Bike Polo

This weekend my friend Kevin had a bike polo tournament in Philly, so I got to see bike polo for the first time. I thought it would be easy to find him there because he's tall, has a beard and a bunch of tattoos, but it turns out those features are required of all bike polo players.

They put cut up cardboard on their wheels so the mallets don't get stuck in the spokes. Kevin took that guy's face from a political poster, but he doesn't know who he is, what he was running for, or if he won.

I felt very cool because the tournament was under a bridge and next to some abandoned buildings, which created quite a hip vibe.

I also felt very uncool, because holy crap bike polo is intense and I thought I was going to see someone die.

Look how close they are to each other! On moving bikes! While swinging sticks!

Once I got over being scared of someone going over their handlebars and breaking their neck, it was a very fun day. I have zero hand-eye coordination and couldn't hit a ball into a goal from a few feet away, so I was impressed by how many people did it from across the court while riding a bike.

How anyone does this game on horseback is still a mystery to me...