Dear IUF members,

We are happy to send you the first official IUF newsletter today. It is our goal to keep you updated with IUF work, important events and interesting stories around the sport of unicycling.

If you wish to contribute or have feedback for us, please email us at newsletter@unicycling.org. Please forward this newsletter to anyone interested. We are working on sign up and unsubscribe options for the next newsletter.

Happy New Year!

The IUF Team

In this newsletter

• Meet Olaf, the new IUF president
• Unicon 17 – News from the Organization Team
• Questions to a new world champion
• Unicon 16 DVD
• Upcoming Events

Meet Olaf, the new IUF president

Hello fellow unicyclists,

I would like to use the opportunity to introduce myself to you and say some words about the daily business of the IUF and our plans for the near future.
My name is Olaf Schlote, I am living near Cologne, Germany with my family. I am 45 years old and started unicycling 7 years ago. I got involved into the sport when my daughter started riding. Over the last seven exciting years I worked on implementing Flatland and Street as official competitions (togehter with Spencer Hochberg and Kevin McMullin) and invented the EUC (together with Yoggi). Beside, I organized several smaller Downhill races – just to name some milestones. For more then four years I have been a part of the IUF executive board now, which now elected me as the new president of the IUF. I am very happy about the opportunity and look forward to upcoming challenges.

Here are the main targets we decided to focus on in the next two years:

• Organize a great and successful next Unicon
• Introduce our sport to more people and more countries
• Work on international public recognition (Discovery Channel, X Games…)
• Build an official World Record Database
• Making the IUF a much more transparent organization

There are more issues in the pipeline and we are always open for your ideas. Feel free to contact the IUF at contact@unicycling.org.
Right now, we have a great rulebook committee running to update our rules for next Unicon. For the first time, the discussion is open to the public. We also changed the structure in order to involve more riders and to focus on the needs of each discipline. More than 100 people are working on the rulebook right now. Have a look at it and feel free to join the discussion here:http://rulebook.unicycling.org

When the new rulebook is finished, we will also create a new digital home for it, to make it easily accessible for anyone and in order to provide more functions and possibilities, especially for translators. Right now, we are looking for translation volunteers. We would like to make the rulebook available in Japanese, French, German and Spanish, but are open for any other language. If you would like to help translating, please send me an email to olaf.schlote@unicycling.org

Finally, I would like to thank all riders and volunteers around the world, who work every day in order to coach riders, organize conventions, develop new rules, or work in the background. Without you, the great changes or sport is experiencing would not be possible. Thank you!

Olaf

Unicon 17 – News from the Organization Team

Greetings to all unicyclists!
We are extremely happy and anxious to host the next world unicycling championships and convention in the heart of beautiful Montreal!

Already, we are working hard in order to make sure that Unicon 17 will be an amazing event for everyone attending. It will be the first Unicon held in North America since Unicon 11 in 2002. We are also proud to announce that we will host the North American Unicycling Convention just before Unicon.

Just how great is Montreal for a unicyclist like you?
Montreal is THE great city for unicycle riding, no matter what type of riding you practice; from the Mount Royal mountain for muni, to downtown street riding, all the way to distance riding down the long cycling paths of Montreal, to the gyms available for freestyle riders – everyone will find a spot to practice what they love most, with the people who share the same passion.

Bringing such a huge event to a city as populated as Montreal is a great chance to expose our growing sport and its diverse disciplines to the public – and we have plans to expose it to as many people as possible.

As far as tourist attractions go, Montreal offers a great variety of places to visit: Museums, historic venues, our various cultural districts such as China Town or Little Italy, LaRonde, our big amusement park, and our city’s countless festivals – to name only a few. Our metropolis also features a huge public transportation network, involving easy and cheap access to our award winning metro and our bus transport system, which will make visiting Montreal an easy and pleasant experience.

Through Unicon 17, our main goal will be to share Quebec’s unique culture with unicyclists from around the globe, and on the other hand, to share our unicycling passion to the French Canadian population. Given that we are the only French-speaking province in North America, participants to our event will be sure to discover a very special city.

By now, you might be drooling a little to find out what the exact dates of Unicon 17 will be. The good news is, we have fixed the dates already! Unicon will be held July 31st to August 12th 2014. The weather in Montreal at that time of the year is great for riding, with a monthly average temperature of 24°C / 75°F!

Now that you we’ve made you wish you could fast forward to Unicon 17, you might also be wondering about certain information we haven’t yet confirmed and talked about. Soon, we will have an official Unicon 17 website, as well as newsletters coming out for 2013. They will include information about:

• Accommodations
• Venues / locations
• Two top secret projects on which we’re already making progress… and which you won’t want to miss!

We have created two Facebook pages for you to be able to stay up to date and to address the topics you care about:

• UNICON 17 Suggestions & Ideas: https://www.facebook.com/groups/224547257673881
• UNICON 17 https://www.facebook.com/Unicon17

If you don’t use Facebook, or would like to help us by volunteering please send us an email: info@unicon17.ca

Truly and unicyclingly yours,
Unicon 17 Organization Team

Questions to a new world champion

Janna Wohlfarth (20) won the individual freestyle expert competition at Unicon 16.

Congratulations! Your routine was regarded the world’s best female routine this year. What did it look like?
Thanks! The theme of my routine was “The Simpsons”. I rode my unicycle as Marge Simpson with the crazy  blue hair. On the stage with me were friends who were dressed up as Maggy, Lisa, Bart and Homer. The music was the Simpsons theme and other Simpson songs.

What was it like to hear the results? What did you think?
To hear the results was unbelievable. I thought “They cannot actually mean me.” I was irritated, excited, and very happy.

Have you had any titles before? Did you expect to win?
No, not worldwide. I won some national competitions in Germany, this year and the year before. But never at a Unicon. I knew my routine went good, and I was very happy about that. But I didn’t expect to win.

How did you practice for this competition?
I started practicing the routine last winter. I practiced three or four times a week and when I was done with my high school exams, I was able to practice a couple of hours every day. It was very exhausting, but also a lot of fun. I put a lot of risky skills into the routine, and hoped that they would work in the competition – they did.

What do you do right before a competition? Any secret methods?
Just before a competition, I’ll find a quiet spot to sit down all by myself. I’ll listen to the music oft he routine and go through it in my head. On the day of my competitions I am usually very nervous. But once I am on stage, it is all gone and I am very focused.

What is your favorite thing about unicycling?
It is fun to ride with other people and give inspiration to each other. I like doing pairs routines with my sister or brother. And I love to come up with the routine. When unicycling, I can relax and be creative – that is what I love most about it.

Unicon 16 DVD

Unicyclist, artist and filmmaker Jess Riegel spent the days of Unicon 16 in Brixen filming all the big and small exciting moments of the event. He now released the beautifully edited DVD:

“Unicon 16 Brixen delivers a comprehensive view of the sport of unicycling as it documents the Unicycling World Championship & Convention in Brixen, Italy. Celebrating the spirit of unicyclists from all over of the world, the film captures the essence of competitions in mountain unicycling, trials, distance, freestyle, flatland, street, basketball, hockey, track and more. Fused with a uniquely Riegel soundtrack, Unicon 16 Brixen will entertain, inform, motivate and inspire!”

Watch the trailer and buy it here: http://jessriegel.com/

Upcoming Events

Winter EUC

Extreme Unicycle Championships in Cologne, Germany, January 18^th – 20^th 2013, http://e-u-c.info/winter13/

LAUCC

Latin American Unicycling Convention and Championships, Costa Rica, February 1^st – 3^rd2013, https://www.facebook.com/laucc.unicyclechampionship

Eurocycle

European Unicycle Championships, Langenthal, Switzerland, May 9^th – 12^th 2013, http://www.eurocycle2013.ch/

Düsseldorf Marathon

Unicycle Marathon, Düsseldorf, Germany, April 28. 2013, http://www.rmsv-duesseldorf.de/einrad/marathon/marathon13_en.html

NAUCC 2013

Unicon 17

Unicycle World Championships and Convention , Montreal, Canada, July 31st – August 12th 2014, https://www.facebook.com/Unicon17

If you are hosting an event, please send us some information about it so we can put it on the IUF website and in this newsletter to newsletter@unicycling.org

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Thanks for reading. Happy riding!