Madfest

d.kathrens@genie.geis.com
Thu, 26 Jan 95 01:12:00 UTC


I went to Madfest last weekend in Madison WI. The Great Hall of
the Memorial Union on the campus of Wisconsin University was the scene of
much madness in the form of dozens of jugglers and unicyclists engaged in
a good-natured territorial war for floorspace. Balls, clubs, rings, beanbags,
hacky sacks and unicycles flew through the air with the greatest of ease.

Just as I arrived Friday night after an after-work road trip from Cedar
Rapids IA, I saw Bill Karbo, USA Member and Level 8 rider, come tearing
across the Great Hall on his unicycle. He came to a stop beside the 5 broad
marble steps leading up from the Hall floor to the corridor, hop twice and
then ascend the stairs like some cartoon character, one bounce per step and ride off down the hall. (I gotta learn this!)

I had the pleasure of meeting Karl Frankowski, Andy and Connie Cotter,
Bill Karbo and a bunch of other friendly unicycle folks. I benefitted
greatly from advice and helpful pointers from everyone. I came away from the
weekend having done five (count'em five) new skills for the first time:

1) side-hopped up one stair

2) hopped on pedals, seat held in front

3) one-footed idle, leg extended (well, off the frame anyway)

4) kick-up mount

5) jump mount

I had been working on the kick-up mount for some time but had gotten
stuck just short of actually accomplishing it. Andy Cotter gave me a tip
about pedal position & body position. Five minutes later I did it (!!!).

Several people asked me why I hadn't learned the jump mount yet, and my
answer was "Fear of pain!". It was explained to me that this is actually one
of the simplest and easiest mounts to learn once the fear factor has been
overcome. I applied my self-learning techique of breaking things down into
smaller pieces by holding my unicycle in front of me on the floor while
standing on the first step of a staircase and jumping _over_ onto the seat.
That was so doggone easy that I got bold and tried the real thing from floor
level. I succeeded on the first three tries in a row. This IS easy!

At noon on Saturday, we were given a room of our own and with equipment
supplied by the Twin City Unicycle Club, played unicycle floor hockey for
almost two hours. As a complete novice to hockey of any kind, let alone
unicycle hockey, I felt I was doing very good just to get a stick on the ball
once in a while before falling off. My main contribution to play was in
trying to stay OUT of the way of my team members and getting IN the way of
the other team. It was all for fun, no one keeping score, with several young
children playing right along with us so-called adults. And what a workout!
The next morning I woke up with a bunch of stiff muscles in my inner thighs, buttocks and lower back. Not quite painful but answering roll call loud and
clear. But a couple of hours of activity got me loosened up and stretched out again.

I was pretty burned out the rest of Saturday after playing and welcomed
the chance to sit still for 3 hours and watch the Public Show. The ticket
cost $4 and had to be the best entertainment bargain I have ever found.

On Sunday, Connie Cotter gave examinations. Karl Frankowski qualified
Level 7, five year old Dylan qualified Level 1, and lil' ol' me, almost to
the top of the hill at age 38, qualified Level 3.

I thought I was ready for Level 4 but to my surprise one skill kept me
from attempting it: the 360 degree turns within a one meter circle. I had
a lot of trouble doing the 180 degree turns for Level 3. I have done 180s and
360s many times before out goofing around, but I did them when I was ready,
not trying to aim for an arbitrary circle on the ground. When I was testing,
it seemed like my pedals were never in the right position when I got to the
designated circle. Connie also pointed out that some of the difficulty was
due to riding a 24" unicycle. So I will have to work on this to be ready in
time for the National Meet in Bowling Green OH this coming July.

Dennis Kathrens