I ride Freestyle primarily and I find a gym to be the best place to practice my freestyle tricks. But I cannot always access a gym and I am wondering if anybody here has suggestions for very smooth surfaces in public to practice on. I live on a dirt road and have a gravel driveway so productive freestyle learning at my house is not really possible. If anybody has some ideas where I can look for a surface with minimal cracks and rocks that would be appreciated.
Any outdoor sports courts with rubberized surfaces is usually the best bet. Freestyle tricks require pretty perfect ground and a lot of space unfortunately. Other than that it’s just randomly hoping to find a park with well paved paths probably…
If you have some interest in it, flatland tricks are typically possible on rougher ground and need less space (a decently even parking lot works).
Thank you very much for the suggestion! I’ve been dabling in a few flatland tricks here or there in the limited spaces I can find for a while now. But as the road to Unicon builds up I have been finding myself scrambling to find a solid place to get some freestyle practice in.
Both basketball courts and tennis courts can be pretty good (assuming they’re not being otherwise used).
And often skate parks are decent.
See the videos from Discrete_Integral aka theunicycleguytumu: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9JGGA2cyc7A
https://www.youtube.com/@theunicycleguytamu
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Ah yes, I met Sean at nationals, he’s a fantastic freestyle performer. The suggestions for tennis courts and such have been great. But now that its snowing here in MI, outdoor freestyle might have to wait till about March ish.
I live next to a roller hockey rink, which are usually pretty smooth and level compared to basketball courts. I would say if you can find a roller hockey rink, you’re not far off from a gym.
Ian
If you’re in the Detroit area there’s the Redford Township Unicycle Club. Otherwise you’re kind of on your own. I had the club, and in my early days also practiced on the smooth pavement outside of the Livonia Mall. All that remains of that mall now is the Sears store. but out back of the Cinema, I used the wall and lots of open pavement to learn wall-holding skills, such as wheel walk, etc. and other less-traveled parts of the lot to learn coasting and gliding back when people were first doing those things.
Seek smooth, level pavement, ultimately with paint or other coatings on it to make it even smoother.