Interviewee: Matt Messenger

Occupation: Carpenter/remodeler/father/event coordinator/bike polo player

Riding style: Skilled. Plays bike polo

His ride:A polo bike assembled from a K2 Energy Cross bike, BB5's dual brakes, short riser bars, time pedals

On a frigid February night, I rode up to Capitol Hill to meet bike polo guru Matt Messenger at the Seattle Bike Polo garage, a shed that houses around a dozen of his bikes and doubles as his bike shop.

He asked me to turn around as he changed into his knickers and then dusted off a cup and poured me a beer.

Matt is not only considered one of the founders of "hardcourt" bike polo -- the urban strain of bike polo played on concrete surfaces -- he's also one of the original bicycle messengers in Seattle. And yes, Messenger is his real last name.

"I was a bike courier in the late 90s and somebody talked about bike polo and brought out crochet mallets for us to play with," he recalled. "It was the most fun I had had on a bike."

Bike polo originated in Ireland and is similar to (horse) polo in that it involves two teams of three, bikes, mallets -- usually fashioned out of a ski pole and PVC pipes -- a ball, and the objective of hitting the ball into the opponent's goal.

For Matt, bike polo started out as a fun, laid-back bike activity but quickly turned into a time-intensive hobby.

"We played hours on end and started making our own gear," said Matt.

Today, his garage is stocked from floor to ceiling with old bikes and frames, bike parts, mallets, wheel covers, old race numbers, and anything else one might need to play bike polo, and he generously loans bikes and mallets to newcomers to the sport.

Since Matt's start in 1998, the bike polo scene has grown ten times over and Seattle is on the front line.

From the garage, Matt and I rode our bikes to Cal Anderson Park for a night of pick-up practice.

"One of the first places we played was on the tenth floor of the US Bank parking garage downtown. It was a pretty awesome view," he said. "We never got arrested but we got kicked out a lot of parking lots for playing polo."

Today, polo is played on the Bobby Morris playfield on the east side of Cal Anderson Park. After years of lobbying the Seattle Parks Department, the playfield was designated as a “multi-use court" in 2010, meaning it can be used for sports other than tennis, mainly bike polo and dodgeball.

Competitive team games happen there on Monday nights and there are pick-up games being played on pretty much every other night of the week.

When we reached the playfield, we were welcomed by the clattering of mallets, squeaking of brakes, cheering, and music.

Although it was a Thursday night when we stopped by, the competition was stiff.

"There are some hot riding people here tonight. Lots of A-gamers," Matt said and explained, "A good polo player is somebody that is pretty well-rounded; someone that can sprint fast, control the ball, is a decent goalie, and pass well."

The rules of bike polo are fairly simple. Two teams of three start the game with their bike wheels against the wall behind their goal. The ball is placed in the center and the game starts with the first people making a run for the ball. The game is played to a set time or a set number of goals.

Anyone on the team can protect the goal and anyone can score.

The games are usually self-refereed and rough play is frowned upon. During play you cannot put your foot down. If you do, it's called a dab and you'll have to tap out to get back into the game.

All bikes are fair game: single-speeds, fixed-gear track bikes, rigid mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes, and of course, bike polo-specific bikes.

On pick-up nights the teams are picked at random. Everyone throws his or her mallet onto the courts, which are then picked up and shuffled behind someone's back and six mallets are chosen for the next game.

Matt said it's not unlike three-on-three street basketball. "It's all talent, trickery, and finesse," he said.

Matt got lucky and his mallet was chosen mere minutes after we arrived, giving me the opportunity to watch what bike polo is all about - skill. Lots of skill.

The players were hopping up and down on their bikes, coming to sudden halts, doing one-handed wheelies, and 360s while rarely putting their foot down to prevent a crash.

"Polo has a big learning curve," explained David Polony, who was waiting along the sidelines for his turn to play. "The rules are easy but it takes about a year to learn all the switches and tricks."

"Many people think it's just us goofing off but the players out here are athletes. It takes dedication, perseverance, commitment and practice, practice, practice," added Dustin Riggs, who is a member of The Guardians, the leading bike polo team in the nation, if not the world. "It's much more than just something to do and the sport is going to go somewhere in the next five years."

Seattle hosted the World Hardcourt Polo Championships last year, which brought out 66 teams from five continents.

Some companies are catching on to this new sport and have started making bike polo gear and polo-specific bikes.

"Polo has always been a Do-It-Yourself sport. People make their own mallets and wheel covers and they've gotten good at it and started selling their gear," said Polony, who showed off the fancy polo-specific bike he won at the 2010 World Championships in London. "Seattle is on the front line of developing bike polo gear. No one plays as much as we do."

Polony, a veteran of the Seattle bike polo scene, has been playing for 12 years and called polo his mistress.

"I spend so much time here, it almost feels like cheating," he said. "I've given up everything else in life for polo."

Polony said lots of players are moving to Seattle just to play polo. "Some of the best players in the world are here and it's the best place if you want play and get better."

Matt said the sport is rapidly growing and bike polo clubs are forming on every continent. He's happy to see more people discovering the sport and hopes to see it become more organized and sponsored.

"Some players travel all over the world to competitions but it's coming out of their own pockets," he said.

Who knows? In Seattle we just might see a semi-pro bike polo league in the coming five to ten years as a next generation of polo players are already practicing their skills at clinics hosted by organizations like Bike Works and Cascade Bicycle Club.

But whatever direction the sport may take, it's fair to guess that Matt will be there, throwing his mallet onto the court for a chance to play.

Learn more about Seattle Bike Polo at www.SeattleBikePolo.com.

The Riding Reporter is a feature series in which BNT's bike-riding reporter, Anne-Marije Rook, takes interviewees on a short bike ride around town to talk bicycles, transit, and any other issues that may arise when seeing the city from a two-wheeled point of view. Previous interviewees include Mayor Mike McGinn, ultra-cyclist Chris Ragsdale, bike messenger world champion Craig Etheridge, Chuck Ayer from Cascade Bicycle Club, and more.

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