Last night, my girlfriend and I watched a very good documentary about ballet dancing (First Position on Netflix, not a bad watch at all). Near the beginning, it shows a short clip of one of the young dancers (11 year old boy) riding a unicycle, and between that and the awesome dance moves exhibited throughout the next hour and a half, it got me thinking about how much I’d like to focus on freestyle.
I’ve always admired freestyle unicycling as a performance art and almost dance-like discipline of our oddball sport, but it got me thinking: are there any big competition events ever held in the world? I know that unicon is a huge thing and there are always tons of ridiculously talented unicyclists, but is there any other body of competition that a budding freestylist can take part in?
I know the IUF exists, or at least used to exist, but outside of the level system I’ve never been sure if they actually put on events, etc.
For Freestyle competitions, in the United States, there isn’t much. I think there are some regional-type events, but mostly in the Midwest. Got to contact the larger USA clubs to find out if they have anything in the works, or possibly on the USA website if they have a calendar (uniusa.org).
The IUF exists, and is the organization behind Unicon. Yes, Unicons are big, but are also the place were you get to see the cream of the Freestyle crop. It’s just usually very far from wherever you may live. Next one is in Spain.
If you happened to live in Japan, you’d have a lot more access to organized unicycle events, and their way of doing Freestyle is more dance-like than most of the rest of the world. Alas, again it’s pretty far away.
Nearest “big” thing to you might be the Panther Pride uni team in North Bend, WA. Not super-close, but they might have events open to the public.
+1 on checking out clubs in your area. Some focus on freestyle more than others, some really talented riders and you could help them set up some comps, impromptu or formal.
Panther Pride (PPUT) is now the SnoValley Unicycle Team (SVUC) after the coach (Alan Tepper) retired and we had to move the group from a school sponsored team to an independent 501c(3) club. Still going strong! The kids love to put together freestyle routines, plus we perform at halftime shows, bike shows, parades, etc. If you are ever in the Seattle area stop in and play.
(SnoqualmieValleyUnicycleTeam.org) https://www.facebook.com/groups/SnoValleyUni/
