-No Subject-

[Gary Davis]

I just joined this Mail List because my 13 year old son has just started
unicycling. He seems rather talented and has the tenacity to do almost anything
he wants! He spent some of his Bar Mitzvah money on a new unicycle (about $90)
and after several weeks, was able to ride pretty good. After another couple
weeks, he can now get started without holding on to anything.

He doesn't have a bicycle so he rides his uni all over - to the mall, to the
train (they let him take it on, tho bikes are not allowed). The train station is
2 miles away.

At the mall, someone asked to try and my son (Ben) was impressed since this guy
could go backwards. He told Ben that an easy way to learn is to protect the uni
with WD40 and learn in a swimming pool. I said there is no way he is submersing
a new uni in a pool! Does anyone have recommendations on learning this. I see
some mention about idling, which I assume is staying in place. Ben can't do that
yet, either.

As far as juggling, Ben uses these sticks he got at a local Renaissance Faire
called Crystal Sticks and he is very adept at using these. There are 2 control
sticks and a third middle stick he bats back and forth, twirls, etc. He's done
that for about 1.5 years. He hasn't really tried juggling, tho I assume he could
do it if he tried for a while.

Gary Davis

[Ross Bradley]

I like this story quite a bit. I was about 12 when I started (My 31st birthday
is in 6 days) and I stlil do most if not all of my errands on my one-wheeler.
Not being of a heritage that celebrates a boy's Bar Mitzvah, I had a paper route
that earned me 2 cens a paper. It took most of a summer to get the $75.00
together to get my first Schwinn which is still in use by my wife.

I've never heard of underwater riding but it makes some sense...I guess. I would
think that going from learning it wet to learning it dry would be two different
skills. I learned idling first from watching a performer on stage do it. My
trick was to keep my dominant leg in the down position and go back and forth
with my other leg. I found it best to practice with a wall or something to
steady myself when I started going astray. From there, I got bored doing half or
quarter rotations and started doing a full rotation back and a full rotation
forward. Riding backwards came as a natural extention to that.

So, you met Bill Vestal at the faire? Interestingly unique gentleman. I have
several sets of his stix and even sell them occasionally when someone wants to
get started. As a ride-around-town-showing-off stunt, I like to spin two sets of
Crystal Stix while moving down the sidewalk. It gets lots of comments and
cheers. If I drop a stick, someone will always give me a hand and throw it back
up for me to catch. I guess it's a way to feel like they are part of the act.

Tell him to keep up the work, but be sure to go to college as well. Open
question, how many people have been able to make a living riding a unicycle?

__________________________________________________ || ||
|Ross Bradley email: rbradley@cisco.com| || ||
|Systems Engineer Phone: 206 688-2206 | |||| ||||
|Cisco Systems, Inc Fax : 206 688-2226 | |||||||| ||||||||
|__________________________________________________| |||||||||||||||||||||||
c i s c o S y s t e m s

On 20 May 1994, Gary Davis wrote:

> I just joined this Mail List because my 13 year old son has just started
> unicycling. He seems rather talented and has the tenacity to do almost
> anything he wants! He spent some of his Bar Mitzvah money on a new unicycle
> (about $90) and after several weeks, was able to ride pretty good. After
> another couple weeks, he can now get started without holding on to anything.
>
> He doesn't have a bicycle so he rides his uni all over - to the mall, to the
> train (they let him take it on, tho bikes are not allowed). The train station
> is 2 miles away.
>
> At the mall, someone asked to try and my son (Ben) was impressed since this
> guy could go backwards. He told Ben that an easy way to learn is to protect
> the uni with WD40 and learn in a swimming pool. I said there is no way he is
> submersing a new uni in a pool! Does anyone have recommendations on learning
> this. I see some mention about idling, which I assume is staying in place. Ben
> can't do that yet, either.
>
> As far as juggling, Ben uses these sticks he got at a local Renaissance Faire
> called Crystal Sticks and he is very adept at using these. There are 2 control
> sticks and a third middle stick he bats back and forth, twirls, etc. He's done
> that for about 1.5 years. He hasn't really tried juggling, tho I assume he
> could do it if he tried for a while.
>
> Gary Davis
>