i know it’s made by the same company…
a water mister? what next? a butler to operate said mister? bad eighties music joke coming on…
allrighty then, just call it an airhead seat and the journalist should be happy
Moving along on one wheel: Vancouver unicyclist rolls into films
Trent Edwards
Calgary Herald
758 words
16 October 2004
Calgary Herald
Final
C1 / FRONT
English
Copyright © 2004 Calgary Herald
Kris Holm hopped and rolled through a Calgary outdoors store on a unicycle Friday morning to launch the latest edition of the film festival that made him famous in mountain sports circles around the world.
Holm, a 31-year-old pioneer of mountain and trials unicycling from Vancouver, has made films about his feats of balance and daring on a unicycle in mountains around the world since 1998. He’s been filmed unicycling some of British Columbia’s hardest mountain biking trails, riding up Mexico’s tallest mountain, wheeling across Bhutan’s Himalayas and unicycling along the Great Wall of China.
It was the Banff Mountain Film Festival, which celebrates its 29th year Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, that brought worldwide credibility to him and his sport, though.
Skilletto, a short film compilation of Holm’s exploits on the infamous raised ramps and wooden contraptions of Vancouver’s North Shore, was screened at the 2000 festival, exposing thousands of outdoor enthusiasts to Holm’s unique talent. The festival’s world tour took Skilletto to two dozen countries on six continents.
“It’s really hard to get a film screened at Banff. It has a lot of credibility,” said Holm. “The opportunity to film Skilletto gave me a lot of opportunities to travel and work on mountain unicycling around the world.”
The next year, Holm’s film Unizaba, about unicycling Mexico’s 5,550-metre volcano El Pico de Orizaba, was featured at the festival.
Holm will return to the festival at the Banff Centre on Nov. 2 to introduce its Tuesday night Radical Reels films. Holm and Ryan Leech, his teammate on the Norco factory bike trials team who has awed film audiences for years with his mountain biking balance feats, will bounce and roll their way over a course of two-by-fours on end and obstacles for 20 minutes. An audience of adrenaline junkies and armchair wannabes will then see a series of short films showing some of the world’s wildest thrill-seekers and most skilled outdoor athletes perform death-defying stunts in exotic settings.
Holm, who began unicycling as a 12-year-old after seeing a street performer, had never heard of the small groups of mountain unicyclists that had been riding since the 1940s. Yet he immediately started riding his first unicycle on the trails around his home in Victoria, B.C.
“Because I was outside a lot with my family, I just automatically thought of riding it on trails,” says Holm.
The outgoing young man took his unicycle on regular rock-climbing trips to hone his skills for a dozen years before turning professional as a mountain and trials unicyclist in 1998. Now, he’s the world’s best-known unicyclist, appearing in a dozen adventure films and videos. Holm was even featured on the television show Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. He’s also one of the best unicyclists on the planet, winning the 2002 World Unicycling Championships and seven North American titles.
In 18 years of hopping between obstacles high above the ground and rolling along the edges of cliffs on one wheel, Holm, who wears a cycling helmet and plastic armour to protect his lower legs, has yet to suffer a serious injury.
“You can choose to put yourself in situations of risk, just like in climbing,” says Holm. “But there’s a lot of evaluation and practice near the ground before you do that.”
Holm now splits his time between working as a geologist four days a week, film-making and designing his own line of unicycles.
“I still get out to ride almost every day,” says Holm. “I really like the simplicity of the sport and that it’s so technically demanding.”
Quizzing a small audience of media at the festival launch in The Hostel Shop, Holm assumed none of the scribes and cameramen had heard of mountain unicycling. He was right on most counts, but he was surprised to hear that the Herald was familiar with his exploits. He credits the Banff festival for that.
“Prior to the exposure from the Banff festival, if you walked into a bike shop and said you ride a mountain unicycle, they’d look at you like you were crazy,” says Holm.
“Now there’s tens of thousands of riders worldwide.”
tedwards@theherald.canwest.com
Colour Photo: Mikael Kjellstrom, Calgary Herald / Unicyclist Kris Holm helps launch the Banff Mountain Film Festival on Friday.
Ooh, them’s fighting words! 
The World According To… Ross Noble
491 words
21 October 2004
The Independent
2
English
(c) 2004 Independent Newspapers (UK) Limited . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, distributed or exploited in any way.
Ross Noble, 27, was born in Northumberland and first performed stand-up at his local comedy club at the age of 15. He has appeared on Have I Got News for You and can regularly be heard on BBC Radio 4
…
Do you have any hidden talents?
Yes, I"m actually a proficient unicyclist. But it"s a pointless talent, because unless, say, you"re at the circus and a performer dies, and they need someone from the audience with unicycling experience, it"s not in great demand.
…
Yes, but what size wheel unicycle?
Lucky 13; We spent 13 days of horror to give you a guide the best area haunts
By Catey Sullivan, Special to the Tribune.
2,111 words
22 October 2004
Chicago Tribune
Chicago Final
1
English
Copyright 2004, Chicago Tribune. All Rights Reserved.
You can have your 12 days of Christmas. For many of us, to he best festivities come with Halloween. So in the spirit (no pun intended) of the season, we embarked on a 13-day odyssey of fearsome fun (13 being the scariest number, of course). Follow our journey and figure out one of your own. Hours and costs vary; call for specifics.
…
THE HAUNTED FRONT YARD
4904 W. Nagle; www.hauntedfrontyard.tk
The Haunted Front Yard has been growing for 15 years, says Thomas Nava, 17, who with his brother Anthony, 14, is charged with ghouling up the property each autumn. “Every year, we add something new. My favorite this year is the 6-foot-4 Frankenstein,” he said. New this year is an archway deeming the residence an official Haunted House. Guarding the archway is Dracula, surrounded by all manner of pumpkins, ghosts, witches and a warlock stirring up some sort of brew on the south side of the lawn. “We’ve got a fog machine going this year too,” Nava said. See it while you can: The whole display comes down Nov. 1, so the Novas can start decorating for Christmas.
What’s unique: A spider the size of a unicycle is crawling on the front window.
…
Please note that this article actually came out tomorrow. And that they haven’t posted it in it’s entirety. (I’ll update if and when the rest appears in the database).
Doing a world of good; Most of us couldn’t ride a unicycle even two metres, but Ken Looi rode his across two countries for a good cause. Jim Eagles is full of admiration.
837 words
26 October 2004
New Zealand Herald
D01
English
(c) 2004 The New Zealand Herald
NEWLY qualified doctor Ken Looi spent his holidays riding a unicycle 500km from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Angkor Wat in Thailand, in the process helping to raise $70,000 for charity and having ``a really cool trip’'.
He is one of a growing number of people who want to feel that when they go on holiday they are not only having a good time but also doing good.
Of course, not everyone goes to the extent of riding a unicycle in a country where foreigners on ordinary bicycles are still a source of fascination. But the trend is growing and it is one that charities such as Oxfam New Zealand, which organised the Vietnam to Cambodia Cycle Challenge, are happy to encourage.
Lisa Robson, Oxfam NZ’s challenge co- ordinator, says the idea of combining a holiday with support for a good cause is catching on around the world.
``They’re quite common in the UK, and in Australia as well they’re starting to get a bit of popularity, but I think we’re the first charity in New Zealand to use them.‘’
The cycle challenge Looi went on was Oxfam’s first foray into tourism but it went so well that a repeat was organised for February next year and, says Robson, ``that’s sold out already so we’ve organised a third and that one is almost full as well’'.
Oxfam NZ is also planning a Borneo Bushwacka Challenge in June next year which will involve walking and mountain climbing in some fairly rugged national parks.
The challenge for these trips is not merely doing them but also raising the money.
For the cycle challenge, for instance, participants had to raise $5500 which was split between travel company Intrepid, which organised the trip, and Oxfam.
People did a range of things to get the money,'' Robson says. Some raised the whole amount, some paid the whole amount themselves, and there were a whole lot in between.
``A couple of businessmen basically called in favours from suppliers and other people ran sausage sizzles, darts competitions, ice-skating parties and wine and cheese evenings.
``One woman baked 100 cakes, sold them for $30 each, and there was $3000.‘’
Looi, who now works at Masterton Hospital, paid half the cost of the trip himself and used his skill as a unicyclist to raise the rest for Oxfam by doing demonstrations, getting sponsorships and helping at unicycling events.
I read about the trip on a mountainbiking website,'' he says, and followed it up because I’d always wanted to get into cycle touring and I thought it would be a bonus to be able to help a charity at the same time.‘’
It was, he says, well worth the effort.
``It was unbelievable. Cycle tours are the best way to see a country because you see a lot of things that you’d miss if you went through in a car or a bus.
``The back roads we used mostly weren’t very well-travelled so a lot of the people hadn’t seen foreigners on bikes before.
``They’d all rush out and wave at everybody and then I’d go past on the unicycle and they would go crazy.
``All the way from Vietnam to Cambodia it was just people laughing and waving and giggling as I went past. It was just amazing.‘’
Former Oxfam marketing manager Paul Easton, who went on the first trip himself - training by riding a bike into the Oxfam office in Auckland - also felt the highlight was the chance to go off the beaten track and meet people.
``They’re not used to seeing tourists, so when you went through the villages the kids would smile and wave and hold their hands out for a high five.
``By the time you got to the end of the village word would have got around and there’d be crowds of people, like the Tour de France or something, all very friendly, all wanting to chat - as far as the language would allow.‘’
Another highlight for Easton was the chance to visit an Oxfam project at Prey Toteng in Cambodia which focuses on educating girls.
``One of the ways we achieve that is to give families a scholarship of $8 a year to ease the financial burden of keeping the girls at school,‘’ he says.
``When you tell people it costs only $8 a year to make that difference and then they see the kids - lovely girls, all smiling and in uniforms, and their parents proudly with them - you can see it sinking in. While we were there the people in our group had a whip-round and put the money into sponsoring some more girls.‘’
Neither Looi nor Easton found the cycling Continued on D3
This is a direct link to the article on Ken’s trip.
Raphael Lasar
Matawan, NJ
Thanks for pre-posting another excellent, positive article, Raphael. Ken, you rule.
I seem to have missed this one and if it’s already been posted, please forgive.
WHEEL TRICKY
125 words
26 October 2004
Dominion Post
5
English
(c) 2004 Independent Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved.
IT MAY have only one wheel, but unicyclist Tony Melton is not letting that get in the way of getting airborne in a downhill event during the New Zealand Unicycle Weekend at Karori, Wellington. More than 25 unicyclists took part in the event, which included long jump and high jump competitions and speed events. Organiser Ken Looi said unicycling can be easier than riding a bicycle. Downhill speeds could reach up to 25kmh. “Once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. You can get around corners quicker.” But unicycling does produce its share of injuries.
“You get a few bruises and sprains.”
Mr Looi said unicycling was a growing sport overseas and he hoped to involve more people in New Zealand.
Thanks for posting that Raphael, I missed this thread last week. I was really surprised to see the article- they interviewed us months and months ago. It was nicely written and well researched. And it made a full page in the travel section of NZ’s biggest Newspaper; so hopefully will be good publicity for OXFAM and Unicycling in general. More on my website (below).
That second article you posted relates to the NZ Unicycle Weekend. I don’t have my scanner here at work- but it had a nice photo and was in the local Wellington Newpaper.
Relates to this thread
Cheers,
Ken
Wow, the Wall Street Journal. But note that lack of statistical market data. Given that the WSJ has nothing to say on this subject, it must be pretty difficult to come by.
WEEKEND JOURNAL
The Home Front
details: Big Wheels Head For the Hills
By Conor Dougherty
485 words
5 November 2004
The Wall Street Journal
W14
English
(Copyright (c) 2004, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
WHY RIDE A MOUNTAIN BIKE with two wheels when one will do? Mountain unicycling, or “MUni,” an off-road version of unicycling practiced on rough trails, is climbing in popularity among people who like the compactness and portability of the one-wheeled vehicles, the challenge they offer – and the fun of mastering a skill very much on the fringe of mainstream sports.
“Circus clowns paved the way for us, but unicycling has gone so much further,” says John Drummond, co-owner of Unicycle.com, a Marietta, Ga., retailer where sales of mountain unicycles rose to 700 last year from 200 four years earlier. Mr. Drummond started riding a unicycle several years ago as a weight-loss measure, and because he had fond memories of riding one as a kid. Today, he says, he keeps pedaling just for fun.
Infinite Illusions, a Tallahassee, Fla., retailer of juggling equipment, yo-yos and unicycles, saw its cycle sales double last year to about 2,100 cycles, both standard and mountaineer models. Gregory Cohen, the company’s owner, says most sales have been to first-time cyclists attracted by the extreme-sports tricks being tried by mountain unicyclers.
A decade ago, most mountain unicycles were jerry-rigged together with tires from mountain bikes, but, today, about 10 companies manufacture the vehicles. Prices range from $200 to $1,500 for models with names like Nimbus or Sun. Mountain unicycles are just one among the dozens of varieties of unicycles – from street unicycles to extra-tall models, called “giraffes.”
Peter Perron, 46, an attorney in the Seattle area, recently took up unicycling with his wife, Suzanne Ross. They started on standard unicycles in tennis courts, holding onto the fence for support. Later, they used ski poles to keep balance and added mountain unicycling, on trails, to their repertoire. It’s “a funny, inexpensive way to have fun,” says Mr. Perron, who adds that he’s lost 10 pounds. Plus, it’s “not something that everybody does.”
The first unicycles were descendants of the Penny Farthing, the 1870s bicycle with one large wheel in front and one small wheel in back. Those bikes had a tendency to flip the rider forward. Unicycling was born when a crop of dexterous riders learned how to ride the Penny Farthing on the front wheel. The rare skill was showcased in vaudeville, and has been billed as entertainment ever since.
In 1996, John Foss, a 25-year unicyclist, organized an event called the “California Mountain Unicycling Weekend” that lured 35 cyclists; attendance at the annual event has more than doubled since and a half-dozen similar events have sprung up around the country. Nonetheless, Mr. Foss says he has come to accept that wherever he rides, the one question he’s likely to hear is, “Dude, are you in the circus?”
FUND-RAISING: Father’s unicycle marathon
415 words
8 November 2004
Peterborough Evening Telegraph
English
© Johnston Publishing Limited
A FATHER completed a marathon challenge and rode a unicycle 26 miles to support the baby unit that saved his son’s life.
Despite the rain, Richard Gedney set off for his epic “Unithon” from near his home in Pinchbeck, near Spalding, at 6am yesterday.
Five gruelling hours later, the proud dad arrived at the special care baby unit at Peterborough District Hospital.
Richard’s son, Ricky, was born 25 weeks premature in June 1996, and was cared for at Peterborough’s Special Care Baby Unit.
Ricky was delivered by emergency caesarean section after his mother, Serena Reed (28), contracted pre-eclampsia during pregnancy. He was at the unit for nearly four months, and is now a healthy eight year-old.
Richard, who had never ridden a unicycle until two months ago, said: “I finished quicker than I thought. The adrenaline was really pumping, and I was stocking up on cans of Red Bull.”
Richard (32) had previously raised £400 from a street collection in Spalding, and says he eventually hopes to rake in thousands.
He said: “I still have to collect all the sponsorship forms, but I hope to raise £2,600 - £100 for every mile.”
“People have been very supportive and a lot were beeping their car horns in support as they drove past.”
Richard and Serena previously held two charity auctions in aid of the baby unit, at the Norfolk pub, and raised about £3,500.
Lesley Hibbert, an outreach nursery nurse at the unit said: “It’s an absolutely brilliant achievement. I was here when Ricky was born and it’s lovely to see him again. The money will go into the trust fund and help more babies like Ricky.”
Richard’s route took him from Pinchbeck towards Market Deeping, and along Bourges Boulevard before arriving at the hospital.
He added: “My knees are really hurting, but I’m delighted.”
Staff expert in dealing with small babies and their problems
The Special Care Baby Unit is in the Maternity Unit of Peterborough District Hospital.
Babies born prematurely, those with breathing difficulties or feeding problems, and babies with birth injuries or infection are cared for there.
The unit is staffed by a team experienced in the care of sick and small babies. There are five paediatric consultants, plus registrars and senior house doctors.
The nursing staff consist of midwives, registered sick children’s nurses and those with qualifications in special and intensive care of newborn babies.
Re: Unicycle articles (but wait there’s more…)
On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 13:18:03 -0500, “Mike Rojas” wrote:
>Geeze,talk about taking something literally. I do enjoy unicycling very
>much,or else I wouldn’t do it!! I know it is possible to coast and
>freestyle and mountain etc. Although I have been riding alot of years,my
>skills are not as advanced as most of you. I don’t know anyone else who
>rides unicycles so I have always been on my own, I would love to learn
>more stuff,but it’s kinda hard on your own,besides I’ll be 40 next
>week,stuff hurts alot more than it used too. I live in the New Orleans
>area where we have storm levee’s, and I routinely ride up and down
>them,not quit Mountain like,but have you ever seen a mountain in New
>Orleans,I didn’t think so. I am very proud of my acomplishment in just
>riding and the health benefits I have recieved. Yes I do feel great when
>I am done,and I am always glad that I went. As I said I do enjoy riding
>just to ride,but would it be such a crime if I only rode for health
>benefits?? Am I not allowed to be part of the unicycle crowd because I
>dont mountain ride,or freestyle? I am looking very much forward to
>learning more of that stuff. No,unicyling is not my life and I don’t
>“live to ride”,I do however “ride to live”.I am pretty dissapointed in
>your response,so much for the family friendly welcome to our hobby I
>thought I might get. I hope your response is not what I can expect from
>this forum. JJuggle,thanks for your support. It’s luch time now so I’m
>for my daily Fitness routine,5 miles of healthy unicycling!!
>BTW,I don’t hhave a weight problem,and my cholestrol is way in the
>normal range. I am 5’9" and weight 170lbs. If the picture that was in
>the paper had posted you could see.
>Mike
Only today (14 Nov 2004) I read this. At the time, the gateway somehow
functioned badly and recently it did again. Therefore, just today I
connected to another usenet server to get posts I missed the first
time around. This I tell only to explain why I didn’t respond earlier
- 't is nothing for me to let such a thing go unanswered.
Mike, I didn’t mean any disrespect at all to your riding style or
abilities - and I don’t think I wrote something that can be construed
as such. I’m really sorry if I offended you. I only wrote that from
the article it seemed that unicycling isn’t really a hobby of yours,
but you do it (mainly?) for the health benefit. Nothing wrong with
that, but JJuggle said that the article depicted unicycling as a fun
activity and I didn’t really see that.
I can’t find the original article back but from your 3 Sep response it
seems that I was wrong on the you having fun part. Whether it’s in the
article or not, even if you rode only for health benefits, to me you
would be a perfectly allright member of the crowd.
Klaas Bil - Newsgroup Addict
“Deflating pi does not reduce calories, it just concentrates them. - billham”
I officially became one of the 10 mentioned below last week.
A wheel and a fortune Unicycle entrepreneur thrives in Web traffic, branches into banjos
DAVE HIRSCHMAN
Staff
949 words
27 November 2004
The Atlanta Journal - Constitution
Home
G1
English
Copyright (c) 2004 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, All Rights Reserved
At this hectic time of year, Internet entrepreneur John Drummond is as busy as a unicyclist playing a banjo.
That’s not just a colorful Southern simile. It’s an actual fact.
The former IBM technician and founder of Unicycle.com and Banjo.com in Marietta has transformed his hobbies into businesses that he says bring in about $1.5 million a year in sales.
U.S. businesses are expected to send record numbers of small packages this holiday season, thanks in part to the steady rise of Internet retailing.
Sandy Springs-based UPS, the world’s largest transportation firm, is hiring 70,000 temporary workers and says the flood of packages will crest Dec. 21 with more than 230 million domestic and international shipments.
Web-based business people like Drummond add to those numbers.
“This wasn’t supposed to be an occupation,” said Drummond, 47, a technical writer who began selling unicycles on his Web site five years ago.
“I thought I’d sell a few unicycles, and if things worked out, I’d use the money to buy a few more unicycles. My wife is a stay-at-home mom, and I worked for a big company and figured that would always be the way it was.”
Drummond collected inventory and sold items at home for two years before the business outgrew his suburban neighborhood. By then, he’d stocked two of his neighbors’ garages with unicycle equipment.
When an 18-wheel truck rig made a delivery one day in 2001, he knew he had a real business and rented a 3,200-square-foot storefront and warehouse.
Now, Drummond’s wife, Amy, is chief executive, and they have four part-time workers. The family’s three sons, ages 16, 13 and 10, all accomplished unicyclists, help out during the pre-Christmas peak shipping season. Together, they assemble a dizzying variety of unicycle parts into finished products that they sell and ship around the world.
This year, Drummond, an amateur musician since age 16, added Banjo.com and carved out a showroom with 85 banjo models and warehouse space. Rapid sales of the five-string instruments have him looking at far larger facilities.
Drummond says he plans to start 10 Internet-based companies in niche industries that follow the eclectic pattern he’s established so far.
The small businesses harness the power of two American business icons — IBM builds and hosts his Web sites, and UPS handles transportation and customer e-mail notifications.
“I couldn’t believe that these huge corporations were willing to help me get started,” Drummond said.
Drummond also has sold unicycle franchises in England, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden.
Most of the unicycles he sells are manufactured in China or Taiwan. The banjos are mostly made in the United States.
Unicycles range in price from $55 to $1,500, banjos from $150 to $12,000.
Both businesses are highly cyclical, with a flurry of sales in the pre-Christmas season.
“On Thanksgiving Day, people eat, and then they shop online,” Drummond says. “We go from sending 15 boxes a day to 150.”
Drummond says he has about 15,000 unicycle customers, about 3,000 banjo customers — and 10 that buy from both companies.
The vast majority of his sales come via the Internet. The globe-shrinking technology is his watchdog, too. Drummond says a word-of-mouth business like his can be devastated by negative comments from a few bloggers, so he works hard to keep customers happy around the world.
Drummond rides a unicycle about five miles a day for exercise, and he plays banjo and guitar in a band at Eastside Baptist Church called the “Garage Dads.”
Drummond says he was seven years away from being able to retire from IBM when he started his first online business. Now he’s looking for other specialty markets to link via the Internet.
“I look for niche products in areas that could be better served,” he said. “I used to drive a few hundred miles just to see a banjo that I wanted to buy. The idea is simply to bring everything to one place, and people can shop online or come to the store. I’ve got a list of 10 businesses that I’d like to start.”
Each new business can draw from the efficiencies and resources of the others. But Drummond says he won’t start any new enterprises until the existing ones are running themselves.
Drummond says he’s still surprised by the direction his career took, from an employee in a huge multinational corporation to a small-business owner in Marietta. He jokes that he never intended to become a “unicycle tycoon.”
“My dad retired from IBM,” he said, “and by God, I was going to make it, too. But we started this business in March, and by November it was too big to handle part time. It was scary to leave the security of the big corporation, because I didn’t know what lay ahead. But now I’m so used to running my own operation that I honestly don’t think I could ever go back.” Photo John Drummond, whose Marietta business empire started with Unicycle.com and now includes Banjo.com, learned how to turn a profit one wheel at a time. He rides a unicyle five miles every day (but rarely while strumming a tune). / T. LEVETTE BAGWELL / Staff Photo John Drummond strums a tune while he rides a unicyle.
Just one wheel is the cool deal
By Tanya Rose
STAFF WRITER
1,141 words
25 November 2004
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)
4
English
(c) Copyright 2004, Contra Costa Times. All Rights Reserved.
CONCORD
Riding the “Green Giraffe” is a most profound accomplishment, indeed. If a student can balance atop that towering beast – a lime-green unicycle that stands as tall as a person – then he has the unconditional and unquestioned admiration of his fellow students. But it takes an awful lot of practice.
Concord High School teacher Paul Renaud said that’s the point.
He started using unicycles during his English and art history classes as a teaching tool when he realized students didn’t have much patience when it came to practicing. They didn’t understand doing something over and over until they had done it correctly.
“If I said, ‘Take this essay and redo it,’ that was just such a foreign concept to them,” he said. "They would say, ‘What do you mean do it again? This is it. This is the essay.’
“I wanted to find a way to show them that it’s OK to be a beginner. With a unicycle, you can’t just hop on and ride away, and it’s the same with a math problem or a vocabulary word. Sometimes kids think learning happens accidentally.”
That’s where the unicycle comes in, and the metaphor has stuck with students, who have been unicycling on and off for the last five-plus years at Concord High. To this day, someone approaching the central quad area on any given Friday afternoon will see handfuls of high schoolers floating on one wheel like expert circus performers, falling occasionally but always gracefully.
It started in 1999, when Renaud toted a unicycle into his classroom and started teaching students their first one-wheeled lesson. To do well in life, he told them, is to try something, fall off, then get up again.
“The unicycle is very precise; it’s like the Blue Angels of riding,” Renaud said, noting that he started riding at about 10 years old when he found a unicycle, dusty and unused inside a barn.
He was supposed to be at a horse-riding camp but was hooked quickly on the unicycle and begged his parents to buy him one. By the time he introduced the sport to his students, however, he hadn’t ridden in at least 20 years.
But he picked up where he left off. And because riding had the feel of lunchtime recess rather than in-class drudgery, students had fun and forgot they were actually working.
And so it began. Students would come to Renaud’s classroom, grab a unicycle – one of several the teacher built or bought on eBay – and off to the quad they would go. Slowly but surely, students started getting it.
They would whip around the concrete square, some of them wobbling and some of them smoothly. Then, as more got into the sport, it turned into a full-blown phenomenon at the school where handfuls of students would meet once a week to ride for hours. When they weren’t riding, they talked about it.
“I’m nuts about it as a learning tool,” Renaud said. “But it’s only emblematic of chasing something down that you hadn’t mastered before and having a strategy. If you’re an angry person, you’re not going to learn to ride. If you’re emotional about it, same thing.”
During those first practices, students grabbed on to one of Renaud’s arms while steadying themselves on one wheel. He would hold on to them, much the way a dad holds onto his 5-year-old on training wheels for the first time. He would let go after awhile, and off the rider would go. If the rider fell, then Renaud and that student would do what he calls a “post-mortem” on why.
The lessons went on that way with up to 30 students for about two years before the club disbanded for various reasons.
But this September, the younger brothers of original unicyclers approached Renaud and asked about reinstating the club, which now meets every Friday from 3:15-5 p.m. in the quad.
"They said, “Hey, are you the unicycle guy?'” said Renaud. “And I said, ‘Yeah,’ and they said, ‘Well, we want another club.’ And that was it.”
Right away, about eight new members and Renaud got to work drafting the Unicycle Club Constitution, which contains rules about voting procedures and bringing new members in. They also coined a motto: “One Wheel is Our Deal.”
Now, they’re planning parade appearances and they even ride in formation, which is a little like synchronized swimming but without the water.
On a recent Friday afternoon, the Green Giraffe leaned up against a wall while students practiced. They all want to ride this monster, with its 6-foot-tall stem that Renaud crafted and a student’s father painted. It’s a coveted ride, like a badge.
Rachel Fihn, 14, isn’t yet to the point where she can try it.
“This is only my third practice,” she said after falling gracefully off a smaller cycle, landing on her feet with an Olympic-style “ta da” aimed at no one in particular.
“I like that it’s different. It’s not something everyone else is doing, and Mr. Renaud is so passionate about it.”
Her goal is to get on the Giraffe.
Freshman Robb Weisinger said it’s gotten to the point where he rides about seven hours per week – at least an hour a day. He said he gets the “weirdest looks” from people, but he likes that.
His friend, Jason Score, said he used to have his own unicycle, but his dog ravaged the seat and now he has to get a new one. He said he likes the feeling of satisfaction he gets from mastering something so difficult.
“I’m going to stick with it until I get really good,” said 15-year-old Tyson Fischer, who has been riding for 6 months. He said his family likes his new hobby.
Travis Raaberg said he picked up unicycling from his 18-year-old sister, one of the original club members. He, along with friend Ryan Singleton, are the students who first approached Renaud about reinstating the club.
“I like that I get to do something other than skateboarding,” he said.
Renaud said he thinks the students are in for the long-haul, and that they’ve already made much progress toward their one-wheeled life lessons.
“These are not empty-headed kids,” said Renaud.
“They’re goal-oriented and well-directed. They really embrace the notion of riding together and they’re not show-offs. It’s not a ‘Hey, watch me do this trick’ kind of thing.”
So you are now an Internet company, or one of those nasty bloggers?
No, no, menga!
"Drummond says he has about 15,000 unicycle customers, about 3,000 banjo customers — and 10 that buy from both companies. "
Didn’t buy a banjo from them, but some books.
what does ‘menga’ mean?
my favourite bit
I can’t remember where I heard this, in real life or TV/film, but as I recall it is an insult used endearingly which means roughly, “idiot!”. Possibly of Italian origin.
My wife and I use this term for each other on an almost daily basis.
If anyone knows whether this “definition” is accurate or not, please keep it to yourself.
Yay! Campus Newspaper
The Bishop’s University campus newspaper (Cleverly named, “The Campus”) interviewed myself and Mike Jensen!
The article
This is not a very nice story, but the last sentence is better than fiction and very likely a first in news reporting.
East Bay roundup
892 words
13 December 2004
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA)
4
English
(c) Copyright 2004, Contra Costa Times. All Rights Reserved.
Livermore Unicyclist held in father’s slaying
A Livermore man has been arrested on suspicion of killing his 80-year-old father over the weekend, police said Sunday.
Officers responding to a report of an injured person found the man’s body Saturday morning in the bedroom of a home on the 3000 block of California Street, police said.
The Alameda County Coroner’s Office identified the victim Sunday as Kristian Aaland of Livermore.
Police said they determined that the victim’s son Hans Aaland, 46, smothered his father while he slept. An autopsy is scheduled for today or Tuesday, a coroner’s deputy said.
Hans Aaland fled the scene, but was found two hours later walking on Old First Street. He was arrested on suspicion of murder and was booked into Santa Rita Jail.
Police said he admitted killing his father, but didn’t give a motive.
The younger Aaland was a frequent attraction at local events, calling himself the “Living Livermore Totem Pole” as he wheeled about on a tall and elaborately decorated unicycle.
He was arrested in March 2003 for assault with a deadly weapon and resisting arrest after he swung a stick at police. Aaland had been spotted outside Foothill Hill School in Pleasanton, where a student had a restraining order against him. He fled on his unicycle and officers gave chase.