National

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 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.

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)