). IRA joined us for an hour and rode around the Tomb. You’re just getting better and better, Ira! KEN rode around a bit, too, and took photos as usual (thanks, Ken!), and we had a visit from BILL of New Jersey (check out njunicycle.com about his club).

And we had a visit from our younger pal, HEATH. Good to see you again!

And that goes for all of you who braved the chilly weather. It’s hard to look back just three months ago to remember that it was in the 20s and 30s. This weekend’s forecast calls for temps in the high 80s! See you soon!

We attempted to have a club meeting for the first Sunday in January.  Besides myself we had one brave soul endure the elements to make an appearance. Spencer and his dad arrived with a home built ramp in tow. Spencer is shown below sporting his brand new Kris Holm unicycle that he got for Christmas.

With the quadrangle still filled with snow and ice from the recent snow fall Spencer and Ken braved the cold 19° temperature with wind chill in the single digits to spend a few minutes riding around for the first meeting of the new year.

Spencer’s dad, Daniel built a new ramp to ride on. I thought that it was more like a see-saw. some of you may recall that they brought a more fragile ramp the last time they came to a meeting that did not fare well. It was broken by the end of the meeting. This time they used thicker more durable lumber.

After riding around for a few minutes, father and son packed it in and made there way back home. I rode around for a few minutes more then waited in the car for awhile to see if any one else would show. I felt compelled to come out since the  heavy snow kept me from showing up for the last meeting in December.

It was one of those gorgeous November days when the sun comes out and the temperatures are in the 50s. The turnout was again on the small side, but we met some new members and had fun seeing some old timers.

New member SARAH joined us for the first time. She’s an au pair from Germany who is part of a uni/juggling group back home. She was happy to borrow various unis and is planning to order one for herself while she’s in the States. She tried out the ultimate wheel (UW) and the Super Trick Cycle (STC) and worked on tricks with freestyle and trials unicycles, too.

Our street riders were out in numbers again. JAMES nailed a few crank-flips (including 4 in a row at one point, as long as I wasn’t looking) and worked on a trick called dikey walk. EMELE worked on heel-clicking, pogo sticking, and juggling. When I asked WILL what he was working on, he replied: “Looking as cute as Emele.” He and Emele also worked on catching flips early. JASON spent hours working on drops and hops and eventually flew down the 4 steps leading up to the Tomb’s quad. He also guts’ed it up to try some big drops, tho not with the same success. The four of them also worked on some jumps in the playground across the street.

My kids were at “Bye Bye Birdie” with their grandma, so our only under-13 was XIA, who worked on riding one-footed and on hopping. She’ll be riding like the street’ers soon enough. Her dad, PETER, hurt his back recently but still managed to try a few rides on a unicycle; he’s recently mastered the basics (yay!). He and Xia brought both her freestyle and the fat-tire uni that is mostly just for fun. I found that it was pretty good for wheel-walking.

Another person who has just learned is ZACHARY Z. He looked really good as he rode around the quad. Thanks for coming out again, ZZ!

BOB, the owner of the aforementioned pogo, also brought his super-strong giraffe. He rode both of those and also worked on riding my UW; he did pretty well with it.

Bob’s friend JAMIE tried uni’ing for the first time and did quite well. Other beginners include DEMI and KATHRYN. Kathryn worked on the basics for nearly two hours and did quite well by the end.

NIJA brought his fixed wheel bike and demonstrated some cool tricks on that. Then he borrowed a unicycle and rode around a bit.

Our wonderful, consistent pal KEN was with us once more, this time without his son or his usual car. Darius was staying home, and the car was in the shop. Ken had fun snapping photos and taking movies of some cool riding.

BILL had asked me to bring my guni so he could try it out. That’s my 29″ Schlumpf geared unicycle, and when it’s in high gear, it rides like a 45″ wheel. It was a bit long for him, but he managed to ride it quite well.

Bill brought along a friend, TIM, who has been riding since age 12 and who is now a professional performer. He juggles (5 balls) and unicycles (level 5+) and is really funny. Tim recently purchased the new titanium Nimbus. It’s super light and is truly a thing of beauty.

DYLAN came by for the first time in many moons. He rode a borrowed uni for a few minutes and basically just hung out with friends .

As for ME, I worked on crank idle, which is harder than expected with my new sneakers, and on some fun tricks on the STC.

Thanks to all who made the day so much fun!

It was a lovely day to unicycle at Grant’s Tomb, so I was surprised by the small-ish turnout.

We had an unannounced visit from a rider named KEVIN, visiting from Arkansas. He has a Coker back home but came sans unicycle. He tried out a few unis and enjoyed my Super Trick Cycle.

JAMES worked on seat drop/pick up. Very impressive as usual!

New member ERIC worked on perfecting his 360 unispin while his dad, WILLY, rode around a bit on his own. It’s nice when parents and kids enjoy the same sports.

Speaking of which, I was there with EMMETT and MAEVE. Emmett and I played with a basketball while riding around; he’s gotten good at no-look passes and over-the-head passes. He also worked on the STC. Maeve spent a little time on her puny uni, but most of her time was spent zooming around on her bike.

IRA is getting good at basics, as is ZACH the elder. What a difference some practice can make!

MARCUS came by again and had fun chatting with members he hadn’t met before.

XIA was in the Daily News with Mayor Bloomberg for Halloween. Here’s a link: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/brawlforthehall/2009/10/darth-vader-probably-not-votin.html Xia is the one on the right. Hint: She’s holding her unicycle.

We had a nice visit from my pal DAN, whom I met during my failed Century Ride in September. Dan was riding a recumbent bike back then, but this day he showed up with an amazing collapsible bike from the Brompton company of the UK. Here’s a link: www.brompton.co.uk/

ANDY came by and worked on some cool juggling and equally nifty unicycle tricks.

And our great pal KEN came over from Queens to photograph the whole affair as he always does. Thanks, Ken!

Weather permitting, we’re on for tomorrow as usual. And this time, we might have a camera crew once again. I’ll bring along my guni (per request), as well as a host of other unis. Don’t hesitate to ask if you’d like me to bring along a special unicycle.

See you soon!