>>>>> “Julian” == Julian Orbach <julian@cs.uq.oz.au> writes:
Julian> There seems to be a general consensus that the worst thing about a
Julian> giraffe is the fear factor. Once you hop on a few times, fall a few
Julian> times and fail to hurt yourself each time, you get the confidence to
Julian> ride it like a normal unicycle and you have learnt it. My trouble is
Julian> that I have hopped on a few times, fallen a few times, and hurt myself
Julian> every time. Rather than building confidence, I am losing it.
My first reaction is that you are (one way or another) probably trying to do too
much too soon. If you’re falling off a lot, you’re either being too ambitious
once you’re up there or you shouldn’t be up there. That’s just my opinion of
course. My solution to the “gee isn’t it a long way down and why is my back
getting jarred when I fall” experience was to make sure I didn’t fall. Of course
you’ll never get rid of falling completely, but you can make it quite rare. If
you’re simply riding round on a large flat surface and still falling regularly,
then I’d guess you’re not really ready to be riding it. On the other hand, I
always like to see people pushing themselves - it just depends on how much pain
is enough pain.
Also, how much do you weigh? If you’re reasonably heavy (say 190lbs?) falling
from that height can be much more challenging that the same thing for a 100lb
14 year old.
Julian> I assume I am landing wrong. Can anyone give me advice on how I can
Julian> avoid this problem (apart from “Don’t ride a giraffe!”)? Or is it the
Julian> case that a 7" giraffe is just too tall for me? Or are you going to
Julian> reveal a well-kept secret - Riding a giraffes hurts.
Actually, maybe there is a well-kept secret. This is probably well known to good
riders, I don’t know. Three years ago I bought an 8 footer from Tom Miller and
he told me to remember to point my toes when I dismounted (a polite word for
fall). I did, and it helped a lot. I fell on my first day, and I still remember
the feeling of “oh, I’m still falling, yep, I’m stiiiiillll falling, gee, I’m
really falling now” etc. on the way down.
Julian> p.s. I am moving to Sydney soon. Are there any Sydney-siders on the
Julian> list?
I’m from Sydney but I live in the U.S. I’m in Sydney now though.
Good luck, Terry.