BALANCED UNICYCLIST REFUSES TO TAKE LIFE TOO SERIOUSLY
Annemarie Evans
445 words
22 July 2004
South China Morning Post
4
English
(c) 2004 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited, Hong Kong. All
rights reserved.
Why use two wheels when one will do?
Tomorrow American Stephen Dressler heads to Tokyo with 10 other
unicyclists from Hong Kong to compete in the 10-day World Unicycling
Games.
The games involve competitions for acrobatics, team sports including
hockey and basketball, and unicycle races, and the Hong Kong team hopes
to be among the medals.
Mr Dressler, Hong Kong's representative on the International Unicycling
Federation, makes it look so easy as he pops onto the unicycle - no
hands and both feet firmly on the pedals.
"Shoulders back, straight back. It should take your body about an hour
to find its equilibrium," he says as a crowd gathers to watch the rather
eccentric American beside the clock tower on the waterfront at Tsim Sha
Tsui.
"It's that first hour that kills off about 99 per cent of potential
unicyclists," he says, rolling the unicycle back and forth. He can make
it hop as well, and spin.
"Once you get past that first hour, it suddenly dawns on you, wow I'm
doing this!"
Mr Dressler, 43, who runs a moving company which keeps him fit, came to
Hong Kong in 1985 with the dream of seeing the unicycle acrobats in
Shenyang, Beijing and Shanghai. "They're just awesome and defy laws of
gravity. Ever since I began unicycling at the age of nine I had wanted
to see them."
After learning some Putonghua, he headed to the mainland in 1986. During
the trip, he and two friends unicycled 3km along the Great Wall.
"We went to the left and to the right as far as we could go," he says.
When he first came to Hong Kong as a bank employee, he lived at Mui Wo
on Lantau and used to unicycle in his suit to the ferry every day.
In 1992, Mr Dressler headed to the unicycling games for the first time,
the only Hong Kong competitor in Quebec City.
His partner, Vienna Wong, waved the Hong Kong flag while balancing on
his shoulders as he slowly pedalled the unicycle in the parade at the
opening ceremony. She was his star student at the time, and he was so
impressed, they were married soon after the games.
"The games are held once every two years and began 24 years ago in New
York," he says. "There are track events at the games, including the
100-metre dash, 400 metres, 1,500 metres and 10km marathon."
Of his hobby and chosen mode of transport, he says: "It's important not
to take life too seriously. This keeps everyone around me smiling."
--
JJuggle - Last of the Dogmato-Revisionists
Well, they gotta tell you something.
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