So, here’s a little secret. The most common form of pedalgrabbing and crankgrabbing foot positions is off the front foot. But all is not lost. In fact, some is gained. Because you pedalgrab off your back foot, try this, rather than all those crappy ways you see most people do (including me).
I first think it’s worth mentioning that it’s fine that you use two hands for hopping seat out, but the move I’m about to describe needs some control and extra balance that really can only be achieved with a free hand. I reccomend that you learn to hop seat out with your left hand on the seat if you hop to the right, or with your right hand on the seat if you hop to the left WARNING: LONG PARENTHESES, NOT NECCESSARILY USEFUL FOR PEDALGRABS, BUT STILL GOOD INFO. (this is because if you hop towards the hand you hold the seat with, when you try to lift the uni it will angle the tire away from the obstacle, which will make things way harder and you will fall lots more. I hop to the left with my right hand on the seat. I can consistently make 28-29" to rubber, but when I hop to the right I can barely make 20". This is not because I cannot get the tire onto the object [that’s the easy part]. The problem is that when I jump onto the object to the right, my hand lifts the seat so that the tire naturally angles to the left. That’s why most high hoppers hop to the direction opposite their hand. Anyways, when I do big hops to the right, once my tire’s on the object, I put my weight on the wheel and one of three things can happen. First, the uni can just collapse out from under me and I fall, which sucks. Second, I can have the seat ripped out of my hand because I can’t grip hard enough to keep it up. Third, I muscle the seat up from being ripped out of my hand and keep it up, and end up doing a 3-4’ gap to get control over the uni again. That’s when I land it. On the other hand, when I do big hops to the left, it’s nice because half my tire simply lands on the edge of the object and I just tip onto it, and have a smooth landing)
Now for the pedalgrab:
Climb up on the object and do a PEDAL hang, without the crank touching the object. The front of the unicycle should be angled towards the object as much as you can. Crank clearance should not be a problem, as the crank will never hit the object. Get comfortable. Now, with all your weight on the pedal on the object, swing the uni with the pedal as the axis of rotation. It’s okay if the crank hits the obstacle, as long as whoever owns the obstacle doesn’t mind crank-marks (there’s a ledge by my house with a black rubber mark on the side of it for about 6’. It abruptly stops 10" from the top of the ledge. This is where I learned to crank grab).
Now, carefully and slowly bring the uni up so that your right foot is in front. the uni should still be angled in enough that the front of the tire is maybe 1-2.5" from the object. This is a kinda steep angle. Once you have the uni in this position, lower it as low as is comfortable for you to keep the outside foot on the pedal. Then, in a rather quick movement, spin the wheel around the pedal, keeping your outside foot on the pedal, and jump lightly off the inside foot. The spin combined with the jump should basically “roll” you onto the object. This is easier on longer cranks. By doing the roll move, you are jumping around 2-4", rather than 10". Truse me, it’s easier. I learned this move from Mike Middleton. He’s a great trials rider who skipped crankgrabs and just did what I describe above. It’s easier than crankgrabs, and much more precise.
If you want a video I’ll try to get one in my gallery in a few days to a week. As for one-handed seat out, dont’ worry, it’s harder at first, but will get easier with time.
Most of all, good luck! I tried to be clear, but if it’s not I’ll reiterate anything that needs it. And also, it’s fine to skip crank grabs. They’re not all that useful, and are way hard. I’m a guy and I swim tons, maning I have plenty of upper-body strength. Still, it took me around three months to land my first complete crankgrab. And still another three to do a pedalgrab. Now I only pedalgrab.
As for my way, I hop to the left with my right foot back, so i do a pedalgrab by slowly raising the uni until my back foot’s above lateral and then I do a quick jump as I swing the pedal up still more. then, I swing them back to lateral as I land. It takes a while to get precise forward-backward, but once you are you can get onto stuff as small as the top of a 4x4 (piece of wood). Good luck (again).
Remember, the most important thing is having faith. I never landed anything until I believed I could. I can only do a big hop if I think I can. If you don’t believe in yourself, I promise, you won’t do it.
Something that may help is a distraction to get yourself to go for a move. Sometimes when I’m distracted I go for stuff without any reserves and then land it. For example, a girl I liked was walking by as I tried to learn crankgrabs, and I went for ti as she passed. Being a dumb, testosterone crazed idiot, I was half distracted by seeing if she was watching. Without even thinking, I did the crankgrab, some corner of my mind still expecting a fall (the rest to trying in vain to see through the corner of my eye to see if she was watching), and instead I landed it. Noone saw, but whatever, as I landfed it five times afterwards, without messing up. Basically, if you relax and don’t neccessarily think about the move, you may lose some inhibition that’s making you hold back and land it inadvertantly. I was also distracted when I landed my first ever 26" hop. Strange, but it seems to work for me (in some cases).
If you read this entire post, I am amazed, since nethier reading nor writing 5927 characters is an easy feat!
P.S. Check out my gallery, some new vids of me doing a wheelwalk up a hill and gliding down it ought to be up in a few days.
Later.