I am sure at some point everyone in this sport has realized that there is a good number of men riding trials but hardly any women. Unipsychogirl is the only girl i have seen on the forum that rides trials. i do know there that there are many girls riding freestyle and juggling on unicycles but why the shortage when it comes to muni and trials? All i know is that i want to see more women riding muni and especially trials. Oh and by the way, i cant wait to see unipsycho girl’s movie that she posted about earlier in the week.
There is one more!
I also ride trials, along with my husband who is much more extreme than me… but he teaches me well, I do drops, stairs, hops, (large) skinnies, and I am currently working on my crank and pedal climbs, I’ve got the grabs… just not the climb! We also do freestyle also! Just thought I’d let ya know… there is one more!
very cool! does anyone have any theories or explanations on why more guys do trials? does someone have a statistic on girl to boy unicyclist ratio? oh well.
EDIT:
you say your husband does more extreme stuff, but what kind of lines can you do. you mentioned drops, hops, etc. but if you dont mind me asking, how high can you hop compared to your husband? do you actually practice specific lines or do you just develope trials skills, such as hopping, landing drops…
thanks
Right now I can do about a 5’’ skinny 1 foot off the ground. Me and my husband can ride side by side on railroad tracks while holding hands. (Which is actually not that hard) I can almost do it by myself… unlike him who can go as long as he wants on a railroad track. I can do 21’’ drops and hop about 8’’ (21cm) my husband hops around 21’’ (53cm) (which is pretty good, I think, considering he weighs 210lbs, and we have both been unicycling for a year, and trials for about 5 months.) We practice specific trials about once a week … and work on freestyle about 2 times a week…
To answer your question about why there aren’t more females into trials? Here is what I think… women do not have the natural aggression that men have… to be able to do what trials requires you either have to be fearless, or be aggressive about learning something, which most women do not naturally do… for most women it is forced practice with lack of aggression. Guys are very aggressive, competitive and motivated to learn things, and if they see somebody else do it ,then they know that it is possible and that they can do it too! For me, I have to be pushed and talked into trying something new and harder… although it is rewarding and I do enjoy it… it is not as easy for me to attack something new as it is for my husband…
I think more girls are into freestyle because although very hard and time consuming the tricks are not usually as intimidating…
freestyle, not as intimidating…are you kidding me. When you get into decently advanced freestyle like a 540 suicide mount…i consider this freestyle… id shatty my pants before I ever jumped off the ground. even a 180 suicide mount. Or uni spins, i consider that freestyle and that scares me…well its part trials too i think ahh i donno but some freestyle stuff is quite impressive and scary…definitly scary.
Then again in trials you may be seeing like Tugboat jumping a 10 stair and yes i think that would be quite a bit intimidating or doing railslides. So i spose trials may be a bit more intimidating but What i was trying to say is that freestyle is intimidating as well. I think it might just be the fact that guys think jumping around and leaping off stuff is extreme and fun and impressive while girls on the other hand like the more technical and flowing freestyle. Freestyle is like an art. While trials is like…uhh…football/skydiving/skinny dipping…or sumthin.
Thats why I said usually trials are more intimidating but as far as the tricks in freestyle that you were talking about and the higher levels in general I agree with you 100%! They are very intimidating and scary! I mainly meant the freestyle tricks like one foot wheel walking in a circle, although difficult its not as intimidating as a four foot drop…
Plastic pedals, metal pedals with pins that turn you legs into hamburger. Most women don’t walk around with scars on their legs as a badge of honor. Just learing to ride my wife looks like a football player with all the pads she is wearing. Just mounting is extreme in her mind, and doesn’t even attempt it w/o shin pads.
Ah, and bugman with a very good point. Men walk with honor, displaying the shin scars for the world to see and eager to share the story. MOST definitly not all, but most, woman like to have their legs all shaved and smooth, not bumby and scabbed from pedal pins and crown bangs.
Well yeah actually I was pretty keen on trials… ah, that was until I broke my ankle on my trials uni …well that should read, OFF my trials uni and course there was a flight of stairs involved as well. Now, I’m thinking of just sticking to some easy MUni and day trips on the 29’er. Broken bones just seem to have a way of dampening one’s enthusiasm.
But you also skate, don’t you? You’ve already got (or had) that mentality. We don’t see as many girls in the X games either. Be it biological or cultural, as a rule girls don’t get into the extreme sports as much as guys. I’m not saying that there aren’t exceptions, and I welcome and encourage them, but it will be a while before we see as much trials action from girls as we see from guys.
I’m excited for the video!
Re: where are the girls riding trials?
Apparently one of them is in Borken, Germany.
Hanna, who sometimes post in the German forum, rides trials.
Girls who ride Trials and MUni
As for WHO rides Trials and/or MUni, female riders include:
ME! (Sara Chastain, WA, a.k.a. “the Unipsychogirl”) I do a bit of every kind of riding, but really enjoy Trials
Sierra Young (MUnier)
Julie Young (MUnier, who was actually featured in a unicycle.com ad!!)
Irene Genelin (MUni, maybe some Trials, I’m not sure)
That one girl in Germany that someone mentioned
UniLaur (Lauren, Dylan Wallinger’s girlfriend)
Melissa Hansen (Guy Hansen’s daughter, who I did the downhill w/ at UNICON 11)
Ashley Wood (I think owns a Trials uni, and we were daring each other to ride down this steep gravel downhill near the uphill at UNICON 11, she probably/might MUni)
I think it was Amy Shields that I was riding alongside on the downhill at UNICON 11
my friend Katy Lord does/used to MUni and maybe do Trials
Lauren Johnson (lozza on the forums) does some Trials and MUni, she lives in Australia
The lady in this post who rides Trials and who’s husband rides but is “more extreme” than her: Would you like to be in my movie?
Erin, who did ride Trials, but I guess now lightly MUni’s cuz she broke her ankle: Would you like to be in my movie?
I have a friend from Germany who did the downhill at UNICON 11, might be the girl one of you mentioned who does Trials
And I’m sure the list goes on…well, maybe, hopefully!! I prolly forgot some, too! sorry!!
As for WHY there appear to be less women into Trials, specifically, I think it is a combination of what has already been said AND the fact that MOST women do not have the amount of upper-body strength as the average man. Allthough I can do a 4+ foot drop-off, most of the boys/men in my club or that I meet at conventions can jump higher than me. Oh, and I have walked around with scars/bruises on my legs/knees, and I’m sure that other female unicyclists have, too! But, yes, I see what you’re saying about how men tend to “enjoy” parading these injuries around for all to see more than women.
LASTLY, if there are ANY girls/women who do any type of riding who would be interested in being in my exclusively female “EXtreme” unicycling movie, please reply!!!
~Sara Chastain
Ok, can’t resist Unipsychogirl! Yeah, for sure the extreme side of things is a bit of a magnet for me… rock climbing, white water kayaking…in the past… and you are right Paco, longboarding is featuring heavily in my current activities.
Well, I’m in your neck of the woods Unipsychogirl… let’s ride together some time… and hey, ever thought of trying longboard skateboarding!?
he, he, he…
nice try trip… that’s right i know what you’re up to.
Hey uniphsycogirl! I don’t know yet about your video, as I am still trying to learn how to put video on the internet in a compressed form. We have recorded some footage but the files are just too large. Can you (or anyone else) give me some advice on how to compress it? Thanks!
Talk to John Childs
Movie info
Hey “maskedriders”!
this should be the link to the description of and discussion on the movie that I’m making:
http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=29704&highlight=girls
John Childs is actually in my unicycle club, so I can ask him about compressing the tape files next practice. g2g for now!!
Thanks! 
Post a question about video compression in the Just Conversation forum. Video compression is too off-topic for the RSU forum.
hi,
mostly i´m riding muni but sometimes i also do some trials. although i wouldn´t really call it trial what i do, i just jump down some stairs and practice jumping high and long. i wouldn´t try to jump on something before i don´t know that i can really reach the height. at the moment i only get up 15-20 cm. i think my jumping- technique is not to good. but i started unicycling just one year ago and all over i´ve not yet the safty like people riding since a couple of years. so i will just get on with practicing and hope that i will get better.
i think there are just a few girls riding trials because the sport is some kind rough, more dangerous than freestyle and … - i don´t know how i can say it in english. you need a lot of courage to drop down from high things or jump on it. i also often don´t drop down although it might be easy but i´m just afraid of hurting me. but i really, really want to learn it so i try it step by step.
trials don´t comply with the image of girls. just look at the guys doing trials and there clothes. that don´t fit to girls. i think that society still got the idea that girls have to be beautiful and i guess there are still enough girls who are educated this way. maybe parents don´t support their little daughters to do more wild things.