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This is more important than wasting 7 minutes of your life on my last post

Apr 17th

Posted by Doug D in Uncategorized

Follow the link.

http://www.leagueofbikepolo.com/forum/general/2010/04/15/worlds-space-distribution

If you want to go to Berlin and show them how we do things, you have to do this first.

Valleys

Feb 15th

Posted by Doug D in Uncategorized

11 comments

As this blog approaches its two year mark I wonder if the future will look anything like the past.

I love bike polo. It’s as easy as riding a bike and it’s as stressing as doing eight things at once, while riding a bike. I always wanted other people to play bike polo with. And in some way I thought if I could show others what this sport is, what it looks like, how it’s played, and how many others that love it too, then I might never be at a loss to share a game with new, or old, friends. My history of using the internet to promote bike polo goes back further than when hardcourtbikepolo.com started in February of 2008. There were a few places I used going back to 2006 but the idea of my own blog seemed to be the best way to meet my goals. I wanted to be found easily, have the basic info available, like rules and how to build a mallet. Also to keep track of the variety of aspects close to bike polo such as news, events, products, and videos. And last but not least to show my photos. I like the way bike polo comes across in photography. I’m not a good writer in fact I’m terrible but when it comes to conveying ideas, I think the images of riders leaning on each other just to hit a little red ball, or the crossing of mallets so close to spinning wheels, arms stretched, teeth showing, or the shots of a small corner of the court with all six riders packed in and none are frozen in a parallel line to any other but all eyes are fixed on that little red ball. That ball is like a fox on a rail for us, for 10 minutes nothing means more. I love to even just watch bike polo.
As this sport has taken off in the last two years I’ve spent a lot of time on the internet, too much, just to keep up with all the growth and to do what I can to keep others up to date about it’s growth. I guess it’s been good. I have never said no to an interview or held my breath too long when I thought some shit needed to be said. I guess maybe I think I’ve tried to encourage others to try bike polo if they feel like it. But now I feel discouraged to be that person. I don’t feel discouraged to play, just to do the other things I’ve done besides play. Because this site that has my name on it, the biggest thing that I wanted to do is to add original content, I never liked all the blogs that do nothing but repost some content from some other site over and over again. If I don’t have original content I don’t have a reason to do this. Since most of the time I only write a little and try to post my best photos I consider my photography the base of my content. But, and this is the reason for all of this, I don’t feel like posting my photography of bike polo anymore. For two reasons. One, I don’t get the response I’d like to get. Because I can feel satisfied with a good photo wither it’s posted or not, the posting is really just a waste of my time. Sometimes it’s like I post them and then they sit there silent, almost like the energy is gone. The other reason is when I do post a photo someone will quietly swipe it if it’s of them or if it suits their need then chop it up, crop it to their liking and not tell me it’s being used or give credit.
There are other reasons too, a few, but there isn’t much reason to go over them here beyond saying that I’ll be working on other projects. At best I’m just going to take a break from this for a while, it is February after all. I have not posted anything original in a month so there has been nothing on here that can’t be found somewhere else. And like I said. I’m not a fan of sites that just repost shit from other sites. That being said there might be some reposting going on here because I’ll usually repost suggested topics upon request.
At worst this site will be static for however long.
This site will stay up at least two more years, I just renewed the URL. Maybe I renewed it for 5 years, I forget now.

That being said here are some of the links I look at when I want to see what’s going on in the poloverse.

As we all know there is League of Bike Polo but here are some (a lot of) other blogs…

Site updates

Jan 19th

Posted by Doug D in Uncategorized

As this reaches it’s two years of existing I had to move the site from a friends server to a new one. I made a few changes and I’m still working those out. During the move some things got lost. Like the photos in the how to build a polo mallet section, and a few images in older posts from near the beginning. I posted things the wrong way back then and they did not stand up to the switch. I’ll try to get it fixed.
I’m running a new theme for the site, that’s why it looks new. Tell me if it’s terrible. In the upper right corner there are a couple icons that will appear if you float the mouse there. They change the width of the content and the font size. Maybe find one that works for your screen and tell me if there are any problems. (for me I had to set the content to the narrow setting to be able to adjust the font setting. Then I changed the content width to fit the screen)
I added a calendar that I’m still trying to figure out, and a weather widget set to NYC.

I'm a regional rep elected to NA Hardcourt

Jan 17th

Posted by Doug D in Uncategorized

No comments

I am one of the regional reps elected to NA Hardcourt last week. Even though I have not made many posts about this here on hardcourtbikepolo.com I plan to be involved with the others and hope to see progress from the group.

If you are unsure what NA Hardcourt is Kev wrote something in Urban Velo that is a good starting point. Hardcourt bike polo gets organized.

I want to let everyone within the Eastside region know they can get a hold of me anytime if there is something you would like to talk about. Email me, I’ll give you my phone number and we can talk.

SE Sansin 40 Hole Hub

Jan 9th

Posted by Doug D in Uncategorized

No comments

SE Sansin 40 Hole Hub, originally uploaded by Sveden.

From Sveden’s Flickr.
Follow link for his description.

Benefit Auction for Mike "Grandma" McFadyen

Oct 14th

Posted by Doug D in Uncategorized

No comments

Please help and donate to get Mike “Grandma” McFadyen back on the street and back on his feet

Friday night, before all the LMM stuff started I was riding my bike on Canal in the city and found a fellow biker and NYC messenger at the intersection of Centre Street. He had been hit by a car and was in really bad shape. He was wearing a helmet and had brakes on his bike. The helmet saved his life and his bike is destroyed. It’s been five full days and he is still in the hospital. Some friends and family are hosting an auction to benefit Mike. If there is any way you can donate it would be greatly appreciated.

See info on the flier.

Mike, I’ve been thinking about you and hope you get well soon!

The Day Before The Melee

Oct 9th

Posted by Doug D in Art

2 comments

A few sneak peaks of what is to come.

Of course this is unauthorized and if I were playing in this clusterfork of an event I might lose points for the leaks, or who knows I might get points for pouring attention on them. Either way I’m still gonna stand back when Ken aka BEANO blows a gasket. Monday never seemed so far or felt such longing from one man. Maybe not many of you know this but he’s about to lose it. I saw him tonight and it looked like he didn’t even remember his name. And he needs a haircut worse that Adam ever did. He said he rode his bike across the country this summer but he looks like he’s been living in the subway tunnels. Speaking of tunnels, I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground about all this Los Marcos business and I heard that Los Marcos won’t be able to make it to their own event due to a tunnel collapse. But word has it one of them was on the right side and the other two are trapped or vice versa… not sure. I think there are gonna be so many wanna-be’s wearing dumb masks this weekend no one will even notice. Not after how wasted people are gonna get on FOUR.

On a 100% serious note, Ken needs tables for the food. Something at The Pit big enough to set all the food he’s feeding you. Any leads on tables.. or even some sawhorses and a unhinged door should be directed to him soon.

Also, I’m wanting to do another series of polo players and their gear this weekend. I might ask you for a few second to snap a flick or you could ask me.

The shirt.

The spork card

undisclosed

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Drips

Jun 8th

Posted by Doug D in Art

eric patton EP drips krink rag

I wish I had more time to keep this blog up to date but so many things in my life are changing right now. I took loads of photos at the 6th Mid-West polo tournament but some of them (over 250 images) got deleted due to a mistake I make with my memmory cards. Oops. I still had plenty to remember the weekend by. It was mostly action shots that i lost. Here is a link to some of the ones I turned on for public view on my Flickr photostream http://www.flickr.com/photos/24081430@N06/sets/72157618934858356/
This summer I’m going to be on a cross country bike ride and I’ll be away from any computer for most of that time. Posting and sharing photos may be less often, so you all know. I did just get back from the COG/MKE Bicycle Co. polo tourney in Milwaukee and I did get a few dozen shot out there but I think the guys at COG might want a few for an upcoming issue so for the time being I won’t have any here or on my flickr.

Speaking of the COG/MKE tourny I want to say Thanks! to Jake Newborn for hosting a great tourny and for letting my team and I sleep at his house. Drew at Milwaukee Bicycle Co. / Bens Cycle for putting so much time, effort, prizes, and help into this tourny. There is no way it would have been everything it was without you! And a personal thanks to RJ and the guys in the shop for letting me use the stand to reassemble my polo bike. Thanks to COG mag for presenting one of the best talent pools of polo players. The teams in Milwaukee were from all over! And all of them were the best of the best. Great new issue by the way, my boys in Dayton were stoaked to see the newest issue a little early. I also met the guys from Velocity who came out to see some first hand polo action.  OH! and thanks to Red Bull for sending out the Red Bull girls with some cold cans on Saturday and Sunday!
I keep thinking I should carry around a note book and make notes of some of the quotes i hear at these polo weekend events. I have a few funny things I heard floating around in my head. The collective group that gets together for these things really make my day. I’m gonna miss the next couple of tournys. But I can’t deny that I could use a break from polo in general. Riding from NY to CA with a group of strangers isn’t what I would think of first but it fell in my lap and I’m gonna run with it. Los Marcos may be my next tourny. See you there in NYC.

The photo above is EP see what he’s got going on over at Circles, Rust, Drips…

I have a ton of photos from Dayton…

May 27th

Posted by Doug D in Bike Polo

4 comments

The only problem is finding time and a good connection to upload them all. Then there is sorting and all the other little details that make me not want to sit in front of a computer. But here are the 6th Mid-West Bike Polo Champeenship winners, Beaver Boys (Kremin, Joe, Brian) from Milwaukee, WI. They finished on top of 27 teams from all around the mid-west, beating Madison A aka “Wisconsin B” (Ben H., Jonny H., Jon A.) in the final game 5-4.

This weekend was a load of fun for me! I got to team up with a pair of Dayton players I learned the game with a handfull of years ago. We had a blast tearing shit up on our home court. The game we, Wet Nitemaer, played against Triple Lex was one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. They had us by 3 points(?). Maybe it was 0-3 or 1-4 and it was a super fast paced game rushing up and down the huge rink. We got back in it and had them at 3-4 and it was about one min. left in the game. Having just gone back to our half after we scored Lexington was taking sweet time getting the ball back in play. Maybe because my team had regained momentum in the quickly closing game. I riped a turn at half court, sat on the line and yealled “Bring the ball over the line you pussies!!” The crowd was making so much noise too. One of them did bring it over and it got sent loose. Somehow it got in reach of Goldie who played the entire day on a freewheel brakeless mountain bike and he scored from beyond 3/4 court! Making it a 4-4 game. I think everyone watching went wild, I heard Goldies face was a explosion of joy. Brett, my other teammate was so happy he forgot we still had a hand full of seconds left to play. I saw Lex bring the ball back and got past me at the half court, and with a net open they retured with a game winning goal at the very end.

That was fun.

On Saturday there was the Gem City alleycat. 52 racer set to the streets of Dayton at 7pm from the polo courts and raced for the next 2 + hours. I called it that I was not aiming to win the polo because I had my sights on the race. I had the lead off the start and leading up to the 3rd check point till there was a mix up with East Babbit St. and West Babbit St. I went back and forth a couple times not finding the CP person with about 50 other racers ripping U turns right behind me. I had no idea where the CP was because they were NOT where they were suposed to be. And because of the way the race was set up, the CP was where you got a small slip of paper telling you where to go next, I had no idea where to go next!! Looking around in a panic and making calls to the organizers for the next 5 min. I got left behind by 20 or 30 other racer who had found the CP person without me knowing. Finally I got on my way. making it to the next check point late, I asked “how many?” the response was “oh man, i dont know A LOT“. I was not happy but I remembered  a conversation I had with a friend about not giving up. So I rode my ass off to get all 8 slips so I could get started on the first manifest and give some colorful words to the organizers. I did not ask how many were in front of me. I looked at the list of do-in-any-order CP’s and asked where Bacon St was. “look at your map” is the answer I got back.

I took off. I was basically alone for the whole time and with some stroke of luck and residual knowledge of Dayton streets from my Brown Street Subhouse food delivery days, I somehow did the list of CP’s in perfect order. Making my way back to the bar to find out if I was in the top 18 rider (only the top 18 would go on to the last manifest).

I was in first! I started the last manifest.

I stayed in first the entire time till the end. I was wooped, the hills and the felling of defeat slowed me down at times but I kept the pace because I had no clue how much time I had on anyone. When I made it back to the Century Bar for the finish I was about 10 min ahead of the next racers.

I know there is a bunch of other details I’m leaving out but I’ll add some more details with the photos I plan on posting up in the next few days.

Thank You Dayton Ohio Bike Polo!!!!

And here are the winners of The 6th Midwest Bike Polo Champeenship, Beaver Boys aka Team Pabst. Kremin, Joe, and Brian.

MKE Beaver Boys win 6th Midwest bike polo copy

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A short clip by 13angelo of ESPI 4

May 8th

Posted by Doug D in Uncategorized

49 comments



Bush, originally uploaded by 13angelo.

Hey Robbie, I know you won NACCC Polo 2008 but be careful not to rack up too many tourny wins or you might end up like me and get dogged by haters for the same thing you’re getting cheers for here. And I’m not pointing fingers at you. I like the play. You’re like the me of Canada.

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