Where it all Started

It was London, actually.  And this tournament in particular:  

BFF 2009 Bike Polo Tournament Final from Iain Pate on Vimeo.

Well, more than just the tournament, it was the community and the people and the films and the city all combined into one that led me to love bicycle polo.  The Bike Polo Tournament at the London Bicycle Film Festival in September 2009 was the beginning of my addiction to bicycle polo because the community was so strong and the people were kind.  Plus the polo was amazing.  People slaying and people playing some of their first games for hours and hours and hours at the Downham courts.  The day before the tournament, we played all day.  The day after, too.  

Go London.  Keep up the good work.  I'll see you at the Worlds.   

French Bike Polo

The bike polo tournament being held in conjunction with the Bicycle FilmFestival in Paris is scheduled for this weekend, but unfortunately I will not be able to attend. Fortunately, however, I will be spending time with the girl I love in an equally awesome city: Berlin.

But in keeping with the spirit of French Bike Polo, check out the following newscast. It's all in French, but if it was in English, you wouldn't be able to fully absorb that French Polo Spirit. Then again, maybe most of you would be able to understand it....

Once you get past the commentary the video is quite nice.



If anyone has a link to the video short 'Polo Manual' currently traveling the world with the Bike Film Festival, send it my way. My understanding is that 'Manual' is a teaser for a longer film about Bike Polo: the culture, the people, the bikes, the moves and the rules. It was made by a Londoner, so I think it focuses particularly on London. Still, it's a very nice snapshot of the game and the culture.

Eindhoven!

Yesterday I had the great pleasure of participating in the Polopalooza bike polo tournament in Eindhoven alongside 11 other teams from around Europe. London won, of course. You can read more about their polo scene here.

For a full report on the Polopalooza tourney and the subsequent Rollapalooza event, see the Eindhoven Fixed Gear site.

But check out this video...Yours truly is seen scoring a goal in the opening scenes!

London Part I

If you'd told me before I left Memphis that I would develop an acute passion for playing bicycle polo, I would have called you crazy; or at least confused.

But after having spent the better part of the last month playing a couple times a week in Amsterdam, the unforeseen has become reality: I absolutely love playing bike polo.

After using a mallet from the collective batch of mallets forged by the Amsterdam bike messengers at Infinity Express, I decided I needed to build something of my own. While the other mallets worked fine, (a bit beat up, sure, but that just gave them character!) I really wanted to have the experience of finding the materials for a mallet and piecing it together myself.

After asking around about materials, I found that Straight Edge Pat, a lovely polo player in the Amsterdam scene, had all the necessary parts for a mallet. Within a day, I had purchased the necessary parts: a ski pole, a piece of gas pipe, handlebar tape and a bolt.
What I didn't have was a drill and the drill bits required to make the mallet, so I scurried over to Infinity Express for some help. Lester is pictured here helping me get the mallet head straight. Though we tried, the finished product was about as straight Forrest Gump's childhood legs. Still, it wasn't bad for a first go.

I met a fantastic young lady named Bianca at the bike polo tournament held in Amsterdam a couple weeks ago, and she encouraged me to come to a tournament being held in London during the bike film fest. Intrigued, I began making plans....

First, how to get the bike there. My friend South African James suggested a bike bag, which I could claim as luggage if I took the bus. So, I bought a EuroLines bus ticket to London, snagged the bike bag, and made ready for my trip across the English Channel.

At the bus station, I disassembled my bicycle to fit it inside the bag. The wheels had to come off along with the pedals and handlebars, so I used a crescent wrenches and a hand tool to make the bike into a packable shape.
On top of the wheels you can see the shaft of my freshly assembled bike polo mallet.
Feeling quite proud of my work, I boarded the bus at 22:30 for an 8 hour overnight trip to Great Britain.

I slept well on the bus, which started out nearly empty in Amsterdam, but grew steadily more packed as we made stops in coastal Dutch towns and Belgium. By 1 a.m., the bus was packed, and I found myself next to a nice lady who smelled of fried onions. She must have had a sandwich or something in her luggage.

When I arrived at the Bow Road station in London via the Victoria Station it was 8 a.m. This was wicked early for my host, Emily, who had enjoyed the festivities surrounding the Bicycle Film Festival until just a few hours before he came to pick me up. A super sweet guy, Em, and one hell of a bicycle polo player.
I found this poster just outside the Bow Road station. London has done a lot to improve the image of cycling over the last five years, concurrently alongside the improvement of their bicycle infrastructure, and I really like this message: catch up with the bicycle! It's a bit like saying, "get with the program yall! The bike is the only way to fly!"

On the day I arrived, I asked Em what was on the day's agenda. His reply was simple: "playing polo." Indeed. Polo was played, and competitively at that, for almost a full 8 hours.
I brought my mallet and threw it into the grand shuffle, which is exactly as it sounds: a grand shuffling of all the polo mallets which results in the separation of teams. The mallets are separated into groups of three, and then each group faces off against another. The gentleman pictured above, presiding over a grand shuffle in later afternoon, had his hands full.
The tournament started bright and early the next day with close to 30 teams registered. You can (sorta) see them listed here on the blackboard.
Because polo is often a fierce game, Brixton Cycles--a full blown worker owned bicycle cooperative--sent out a mechanic to help repair any broken bikes. Nat, the Brixton mechanic, rode a Surly Big Dummy to the event with a complete tool set (and truing stand!) on the extended rear rack. It was quite impressive.
My team, "Lopsided Titillating Loins," won in the first round. You can see our abbreviated name (Lopsided) advanced to play (polo) "Fiasco," a team of three youngsters that did REALLY well in the tournament. And because 2 of the 3 were barely at drinking age, the team was a crowd favorite throughout the night.
Fiasco defeated us 5-3 in the second round, which put our team in the losers bracket where after winning one game we played team Zombie--veterans of London Bike Polo. We lost to Zombie, 5-2. I managed to maintain my dignity throughout the day largely because our record in the tournament was 2-2--not bad for a French guy, an American guy and an Australian guy who had never played as a team before!
After many, many games of polo, an intermission was had in which the stepper bikes (pictured here) squared off with an all girls team on BMX bikes.

A good time was had by all.

Stay tuned for part II of the London post!

Car Free Sunday in Amsterdam

Car Free Sunday was surprisingly not so car free in Amsterdam. Sure there were a ton of activities celebrating the myriad modes of alternative transportation, but there were also a lot of "bio" cars showcased throughout the city. I participated in a parade sponsored by the Fietsersbond that was half bikes and half cars powered by non petroleum based fuels. To be fair, I think the day was also designated as "clean air day," but it was nonetheless ironic to ride a bicycle next to cars in a car free day parade.

I eventually peeled off from the parade to join up with the fixed gear guys and gals to spend the afternoon playing bicycle polo. Some fellows from Arnhem, Netherlands brought a proper polo court and we had a 4 or 5 hour tournament. One of them made this nice little video showcasing the tournament and car free day:

Car Free Sunday in Amsterdam. from cavin on Vimeo.

Because my team lost in the first round and never got to play again, I had plenty of time to make a few pictures at the tournament. I was, however, flattered when later in the tournament I was asked to stand in for one of the oldest bike messengers in the city (Fish). Our team lost again, but hey, bike polo aint easy.
The proper court in all of its glory. Metal Madness. The Bad Brains were playing quite a bit this afternoon, interspersed with some Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg from time to time for good measure. Ah, it felt almost like home: punk rock and gangsta rap! Lester is picture in the foreground here with the blue disc wheel. The man can play some polo, yall. He also has a frame building internship at RIH, a local framebuilding company here in Amsterdam. This in addition to his responsibilities as a bicycle messenger with Infinity Express. Marc from Amsterdamize on a fixed gear. Who would have thought this day would come? At least he doesn't own the bike. In fact, I think he rode it just for the publicity.
This fellow, from Arnhem, was ticketed for taking a leak in the canal. Happens to the best of us, I suppose.
South African James gettin' some play.
Sipe, whose arm is pictured here, later went to the hospital for the injuries he sustained on this fateful afternoon.
Packing up the polo court at day's end.

***************************************************************************

After the polo tournament, we headed to the Pristine Fixed Gear Shop to take a look at some pictures made of the fixie kids.

Here are a couple of note (mostly because I'm in them ;):
This is a picture of a picture, but you can still see me to the right, glancing down at who knows what. It was gettin' kinda crazy by this point....
This was my fierce look. To my right is an Australian fellow, while behind me is Fish, a really nice guy and a pretty famous European messenger. Fish has worked in major cities across the world delivering stuff on his bike.

And finally, the picture you've all been waiting for:
Last night, after polo, we headed to the Centuirbaan Squat. The squat has a give away store (GAS), and this was what happened when we started digging through the piles.

Among my finer moments, I do say.