This was a good idea for a thread. Glad it was recently revived. So far, there have been some very astute comments made. Pretty philosophical, or “Zen” like. I am normally good with words, but there is something about unicycling that is so intangible that it is hard to describe and elaborate on the feelings felt while enjoying the activity. In some ways I would compare it to “being lost in a good book”, sort of being in a daydream state while also being aware at the same time…
If you are unicycling where others might see you, it may look to others like you are doing it to be extroverted and get attention. In reality, you are most likely doing it because it is enjoyable, great exercise, mentally therapeutic, et cetera.
I learned to ride about 30 years ago, and it surprises me that unicycling is still such a niche activity. Obviously, there are many of you on this forum that have been promoting unicycling in many different ways, and for a very long time. To hear people say that they’ve never seen someone ride a unicycle always surprises me.
Unicycling allows you to step into a world that is between just you and your unicycle. This is part of the reason that I really like to practice alone. There are no distractions. Just that sense of pure passion and endless freedom. Every ride whether you do or learn something new, or maybe you ride a trail you have ridden 100 times, its always something beautiful. I would say I cant live without it.
… Addiction, I think not. Its a culture
Its hard to not be able to unicycle. We need to be able to express our culture. To live our culture. Its hard when you can only talk about it…
I have only ever seen one person, and that was after I started unicycling… School not counted becuase we did have it in school… Though I was the only one I knew that picked it up.
Research on depression has identified that experiencing ‘pleasure’ (stuff that’s fun) and ‘mastery’ (stuff that gives us a sense of achievement) is important in staving off depression.
The absorbing all the attention thing is called ‘Flow’ by a psychological researcher called Csikszentmihalyi. Wikipedia says “Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, the positive psychology concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields”. Generally people with ‘flow’ activities in thier lives were found to be happier.
you know what? I am happy!
(last month as I was commuting to work a lady told me : “hey! you seem happy … you’re walking to your everyday job … while singing!”). Oops I wasn’t aware of that …
This is not always true. The other day I went to the MediaMarkt and there was this guy who wanted to sell me a kind of watch that could measure heart beats and keep distance and more such health nonsense things. Anyways his first question was what kind of sport I do, so naturally I said unicycling. I ended up talking about unicycling for at least half an hour and he said he wasn’t really interested in the products anymore he was trying to sell to me.
As for the question of this thread, end of October when the time is set back, so when I come home from work it is dark, really annoys me. I prefer to ride in the light, but after not riding for a few days, I get an itch and there is nothing to do but accept the dark and ride in it.
I generally think of unicycling every single day, and not riding a day is always a mental fight. As soon as I can mount it, I feel happy. I suppose it works like a drug. No other sport has been as much of an interest to me.
I just love it
Just saying… nice thread. I think unicycling is such a non mainstream activity… its just fun and something few people can do. So I get a kick out of it. And people see me riding along somewhere by the river near my work and they are amazed.
Agree it’s an activity needing a lot of focus, so you are fully absorbed and engaged. It also gets the body going. You forget about everything else in life when that happens!
Learning balance and coordination and learning new movements is supposed to have many very significant improvements to the brain. I used to be into weight lifting. After coming across much information on the benefits of balance training, neuroplasticity etc. I looked for a comprehensive challenge to get those benefits.
Unicycling went to the top of my list very quickly. I see years of potential learning, self improvement, progress and improved fitness just from unicycling alone. When I have much more stamina and less bodyweight, and the time is right, I will then take on additional balance and movement skill challenges. No sense rushing into going beyond unicycling too soon, my brain and nervous system and whole body are in overdrive and overloaded learning and adapting to this. This is plenty of challenge on its own at the moment.
If I were to just continue to lift weights there would be little to no brain benefit or new learning. I must have tried and learned every major workout and weight training theory in existence. Challenge there is pretty much gone and I am bored with it.
Id also like to add how interesting it is how everybody has their own unique uni learning quirks. Some can’t turn left or can only ride in a left hand circle or can go straight just fine but can’t intentionally turn at all. It’s almost as though unicycling reveals some of our unique inner workings. Took me forever to learn to stop.
I recently married a woman from Thailand. She stayed with me 3 months to learn Dutch, because a long term visa requires peeps to take a civic integration exam. Anyways, the week after she went back to Thailand I bought the 26" Hatchet, without telling her. I have so many uni’s already that she wouldn’t notice and if she does… “Oh honey, it was in the shed when you were here last, didn’t you see?”
Learning unicycling seems to be a very individual thing. I get the impression that a one size fits all cookie cutter instructional approach does not seem to be the name of the game.
