A blue Northcote sky in the early afternoon saw the concrete warming up for a top day of street unicycling at the local skate park. A collection of riders from Melbourne, regional Victoria and interstate made the journey to compete at one of the few events held for street riders in Australia.
The spectators arrived early whilst the competitors turned up at a more traditional time (in the unicycle world) of about one hour after the official start. The riders spent some time warming up and familiarising themselves with the Northcote skate park before the competition began in earnest.
After a short rider briefing, our judge Luke Collalto took up pen and paper as the first competitor George took to the course. The only entrant in the “Masters” category, George put on a solid display of basic skills. After his two minutes was up Isaac rolled on and attempted some technically difficult tricks. Isaac had pulled off some admirable moves in the practice but found the pressure of live competition a challenge. A newly moustached Dan followed; he impressed the crowd with a drop in from the top of the quarter pipe and a well executed sequence of manoeuvres. Joe put on an excellent performance but struggled under the pressure of trying to match the world class efforts of Dan. Sam laid down some great moves, working hard to make the most of the course despite the limitations of the Northcote venue. After some last minute repairs to his vehicle, Andrew was the last man to make his way onto the course. A lesser rider might have been intimidated by the high standard of the previous riders but this did not bother Andrew who knew what needed to be done to make the final round.
Judge Luke tallied up the scores and announced the top three riders going through to the final round – Sam, Andrew and Dan. With reputations to uphold and prizes to be won all three riders dug deep to make the most of their final runs. Furious crank flipping and epic rail grinds brought the intense competition to a head. Once the final call of time had rung out across the pavement our judge swiftly added up the scores on his abacus. Sam and Andrew scored third and second respectively whilst Dan’s monster effort put him into first place.
Well done to all the riders who competed, we look forward to seeing you at the next UniNats. A massive thank you goes to Luke for judging the event and Bill for capturing the action on camera. Special thanks of course to Unicycle.com Australia for generously providing the prizes.