Unconquered Challenges

Off-topic
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Unconquered Challenges (Note the emphasis on Unconquered?)

Write a story or poem describing something you haven’t yet conquered despite repeated efforts. Don’t use it as a way to brag on yourself. Remember, this is about something you have tried and tried to do, but still can’t do.

Here’s mine.

There is a trail above the creek at Mason Mill Water Works trails in Atlanta / Decatur, GA. The slope of the bank is very steep, and the trail running along the side of the bank is very narrow. The trail is barely a foot wide and is also a little sloped. (FYI: I ride a KH24.)

A small tree, maybe 8 inches or less in diameter, sits directly in the middle of the trail, and separates one side of the trail from the other. Hard stop.

I can’t get around the tree on the bottom at all. The surface is too loose and the bank is very very steep. My MUni just slips down the hill.

The top side of the tree is a knarly tangle of roots and rocks, the former spreading out randomly and unevenly from the tree, and again the slope is very steep.

If I hold on to the tree, I can make it around the top, get back on the trail and ride. But I want to ride.

If I ride straight back down to the trail, I can’t make the 90 degree right turn to get back on the trail. I can’t control the speed over the multiple uneven drops, and I overshoot the trail because it’s particularly narrow, and not flat here.

If I go around the top of the tree, then ride above the trail for a few feet, hopping over the roots, I encounter boulders. Then I either overshoot the trail on the way back down or, more often, hang a pedel on a root or a rock.

I have probably tried it 100 times or more. I think I’ve made it twice (statistical insignificance). This tree has caused me more blood loss, more falls, more bruises, and more ego damage than all of other places I ride combined.

How could I quit now!?

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Re: Unconquered Challenges

Haiku for an unconquered challenge

Crank grab to rubber:
If at first you don’t succeed,
just try try again.

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I often ride my Coker to school. Right near my house, there’s a shortcut through some people’s yard. Well, technically it’s no one’s property, it’s for sale.
Anyway, it’s about 100 ft long, totally unlandscaped and all. At the end there’s a big huge bump, like a gigantic natural speedbump kind of. The other side of it is fairly vertical.

So I used to always ride my Coker through there to get to school, and it was my goal to get all the way through without UPD’ing, and I had gotten through before but always dismounted for The Bump because I’m a wuss.
So one day when I did try it, I easily got on top of the bump, and then I tried to rolled forward off of it. my foot came off the pedal, so I stepped forward trying to land on my feet but it’s downhill, and you allllll know how fun those downhill high speed UPD’s are eh? So I hit the ground with my foot, but kept going forward. I turned sideways trying to roll out but I suck at rollouts. It still wasn’t too bad though, got a scrape on my elbow is all.

So of course I had to try again later. this time I was more successful, kinda… I did get over, I did land the pseudo-drop, but then the weak Coker wheel tacoed under me then sprung back into shape, and I could have ridden out of it anyway, but that’s kind of a scary feeling to have it taco/untaco with you on it. So. I WILL land it and ride out when I get the Airfoil Rim and Super-Wide Hub.

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A week ago I was out practicing freestyle. After spending quite some time working on random tricks, I decided that I should head in, but I also decided that I needed to do at least one proper stand-up glide (get into it flatland, and go at least ten feet) before I went in. (Now I can do stand-up glide downhill for a ways, and I can sometimes get into it on flat ground, although only once in a great while. About two weeks ago I was getting it maybe one time in ten, but since then my ability seems to have slipped, so it’s more like one in fifty, or worse.) Anyway I kept trying and trying to do it over about half an hour, getting more and more frustrated the whole time. I did almost do it once, but I fell off too soon after I was up for it to qualify. Eventually, I was just gliding then jumping off the frame again and again without even trying very hard to stay on, so I quit in total frustration. The lesson I have learned from that is never to say inside myself “I won’t go in until I do x.” It’s just a recepie for frustration, which makes my unicycling a burdensome chore rather than something I really enjoy.

I had an almost identical experience a few months ago, only it was in my basement, and the trick I just couldn’t do was sideways wheel walk with the transitions.

Anyway, these aren’t now completely unconquered challenges, but they were at the time, so I think they qualify.

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Re: Re: Unconquered Challenges

Haihus have to be about nature…

Chase

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Re: Re: Re: Unconquered Challenges

they don’t have to… they just usually are.

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by the laws of poetry is supposed to be like that but people i guess dont follow it, i just took a whole semester about poetry:D

Chase
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Re: Re: Re: Unconquered Challenges

I’m sorry, but that’s not correct. It is true that they are often about nature, to wit:

The avalanche rolls,
Master of its pathway, but
Gravity’s vassal.

But that is a tradition; it is not an absolute. There are few absolutes in poetry. For reference, here is a definition from Merriam-Webster online:

Main Entry: hai·ku
Pronunciation: 'hI-(")kü
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural haiku
Etymology: Japanese
: an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three lines containing usually 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively; also : a poem in this form usually having a seasonal reference –

Dictionary.com supports your claim a bit better:

hai·ku ( P ) Pronunciation Key (hk)
n. pl. haiku, also hai·kus
A Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.
A poem written in this form.

Soooo, my response to you would be to not get so hung up on rules when it comes to creativity. And instead of focusing on my piece, why not try writing something yourself that adds to the thread? Perhaps a haiku that involves both nature AND unicycling? Or if you’re feeling particularly verbose, a tanka…

To your other post above, what are these “Laws of Poetry”? Reference please…

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Re: Re: Re: Unconquered Challenges

So Unitik, what’s your unconquered challenge? Reitz Hill? The Ohio River Bridge? The Golf Course up in Jasper? :wink:

(And, uh, thanks for sharing your, uh, expertise on far eastern poetry. :wink: )

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In the interest of blatant pandering to the dogmatic, I offer this minor correction:

Haiku for an unconquered challenge

Crank grab to rubber:
If in spring you don’t succeed,
Try again this fall.

:wink:

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mine is learning pedal grabs. i can crank grab and hop seat out. i just haven’t put much time into figuring out the balance on one pedal while the uni dangles below me. probably get more motivation once i get my trials put together. stupid motivation.

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Ok, so I have recently begun to really enjoy hopping over curb sized walls with drops on the other size. I found a couple, and it’s fun, so I do it once in a while. I found another one, but I just can’t seem to get it, though I have tried many times. I can ride up to it, stop, and hop over it, but I have yet to fluidly rolling hop over it. I think this is mainly becausee it’s an interesting shape. It’s a curb edge, then a steeply sloped concrete bit maybe a foot long and 2.5 or 3 feet tall. At the bottom of the slope is a horizontal 90 degree angle curb edge, and then the road. Anyway, I have yet to do it, and it’s annoying me. I’ve done similar stuff, but just can’t do this one.

It looks like this in cross section: (crappy drawing, I know…)

randomasketchystyles.png

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Huh? If it’s no one’s property then who is selling it?

Klaas Bil

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There’s a line in my big movie that I made a while back (see signature) that I haven’t yet been able to do. It’s a metal boom gate about 4 full pedal revs long. It’s less than a trials tyre wide and bounces all over the place if you ride it too slowly because it’s made of metal and has no support in the middle. The line is to ride the length of that, then hop onto the cylindrical counter weight, then drop onto a wooden log and ride that. I tried it for 45 minutes non-stop and only ever managed to make the rail and counter weight parts of it. Usually if I can’t do a line I’ll keep trying until I can (which often takes a loooong time :)) but this one has me beaten for now.

Andrew

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fiiine, then, the real estate people own it. but I mean no one personally owns it, like no one plans on building a house there anytime soon. that’s what I meant (:

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I’ve seen your movies (thanks for sharing!) and I know the line you’re talking about… I was cheering you on while watching the movie, hoping you’d make the line, but alas, no…

So, here’s a scientific look at your challenge: the boom wobbles 'cause you’re much heavier than it and any little motion you make is a large disturbance to the boom.

Go on a starvation diet until you’re down to your minimum weight. If you could drop, say, 25 kgs (that’s around 55 lbs for those who haven’t embraced the metric system yet) then you’d be in prime shape to nail the line!

If I had Calista Flockhart’s number I’d give it to you… I’m sure she (or the Olsen twins) could give you some dieting tips.