Echoing what @Gockie said about a safe place, but otherwise I note in your videos you look at the ground. You go where you look so look ahead! I understand you may be looking at peddles for the mount (options on that topic have been expressed before) but looking where you go is very important. It’s one of the basics of early unicycle learning along with body position. It also allows your body’s natural balancing instincts to work properly when the eyes have a horizon.
Yeah, that is on my immediate “ to do “ list but I catch myself looking down a lot.
I’m trying to focus on more weight in the saddle, looking at the pedal as I step on, then look up. Obviously still struggling on that last one. I’m off work for 2 weeks so hope to get in a bunch of practice sessions.
I know these videos are pretty boring to watch but I really appreciate folks looking at them and giving me tips and warnings.
Chief
Looking ahead at the horizon definitely helps, but it is just one-of-many techniques for staying balanced. Looking down at your foot placement seems like a smart thing to do at the beginning of your mounts/rides. Once you’re comfortable with that, you’ll start looking up more.
When I was a beginner who could ride 100 feet, I tried riding one night after dark. The horizon was obscured in the dark, and I think for that reason I had trouble riding that night. Over time, as I improved, I could close my eyes and continue riding.
The dark can be bad for bumps… it hard to know how big they’ll be so you get less time for your body to adjust. It’s a bit freaky. Of course, if its somewhere you ride all the time, then you wont have this issue so much. But anywhere you haven’t ridden before, you really have to be very aware.
Got to disagree, my worst and most painful UPD’s have been at night on paths I travel many times, such as around Olympic Park and Lane Cove National Park. Complacency is the killer for night riding as assuming the riding technique is the same as during daytime, but in many ways it is very different and dangerous. In new locations my concentration is high and complacency low.
I’ve done at lot of night riding, no choice during winter, and have strict set of rules I try to follow one of which is forget about your Strava PR!
Day 10
I think I’m done with the videos-- got to 3 1/2 full revolutions today before falling off. As far as “riding” is concerned I think I’m now at the equivalent stage where others are just starting pushing off the wall. I can get up on the uni and start moving most every time now with the assisted free mount.
Chief
I dunno you should keep making your own videos, you’ll only ever be a newbie to riding once. I made videos of my learning process up till I could free mount. Made a pretty cool timelapse video on the process.
I always carry a very strong LED torch when night riding a bike or a uni in the dark. My first ride to work on my 29" was during the winter when it’s still dark in the morning, granted i did stick to concrete/bitumen. I would also tend to agree with complacency. As from riding a bike for over 30 years all my worst accidents were all in areas I’ve ridden hundreds of times.
So far with Unicycling my worst accidents are in areas where I’m specifically challenging myself, in saying that I probably wouldn’t challenge myself in the dark and have not had a serious UPD at night yet.
Day 13
Getting 3-4 full revolutions in about 50% of the time. Got to a personal best of 6 full revolutions twice.
I figured out something important-- I have been riding all hunched over (and looking at the ground) and leaning from my shoulders. Now I’m working on sitting up straight and leaning with my gut.
I also have way too much pressure on the pedals still-- I’m yanking myself left and right a lot. Hard habit to break as I was feeling more unstable when I put more weight on the seat, but now that I’m sitting more upright that is easier to do.
Chief
Here’s a tip pick an object in the distance and just focus riding towards that. Don’t look down and just look at something say 10 meters in front of you and focus it. Could be anything like a scuff mark on a wall, the top of a fence etc and just ride till you fall off.
Day 14
Hitting a bit of a plateau now. On the plus side I made it to 7 revolutions, and broke my habit of staring at the ground in front of me. That took a while!
Chief
IMO, there aren’t any hard habits to break this early along. A lack of upright posture and too much weight on the pedals are a normal part of learning, based on most of the beginner forum posts I’ve read. Sorry if I’m making incorrect assumptions, but your posts suggest that the secret to success is the elimination of bad habits. I think learning to unicycle is like learning to walk. Babies look totally out of control when they learn to walk. No one worries that babies won’t, later on, break their bad walking habits.
I think that is very well said.
I was thinking earlier about the parallels in learning to ride a bike and unicycle, but learning to walk is a better analogy. I don’t remember much about learning to ride a bike (and nothing about learning to walk!) but I’m pretty sure I wasn’t getting hung up on what I was doing wrong and was just enjoying what I was achieving. Granted your brain learns and adapts quicker when you are very young, but I think that consciously overanalysing things when one gets older can be detrimental to learning things like unicycling. Fair enough you don’t want to deeply embed and reinforce bad habits, but just being able to achieve something in the first instance can be pretty gratifying and motivational and you’ve got to be able to do the ‘something’ before you can hone the technique.
I also find the act of leaving something you are having a problem with, to come back a day or so later to find you are better at it, pretty reassuring. It shows that your brain is still making connections in the background – and that is a good thing. 
Day 14
Breakthrough! Focusing on keeping weight in the saddle today.
Day 15 actually…
Chief
I’m not suggesting the path to success is simply not doing things wrong. I’m just trying to burn into muscle memory the “better” path as early as possible-- like sitting in the seat vs. standing on the pedals, looking up vs. looking down, straight back vs. crooked, etc. Just trying to follow the good advice on what to do vs. not do.
Chief
Excellent progress, I think it’s great you’re learning static mount early. As this mount type has so many variations and it seems to be a better mount for bigger wheel uni’s. I’m just starting to learn static mount lately and yesterday I finally pulled it off on the 36".
Are you falling off from leg fatigue or just unbalanced? I remember when I was filming my early days I had to keep re positioning the camera for wider shots as I kept riding out of view. Later I got a friend to video and then I just started taking pictures of my distance. Seems you’re brain is finally clicking then it will start thinking of more efficient ways of riding.
I fall off because I lose balance. But I am finding that I’m able to correct for more and more balance errors-- so while I was initially falling off after 1-2 full revolutions, now I’m falling off after 5-7 or so. I think I’ll need just a couple of more days to stay on without falling over.
After I feel like I can stay on the uni for an extended period, I’ll go back and work on a true static mount-- right now I have the little brick behind my wheel as a crutch.
Chief
Instead of thinking of balance, try thinking of it as steering the unicycle under your fall. Put the wheel where you would put your foot if you were walking. Keep plenty of space around you for the erratic path that results.
Leaning slightly forward at the hips with the uni leaning slightly backwards to keep your centre of mass over the contact point results in a geometry that is more stable and forgiving of balance errors. Think of you and the uni as being hinged at your hips.
You will become more upright as your skills improve, making the uni less stable but more responsive.
Good stuff, thanks!
Chief
Day 16-- I can ride!
I can ride, albeit poorly, the unicycle!
Big call out to “coffeecupcowboy” whose method I followed.
Thanks everybody for your encouragement and tips!
Chief
Excellent! Solid progress. I took over a month to get to that point, for which I blame lack of talent and clinging to a fence. I reckon your seat is a bit too low. I recommend raising it a smidge (not by too much at once, or the uni will feel too different). You’ll feel your weight more on the seat.