bbraf wrote:
> If you really look at the programme, you will see that it is all there.
> We do our best to make everyone happy, at least a bit. By doing so, I
> learnt these month, you end up having everyone complaining ...
The larger your task, and the more people it involves, the more chance
you have of people complaining. No matter what you do. It is basically
not possible to please everybody, and this is a good thing to get used
to early, before it causes you too much stress. Just remember it's
*your* convention. The IUF provides the structure, but does not "own"
it. Outside of what's required by the rules, the local organizers have
final say over what events are held, what events are added, and what
events are not possible due to time, cost, manpower, etc. Then your
guests (the attendees) can decide whether they want to come or not.
Some will come and still complain. Most don't realize they are doing
it, but take up too much of your time anyway. You need to know when to
tell them to get over themselves and leave you alone. Especially be on
the lookout for non-objective parents and coaches. They can cause the
worst trouble of all. Remember the officials have the power to eject
people from events, and the organizers can eject them from the venue if
necessary.
joemarshall wrote:
> I do still think it's weird to only have downhill and not have a cross
> country muni race, which is really the 'gold standard' for competitive
> muni riding. The XC downhill, it says 'rideable on a street unicycle',
> which presumably means one with a slick tyre...
Please remember the "requirements" for MUni events at a Unicon are
zero. Nothing. Though the market for this area of riding has grown
rapidly, the competition end has not kept up. Why? You can start by
counting the number of competition events, then muliplying it by the
number of age groups to be used. Then don't forget to double that to
account for male and female. The numbers are pretty staggering. So
adding *anything* is usually hard for organizers.
MUni started as an add-on (at Unicon IV, 1988), and has been considered
one ever since. I believe this needs to change. But when we talk about
it here, we need to remember this is a MUni/Trials/Street-biased
newsgroup, and the track and artistic areas are under-represented here.
There are a lot of those people out there, and they train really hard.
However, I believe we need to re-think the relative importance of some
of our events compared with their interest level around the world. And
this varies greatly by country. In Japan, track racing used to be the
main event, and it's still the largest one, but Freestyle is also huge.
Some countries (most notably the more recent additions) don't do these
at all and have swiftly growing communities of offroad riders.
Race length:
There is a growing number of long distance riders who would like the
chance to show their power, while (until this year) the IUF still
called 10k a "marathon." On a 24" uni it kind of is, but we have bigger
wheels now. When you're riding a 29" or 36", longer distances make more
sense. I love the addition of a full marathon, and look forward to the
chance to try one (if I have a big enough wheel). Intermediate
distances are possible as well, but if held on roads, these events are
very complicated (and can be expensive) to set up.
Longer offroad events would be nice as well, for some riders. So far
this is a minority of riders but their numbers will continue to grow.
Everybody please remember that a XC MUni race is *not* like a typical
MUni ride for fun. There are many factors to consider, depending on who
will be in the race. At Unicon you have to consider many things:
- Some riders will be very experienced and have the best equipment
- Some riders will be trying it for the first time, possibly on 24"
street unis
- New riders and new countries should be encouraged to try, so they can
take this experience back home and possibly build up MUni there
- Riders of all skill levels will be pushing themselves to the limit,
which means lots of dismounts
- There will probalby be a lot of riders, which limits the amount of
narrow singletrack you can use. Singletrack that's great for a nice
ride can be impossible for passing in an actual race--I speak from
experience.
- Because many of your riders may be inexperienced, and due to large
numbers of riders, the course can't bee too technical because this can
cause bottlenecks, injuries, and people being forced to ride on
impossible lines through crowded technical sections.
- Long or steep uphills slow the pack down a lot, and tempt many riders
to get off and run, making it less of a unicycle race. There is a limit
to how much of a course can be monitored by live officials, and it's
usually nice to keep the pace from being too slow.
Ultimately, we will have different events for different levels of
rider. We're not there yet. When we do this, we'll have to have a way
to decide who can enter which ones as well.
2004 MUni events in Japan:
The organizers of Unicon 12 had very little MUni experience, and spent
many months trying to nail down a location that could hold our numbers,
and provide space (and permission) to do all the stuff we wanted to do.
They almost had to cancel. Most Japanese unicyclists aren't interested
in MUni. They are either indoor Freestylers or track racers. Most still
aren't interested. Maybe this is due to lack of trails, or trails that
are too far away from population centers. I don't know. Notice also
that at Unicon 12 there were very few Japanese competitors on the
MUni/Trials day. Most Japanese riders treated Unicon as one or two
weekend events (the traditional Japanese events) and many ignored the
midweek stuff. Of course it was Japanese rider Kobayashi, a track
racer, who won all the MUni races though.
So riders have to decide if a unicycle convention contains the
ingredients that work for them. Remember, competition events are only
the surface layer. There is meeting the people, the whole social scene
after hours, workshops, meetings, and tons of informal or
non-competitive riding. That's the real "substance" of a good unicycle
convention. At NAUCC last summer in the flatness of Ohio, we even had a
few non-scheduled Coker rides and Trials tours of Bowling Green. I
*can't wait* to ride some Swiss MUni trails with international groups
of unicyclists, and not in races.
--
johnfoss
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" --
www.unicycling.com
"Read the rules!" -- 'IUF Rulebook'
(
http://www.unicycling.org/iuf/rulebook/) -- 'USA Rulebook'
(
http://www.unicycling.org/usa/competition/)
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