Download - Urban Velo

Publisher’s Statement
By Jeff Guerrero
Two or three times a week, my friends and I get
together at an inner-city playground. Canned beer
is passed around freely and cigarette smoke wafts in
the air. Trash talk and dirty jokes are not only appreciated,
but encouraged. And anyone who shows up with a new
component, messenger bag or any sort of bicycle accessory
becomes the object of a “show and tell” inquiry.
The game is hardcourt bike polo, a mutation of the
original sport “Sagol Kangjei” from northern India, played
on bicycles on unused basketball, hockey and tennis courts,
so commonly found in urban areas. The fact that there are
so many of these sport-specific facilities being repurposed
by an emerging underground activity is remarkable. It’s at
once an indicator of modern society’s wastefulness, and a
testament to the creativity and resourcefulness of everyday
people.
But as I sit and contemplate bike polo, I find it truly
interesting how sports have the potential to both align
and divide people around the world. On the one hand,
many people in the nearby cities of Pittsburgh and Cleveland
genuinely dislike each other because of the rivalry
between their respective American football teams. On
the other hand, there’s not a single bike polo player from
Pittsburgh that doesn’t think of the entire Cleveland crew
as friends. And vice versa.
And so when I recently saw a forum post advertising
the first annual Japanese Hardcourt Bike Polo Tournament,
I made the executive decision to sponsor the event
with t-shirts, hats and magazines. It’s something that we
can barely afford to do, given our upstart status and the
struggling economy, but I know that without even meeting
Riki and the Tokyo crew, we’re already friends.
Urban Velo issue #21, September 2010. Dead tree print run: 5000 copies. Issue #20 online readership: 55,000+
12 URBANVELO.ORG
Hardcourt bicycle polo players in Tokyo. Photo by Chikara ‘Riki’ Taniuchi, flickr.com/rikitko