What helped me was mounting and then sitting on the unicycle for a while and relaxing. Whenever i first started i was really anxious and started riding as soon as i got up. Just take it slow. It took me about 2 weeks to ride for about 25- 50 feet.
Yup there’s some movement of the wheel backwards when I get up there but not an awful lot - that might be something to do with my broom ‘support’ …You can bet that when I’ve cracked free mounting and more importantly actually moving forward on my uni that I will let y’all know! 
So what’s that? The creator of this thread asks for advice and we all offer help, and then no coment for 3 days? Are we talking to a phantom? Oh well, I hope others will benefit from our answers. 
Or is it just me having a bad day?
hand up incase you hadn’t noticed some of us are benefiting from this thread
Don’t mind me I’m having a really crap day!
Klaus - the most common first mount is certainly one involving rolling the wheel back, so driving the seat under your butt as it lifts said butt of the ground. As opposed to hoisting your butt onto the seat withthe wheel hardly moving, which is what I am envisaging from your description.
(Of course, on a roll back you do not have to take off forward, you can then continue on the spot idling, though that is an extra skill on top of the mount which is probably best left until competent to do a mount with a roll back leading straight into moving off the spot formwards.)
This mount is sometimes termed a static or sstationary mount, though it is not really as it involves the wheel moving rearwards to initiate the mount. To mount with almost no wheel movement, truly static, is more difficult than the usual basic.
The easier of the two giraffe mounts is truly static as the wheel is kept from moving (as much as possible) until the mount is complete. If a beginner is doing this mount on a regular uni then they are doing it pretty tough. As I said earlier, have a look at youtube…
There is a third not too common option, which is a truly static mount. In this one you start iwth the pedal at six o’clock, put butt onto seat moving to bend forward and hold the wheel just in front of the forks near the crown. You then quickly settle and then take off forwards. It sounds and looks a bit awkward but some beginners start there as it also gets rid of the problems inherent in excess backward movement of the wheel.
But regardless of teminology, take it from me that rolling back is easiest to learn for most.
The mount I found the easiest, by far, for a true beginner is this one.
The mount I found the easiest, by far, for a true beginner is this one.
same is the case with me! i made a uni on my own but it is even harder to get on it. i can’t hold myself still on it, let alone pushing it to first rev. 
I agree that I have seen many perform a cross between a static and a roll-back mount - but this is just not a properly performed static mount… 
(Here is a proper one: http://www.unicyclist.org/cont/video5.cfm?p=mountLf)
When my static mounts are unsuccessful, it is often because I inadvertently applies too much pressure on the back pedal - and the pedals thus become too vertical. I have tried the roll-back mount, but for now the static is the only freemount that I can perform with reasonable success.
I have found out why I believed the static mount to be the most common: In his excellent beginner’s guide (http://www.xs4all.nl/~klaasbil/Learn_unicycling.pdf), Klaas Bil states that most beginners find the static mount easier - but this obviously does not mean that it actually is the most common mount. :o
Yes, youtube is an excellent tool, both for learning and inspiration. BurnerDave’s video was e.g. very good for keeping up the moral in the beginning. I would just advice against videos trying to persuade beginners to start off with 100 rocks with each foot and such. I found this much more difficult than just riding along a rail.
I found that this was by far the easiest mount for me when I was first starting out.
FrostyDons post points to the one that I mentioned as the not so common third option. But seeing it with a thirty six inch wheel has given me a whole lot more respct for it. It seems onreflection that it really would be the superior method with a large wheel.
On a 20" it doesn’t look quite so cool, but still ok.
I suppose I really should develop the static mount shown, it does allow a slightly faster launch into moving forward. It’s good to have some variation.
The rear rolling mount has the big advantage over the others in that, with practice, you can mount on steep upward, steep downward and very bumpy slopes(with practice) for things that grab the wheel part way to completing the mount. Soft grassy surfaces can cause some difficulty though and a forward aka static could then be valuable.
Yup seems I’m doing a cross between a static mount and a rolling mount, albeit still with a little bit of help from a handy wall.
I achieved my best result moving forward yesterday. I managed 5/6 revolutions which is twice as far as I’ve managed thus far. I’m ready for the alley behind my house when I get home from Nurse Doo’s house. 
It took me quite a while to get the static mount correct (and a lot of time surfing youtube to see the different methods!). I found that as I mounted I was not putting enough weight on the seat. I was standing on the mounting pedal and then madly trying to get a foot on the other pedal - then I would start to put weight on the seat.
I found that some weight on the rear pedal (pointing at 30-45 degrees reward and down) and making sure I was sitting on the seat let me just swing/jump up and the uni just sits in the same spot (someone smarter than me may be able to explain this better).
It does take a leap of faith the first time you do it but it feels very stable. I hardly ever miss the mount now and find it easier than holding onto anything while mounting. It took me about 2 hours of non-stop trying to master (and a fair amount of ridicule from those not brave enough to try!).
ill add…
one thing i’d like to add is a shopping cart. It helps me keep the unicycle under me, and it is easy to hold as you go in a straight line. Best of luck. I am currently on my 5th day of learning. I can ride for about 30 seconds without help, and i used a shopping cart for the first 2 days.
I am most pleased to report that after and hour and half of concerted effort I have finally managed to unicycle half way down my street. I’m feeling very smug right now! 
congrats make a video
you have just unlocked the secrete to life!
I hope to do so when I’m looking cool and not a flailing fool!
I knowz! 
I am only justy able to mount and ride, no idling or anything, but I remember my friends asking me what the secret was and I said something like this:
“Each time you pedal, you pull the wheel in the same direction as that foot. Maybe that’s all you should think about, left, right, left, right…and as you get better, your wheel will make less movement side to side, but the left-right movement is what keeps you up.”
Maybe that’s all wrong, but I know thinking about it really helped me.
Sorta right but, imho, only a little. Reasonably strong/obvious left and rights will help you stay on, and a hard turn to a favoured side is a learners way of slowing the wheel when it seems to want to get away from you forwards. But not the gentle natural waddle, that initially just happens regardless of what else you are doing.
You will eventually have to reduce the left-right waddle anyway. Among other things, it wears the tyres out so fast. My first couple of tyres (on a 24"x1.75") was around 200-300km per tyre. I now get 3,000km or more off the same model tyre. (And reducing it works the core very well and at my age that’s a big plus.)