Consider this pt. 8...

The party before the party.

On Friday night, some of you will be in Saint Louis looking for fun. It will be Friday the 13th, so something special is sure to happen.

The night will start with a stop at Handlebar, a bicycle-themed watering hole. Handlebar is donating some beer to our 24-hour party, so stop in, buy a drink, and show your gratitude for donated beer. If i had to guess, 9pm is probably a good time to show up.

Handlebar is located at:

4127 Manchester Avenue
Saint Louis, MO 63110

Once a good crew has assembled, we'll assess our situation and see what the night and the city of Saint Louis has to offer (Hopefully, another "ANYTHING GOES" party.).

Stay out all night, or get some sleep. Just remember that the Lock-In starts at Noon on Saturday.

The Skatium is located at:

120 Catalan Street
Saint Louis, MO 63111-3754.

Eat before you arrive. Feel free to bring in coolers full of extra food and beer...Especially, if you have special dietary needs.

The Lock-In is close. So very close.

Consider this pt. 7...

We will be sending out the loan sharks on Saturday.

Some of you have not sent us your entrance fee for the 2012 Saint Louis Bike Polo Lock-In. Trying to get into the Lock-In without settling your debt will result in you receiving a baseball bat to the kneecaps.

If you still have outstanding debt, make sure you bring cold, hard cash on Saturday. Otherwise, your Lock-In experience will be spent outside in the parking lot with the crackheads trying to break into cars.

And on that note, last year, while we were having a blast inside of the Skatium, assholes were outside smashing windows and rummaging through cars. This seems to be a problem in the area surrounding the Skatium. Scumbags have been known to break into cars in search of guns. To avoid having your car damaged during your stay at the Skatium, we recommend you do the following:

-Take everything potentially of value out of your car.
Seriously. Take everything. One car that was vandalized last year simply had a cell phone charger stolen. Leave your valuables at the home of your STL host or take everything with you into the Skatium!

-Leave your car doors unlocked.
Ask the Cleveland guys what it was like driving down the highway in January with a trash bag poorly replacing a broken window. If you don't want your window(s) potentially smashed out, just leave the car doors unlocked. Roll your windows down too while you're at it.

-Park as close to the Skatium as possible.
Once everything is officially rolling inside the Skatium, we'll try to rearrange cars so that we can cram as many as possible into the Skatium's parking lot. The most vulnerable cars seem to be the ones furthest away from the Skatium.

-Leave a note!
Leave one on your window or the front seat informing any would-be thieving bastards that the doors are unlocked and there is nothing valuable in your car or in the trunk. Tell them your head unit won't work once it's pried out of your dash. Tell them that your car is a waste of time and effort.

It sucks that we have to deal with this junk, but these are simple solutions to a potential problem and a way to hopefully keep your windows from being smashed to bits. Ideally, these steps will prevent everyone's Lock-In buzz from being ruined by South Saint Louis City hood rats.

Consider this pt. 6...

A quick look at the extended weather forecast seems to indicate that this weekend will feature favorable weather if you can tolerate brisk temperatures.

On Saturday, if the "next game" wait is too much for you to take, I am sure that you could enjoy some outdoor polo at a nearby roller hockey rink. Mt. Pleasant Park is only a couple of miles away from the Skatium, and if you have enough layers to enjoy outdoor winter polo, feel free to join the group inevitably making the trek.

If you are coming in Friday night and plan on partying, make sure you have warm clothes. There have been rumblings about visiting an outdoor party spot at some point on Friday. More details about Friday night will be posted in the coming days.

For those of you that have never had the privilege of partying at one of our Lock-Ins, know that the Skatium has many awesome qualities, but it's also chilly within its walls. You will be warm when playing polo, roller skating, playing dodgeball, smashing a pinata, and drinking whiskey. But when you are just hanging out with some of the greatest people Bike Polo has to offer, hoodies and jackets are encouraged.

Consider this pt. 5...

This time next weekend, we will be immersed in the greatest annual bike polo party the world has ever seen.

Some of you will be drunk. Some of you will be hung over. All of you will be partying.

We will open the doors and begin the check in process at high noon. After making it into the Skatium, promptly stash your gear, throw your mallet in a "next game" pile, and have your picture taken. This year, we are having everyone take a photo when they enter the Skatium and a photo when they leave. Once our 24-hour polo party ends, we will get those photos online, and you will be able to see what you look like before and after 24 hours of partying.

Prepare to look fabulous.

Consider this pt. 4...

While we encourage you to avoid sleep during the 2012 Saint Louis Bike Polo Lock-In, those of you getting into Saint Louis on Friday night will probably want a floor or couch on which to crash.

If you would like the pleasure of sleeping in a brick house in the lovely city of Saint Louis on the Friday night before the Lock-In, you are required to do a few things:

First, you need to send an email to LockInHousing@gmail.com politely asking the Lock-In staff to reserve a housing for you.

Second, you need let the Lock-In staff know how many people, including yourself, need housing.

Third, it would also be nice if you could bring a pillow and sleeping bag for your Friday night stay.

Do all of that, and we will make sure that everyone that needs housing will have it on Friday the 13th.

Consider this pt. 3...

Last year, I was a jerk about bringing extra mallets into the Skatium. In theory, it was a great way to keep people from using multiple mallets as multiple place holders in multiple next game piles. In reality, it limited our ability to have special games/grudge matches because pulling your single mallet out of the rack of next game piles was an unsettling game of "find the needle in the pile of needles."

This year, we encourage everyone to bring an extra mallet or two because we intend on having entertaining grudge matches at random points throughout the 24-hour extravaganza (state vs. state...city vs. city...dream team vs. dream team...etc.).

This liberal attitude towards multiple mallets does not mean that we are going soft on anyone we catch with more than one mallet in the next game piles. Anyone caught stacking mallets will be booted out of the Skatium and left to fend for themselves on the mean streets of Saint Louis. Good luck.

PS. The RiverFrontTimes sucks.

Consider this pt. 2...

While almost anything goes within the walls of the Saint Louis Skatium, a couple of the Missouri laws that seem to exist simply to limit fun still have to be followed...Or the Skatium staff has to give the appearance that laws are being followed.

What I am trying to get at is the fact that around 1AM, the Skatium has to pretend to stop serving alcoholic beverages for a couple hours. Now, before you start throwing a tantrum, please note that this has happened the past two years. Technically, no alcohol is supposed to be distributed after 1AM, but as most of you know, that didn't stop beer from quietly exchanging hands at the bar.

What I recommend you do if you want to continue ingesting beer throughout the night is consider bringing a case of beer or two with you to the Skatium. This will help your desire to drink for two reasons:

A). The "stop serving at 1AM" rule won't interrupt your fun if you have your own stash.
B). While PBR is donating beer and we are trying to secure more free beer from other beer makers, last year's crowd inhaled two kegs in a few measly hours. We may run out of free beer, and while we will be happy to make a beer run if necessary, I encourage you to prepare yourself for the event that we run low on beer at some point during our 24-hour party.

Now you know.

I hope all of you are getting excited. This Lock-In, like every Lock-In, is going to be a damn good time.

Consider this pt. 1...

Throughout the past two polo parties that we have hosted, people have requested that we play a certain song or playlist for them at some point during the party. While we happily support anything that helps you party harder, juggling 20 iPods and iPhones is a hassle and a big responsibility. So to make everything easier for all of us, we are encouraging you all to do something special.

Participation is optional, but if you are so inclined, create an awesome playlist, burn it onto a CD, and bring it with you to the Lock-In.

Make sure you give your mixed CD a title that will grab our attention. Also include a description that will give us a hint as to what is on the CD or the appropriate time at which it should be played during our 24-hour party.

We will randomly pick CDs to play throughout the night when our DJs need a break.

Party Outfits...

Emails were just sent to everyone that registered for the 2012 Saint Louis Bike Polo Lock-In about t-shirt sizes.

Basically, we're planning to order t-shirts for everyone, but before we do, we need to try to get everyone's t-shirt size.

If you can email us at STLBikePoloLockIn at gmail dot com, we'll make a list and place an order with a t-shirt printer soon.

Ideally, we need this info before the end of the month to ensure that we get the shirts on time.

So email us ASAP!

We need the following information:

NAME: ________
SHIRT SIZE: ____

Thanks!

Nitty Gritty

This winter St. Louis Bike Polo will once again be hosting the greatest 24 hour bike polo party in the known universe. You are invited to join us at the St. Louis Skatium indoor rollerstaking rink for 24 hours of partying and polo, from twelve noon Saturday, January 14th until noon Sunday the 15th.

We've thrown this party twice before with memorable results. The people that seem to enjoy it the most are the ones that have no problem staying awake all night and can go with the flow. The Skatium only has one court, and with almost 80+ polo players, party goers should not expect to be on the court every other game. The wait time between games will be long since we do not allow mallet stacking or any other form of line jumping. In other words if you are trying play 40 games in 24 hours, you are going to be disappointed.

But if you are trying to party (and play some polo) you'll have a blast. We will provide some beer and food, but it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring a cooler full of whatever you want, especially if you have special dietary needs. We'll also provide a big ass pinata, some little motorbikes, shit tons of Mountain Dew and an hour of rollerskating. Thrash metal donut shop runs, spiritual awakenings, merit badges and broken bones are a possibility. For the most part we'll be playing it by ear.

So what do you say? Are you up for it? If so, do this:

On November 19th, starting at noon (cst), reserve your spot for the 2012 STL Bike Polo Lock-In by sending us $30.00 through PayPal.

Our PayPal email address is: STLBikePoloLockIn@gmail.com

When you do this, include the following:

1. Your Name and the name of anyone else for which you may be submitting funds.
2. The appropriate funds ($30.00 per person).
3. Your polo club.
4. Your contact info (phone number and email).

Failure to submit all four of those things will result in us getting a headache and you getting denied access to The Skatium.

There are 45 spots available. Spots are reserved in a first-come-first-serve melee. Spots are not reserved until money has been sent to our PayPal account. Once the spots are gone, they are gone.

You will get a confirmation email as fast as we can sort through the chaos. If you submit money but miss out on the limited number of spots, we will refund your money and add you to the waiting list.