Hey! My name is James. I live in Springfield, Illinois. For the last 3 years, I have been working as a gym trainer. I got carried away with unicycling last year, while I was in quarantine and did not know what to do with myself. I registered on the forum to learn something new about unicycling and methods of choosing a unicycle.
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Hey James, welcome to the forum! This is definitely the right place to be if you want to learn more about unicycling - there’s a whole wealth of info here from the last 40 years of one-wheeled weirdos 
Welccome to the forum. It seems,t hat 2020 has brought up more new unicyclists than every other year before …
Have fun!
Great! Ride it! Enjoy!
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Thanks guys! I think I got to the right place. I already like the atmosphere here!
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Welcome! I started myself on the 30th of November (2020) therefore I can still use the term newbie / noob for myself as well (For how long actually? 
)
it’s a great sport with a lot of friendly people! Which style interests you most?
Would that not have more to do with skill than the time elapsed since you first failed to ride a unicycle?
I think that in your case, using the term noob is misleading. You’ve got a background in trials riding that puts your skills on a level beyond most long term riders. You’re basically a balance athlete that recently discovered unicycles. No offense intended, but you and your skills progression are about as atypical as it is possible to be. Unless someone has been a circus performer or something similar I don’t think its possible to match your progression. Three months in and you’re riding on slacklines!
It was 7 weeks and 2 days when I rode the slackline 
But no one starts completely from scratch. If you’ve played soccer or athletics you might already have really strong legs, if you’ve done yoga you might already have a good body awareness and balance, if you’ve done judo you might already be good at crashing safely, if you’ve done a lot of puzzles you might already have a great focus, etc
Although I do have some experience which could help my progression, I’m sure that my commitment and effort that I’ve put in is the main reason for it. Since the day I started (November 30th, 2020) I’ve spent at least 150 hours on the uni, constantly trying to improve myself.
That’s probably a lot more than most people do in 3 months time 
I could balance a pencil on my fingertip before learning to unicycle. And I was a skilled kendama player. I don’t know if that translated directly to unicycling. The kendama got me accustomed to “twitching” while balancing, using quick reflexes. My riding style involves a lot of control with the hands (on the seat / bar ends). I think I’m able to make the fastest adjustments, pushing/pulling/weighting/unweighting with my hands.
I’ve bicycled pretty much my entire life and as a kid I unicycled, pogo sticked, skateboarded, skiied, etc… As an adult, I’ve ridden casterboards and skates of all varieties. Bottom line, I’d say I have a background in balance related activities that isn’t anything remarkable, but probably is beyond what 80% of the population has. I’ve also probably put about 65 hours of practice into unicycling over the past 3 months. At first unicycling exhausted me after a few minutes, but these days, I ride about an hour a day. Some days I mainly ride distance and some I ride a shorter harder course on the muni. If I ride distance however I generally try and practice skills afterward, 10 freemounts on the 36er, hops while rotating, etc… When I ride on the muni I get the skills practice just trying to ride the terrain.
Every week I get noticeably better, but things like riding slack lines and freemounting on rails are probably never going to happen, even after 150 hours of practice.
You can be a beginner for several years, probably. It depends on how interested the person is in developing his hobby.
So far, I am learning to ride in a straight line and without tricks. I do not know what this style is called and whether it has a name at all. I am thinking in the future to try my hand at freestyle, but these are only plans.
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It’s just a name - And once you can ride in a straight line, you could also ride the slackline that I rode. The only difference is just a mental game, for the rest the technique is already there 
I think ur less of a noob than me, even though I’ve been riding for nearly 6 years 
Then again I have less of an urge to do all kinds of tricks with my unis. Just riding is enough for me and occasionally focusing on certain skills that will improve my balance and general feel of the uni. (I understand all skills improve that). But things like riding a slack line is not something I see the need to learn.
What I really want to ride is stuff like you posted as your motivational videos, but riding slacklines and stuff does help with the precision, confidence and overall control which is necessary to ride that stuff. Soon I’ll head out with the big uni (27.5 muni) again and see what I can do with it now
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Mark, you have been an inspiration. I’ve been riding 3.5 years and only just picked up a few new skills. Riding on a skinny plank, riding down stairs (more like multiple curbs), on KH24 hopping consistently and working on hopping right foot back (I’m usually left foot back), did my first ride-hop-turn-ride in public on the 27.5 just the other day and nailed it :), got the feel for jump mounting (though have a mental barrier still atm), speed bumps are no problem and I have more confidence on varied terrain (So now I can ride to my front door… I was always afraid of it before but one day I tried and then I thought… it really isn’t so hard! Should have tried ages ago)… Seeing you as a complete newbie picking up so many things quickly has inspired me to work on my skills.
I still want to get SIF riding, backwards riding (I think I need to wotk on my right foot down idling), and keep working so that right foot back hopping ability is as natural as my left foot.
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Thanks for the compliment and awesome to read that you’re motivated again to pursue more skills!
In many techniques so far I’ve found that fear is the only thing to overcome. None of these techniques are technically complicated so if you can find a way (safety gear, setup, environment, buddy, breaking it up, etc) to overcome the fear of injury then you can really commit to it and much more is possible
Well, it’s generally useful to overcome your fears. I have had a phobia since childhood - I am afraid of injections, so I avoided hospitals for a long time, and then, as it got hot, I had to. And now, two or three times a year, I face my fear face to face, taking tests.
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