Here’s the description:
This is my first trials unicycling movie, with just a tiny bit of BC Wheeling included. I didn’t pull out all of the stops for this video, since it is my first one, but I feel the riding is solid, with minimal corrective hops, and a street flare to it. I dedicate it to the worst adversary of summer riding in southern Michigan: high humidity.
Hope you enjoy!
Sidenote–Included are a few big lateral gaps that I landed for the first time, and try, while filming. There are a few sketchy spots. One is where I had to pedal grab the edge of a planter box from a skinny set at a weird angle. I accidentally crank grabbed, so it took a bit longer to do the line than expected. I didn’t include any really big ups, or some of the smaller, more precise and easy technical lines that I ride at home. There’s really a lack of things to ride in Adrian, versus my college campus.
I got this: “The url contained a malformed video id.” Please check the link and repost? I’m looking forward to seeing some of the campus we visited for the USA conventions in 1993 and 2000 (though won’t mind not ever going back).
Nice! I think I recognize the park with the blue railings. That looks like the place where we did the MUni race in 2000 (Dan Heaton blew everyone else away). Also it may have been the start/end point for a 10k race in 1993?
Comments on the vid:
After watching all of it, I still have no idea what you look like The same was true for George Peck’s Rough Terrain Unicycling video, where you barely saw his face.
Credits should never be more than 5-10% of your overall running time.
Thanks for posting it, and thanks to MuniAddict for the link!
The park is in downtown Adrian. It’s called Trestle Park, as you may recall. It’s a little different since it first opened, and since 1999. I wish that I would’ve known about/been riding in 1999 when NUC was hosted in the city. I didn’t start riding until early november of 2000.
My face’ll become more familiar as I put out more videos, and get comfortable with the process. And if anyone really wants to see it that bad, they can click on my unicyclist profile, or follow the link from there and go to my myspace.
I’ll tell my 15 year old friend who filmed and edited it to cut-down on the credits time. Other than that, I think he did a fine job for his age. I was in a rush to get the thing done, and turned over to me so I could post it online, before I shipped off to school, too really mind the credit section’s long length. I really just wanted to get something out there.
Thanks for the constructive criticism!
My main problem now is finding someone to film and edit for me at school, where there is a greater variety of riding. I really, between school work, want to put a video out from my trials endeavours around main campus, before winter.
What is you secret/technique for acheiving such HIGH static jumps? Can you do that seat in also? WHen you start your jump up to top of the table, for example, do you jump first, pulling the uni a split second later, or all at the same time? This high hopping totally escapes me! I can barley hop high enough to get onto a bench SEAT! You’re going all the way to the top! I do notice that you tuck way in and your butt almost touches the saddle. I REALLY want to learn to do this!
I’ve written a lot about this. Basically I just studied what Zack Baldwin and Ryan Atkins were/are doing frame by frame in videos they were in or released online or on DVD. I’m still not as good as them at it, because I’ve only been doing hops over 30" for less than a year. Atkins probably thinks I’m crazy for putting so much analyzation into it.
Basically what I do, is warm up how Zack Baldwin said that he warmed up. I stretch my arms and legs before a ride. I might also do some static jumps without the unicycle, and with those jumps I tuck my legs up under me so that my knees basically hit my chest area. I also mount the unicycle, pull the seat out, and lower my body, and seat over the tire, until my butt touches the tire. Essentially I’m doing sif squats with the unicycle. I try to make it a fluid motion without using a corrective hop until I’m upright after dipping down. This helps so that I don’t bash the back of the seat into my ribs or collarbone when landing a big up. It keeps the seat anywhere from a little to farther away from my torso when I land on bigger stuff, for that reason. I do about 4-6 squats before I consider myself warmed up and ready to go. And if you notice in video Ryan Atkins and Zack Baldwin will, before a big up or pedal grab, quickly drop/push the seat away from them and bring it back in right before they compress the tire, like they are adjusting it and their center of balance. It’s another part of the technique.
Everything else is just timing, tuck and practice practice practice. The more you practice, the easier it is to judge how far away to be from a ledge, and how much to compress and then snap into a tuck. I use the rebound from the tire compressing (play with the tire pressure to see what gives you the best bounce response) to boost me into the air. As soon as I’m coming up from the rebound, I pull my knees/legs/feet up. I also pull up on the seat, but my legs do most of the work. The seat just helps, along with your spare arm (with the exception of your spare arm being able to throw your weight in different dirrections), in angling where you want to go. The tuck part is just like when I said that I practice a high static hop without my unicycle. I bring my knees to my chest. With a unicycle there’s a little more weight added to the game, of course, and your feet are in a different position along with your arm on the seat, and you are balancing on a small footprint of rubber. A lot of hopping is a mind game. I trick my mind into believing that a big ledge is actually smaller than it is, when I first attempt a new height. My static sif hops, no-pre-hop top out at around 34 inches, as we speak. Zack once told me he’d done 37" without a pre-hop. I’m not sure if I can go 34" seat-in. I’ve never tried anything over 24 inches as far as I know…and that was rolling. I really don’t have any use for rolling seat-in, or static seat-in hops. But, if I practiced I’m sure I could go 34 inches.
Start small. Work your way up. Defeat your mental blocks. I start on smaller things to warm up during rides. And besides, there are some small things that I ride that are a lot harder, more precise and technical than some bigger stuff that I do.
Thanks very much for the thoughtful explanation of your technique! It was very helpful! Can you do the same stuff on a muni or other type of 24" uni? I have a trials uni but I’d really like to practice your technique on my muni since most of my riding is off-road and pretty technical terrain. Thanks again!
I don’t own a MUni, so I’ve never tried. Oh man, ‘my technique’ is only one that so many taught me, and so many use. I’m never hesitant to give credit where it’s due. And for me it all stems back to Kris Holm. And speaking of MUni–Look at what he’s done on a 24 and 26 inch MUni.
But, remember. With a MUni, you won’t be able to go as high, since there is less room for the wheel to tuck, since it’s bigger than a trials unicycle. You can still go high. Kris Holm was doing 87cm hops (with pre-hop) or maybe more with a 24/26 inch tire.
