New Year New Wheel Cover

Playing Polo makes me happy, so I made a happy wheel cover. It is a good thing too because the wheel that it is covering is kinda old-how many years I am not sure as it came from the bicycle mt.
If it were not for the great guys at Accent Cycle trueing it up I am sure that the wheel would not have been possible.
There may be an excess of zip ties holding things together as well. One day I will learn the ways of the wheel cover but for now I will just keep it simple.
There was a small number of people out for polo on Thursday but that is to be expected as there are only a small number of people that know about Bike Polo in Lethbridge. It was fun none the less, and it is good that I had the new cover on as Dustin had some hard shots.

Code Generators, New Mallets and Twitter

I am about to embark on a polo sales blitz. I am going to try and sell the idea of bike polo. I say, 'tiz the season for bike polo to get under way, yet so many people do not know that bike polo even exists. That needs to change, because of how great this sport is! When people do hear about it they may have any number of questions; all can be answered by just getting out and playing it. Regarding the borg cube above , I just could not resist using a free QR code generator to brew up this code for putting a new spin on things.

Can you say new mallets? I hope so because it is not that hard to say. HA HA Ha ha. Where did that come from, you may ask? Well, after long deliberation I think that in part it came from me asking my kids if they can say different words. Back to the topic at hand: I have made some new mallets for anyone to use, so feel free to show up and join in on a game. These are top quality mallets, not the cheap imitations you may find somewhere else.

Twitter, I am using it now to follow some people that I think are interesting; I also think it will be a good tool to let people know of game times and places, etc. So, if you are interested look up underbridgepolo for that and more. I will be posting game info soon.

Bicycle Mountain Is No More

The year is now 2011. The snow has not melted completely since it first began to fall last year and the Bicycle Mt. has been lost to the wheels of time. If you want you can contact me, I can fill you in on the lore of what it is like to walk on top of a bicycle mt.

In other news winter has been winter and not having any indoor facilities has slowed us down, but the snow is starting to melt and the courts will soon be cleared. This year it is my hope that people will see that polo is a fun social sport that is open to anyone that can ride a bike. To that effect I will be redoubling my efforts to inform the general public that bike polo exists. So if you have not seen a live game of bike polo look us up and feel free to join in for a game. Everyone has to start somewhere. The sooner you start the sooner you will see how much fun it is... addictive too.

The North American Bike Polo Championships are going to be held in Calgary this year. The Dates from what I know are going to be Aug 4th to the 7th. You can find more info here: www.2011nahbpc.org/ I went to watch a tourney ( Area 51 bowl ) last year, and it was great so a championship this year will be awesome.

The Year Of Plenty

Good day all,

Well actually today was crappy. Nevertheless it is the year of plenty and I have the pictures to prove it. I am stocked with all kinds of mallet and bike making materials. First of all I know someone at Atco that has been very generous and has gone out of his way to supply me with the goods. Then there is a co-worker of mine that has found a mother load of ski poles... "and there is more where that came from"... who has also donated this first batch to me for the cause of polo. Finally a small mountain of bikes can be located on hwy 36 at the north east corner of Taber, Alberta. I like to think of it as a sort of mecca for poor bike polo pilgrims. You should have seen how many I got on the roof rack too. Ha. Some winter projects for sure and a summer one if I can get some wheels going on.

3.2.1. POLO!!!

Bike polo gears up in the city

So here it is the article from the Sun Times, and in other news I was recently presented with a LARGE AMOUNT of Yellow HDPE , pictures coming soon. Thanks to the presenter of the HDPE and thanks again Scott and Alisha for the article! Local Content

Written by Scott Schmidt for the Sun Times

Wednesday, 14 July 2010 15:12

Scott Schmidt For the Sun Times There are several reasons why the average Lethbridge resident doesn’t play polo. For starters, we’re not in England. Second, riding a horse is hard enough; trying to do it one-handed while focusing intently on a small ball six feet below you is almost silly. And last, most people associate polo with the wealthiest of classes, while the average Lethbridge resident — by definition — probably doesn’t drive a Rolls-Royce, employ a gardener or call their pomeranian Muffy. However, if you could take away all the stereotypical reasons why someone in southern Alberta might not be able to play, the sheer sport of polo is quite intense and intriguing. Discover bike polo. The game is exactly the same as polo on horseback except for a few equipment differences — both obvious and subtle. And if Nathan Neudorf has anything to say about it, you’ll be seeing it played more and more around here, as he hopes to grow the sport as much as possible. “At this point we’re just trying to get the word out there and get more players coming out,” says Neudorf. “Eventually we’d like to start a league. For now, I’ve got a blog started giving people information about how to play and what it is. “If people are coming (to play) regularly then they can look on there to see where we’ll be and at what time.” That blog can be found at www.lethbridgebikepolo.blogspot.com. What might appeal to the masses most is how basic the sport is, as far as what’s needed to participate. If you have something to ride with only two wheels, you’re just about ready to go already. In fact, Neudorf says helmets weren’t even sanctioned in the sport until just recently, which is interesting considering the most popular bike polo surface is hard-court, like a tennis court or arena floor. “There aren’t too many rules either so it’s fun,” says Neudorf. “But it’s not really a contact sport, which is to say you’re not going to check somebody but you can kind of push them out of the way. You don’t check them; you nudge them over a little bit. “Usually you play to five points and you can actually get to five pretty quick. On average, within 20 minutes or less.” The mallets used are also quite simple. While regular mallets are long and generally made of wood or composite materials, a bike polo mallet is simply a ski pole cut down to a desired size, with a piece of pipe attached at the end. And instead of a ball made from high-intensity plastic or inflated leather — as is the regular polo way — bike polo goes all-Canadian by implementing the orange hockey ball as its game piece and pylons as the goal posts. It’s truly available to anyone. “We’ve been out five or six times now just in parking lots,” says Neudorf. “It’s generally a three-on-three sport but we’ve played two-on-two. “Right now I’m just in the process of finding places to play regularly. But anyone can drop in and play with us, I have enough mallets for anyone who shows up.” A colleague of Neudorf’s, who also plays, has come up with a logo for Lethbridge bike polo and the two have put up posters in various locations around the city, including the university. You can also contact Neudorf directly by visiting the blog.

Current Events

Exciting news the Lethbridge Sun Times did an article about bike polo. Form what I have heard they did a very good job. I have read it too and if I new nothing about bike polo I would want to know more about it after reading that article. Thanks to Alisha Sims and Scott Schmidt for making it happen. You can find it on page 12 of the Wednesday paper.

Area 51, the Calgary Hardcourt Bike Polo Tournament this past weekend was great to watch now if only Lethbridge can get a team together for next year. There were 16 teams, mostly from Alberta, some from Vancouver, one from Wisconsin. Games were played to a score of 5 points on the two outdoor arenas. Players had fun and spectators had fun. There were some mock vuvuzela noises from the crowd to liven things up as players fought for points on the court. All I can say is this stuff should be televised. If only I had not been so hasty to get there I might have remembered to bring the camera for a picture or two.

Polo Tournament In Calgary

So the time has come for the gathering of the two wheeled horse riders to lay down the gauntlet and battle. GO HERE for more info: http://www.leagueofbikepolo.com/3rd-annual-area-51-bowl-2010