Pay It Forward
Find a person who is interested enough to learn and teach them.
Have them promise to teach one person.
I’ve been riding for couple years and I still haven’t taught anybody. I don’t count the guy that learned w/me.
My best hope currently is the neighbor girl. She is cruising w/ the help of one hand.
I agree…that way, only the people who want to do it…there are kids who wealk around with a skateboard who can barely ride to be “cool”. I enjoy the cool comments we get because we’re unknown…there’s an entire thread about it.
About the UDC issue…how much profit do you think they make? Assuming that most people who would buy more than one unicycle are web-savvy enough to find this, that’s not an enormous number of people…would more than say, 3 companies be able to exist on UDC’s profits?
I’ve met John and Amy Drummond from UDC, they are very nice people.
As for getting “extreme unicycling” out, next week I’m doing trials demos at the state fair. Which supposedly has 85,000 people a day (not all watching me of course, and not all at once)
I met John and Amy also at NAUCC. I sincerely appreciated their attitude when dealing with them. They may have a near monopoly but act like they don’t know it.
If I need something I won’t go elcewhere for a planned purchase unless they don’t have it, whatever IT may be.
why in hell not? 
When Chris Taylor was in Edmonton, he did a Learn to Unicycle class in the gym. It might not have been awesome, but it was a try.
I think the thing that needs to happen is to get people close to a unicycle, talk to them, and let them know that they can do it if they have the interest. Most people just seem to think that it’s an unattainable trick, not something that they can learn.
when i start working at the lbs, i’ll take my muni to the comps that the bike stores team are in, and then slowly start the takeover of unicycling. muahahahahaha!
hm i think we really need to convince people that anyone can ride a unicycle, some people look at it and are like OMGosh i could never do that. I hope you guys know the look, if that happens, i go up closer to the person and do a few tricks. If that doesn’t spark interest then I just leave. Also, if the person is a girl and seems shy I will ride up and say something nice to them, get thier attention and ride away (I have probably done this to ABOUT 20 ppl and around 5 came to me and asked about unicycling later). My video on myspace that has almost 120000 views sparked a bunch of curiousity, and caused 3 ppl to get unicycles that I know of!
Well, I agree with Octoer 50%. I don’t know if I want unicycling to gain popularity or not. A few days ago there was a party in my house. A barbecue, actually, mostly with family. I had to practice sometime, and I didn’t really want a lot of people staring at me so I figured, “Hey, what better place to hide than in plain sight?” and oddly enough, that worked, until my aunt pointed at me and said, or yelled “Look at Andy in that…thing” I would like for people not to call a unicycle a “thing” or a “bike” I’d like them to be more familiar with the term “unicycle” than they are, instead of calling it a thing or bike. Also, I’d like someone to ride with. That same aunt met me upstairs while I was riding, with a little more privacy, and said, “Hey, can you teach me how to ride that thing?” and there were a few things on my mind at that moment.
“Is she crazy? You can’t just learn to ride in six seconds flat”
“First, you have to learn the word unicycle”
“NO! My uni!!!AHHH!!!” (if she learned with my unicycle, I’d have to let her borrow it to practice some more while she got her own and it’s my only one, and I had no idea how long it would take, or what to do, or anything at all, I think I was being a little selfish with all those thoughts.)
“There’s no real trick to this”
“Uhh…”
“Do you even own a bike? I’ve never seen it”
and also my 2-year-old cousin asked me “How do you steer that thing?” (uh, maybe it’s a mistranslation, it was in spanish, he said “Como guias esa cosa?”)
I was a little speechless. He’d never seen me ride before? WHOO-HOO! NO! And I said “Like this” and did a weird ride. Actually, I just rode about five feet in a straight line, not really answering his question. And yes, I’d like “do the dew” on a unicycle, and John Foss action playsets(probably, I know he said Kris Holm, but I like John Foss better…actually, I’ve heard of him more and he doesn’t sell super expensive unis) I don’t want a Razor scooter(why??I’ve already got a unicycle, what do I need a scooter for?) and I’d like to see cheap-o unicycles at Wal-Mart and K-Mart (I know it sounds weird, but it makes unis more affordable and stuff…it’s unexplainable, I’d have to travel less far to get one, I’m lazy and I’m not gonna get one from UDC…right now) and I’d like to see kids with imitation sixsixone shin guards('cause there’s no sixsixone around here, is there? and I’d be able to ride with someone, and that person could get a uni, and I’d like to see uni’s on TV, AND I’d like the spell checker on my computer to stop saying that “unicycling” is not a verb. It seems like I’m completely against October, and I did type that I’m “50%” against him and it seems like I’m 99.9999999999999999999999999% against him now, but the other 50% is…
I only joined this sport 'cause it looked like fun(and it is) and 'cause it’s the exact opposite of eeryone else. It’s just like me!
So… sometimes it’s hard, haing to explain what a unicycle IS every time you mention one. I even wrote a fic (it’s not really a FANfic, but it’s not really that fictional, the odds of any of the begining of the story ever actually happening and me in the story having all that skill are 1:1 million googols) about if I had someone who’d ride with me and lived one block away. I hate writing, I get too much writer’s block, I can only get to about 1 1/2 pages on a REALLY good day…and so far I’ve got 5 pages on that story in 2 days. So, I dunno. And another time my best friend was about to learn and couldn’t because she didn’t have enough time with the uni. Her mom might let her get one, if she ever learns and becomes a level one(not that they know about the 10 skill levels) I dunno, also like October said, "maybe i missed the point…
oh well,
enough of my restless banter…"
I see youre point and I not disreegauding it but you know how there is that group of peolple who are “the skater group” I think that is kinda what we are
as one skater said to me
Hell yeah
andy beat me to it
Basicly just the regular path any other media will go (but yes, I have some friends as well).
The (video) interview will be in the very next episode (#8, so tommorow).
Increasing uni popularity
It would be great if unicycling became a lot more popular. I would like to go to my lbs and pick out o new uni for myself. They could add 20 unicycles to their inventory of about 300 b*kes. If I were 20 years younger I would definately want a KH action figure (I’m 31). I wish there were other people around to ride with (I’m slowly peeking the interest of some of my friends). I would like it to be known as unicyling is something some people do and not just weirdos and clowns.
The only thing I probably would like to keep to an extent is the uniqueness of unicyling. I think I’d be against of cheap unis at Walmart.
To increase popularity: (Maybee we should start a thread on this topic. Was there already? Whrere?)
Encourage friends and family members to learn. Get an additional uni to loan out and make this easier.
Ride all over the place. Be kind and courtious. Freely give out uni info and where they can find more.
Encourage your lbs to carry more unicycles and uni parts.
Start or join a uni club. Do performances to non-unicyclists.
Do demos at your lbs, high school and pro sporting events.
Can you or someone post a clip of this interview?:o
i agree. unicycling needs to be more popular, or at least ‘normal’ to everyone. i hate it when people stop and look at you. it makes me feel kinda wierd so i dont feel like going uniing in public as much.
At http://www.uniconnews.com/ you can sign up trough iTunes and you’ll have it soon after publishing. Or just check the front page.
If you want to take action for your sport, and you currently are in Swiss, than you should come to the IUF meet.
When will Hoffman’s interview be up. What date was it recorded on?
I think it isn’t a very good idea.
When unicycling becomes popular it isn’t special anymore.
Nobody will ever say “wooow” again
and conventions will be TO busy.
i agree
it would be cool if there were about 5x as many riders
but any more than that
would suck because it would become too mainstream and common and totally boring
the coolest thing about unicycling is that theres no HUGE jump in the tricks
once you decide what you like you can run w/ it and its not too hard to do a trick or two that the “pros” are doing
or come up with a trick that those people will do… or attempt
I agree with the above two posters…not EVERYTHING needs to be publicized. Unicycling is fine like it is now, IMO.