Sunday 9 November 2008

Unicycle hockey practice.

On Fridays at ten, a handful of people old and young meet at the Jordan YMCA roller rink in Kowloon, Hong Kong. What brings them together? Their shared passion for uni-cycling, and playing hockey.....at the same time. If you've ever tried to ride a unicycle, you'll have some kind of idea of how utterly ridiculous this persuit is. If you havn't then give it a go, in two hours of falling and sweating, three metres was a personal best for me.

The rules are pretty much the same as ice hockey, and they play with ice hockey sticks too as it happens. Martin Turner, a key head and fellow ex-pat tells me that the sport does by no means just exist in Honk Kong, it's worldwide. The best teams are in Europe, particularly in Germany and Switzerland where they actually have leagues set up. This has to be one of the most bizarre sights of the sporting world, I can't think of much else that comes close.

Less than twenty four hours after getting off the plane I certainly didn't expect to be clinging to the side of a roller rink, dripping with sweat trying to manuveur a one wheeled bike whilst having a 9 year old cantonese girl firing tennis balls at me for a laugh.




1 comment:

selectronic said...

Girl got skills, look how small she is! Wonderful.