I gave my old unicycle to one of the kids’ friends maybe a couple years ago (they’re in their 30’s), and a month ago we saw him and he told us he’d learned how to ride it. Then we got a phone video of him riding it around and it is hard to believe. He’s going forwards and backwards, spinning about in one spot, going down long (50’?) stairs forwards and backwards, jumping it sideways between walls, riding on top of a wall and then jumping on top of a box and then to the ground, jumping onto a stair railing and sliding (20’?) down that to land at the bottom and keep riding, and similar things. It’s a video with a number of separate shots, but the takes are pretty long, and he looks pretty confident and smooth without bobbles.
I have gotten as far as about sixteen feet, once, and that’s the extent of my unicycling career. It’s hard to believe he’s doing this - how possible is that? I mean, I have no reason to doubt them, they aren’t the type to pull things over on me even as a joke - but I would have thought it practically impossible. I’m floored, stunned.
Some people are good at that type of thing and can learn it quickly. Accomplished skateboarders really send me for a loop sometimes. They do incredible things like jumping down flights of high stairs and balancing on balconies. It seems so easy until you realize the only thing they have going for them is a piece of plywood that isn’t even attached to their feet with some crappy wheels on it. It is just a skill and talent that some people have if they practice a lot.
Sure it’s possible. I used to be a professional - I was a fast learner and saw others who were as well.
Unicycling and similar skills aren’t really “hard”. They’re just more unusual than other skills, so we perceive them as difficult. I think hitting a baseball is much more difficult in absolute terms than riding a unicycle (I can do both), but since we see baseball all the time we don’t think much of it.
But as for skaters, I was just blown away a few days ago watching skateboarders who were filming a movie in Portland. Riding on a ledge then jumping off 3 feet to the ground. Leaping up over several stairs, etc. Once they got a stunt down they’d start adding more and more difficulty. “Let’s jump off a 3’ ledge and spin the board a couple of times”.
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It would also make a difference if he has other, similar skills – BMX, 'boarding (skate or surf), etc. would have a wee bit of overlap in the mental arena. Yo-Yoing, not so much.
Edited to throw a baseball at DanBlather. (And falls off his unicycle in the process.)
A couple of years is also a long time, if you were consistent about it: an hour a day would be 700 hours practice, and 700 hours practice is enough to make significant inroads on any skill. Add some talent and pre-existing related skill set, and that seems plausible.
Wow, when I first read the OP I somehow came away with the impression that the friend said he just learned to ride it a month ago. A couple of years is easily enough time to develop those skills, particularly if he really enjoys it (and it sounds like he does).
Actually I have, along with playing uni basketball and hockey. Some friends of mine also used to engage in unicycle “sumo”, in which we’d try to knock each other off our unis. That turned out to be excellent practice for some performance situations where we had to continue riding when tired, in a small space, or had a momentary loss of control and had to recover.
I learned to ride in the 1980’s. Eight months after I stepped onto a unicycle for the first time I placed second in a national competition in my age group. I was really into it and practiced endlessly, but I believe most people would build up a good modicum of skill in whatever they chose under similar circumstances.
Easily possible. I learned to ride it short distances within a few days when I was in my late 20s. Took about a month or so to figure out the backwards and forwards stalling technique. If I was kid and had gotten really into it, what you are describing sounds just about right.
Back in the beginning of the 80s there was a guy that went to SUNY Geneseo that rode his unicycle around campus, as hilly and annoying as it is.
I have absolutely no balance, I fall over if I close my eyes and am not touching something so I am a horrible candidate for unicycle, skateboard or skates =(
I thought you were going to say he got good on it in a week or two. That would’ve been impressive. If he’s had it a couple years, this is absolutely believable. My dad gave me his old unicycle and I’ve been practicing just a few minutes at a time for the last couple weeks. I’m sure I have less than 3 hours total time on it; maybe less than 2. And I can ride pretty much indefinitely in a straight line, and I’m starting to get some maneuvering ability. I’m 29. Your kid’s friend might have hundreds of hours on a unicycle by now.
Now I’m not saying what he’s doing is easy. It sounds very difficult and I’m guessing he’s always been a bit of a daredevil. But skillwise-- very possible to learn in 2 years.
I think 2 years is enough time to get good at most things, so long as you have the time and patience for it. That’s much of what talent is really, it’s time, or rather how much you’re willing to spend on a given subject.
In high school (20 yrs ago) I had a couple of friends (two brothers) who were avid unicyclists. Around the same time their dad had been trying to learn for a couple of weeks, I stopped over at their house for an evening and started trying to learn as well. By the end of the second evening of learning, I was able to ride as far as I wanted; my friends’ dad was (mock) disgusted with me. I never advanced to much more complicated stuff than that, but the basic riding came to me very quickly. If I’d kept pounding away at it for a couple of years, I imagine I would have become as skilled as the OP’s kid’s friend was.
There’s an annual bicycling event called Oklahoma FreeWheel. They ride from one end of the state to the other in 7 days. They usually average about 60 miles a day. One crazy dude does it on a unicycle. I can’t imagine the abs on the guy.
And Oklahoma isn’t as flat as you might have heard.
