The teaser at the beginning of the show showed some of the different moves on the trials course. Very short clips, but they did show you riding along the top of two sandwich boards end to end, and jumping from the round rail to a sandwich board.
Kris,
Any chance of getting the raw footage? Then bring it to a MUNi weekend and we can crowd around a TV to watch.
With 3 to 4 segments on each episode and probably 20 hours or more of footage between all the camera angles, etc. on each segment (probably more like 40 hours with sometimes 5 camera running) it would be impossible to get the raw footage. Paying the studio to have someone search up the raw footage in their vaults, take it to the dubbing dept. have it transfered, etc. would cost a ton even if they would part with it. In the international version of “More Than Human” they use a few minutes extra of footage in one or more segments (think 3 or 4 minutes extra). I think since Kris had such GREAT footage he brought to the show they’d rather show him on a cliff and not on a wood ramp behind our studios. The props from the special vanished from behind the studios somehow. ??? Bet I’ll see them in someone’s unicycle show someday soon. Thank God for security cameras on all sides of the building. 
Take care.
John Pullum
So are you learning to ride? Are you working on your own unicycle show?
Have a Semcycle I bought right before I found out I had to have major jaw surgery a few years back. It’s been hanging on my garage wall even since. Maybe someday I’ll dust it off and learn. Sem made my daughter a child size unicycle and she’s been trying a bit on and off. No plans for a unicycle show in this life for me. I do comedy hypnosis and mentalism shows for corporate events as my full time job.
Take care.
John Pullum
Thanks John Pullman for responding! It’s nice when we get information straight from the source like this. If you do decide to get into unicycling, you’ve definitely stumbled into the right location to get any help you need. And if you thought what you saw on More Thah Human was impressive, try looking up some of the videos we have floating around this website. You’ll find out there are quite a few superhumans here.
Death shots. I like that. Normally Kris tends to give me an impression something like “Hey, it’s solid rock/concrete/wood. All you have to do is ride straight, no problem!”
Those shots are what establish Kris as the “more than human” expert for the segment. Their intention was not to test “Joe unicyclist.” Each of their segments is centered around a person who can do unique things, or has had unique things happen to them.
So here’s a question that was not addressed; whether being a unicyclist makes you a better balancer, or if Kris is a better balancer by nature, making him an exceptionally well-balanced unicyclist.
Pretty much anyone can learn to ride a unicycle, but how much of our balance is acquired, and how much are we born with? Those little hair cells in your semi-circular canals. Do some people have more of them, or just better wiring to give them more accurate balance?
Anyone would agree that aside from their many other skills, both Kris Holm and Sem Abrahams are exceptional balancers. I wonder what other kinds of tests could be used to compare peoples’ balancing abilities?
Thanks John Pullman for posting! Great to know you read this stuff. Sorry I never got to meet you while I was living in Livonia. I moved out in 1984.
This is a really interesting question.
On the show I talked a bit about the independent, separate skills of balance, timing and coordination, which together make for a good well-rounded rider, but they didn’t include that in the segment.
My feeling is that as you progress as an athlete in this or other balance-oriented, technical sports, you somewhat gain skills in two partially independent areas of balance and coordination.
In my experience, coordination is learned more quickly than balance. It seems that new riders pick up coordination (ie the mechanics of some skill) quite quickly, which is why many young riders can do hard coordination-oriented tricks such as 360 unispins, while still having relatively less ability to do more pure-balance activities such as riding round railings.
If you graphed them out, I’d say that coordination would follow some sort of steep learning curve, then plateau out while your balance was slowly, linearly improving over a longer period of time.
I also think that as you get older, you retain these skills differently. Coordination is probably something you lose somewhat as you get older, but balance probably stays for a long time, maybe forever if you work at it. You also lose them at different rates if you take a break from riiding. For me, if I don’t ride for a few weeks I lose some coordination but not my balance.
Consequently, you can probably predict the age of the best riders for different styles in the sport, based on the combination of coordination and balance they require. My prediction is:
- Highest coordination/balance ratio: street freestyle and artistic. Probably the best riders will be in their teens.
- Mid-level coordination/balance: Trials riding and Freeriding. Best riders in their late teens to late twenties.
- Less coordination/balance, more endurance: Cross-country. Best riders in their mid twenties to late 30’s.
What do you think?
Kris
I think I’m in my 40’s.
But your estimation looks like a relatively accurate assessment. Though there are other factors involved, and always exceptions to the rules, your list there will probably hold up pretty well over the next few years.
For Freestyle, the ability to do the tricks always comes way before the Presentation half of the performance matures. So younger riders will probably tend to be the best in the Standard Skill event, while Freestylers will probably average out to be a few years older.
Street Freestyle is still a new idea, and we don’t have any competition events yet to look at and see who the winners are.
I think it would be interesting to start a thread where everyone posts how long they have been riding and also time themselves on the one footed eyes closed balance test (first try NOT best try) and see how it all compares… Age might be good to throw into the formula as well. I would like to see where other unicylists of different levels of riding place in this test.
Of course, there are elite athletes that are at a world class level until their late 40’s, and a number of athletes in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s that are still near the top of their respective sports.
For example, Ron Kauk climbed 5.14b at the age of 40, which at the time was the hardest ascent by an American climber at the time, and Lynn Hill was in her late 30’s when she freeclimbed the Nose of El Capitan in a single day (still unrepeated).
Still fairly young but still incredible, endurance XC mountain biker Tinker Juarez is 39. And then there’s Fred Becky, a legendary full-time climber in his late 70’s that is still putting up first ascents of climbing routes.
My favorite is the story of the Le Menestrel family from France, who sometimes together as a family (Mom, Dad and two sons). As the story goes, an onlooker watched all members of the family flash (get first try) a 5.13 sport climbing route, one after another.
Kris.
I forgot what is probably the biggest factor of all- time.
How many people do you know in their 30’s and older that have as much time to practice as someone in high school?
Kris.
Another factor to be included (which has been implied but not stated) is the experience factor. Putting 40 years into a sport, even if your coordination begins to decline, will still give you better technique and confidence. The so-called “death shots” have very little to do with coordination or balance. I’ve yet to see Kris ride a 2" skinny over a 500 foot drop, where I have seen things like this with a 3 foot drop. The ability to mentally focus on the situation at hand, get over nervousness, etc. comes with experience.
Of course, that is harder to quantify, so it’s in a different category.
Hmm, a 2nd episode of Riply’s 
True. I pretty much stopped any actual training for unicycle racing in the mid-90’s, but continued to do well on experience and “side training” alone. Side training being riding trails or whatever unrelated riding I’d been doing.
Thanks to Kris for the pat on the back for us “oldsters.” I’m doing okay, and was very proud of my 3rd place finish in the 10k at NAUCC last summer. The two guys that beat me were both teenagers, and had both just ridden across Norway. David Stone, closer to my age, chose to skip the big downhill at the end, to find out the alternate route was quite a bit further. It would have been even more interesting had we stayed head to head.
I made another version of the More Than Human video. This version includes the show introduction, the teaser right before Kris’ segment, and Kris’ segment. I also threw in a 30 second HP commercial that ran during the show because I like the commercial.
This version of the video is encoded with Windows Media 9. There are pros and cons to using WM9. DivX also has it’s issues. Neither option (DivX or WM9) is ideal for all users. It’s a toss-up for me whether DivX or WM9 is the better solution. Neither option is ideal.
The video is in my Monster gallery
The introduction mentions Kirk Jones’ accidental fall over Niagara Falls. Ever since this accident about 5 or 6 months ago I have been suspicious that he jumped in intentionally. Do a web search on “Kirk Jones Niagara” for the story. The “More Than Human” show said that he fell in accidentally after being hypnotized by the moving and swirling water. Right… I say he jumped and tried to commit a spectacular suicide.
ya know when i was young and in my teens wearing black eyeliner writing depressing poems,i never thought i would hear a Cure song on television.i wonder how much R.Smith got for that little sell out.
on the intro of that show they were not sure if the safe cracker guys power to open safes came from his “fingers,eyes or ears” im pretty sure it magic is in the mullet.
and oh yeah,those trials obsticles are cool.like somthing out of a Devo video.