Archive for June, 2008
HellCat NYC, All Girls Alley Cat
Jun 30th
An all girls Alley Cat that started and finished at Tompkins Square Park. Can anyone tell me the official results, and total number of racers?
All Photos © Doug D 2008
BUT MOMMY I WANNA TAP OVER THERE
Jun 28th
Ya bunch of babies wanting to have a choice when you are being penalized.
A. Tough shit, just go ring the bell and get back in.
B. One bell is the best way to keep track of dabbers tapping in.
C. You’re telling me a player has to tap the far side bell even if they dab near the closer bell, YEAH RIGHT, how are you going to regulate that.
D. More than one bell just decreases the time that a dabber is out of the play, and I tried damn hard to get them to dab. Well hold on, maybe you all are onto something here. The faster you tap in, the faster I can check you onto your ass again. If that’s the way you want it….
E. But, when all else fails. Keep it simple.
So yeah, One tap in point is all that’s needed, any more is just being soft.
Foot to Ball Rule
Jun 27th
Can a player use their foot to play the ball?
This is not a question we should be discussing this late in the game. I know different places play by different rules and in other sports there are rules that some might want to adopt into bike polo. Say we talk about hockey, well from what I know about hockey they are not talking about the foot really, more like the skate. And in hockey the skate is on the ice and the ice is the surface the puck is on, so puck to skate is going to happen. But in bike polo we are talking about the foot and the foot belongs on the pedal and on the pedal is where it should stay. In bike polo we have a little thing called foot down, you’ve all heard of it I’m sure. Now I know in a few instances when I have about lost balance, my foot has lifted off my pedal and floated around as I’m trying to regain a control of my bike then I set it back on the pedal, not a foot down. But never have I taken my foot off the pedal to play, stop, or move the ball then put it back on the pedal. At least not any times that I was making a legal play that I didn’t get booed for and have to tap out afterwards.
At CMWC there was a play in a game that I was involved in where a player on the other team played the ball with their foot and did not treat that as if it was a footdown. I was a bit upset that I had essentially got the ball out of control of the other player and then he put his foot down low enough to stop the ball, that’s when I called foul.
Weeks, maybe months ahead of time the basic rules for the tournament were posted on the CMWC web site http://www.cmwc2008.com/bikepolo.html and even thought it’s not actually referred to as “rules” in Canada, up there they call it “etiquette”. Maybe that’s a French word,? I don’t know, anyway here is what it says.
2. DABBING: To “DAB” is to have one’s foot touch the ground while in play. A “DABBER” must tap out at one of the two points placed at opposite sides of the court. To play the ball with one’s foot is also considered DABBING.
“To play the ball with one’s foot is also considered DABBING” For those of you confused, “dabbing” is Canadian for footdown. And street beggars don’t ask for a dollar, they ask for “a looney” but that’s a whole ‘nother story. Anyway to finish my point, the rule does not go into details about what is and what isn’t cool. Just one simple foot to ball = footdown. Now I know that just before the tournament games began there was a brief explanation of the rules. If there was some new adjustment to this rule given at that time I guess between all the other talking and more pressing rules, like ball joint and behind the goal issues, maybe I missed it. But that still doesn’t change the fact that playing the ball with your foot is cheap, and if in a poll of all dedicated hardcourt bike polo players, I feel confidant that the majority would agree with me that it should not be allowed.
Also, what the F is up with two the tap out points? This is the stupidest thing in bike polo. Even the guys in Los Marcostan play with one tap out point and those guys are D-U-M-B. Seriously, if you’re going to put a tap out on the right side and the left side of the court at least make it interesting and have people that footdown with their left foot go to the left side to tap out and vise versa.
And just to end this I want to point out that the other player in the game described is a friend and damn good polo player, the situation basicly only came up because we were used to playing by our home court rules.
May your wheels roll true to and from the courts. See you Sunday.
THE (as in Theeeee) Question?
Jun 26th
Q. How many bike polo web sites does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. Maybe just one more.
This Is Begging For a Caption
Jun 25th
Can you give this a caption or quote?
The real story, from quickrelease.tv is boring, lets make jokes.
Just An Observation
Jun 24th
Question, What Should be a Penalty?
Jun 23rd
What should be a penalty? (as suggested by Alexis)
So, I guess the question is….
If in this lovely game of bike polo, players were to find themselves playing with little or no regard for our slim set of rules and/or the few accepted codes of etiquette, what is it that shall be done?
I’m seeing two parts to this question. The first part is what should be a penalty?, and the second part is, what should be done?
The rules outlining the tap back in penalty are pretty clearly defined, but in what case(s) should more be required? And if more is required, what should the more be?
If you’d like to leave a comment please note the city where you play. Thanks.
Worlds as I remember it.
Jun 22nd
Follow me on a journey…
We left New York around 8pm Friday and got to Toronto about 5:30am Saturday morning. Good thing we had Red Bull as a sponsor.
After about an hour of sleep we all got to the island and the polo area looked like this for the next two days.
This is my friend Nick from Dayton, he stood still while I took his photo.
The heads running the CMWC said everybody had to wear helmets.
So, yeah.
Some bike polo was played, some people got schooled. By Jen.
But while some people played polo, some other people just hung out.
This is Zach. As it was raining I had time to remember that if our team name wasn’t Doug and the Darlrymple’s it was going to be Zach and the come guzzlers.
This was cool. As it was raining the courts steamed and a bunch of people took pictures, I did too.
When it stopped raining this guy got out there and swept the water off the court. I just kept taking pictures.
This is Graham. Somebody told me he threw a race once.
And of course what would a CMWC be without a race. Here is Shino killing it, nobody around.
Actually, Shino is a pretty good looking dude. Here’s a better look.
Style? Yes. Good looks? you be the judge.
Here’s Austin racing for Brooklyn Machine Works and King Kog.
Here’s another NYC messenger, Jersey Dan. He’s riding for Six Racing. fast and for himself!
This is a DC courier and bike polo player. Everything I’ve ever heard about Bruce points to him being damn fast.
I don’t think they had six hundred and sixty six racers, but who better to bear racer number 666. Lucas Brunelle everybody.
After the race we got back to polo but the 5 hour break in tournament play made it a little hard for some to remember how to do things. Here’s Ben Hunter doing it all wrong.
One more photo of bike polo just for good measure. Ben, Kev and Tucker.
OK, That was great but to read and much better report check out Mess Media’s CMWC 2008 report.
All Photos © Doug D 2008