Portland Bike Polo Code of Conduct

Portland Bike Polo welcomes everyone and aspires to creating diverse, inclusive, and supportive spaces. Whether at the court(s), at an event sponsored by PBP, or elsewhere – racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and any other form of bigoted behavior or language will not be tolerated. If an issue arises within the club, the Portland Bike Polo Board will hold the individual in question accountable.

Safer Spaces Guidelines:

  • Respect people’s background and identities, including their names and pronouns
  • Be thoughtful about the language you use.
  • If someone says something hurtful, feel free to speak up and inform a board member.
  • Allow others to call you in if you said something hurtful
  • Allow others to represent and speak for themselves – never ask or expect someone to speak on behalf of others.
  • Let others learn at their own pace, always ask before giving advice.

Accountability Process:

The Portland Bike Polo Board will mediate any conflicts between those who participates in our activities (such as pickup, etc.) and events (such as tournaments and fundraisers, etc.). The board will also seek to resolve conflict between participants and spectators, neighbors, and community members. We hope to hold everyone accountable for their actions and behaviors within a restorative justice framework before resorting to the punitive measures listed below:

  1. Written warning.
  2. Immediate ejection from a game or event if harmful behavior continues.
  3. Suspension (temporary or permanent depending on circumstances).

Contact

GET IN TOUCH

Address.

Alberta Park, NE 22nd and Killingsworth

Portland, OR

E-mail.

bikepolo.portland@gmail.com

COMING SOON…..

CLUB HISTORY

AND THE STORY OF BIKE POLO

Who We Are.

Remember: Just ‘cause you read it in a book doesn’t mean it is true. I fully acknowledge that this history is shoddily documented and relies on word-of-mouth accounts. If you have new info to add, let me know. Most of this info came from Montana Norvell – a big thanks for digging this up. Also, thanks to Kevin Walsh (Kev) of bikepolo.ca for providing the forum for Hardcourt Bike Polo.

Bike polo has a long history and it is up for debate who “invented” it. Good arguments exist for both its birth in Ireland in 1891 or in India at some point under colonial British rule. As far as I figure, the first dudes to see horse polo being played, and who had a bike but not a horse, came up with it. Regardless, it grew in popularity until World War II, when people had more important things to do. Only in the past 20 years has it resumed growing in popularity, spreading all over the world. Bike polo started out on grass, copying its equine inspiration, and most recently it has sprouted off the particular variety of polo that has captured my heart: hardcourt bike polo.

While some grass players might have played polo on pavement earlier, the lasting hardcourt polo movement grew out of Seattle in 1998. Jay Grisham had played polo on grass, but as a bike messenger in downtown Seattle where there was a serious lack of turf, he got his messenger friends together to play polo in parking garages on the pavement. Legend has it that the court of choice was the parking lot on top of the Castle Porn superstore. Eventually Grisham joined the Coast Guard and passed his mallets on to Matt Messenger (Messman) and Tim Mason (Mason).

At this point the game started evolving rapidly with all sorts of mallet materials and balls being tried. Bamboo and wood mallets were preferred, and roller hockey balls were chosen over tennis balls, mini-soccer balls, or rolled up newspaper and duct tape.

The game spread and in 2002, Tad Bamford (Tad) moved to Portland and started the Axles of Evil polo club. Many aspects of polo were refined in Portland, including today’s ski-pole / PVC pipe mallet. Seattle had the dominant polo scene for quite a while, but the sport spread as people elsewhere learned about it or moved from Seattle to other locations like Philadelphia, Ottawa, and Chicago. Seattle hosted the Cycle Messenger World Championships (CMWC) in 2003, and the sport spread even farther. Now, the sport has continued to grow in popularity and today there are clubs all over the world.

PORTLAND BIKE POLO

Outside of playing, Portland Bike Polo has worked to improve and maintain the facilities at Alberta Park, our home base. We play on what is classified as a “to-be-decommissioned” tennis court, which means that Portland Parks & Recreation doesn’t have the money to fix it up to a point of usability for tennis, nor the money to tear it up out of the ground. PP&R granted us the opportunity to work on the court, so Portland Bike Polo raised over $1,000 to perform repairs and improvements to the infrastructure, making the court playable for both us and PDX Ball Hockey, with whom we share the court.

Portland Bike Polo has put on a children’s outreach program in conjunction with Glencoe Elementary in order to get kids excited about riding bicycles and playing team sports. After the polo demonstration, led by Portland Bike Polo member Timtim Weeks, Glencoe Elementary has decided to provide bike polo as a physical education option at the school. Portland Bike Polo is providing bikes, equipment, and a great experience for young cyclists.

Portland Bike Polo member Arlyn Bement (in conjunction with Universal Cycles) organized several exhibition matches during the 2013 Sunday Parkways events at Fernhill, Arbor Lodge, Bloomington, and other parks. We had plenty of spectators and had equipment available so children and adults alike could try polo for the first time.

—-2014 and onward—-

The club also put on a show and Q&A at the Alberta Street Fair during summer 2014. A small court was built in the street by our many handimen and handiwomen and spectators were invited to ask questions or try playing. We hope that such events will cause our club to grow locally. Many players from all over the nation have moved to Portland. We have transplants from Columbia MO, Fort Wayne IN, Chicago IL, Santa Cruz CA, Washington DC, Milwaukee WI, Denver CO, and so on!.

Portland Bike Polo sent three teams to the 2014 North American Hardcourt Championships. We finished 2nd, 9th, and 17th and earned the third most points heading into the Bench Format Championship to be held in September 2014 in Lexington. Bike polo is a great spectator sport and Portland is one of the best clubs in the world. There are always quite a few folks who come out just to watch us play, make yourself one of them!

We hosted a fundraiser for the club and our traveling members on the night of Saturday Sept. 20th at Portland Bicycle Studio in NW Portland. We built a tiny court inside and played the bike polo version of 1 on 1, which we call knife fights. Afterwards, we showed some of the best videos from bike polo history as well as some of the footage from the recent NA Championships filmed by Mr. Do Video. There was a raffle with some incredible prizes including ABUS locks, Velocity rims,  Chrome bags, a Chris King headset, and a slew of Portland Bike Polo gear!

In September 2014, Portland Bike Polo attended the inaugural North American Bench Championship in Lexington KY. This tournament was a city-based team competition with only the best from Portland, Milwaukee, Austin, Boston, Tallahassee, Minneapolis, Toronto, and NYC. Unlike the traditional three-vs-three, fifteen minute polo matches, this event had nine-person teams compete in hour-long matches. This new format is thoroughly endorsed by Portland Bike Polo because we, as a club, feel that we are one team. Find out more on the event thread on league of bike polo. Portland Bike Polo went undefeated at the Inaugural North American Bench Championship, winning the title and every game by at least 8. It was an exceptional experience and we definitely look forward to the future of bench format bike polo in North America.

CHIEVEMENTS:

2012

4th place – North American Championships – Milwaukee, WI

5th place – World Championships – Geneva, CH

2013

4th place – North American Championships – Minneapolis, MN

9-12th place – World Championships – Weston, FL

2014

2nd place and 9-12th place – North American Championships – Minneapolis, MN

2015

1st place and 3rd place – North American Championships – Lexington, KY

5-8th place (two teams!) – World Championships – Timaru, NZ

2016

4th place – North American Championships – Folsom, CA

(no world championship this year)

2017

3rd place – North American Championships – Frederick, MD

Our court at Alberta Park has been used for bike polo longer than any other court in the world! People started playing here when it was still a decommissioned tennis court in 2002. We play every Sunday, year round, rain or shine.

The Rose City Royal Rumble is an annual wrestling themed tournament held in Portland. While a team of three will win the final polo game, only one person can take home the belt!

Women/Trans/Femme bike polo happens Thursday nights at Alberta Park. You can contact genderinpolo@gmail.com for more information.

Portland Bike Polo sends club members to 10+ tournaments every year all around North America and occasionally abroad.

Portland Bike Polo hosts a developmental in-house league during the off season (Fall and Winter) and gets together early on Sunday mornings to use all the daylight we can.

Playing bike polo isn’t the only hobby we have…