I think Zack just wanted people to know that his gf is the freestyle world champion.
Looking at the freestyle competition videos here I definitely have to disagree, as did the judges of the expert competition at Unicon XII. In the female expert catergory, I find the Japanese routines (by Sayaka Kan and Maya Sugo) to be boring, especially compared to Amy Shield’s performance. Many of the Japanese (not including Daiki Izumida and a few others) don’t seem to be capable of any tricks except spins, pirouettes, and stand-up glide. Sure they do them extremely well, but they just keep doing the same tricks again and again. It may be graceful, but it tends to get boring. Ryan Woessner and Amy Shields on the other hand hardly repeat any tricks at all, while still presenting them with lots of style. And surely you don’t mean to say Simon Wells’ performance wasn’t artistic! It may not always have been graceful, but it certainly was exciting. There’s more to artistic freestyle than figure-skater poses.
I get it now!! you can only be a good freestylist if you’re Japanese! so that’s their secret…
steps onto soapbox
Its not all about the tricks. Its about the love for the sport. We shouldn’t concern ourselves with how good any one person is. We should just be happy with the progression of the sport. No one person can all of a sudden be good at any sport. It requires practice and dedication to become as good as it takes to obtain the title of World Champion.
Maybe we are talking, right now, to future Unicycling Champions. Given a little more time, maybe, the unicyclists here will conform to Zack’s idea of what a real freestyle unicycler should be. No one can be sure what people will make of themselves in the future.
So can’t we all just have fun loving the sport?
steps off soapbox
Thank you.
I’m with jsm…The Japenese are no doubt, extremely graceful but their skills repeat…There is a difference between technical proficiency and performance art…It comes down to what you define freestyle as and what the judges in competions are looking for…
The IUF (and others). Links below.
If you were sitting closer you may have had a better impression. Amy and Sayaka were both awesome. But Sakaya’s performance loses more from a distance (or in a tiny video) than Amy’s does. Amy definitely has more variety of riding, but not the emotional intensity displayed by Sayaka.
One of the judges had no previous Unicon experience, and gave Sayaka a very low score. If that judge had not been there it would have come out the other way around.
Kaori is not the world champion, but I believe her group came in second in Group Freestyle, which is about as high as anyone but Toyoda could have gotten these days. They were very good!
Are they incapable, or do they choose the rolling tricks over the hopping or other tricks to keep the speed and flow going? Japanese Freestyle has its own “look,” which is perhaps more limiting than what other riders do. But they have the presentation side up to a brilliant polish that I’ve never seen a non-Japanese rider match.
Amy’s performance was beautiful. Ryan’s success is all based on his joyous personality and overabundance of tricks. With some coaching, he could be even more amazing. He’s an extreme example, perhaps, of what Zack was trying to say; that all tricks does not a good Freestyle performance make.
Ryan won at Unicon because his “all tricks” was just such a huge quantity, presented with fun and good personality. Competitors with much stronger Presentation sides just couldn’t come close on the Difficulty side. Sayaka Kan almost did the same in the women’s division with incredibly strong Presentation and perfect technical riding. But Amy Shields had much more variety of skills, along with great Presentation as well.
I think what Zack was also trying to say, while unintentionally dissing people like me and others, is that he’d like to see or read about more full-on Freestyle stuff, as opposed to Flatland, which is the tricks without the presentation element. Don’t know what I mean by Difficulty vs. Presentation? Read the rules.
Zack has seen a live Freestyle competition (one?), and it happened to be the most intense, hotly-contested, and highest-skill international competition ever held. Many of the people who post here have either seen some videos, or just assume it’s something it may not be. Most have not seen it in person.
So Zack, online forums like this are a great place to hone your written communication skills. Keep at it! But please be reminded that there are some Freestyle experts here as well.
Why does this site appeal to more Trials-type riders and less Freestyle ones? I think because there just are more of them.
BTW, for JC and others, tricks can be called skills if you don’t like the sound of tricks. The skill levels use groups of tricks to raise your general level of skill. 
For Zack and JSM, there is no such event as “artistic freestyle.” See section 1.5 in the IUF Rulebook for more detail.
What was this thread about anyway? 
Oh man!! I wasnt dissing anybody! I know there are tons of Awsome freestyle riders on here. and I have met or hung out with alot of them. I just get annoyed by what people post on here and how they talk about thereselvs. I know that john is a CRAZY awsome freestyle rider and one of the worlds best. I also know there are a ton of good freestyle riders in the US. I just get really annoyed by some little kids on this forum. thats Why I Posted on this topic!
and I said there are a bunch of Kids on this forum who think they do freestyle when all there doing is flatland. Witch is awsome also. Sorry If I offended anybody. DAUUUMMM
My comment to Tyler was tongue in cheek. But I do prefer to use the word skill rather than trick. I practice skills but perform tricks. Skills are what you practice and know. Tricks are what you do to entertain others.
If I keep dropping hints at Tyler I can get him to change his ways and use the word skill in place of the word trick. 