Did you count my vote toward Kris? I’m sure Kris will do fine, so I’d like to leave mine with Mel Hall.
Also I still think you should have Reino on your list, if only to go with your avatar.
Did you count my vote toward Kris? I’m sure Kris will do fine, so I’d like to leave mine with Mel Hall.
Also I still think you should have Reino on your list, if only to go with your avatar.
i only named the top five nominees. but te entire list goes like this:
kris holm 3
rapheal lasar 2
alex toms 2
andrew carter 2
mel hall 2
julien Monney 2
Claydoh 1
john foss 1
sem abrahams 1
jsm 1
xavier collos1
reino 1
My vote goes to Dustin Kelm. Not only is he the greatest rider but he is top-knotch as a person as well. None better. As a family, we have been honored to have Dustin and Katie as guests in our home a couple of times.
Bruce
Do I get to change my vote to Kris Holm? It seemed a bit TOO obvious at the time…
Hmmm, since right now I am most interested in freestyle riding, I will probably vote for one of those incredibly great freestyle riders. If it is based on current ability to do amazing tricks, I would say Julien Monney, but if it is based purely on “natural ability” I would say JSM, seeing as he has not been riding that long, and is already doing all sorts of tricks that seam on the very edge of what is possible, and he is doing a great job at aswering peoples questions, and generally encouraging people that freestyle riding can be, and is, really cool.
I think for now I will cast my vote for Julien Monney, as he can do that insane coasting standing on the seat trick.
I can’t even do regular coasting:(
my favorite right now is Xavier Collos. he’s aaaawesome!!
and Julien Monney gets second place.
what about Yoggi
At this time in my life and in my unicycle life Xavier is my favourite. But kris is like lance armstrong or wayne gretzky, or any other great in a sport.
yeah, Kris is the most famous to non-unicyclist, like Armstrong is the most famous to non-bikers, or Tony Hawk is most famous to non-skaters…not necessarily the best, but the one who’s done the most to make it a popular sport. well, okay, more popular than it used to be anyway…
It’s Yogi…
Actually, based simply on terms of “natural ability,” there are two names that come to mind.
The one time I rode with Kris H. I´d only been back to riding for about a month after a 30 year lay off. We knew each other from the rock climbing world and trade shows we´d both attend for demos and book signings and so forth.
Here, in Venice, Ca., Kris was doing a commercial shoot for Horney Toad. First thing I saw he rolled off the top of an 8-foot high old Jeep International, lands the drop, and in the next 30 feet goes into one foot riding, wheel walking, one foot wheel walking, gliding, seat drop, then whips around and side rides back, then turns around and coasts the same distance, all on a beat up 20 trials. Then we went riding and he absoultely tore up the skate course, rode atop every skinny fence around till the rangers came and chased him off. Then we went over to a big (20 inch) stair set and he shot up it like he was spring loaded and forward dropped the same set in five or six big bounds. The guy was rediculously good. And in absolutely killer shape.
Kris might not be the very best at any one discipline but for overall mastery on any terrain and any style (he calls himself a lousy freestyle rider), he´s got no match.
JL
I third the nomination for Raphael Lasar.
Actually, in the still-standing discipline, not sure there’s anyone in the same ballpark. Below results from Moab 2004:
8a. Ride the Rail (Immortal Div.)
Kris Holm 3 min 23 s
Actually, at the last UNICON, some guy, a Mexican I think, did a 15 minute stillstand, breaking Julien Monney’s six minute record.
That’s impressive. Kris’s stand at Moab was on top of a 5 foot long piece of steel railroad rail, roughly 3 inches wide. Not sure how much a factor that is, but would be interesting to see a “bake off”. I’m conjecturing that a rail and gym floor are different.
World’s greatest stillstanders:
http://unicycling.smugmug.com/gallery/235111/1/9137655/Large
It was Richam Almacera and his brother, from the Philippines. This one shows that the balancing surface, once you get started, doesn’t really matter much. Their final (15 minutes plus) competition was done on the track infield:
http://unicycling.smugmug.com/gallery/235242/1/9143549/Large
When it comes to ripping it up on dirt or any kind of rough terrain, Kris Holm is still #1 in my book. Up there with him are Krazy Karl Thompson and Ryan Atkins. They are both amazing riders, but much lower on the scale of greatness.
I nominate the mutant child of a lab experiment involving Yoggi and Kris Holm’s DNA.
i dont know if i completly agree with you i have seen him ride the mountain and he is pretty smooth and super fast