Go back to page 2 of this thread. It’s in my Monster gallery
Thank you so much John, you’re the best! 
That was amazing!
Peter
Thanks John!! I was going to tape it today and forgot…you’re a life saver!
Thanks John, great clip. And Kris - VERY impressive riding!
I was less impressed by the show’s “science.” The one-legged stand test made sense, but the other one with the balance plate wasn’t very illuminating. All it showed was that Kris has slightly larger than average feet, and that he had them spaced farther apart than the other subjects. (Think of what someone could do on the fore-and-aft test wearing a pair of skis…)
Pretty interesting show! I think Kris’s part
turned out great. They sure spent a lot of
time on the Niagra Falls guy, though. I was
getting tired of looking at different angles
of the falls with a transition to the guy in
the woods, then back… but his survival
was amazing…
Looks like there is no need for me to capture
anything 
. John is better at encoding
anyway 
.
-Jess
Jester, you’re still my hero. But John ranks higher on my hero list. Sorry.
This hero stuff isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
I have posted a new version of Kris’ segment in my Monster gallery. This one has better audio (no clipping). I also compressed the video slightly more (400 bps vs. 450 bps) so the video quality is not as good as the other version, but the audio is better. If I try to compress the video further it starts to get too blocky.
I’ve also edited out the commercials from the full show. I’ll compress that version of the video tonight (it will take several hours to compress) and see how the results look. There were 15 minutes of commercials in the 1 hour show.
Holy crap, time to do some damage control on this one.
That was the most embarrassingly sensationalized segment I have ever done! Believe me, it wasn’t like that at all on the set. I just had a great time playing around on the structures they built for me, and although I did get high results on the balance testing I don’t think it was that unusual- certainly many unicyclists would get similar results.
I guess the main thing is to remember that they had to “show” that I was “more than human” to justify the fact that they featured me on the TV show, regarless of how good I actually was.
Remaining completely mortal and somewhat embarrassed,
Kris Holm.
You’re like those filthy mutants in X-men 
It was nice to get a little more exposure for the sport, but the structures they built and the riding you did weren’t that impressive. I mean, it was more than I can do, but there are many riders who could have completed that course (at least, from what they showed on TV). And what was with timing the entire trials course? I would have been more impressed if you had taken twice as long on the course, adding more stillstands.
Still, the only bad advertising is no advertising, right?
It was a nicely made, basic trials demo structure. Like all demo structures you could make it hard or easy depending on how you arranged the obstacles. I just put together the hardest sequences I could, but they didn’t show any of the harder lines I did. Probably this was because a non-rider wouldn’t have been able to tell which lines were hard or easy; they just picked the line that best fit their story.
Once again I stress that my experiences filming this were very different and much more humble than the edited version that they came out with!
Kris.
I thought the KH piece was well done. I have been interviewed on many of the adventure (non-uni) races that I have done and always feel embarassed by how they show me and the other ‘super-humans’. But, it makes good TV.
The closed eye balance test was interesting to me so I gave it a try. Without practice I did about 20 secs. What blew my mind is that I can ride my uni with my eyes closed easier than I can stand on one foot with my eyes closed; and I can barely freemount 
.
I would have bet big that the opposite would have been true.
Arrrrrrrghhhhh
I had the vcr all set to go on Sunday’s showing. Just at the balance test, the image in the transmission turned to pixels and died. So, most of the segment was lost. I wanted to show my students a good safe sample of trials riding and what Mr. Wylie hopes to do… someday.
A video tape would have been very convenient to show every year to succeeding classes.
I will check the schedule out in the future in hopes for reruns.
I highly doubt this would have been a good segment for showing a “good safe sample of trials riding”. Maybe something from Toque 2004 might be better if anything gets posted.
Kris
That’s what I didn’t like about my mUni article (see: http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30295). They made me out to be an “adrenaline junkie”, a “thrill-seeker”, and said the trail I did the photo shoot on was a “dangerous trail.”
I guess you gotta make the read exciting but I would have rather they wrote it in a way that would make it not seem so extreme. Then maybe more people would try it.
Here’s a link to a Seattle Times article that was probably one of the best articles yet written on unicycling, at least for presenting it in a way that appears accessible to everyone:
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/~kholm/Seattle%20times/The%20Seattle%20Times%20Sunday%20uni%20article.htm
Kris
Kris is just a ‘much more humble’ guy. I can’t think of a better spokesperson for the rough terrain area of unicycling. No matter how big a ‘uni superstar’ he may become, he will always be accessible, friendly, and humble. It’s great to have such an excellent role model at our sport’s top.
I haven’t even seen the video clip yet! I’ll try again to see if my DivX codecs are up to date. I’m tired of doing big downloads only to get sound with no picture…
Being a TV show, More Than Human and others have to make their stuff seem as cool as possible. Even though the show’s host is from Redford, MI and is a friend of Sem & Teresa Abrahams, I think Kris was chosen for the show because the MUni/Trials type of riding would be more visual and appeal better to a mass audience.
The video clip I posted is MPEG-1. It will be playable by almost any media player. No special codec needed. No DivX needed.
It would be interesting to see a balance competition between Kris and Sem. Run them both through the inner ear tests and test them both for various balance skills. I don’t know who would win.
I hope the show doesn’t come across to the general public that you need to be more than human to ride a unicycle. You can be much less than the average human and still be able to ride a unicycle. The people who are really good at unicycling are better than the average human, but that’s the way it is in any activity.
The show did rely too much on the stock footage of Kris. The bridge railing stuff is always good but they could have done with less of the other stock footage. Given the limited time it would have been better to see more of Kris on their little unicycle circuit course doing things like still stands on the round railing, gaps from one rail to the other, etc. I’m sure Kris could also manage a 180 on the square railing. There’s lots that they could have shown on the circuit course that would show balance, strength, control, accuracy and skill. What is it that allows Kris to ride a skinny rail so well? They could have had fun with that.
We did film all this, including 180’s on the square railing, stillstands on the round railing, gaps from the round railing to riding along the sandwich boards, riding uphill on an angled 1.5" square railing, and some hops from the ground to a sandwich board to riding on the square railing. As you know though, death shots rule for the layperson, and nothing is going to change about that in the near future. I wish I had the raw footage.
Kris.
Kris was a pleasure to work with and sure did some amazing things. Having known Teresa and Sem for over half of my life I thought I saw everything that could be done on a unicycle (especially after Sem’s world record ride last month) but Kris proved me wrong. Takes a lot of skill and even more guts to ride on cliff edges, etc. I wouldn’t do it while I was walking let alone riding a unicycle or anything else. You honestly did amaze our medical experts and our viewers as well. You deserve the “More Than Human” title.
Glad you all enjoyed his segment. Watch for a “More Than Human” special presentation airing March 25th and reairing on the 26th and 28th. Check your local listings for times in your area. Those not in the USA please contact your local Discovery Channel provider and tell the you want “More Than Human” on their network. Wouldn’t hurt to let them know.
Best Regards,
John Pullum