I’m brand new to this list, so I might as well introduce myself, and I’m fairly
new to unicycling as well.
I’ve been unicycling for almost 6 months now and I’ve been mountain unicycling
for about 3 of those 6 months. I started out as a mountain biker and while at
the Toronto Bike Show earlier this year a friend and I saw a bunch of
unicyclists playing basketball and hockey (they were the Toronto Unicyclist).
Now, I had seen North Shore Extreme vol. III several months earlier which had
Kris Holm in it, so I knew the possibilities of doing things on a unicycle were
pretty much endless. However, I had no intention of getting on a unicycle at the
bike show (it just seemed too difficult), until the friend I was with persuaded
me and so began my quest into the world of unicycling.
Needless to say, I didn’t look as good as Kris on that unicycle the first day
(and still don’t :-), but it was fun falling on my face and soon became a
challenge that intrigued me. Both my friend and myself purchased unicycles 2
days after the bike show from Darren Bedford (The one who heads the Toronto
Unicyclists and has a stash of unicycles) and started meeting weekly with the
Toronto Unicyclists. A bit of practice and three weeks later I could actually
stay on the unicycle for extended periods of time. A couple weeks later I joined
them in one of their unicycle basketball games (I even got a basket). It was a
ton of fun!
The progression to MUni was only natural seeing that I was a cross country
mountain biker that raced regularly. So, I put a knobby tire on the 24’ uni with
4’ cranks and hit some trails. Wow it was tough and very tiring. After a couple
more MUni rides on the thing I discovered Unicycle Source and bought myself a
Pashley. My first ride on it was amazing, I went longer than before and it was
less difficult. I rode as often as I could on it (3 - 4 times a week). I started
riding my unicycle in the halls at work and at company social events. It’s a
great conversation starter 
After doing MUni solo all this time, as very few of the Toronto Unicyclists
actually MUni (I think a couple of them are now interested), I turned to the web
and found John Foss’s unicycling.com site which made mention of an event held
annually, the California/Nevada Mountain Unicycle Weekend. I thought, ‘Wow, this
is great … it’s coming up soon, I’m due for a vacation and what better place
to ride than California and Nevada!’.
IT WAS A BLAST! Thanks John! The pictures are great, I’m going to have some up
within a week or so.
And that pretty much sums up my unicycle experience until now (except for the
first time I saw UNIVERSE, but I’ll save that for another post). My first post
and I’ve probably already hit my content quota for the next month.
Carl
Thanks to Kris for pointing this list out to me.