Sorry John I didn’t mean to say that Southern California was the “first.” I just meant, today if more people are getting used to seeing unicycles on the trails in California it is probably due to the SoCal folks. (I’m was born and raised in Nor Cal btw; Sacramento)
I’m trying to “spread the gospel” around the Deep South but there is only so much a few estranged riders can do!
We shall lead by example! You cannot force this kind of sport/art on the public. My daughter is a rhythmic gymnast and it is so not mainstream … only 2 places here in MN that have it. Everyone knows Artistic Gymnastics (the main style, ala Shawn Johnson ) but when I mention Rhythmic they cock their heads and I tell them that you have to be watching the Olympics at 5:30AM to see it.
Cool.
How many people can juggle three balls? A whole lot more people than can unicycle, but still not enough for juggling to be considered “mainstream.” Now, consider that learning to juggle three balls takes about 15 min on average (took me this long, and I have taught others in the same amount of time). Even though it is so easy, I find that most people say “that looks so difficult, I could never learn.” Learning to ride a unicycle is at least an order of magnitude more difficult.
It’s funny because truly mastering any sport takes just as much effort as any other sport. Yet, for some reason, most people immediately give up a sport if they don’t have some immediate (like 1 min or less) success. In my opinion, this is what will keep unicycling from ever becoming “mainstream.”
I guess we would need a common metric to determine what constitutes mainstream. Skateboards are mainstream. You don’t give them a second glance, you can buy skateboarding equipment and clothing at the mall, etc. The example sports I mentioned in my previous post are still all more mainstream than unicycling, except maybe kite surfing. I haven’t seen that sport much, but did learn about it from an hour-long TV show. Unicycling doesn’t get much of that. Bobsledding doesn’t happen without the construction of very expensive tracks, and it’s in the Olympics. Jai-Alai isn’t common everywhere, but where it’s played it has its own facilities. We don’t. I was going to use LaCrosse as an example, but it’s a high school sport in some parts of the country. That means it’s regionally mainstream. For example:
For those that aren’t aware, unicycles are common playground equipment in a huge number of Japanese schools. Much of this has been funded by the Japanese lottery company, through the efforts of the Japan Unicycling Association. So in Japan, unicycling is quite mainstream for elementary school kids. They are way ahead of us in that respect, but they don’t have many of the less-traditional forms of unicycling. Mainly they have Freestyle and Track. Mountain unicycling is probably as rare there as it is in any country, and more rare than the US or UK. But the average person on the street probably doesn’t associate unicycling with the circus nearly as much as they do in other countries.
Sorry, we’re already organized. We may not be huge (or well-funded) but we’ve been organized for a while.
So you do want it to be a little organized… 
Hey, I’m in Carmichael! If you ever come back for visits, we should try to hook up a ride on the local trails! But to continue with the history lesson, the reason many of the SoCal folks are enjoying MUni is because they got the idea from us up here. Or they moved to the area from other unicycling meccas (Jamey & friends). People like Terry, though, are doing lots to spread unicycling now. His videos, and access to the motion picture/TV capitol with entertainment ties can help get unicyclists seen more.
There are riders in Southern California, but there are as many or more riders in Northern California. The extended Bay Area is bringing over 20 riders to Moab.
And we even ride uphill!
Unicycling is definitely becoming more recognized and popular, no doubt about that. However, I don’t think it will ever become mainstream, or rival skateboarding’s popularity.
Just today, I saw an short article about a mountain unicyclist in a fairly popular magazine here in British Columbia. The magazine is called British Columbia (I know, weird title!;))
I agree. People like things that goes fast.
I hope it stays popular enough so people keep making unicycles and cool parts for me to buy.
I think unicycling will become more popular… because now there a really not much trial/street unicyclists…
and the unicycle population is growing quite fast (I think)
I think it would become as big like trial bike is now for the moment, or a bit bigger, but really NOT as big as skateboarding 
and I think I wouldn’t like it, if it gets to big, because it would be that original anymore (what I like at unicycling), just a bit bigger would be nice (more people to ride with)
I agree with you completley. I am not sure it would so cool to ride a unicycle if everyone rode one. Thats half the reason I learned to ride it cause most people couldnt do it. And all the different reactions I get from people are pricrless. It Just makes it that much more fun to ride a unicycle.
Zing!
I too like the uniqueness of it. If unicycling became “mainstream,” I fear that there would be too many restrictions put on it. As it is now, park rangers look at me somewhat weirdly and wave. If it were more common, it might be restricted from parks or open space preserves. Yesterday I was riding on the sidewalk of a busy street and a cop went by me. He looked at me as if I were an alien, but didn’t stop or say anything to me. If unicycling were common people may complain about them the way so many complain about skateboarders.
It is nice that with technology (Internet) it feels like there are a lot of us and enough need for good unicycles, parts, and constant upgrades and improvements.