Of joy or terror? Both perhaps?
First time I put the 125mm cranks on my 29er I did this 
Except I don’t think I lasted a full 10 feet! The uni may have done, but I wasn’t aboard it by that point 
I almost always front dismount. I think it looks good, on a standard & on my 6 footer as well. but if you go for IUF certs you need to rear dismount (possibly because it takes a little more control) so its worth learning. its all worth learning!
As for the cruising people are talking about, every once & a while dismounting my giraffe Ill catch something that throws my balance the other way and you get stuck up there, no feet on the petals and you have to freeze and wait for the unil to decide which way it wants to go. it always scares the crap out of me.
Yep, done that on my 36er too! Usually it decides to go sideways, and well, my beartrap pedals don’t let your feet go sideways too easily, which makes it extra pants-messingly exciting!
Learned rear dismount as a kid and never even considered front dismount. I have learned this year it’s easy enough, just not as smooth.
As I’m improving on my 36er I’m finding rear dismount is not easy to do smoothly. I would’nt have figured that being just 6" higher than on my 24" would be that big a difference. Kinda on the short side for a 36er though 
Also have been riding some hills to build skill and muscle. It’s been more tiring than expected and slowing down enough and then doing a smooth rear dismount on my 36er is tough when I’m tired!!!
Oh yeah, I front dismounted once on my 6’ uni…
There was a piece of 1/2" wood on the road that I didn’t see as I was looking around rather looking down at the road.
This was my fastest UPD ever, by far. Amazingly my years of being a fast runner saved me from face planting / injury that day.
When we’re working with people learning to unicycle, we have a rule.
Rule #1: Don’t get hurt.
This covers a lot of ground. Equipment check includes the uni check for safety, shoelaces tucked in and helmet in place (in case of a backwards fall). When riding and they UPD, they need to let the unicycle fall and save themselves.
Part of trying to keep them safe involves making the UPDs very boring. When first learning, many people find they sit too far back and step or fall off the back. Humans don’t fall backwards well. So we encourage most dismounts to be off the front as we don’t want people bruising a tailbone.
Once they progress to the riding stage, it’s important to learn to dismount with the unicycle in front. It pretty much involves keeping a bit of pressure on the foot that’s coming up from the downstroke and gently stepping off. It’s part of the USA skill levels, and I can see a good reason why. It really hit me when we were working with a rider in his early 60s who has bad knees.
When stepping off the front, there’s typically a falling motion that is hard on the knees. When dismounting by keeping pressure on the down foot and gently stepping down, it’s not as much a fall as a controlled step. And there’s not the reach behind to keep the unicycle from falling. Once again, it’s more natural to hold something in front of the body than it is to reach behind to grab it.
So, with complete newbies, we go with the step off the front to prevent a fall on their back. Once they get a bit more control, we have them switch to dismounting with the uni in front as it’s easier on the body.
Beastrider,
8, 5, and 32 years. I am EVER impressed of how patient you are with your one wheel collections…as oppose to me and my impatience. In one year’s time I have acquired seven. Sporatically hopping my butt from one to the other. My newest toy being the giraffe.
Yeah, something about the giraffe…ever riding dangerously. :DI"m constantly having to be aware of my surroundings just in case of that millisecond dismount, such as the brick retaining wall, or into my own laid out 20 incher, or the mishap shovel.
One time I launched off the picnic table, only to find myself, not enough launch, came falling back to have table smack me in the butt. Wasnt so much the pain, but rather the lesson of the self awareness to be warmed up, and be super vigilant when tranferring one wheel size to another and its existing muscle memory.
The other time was launching from the brick retainer wall only to fall back, and luckily I was able to regain one foot balance across 4 inches of brick.
Front and back dismounts are crucial practice for giraffes, especially sudden and fast ones that can catch you offguard. But with tons of practice it makes it more automatic. Yeah, make it boring and repeatitive with the training routine.
All i can say to OP is practice, practice practice, with tons and tons of dismounts, and nearly full speed dismounts. And if you can only do fronts, then just stick with it… as you progress, backs will come naturally with a little consistent practice.
I dismounted from the front when I first learned on my 24". However, when I got my 29er last year, I added handlebars. I still dismounted in the front, but read where the rear dismount is more controlled. I started learning. It was awkward at first, but now that I have it down, I rear dismount 9 times out of 10. The tenth time usually being an UPD:D
When you loose balance after your dismount, and you have the unicycle behind you, you cannot see where it is.
When you had the unicycle in front of you, then you would have seen it.
Therefor, teach yourself to always dismount backwards.
It’s not without a reason a skill already in level 1.
I know one fatal accident of someone who dismounted the giraffe forward, and fell with the back on a pedal. Initially it wasn’t a UPD.
The result; next day he jumped in the pool (even after a long drive) suddenly had fatal damage to the spinal cord.
So yes, that unicyclist ended up in a wheelchair, because of a bad dismount.
So believe me, you want to dismount backward.
So what exactly happened during the dismount where he hurt his back? I’m not understanding exactly.
This person tumbled because of that, felt on the unicycle, and got a pedal in the back.
When it’s in front of you you can better anticipate on that.
Therefor: dismount bw.
The other thing to read into this is:
Seek medical attention for any serious incident, particularly if it involves an impact to the spine.
And the OP hasn’t been seen since…
One advantage of learning to rear dismount is that you feel more in control with the balance point behind the axle which makes rear bails riding muni more natural. And that’s defintely an advantage bouncing around on hillsides, I think…
FWIW
Front
Do what you prefer.
I prefer dismounting at the forward, while holding the back of the saddle in my right hand.
I can do both fine, but prefer dismounting forward. If it is down a hill though, I will mount behind. If its uphill, I go forward.