Hi. I am 11 years old. I live in Portland, Oregon. I have a unicycle and I am looking for beginner lessons. Does anyone have a recommendation? Thank you!
Have you looked at the map (icon in the top bar)? There are two unicyclists in Portland on the map. Maybe you can even contact them directly.
Btw.: Welcome to the forum!
Thank you.
How good are you at riding? My own experience is that for someone just starting out what’s most important is just getting out and attempting to ride the darn thing. Riding every day along a fence, a wall, with sticks or with someone kind enough to hold your hand and walk alongside you is probably going to be the best thing a new rider can do.
If you’re better than that and want to develop more advanced skills, then I’d try to find a club or make friends with other unicyclists.
I don’t think you’re going to find too many people giving actual lessons, but you can probably find a lot of people who’d like to ride with you and can give you tips on how to ride.
COMPLETE BEGINNER! 
. Thank you for the tip, it’s super helpful.
Warmly,
My own experience learning to ride as a kid and helping my daughter and her friend learn to ride is that it will take about 2 weeks to 1 month of regular practice. You’ll see stuff online about people learning to ride In a day, but generally those people have extensive experience on bikes or in other balance related sports. If you can already ride a wheelie for a block on a bike, then you can probably hop right on a unicycle and start riding, but for most of the rest of us it’s going to take some time to learn.
As people get better though they start only needing a tiny bit of support rather than clinging to a fence or wall for dear life. When my daughter was almost riding on her own I’d just have her hold one of my fingers for balance. So you will be seeing an improvement in your skills even before you start riding on your own.
Hey Kysa, I’m gonna say “go for it” as well.
You will learn in mere hours. (that’s my prediction)
Get all the safety gear (or as much as you can), a level fence or wall that you can ride along (tennis court, etc…), use the fence or wall to hold for support and go back and forth, and then finally start riding away from the wall.
Just do it.
+1 on the safety gear. I don’t think unicycling is particularly dangerous, but it is absolutely intimidating. Safety gear helps you feel more confident and when you feel confident you’re more willing to let go of the wall or the fence, or to stand up on the pedals so that you can turn more aggressively. For me, and I suspect most others, half the battle is overcoming my own cowardice.
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Watch YouTube videos and go. Everyone is different but after 45 minutes of practice you will be tired, mentally and or physically. Stop practicing once you are tired and come back later or the next day.
After 3, 45 minute sessions I was able to ride 50 meters with an assisted mount. I suspect you will be in the same boat, your brain just figures it out.
AWESOME! Thank you!
I love it. Thank you!
Hardly anyone actually knows how they can ride a unicycle at all or what really mattered when they learnt. The are more opinions than riders. At least half the advice is wrong but nobody is quite sure which half.
Just get out and do it.The exact details of how you learn to get started don’t really matter in the end. Even after you manage to ride several metres there is still a massive amount of learning and developing the reflexes to stay on under all kinds of circumstances. It takes hundreds of hours to become proficient so whether you take two hours or two hundred to get started isn’t that important.
Some techniques for some people will have them riding in half an hour. Others can take many weeks. Persistence will get you there. Be sure to keep having fun.
The first important thing to learn is how to fall off. Of course it is really easy to do but actually takes practice to be good at it and not fall down. Once you are comfortable with that, fear, which is the biggest enemy of learning, goes away and learning will progress. Once your brain experiences a thousand ways to fall off it will realise how to stay on.
You will only fail if you stop trying.
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