Are there any professional unicyclists? I am asuming there are because of the IUF, but I have only heard of Ryan Atkins and a few other people, who are some other pro unicyclists?
kris holm
I thought Kris Holm was the only one?
It all depends on what you mean by “pro”
If by pro, you mean someone who makes a living off of unicycling, then I’m sure that there are 100’s.
If by pro, you mean someone who does like, extreme unicycling and is sponsored by companies and stuff, I’d have to say there are considerably less.
pro unicyclist: someone who unicyclists for a profession.
someone who always raises the bar, makes something new happen… someone who beats the rest and does what we think coudn be done…shaun johanesson
Well no non-street performer people make money from unicycle riding.
pro as in professional means its your profession=something you do for a living
if being a pro unicyclist is making money of it i can consider myself as a pro unicyclist…
I make money unicycling , i work as a artist but i also juggle too… and this is my PROfession
it shouldnt be called pro if its not a profession
Re: Pro Unicyclists
On Sat, 8 Jul 2006 21:00:15 -0500, benjaug wrote:
>Are there any professional unicyclists?
Lots of professional circus artists who have specialised in
unicycling.
Teresa and Sem Abrahams come to mind too.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“I’m slowly but surely stealing Wales and bringing it back to my house on the wheel, frame and cranks of my muni. - phil”
i by pro you mean get the $'s i need then yes I am
I think a pro is someone who makes a significant proportion of their total earnings through the named activity,either directly or through sponsorship. I would imagine that the vast majority or pro unicyclists are circus or stage performers. There is some debate in my mind over people like KH, he doesn’t get paid to ride, but his riding advertises the products that he sells, which i would imgaine is his main breadwinner. ‘Pro’ smacks of commerciality anyway, so perhaps isnt something to aim for if you want to maintain the status quo of people being in to unicycling for the fun rather than to make the most money.
Yeah, I meant pro as in someone who makes a living of unicycling.
Professional … well, my only job is as a unicycle instructor (and that’s where I earn all my money) and, sometimes, I ride in shows and so on. But I am only 17 years old and live at home. I go to school. I think a professional athlete (in any sport, really) should have the sport as his main source of income AND main activity in the daily life. If you get up every monday and ride your unicycle and get paid for that, you’re a pro.
What does the IUF has to do with profesional unicycling?
In my opinion even less than the WJF has to do with profesional juggling.
Is still a student, getting himself a decent education.
He use to have a dayjob, as well at a university.
…and not just a little money, while living at your parents!
Someone who fills in “unicyclist” at the line profession at a tax-form, which I’m doing ever since I got those sent to me, but I wonder for how long that will be.
Is a great rider. Got my respect, but I don’t think he’s making a living out of it, or is he?
I strongly disagree on that; though I do perform on street-theater festivals, I don’t consider myself a street-performer.
And what about Malte Knapp or Iouri and Diana?
I would like to adjust your statement to: Right now no muni- or street unicyclist is making a living out of unicycle riding.
Right?
Hasn’t anyone said “Me” yet?
anyways, me
Ben Matthews
look for me on selfdestructing Munis dot com
A site so special, only pro unicyclists can see it:P
Actually this may be the other way around. With all the talk of “non-pro” riders on this forum getting “sponsored” by various companies, I’m pretty sure they outnumber the people who actually make a living from unicycling. Because those are very few!
There are many ways to define “professional” in sports or other disciplines. Let’s start with the IUF (which, as Leo mentioned, has almost nothing to do with professional unicyclists). The IUF used to have a definition of pro, to determine whether “professional” unicyclists would have to compete with the experts. That definition broke it down as someone who makes at least 50% of their annual income from performing, where that performing contained a significant amount of unicycling.
That definition would have been hard to enforce, unless one was familiar with the types of performance a rider did. But the idea was to keep “pro” riders from being over-qualified in non-expert age groups. Later we removed the pro distinction, as we had never used it, and upon the realization that very few professional performers do the type of riding that would give them a competitive advantage in an IUF artistic competition.
Simple definition: You got paid to unicycle, at least once. Many of us would qualify.
More strict definition: You’ve been paid to unicycle in the past year. Less of us would qualify.
IUF-type definition: You make at least half your income from performing (or unicycle riding). Performers must do “a lot” of unicycling in their shows, not just an end act or one small part. Almost none of us would qualify.
Very strict definition: You make all of your income from unicycling. Hardly anyone in the world would qualify. The only example I can think of offhand is Peter Rosendahl.
But there are other types of unicycling you may be involved in. Kris Holm, for example, designs unicycles and spends countless hours working out products with companies around the world to provide us with a higher standard of unicycles and components. That, to me, doesn’t make him a professional unicyclist, but it makes him a member of the “unicycle industry,” which is a pretty small group as well.
Other people sell unicycles, such as the Drummond family, Roger Davies, David Mariner and others. They might not be performers at all, but their profession is unicycles (not necessarily unicycling).
Others do a combination. Sem & Teresa Abrahams perform, teach, build and sell unicycles. They are professional unicyclists and are in the unicycle business.
But there are other definitions. Darren Bedford has just “clouded the waters” of what defines a pro with his new Pro Rider Series of T-shirts. Featuring cartoon images of Zack Baldwin, Irene Genelin, Shaun Johanssen and others, these are top-level riders who might not ever get paid to unicycle. Probably all of them have at least a little bit, but they may not aspire to do it for a living. In unicycle-language we might call them experts. So the Pro Rider Series definition is more about recognition of top riders than it is about money or business.
Another way to define “professional” is as an attitude. Someone who takes their activity seriously (though perhaps not too seriously), respects it, and tries to make theirself and their activity better by doing it. That one works for me as well.
Lastly, I’ll add the definition of someone who used to do it for a living, more or less, but now only gets paid occasionally (me). I guess that makes me a part-time pro.
I got my way paid to go to NAUCC by my sponsor. I’ve gotten several free unicycles. And next month I’ll get paid to do several trials demo’s at the state fair. So basicly, ALL of my income for this whole 2006 year is from unicycling. Does that make me a “pro”? Nahh. Were did the idea that you had to be paid to be a professional come from?
…a rule that applies to poeple who have a income and so spend (often a lot of) time on working…
…and so have less time to practise, compare to a let’s say student.
Besides that making a living out of performances that (wether partly or not) contains unicycling sais not that much about the level of that rider. And so all “pro’s” I spoke think it was a useless and even unfair rule. If you want to reach a certain level you’ll have to work for it. Regardless of being paid or not.
In the past he used to be another good example of a performer who make money sec on unicycling. But after having children he started working in a sport school, teaching some fighting sport.
In today’s economy it became harder to make a living of unicycling.
Shows make less profit, and the budgets of companies seeking promotion on events are simply spend different than 10 years ago.
So if you want unicycling as your occupation for the rest of your life, then rather consider getting a decent job with a more stable income like debt-collector, undertaker, banjo-seller, streetlight bulb-replacer, engineering databases of a cereal factory, insurance-representitive, or webdesigner.