I get a lot of questions from people who have seen my profile online about mountain unicycling and ask what that is all about. So, I thought I’d talk a bit about what mountain unicycling is and what it means to me as well as some pictures and additional links about the sport.

First of all, yes mountain unicycling is a sport, possibly an extreme sport. Most people have never even heard of it or seen someone mountain unicycling but there are many unseen unicyclists out there and even a few well known ones. There are several different styles of unicycling as a sport, I personally prefer mountain unicycling and some street. There is also trials unicycling, freestyle and of course more traditional uses for performance and commuting but those aren’t really specific sports. These styles are described well on the unicycling wikipedia page here if you want to know more. So What’s My Story About Unicycling? I got into unicycling as a young kid (I just saw one in a store one day and decided I wanted to learn) and have been riding now for 19 years. Some years I’ve put over 1000km onto my unicycles and so yes, I do ride a fair bit. I commute on it to work now and then, do some street riding with other unicyclists around the city but mostly spend my time unicycling in the summer getting offroad and taking some rugged mountain trails in the Alberta Rockies. Most of the trails I use are hiking trails and mountain bike trails. I generally take trails that are between 10-15 km long and that can take 2-3 hours to ride. This is pretty typical ride for me and with the elevation changes, 15km in the mountains is one serious workout. My muni (short for mountain unicycle) has no brakes, no gears, no shocks, and you can’t coast which means you are always pedaling (whether you are going up or down) and you are standing up on your feet for most of the ride since your legs do all the shock absorbing for you. Why Mountain Unicycling? The question everyone wants answered, why do you unicycle? Well, the reasons I unicycle are many. These include:

• Its challenging and great exercise (its VERY physically demanding)
• Requires a very determined personality (which I thrive to have)
• Exhilarating and exciting when you can successfully ride a brutally steep and rough trail
• Very affordable since there is no costs over and about the equipment needed (unlike most sports)
• Refreshing and beautiful especially when in the wilderness
• Fantastic conversation starter
• Its unique (you don’t have to do what everyone else does)

So, I started a club for mountain unicycling in Calgary a few years ago, have met a lot of great people and unicyclists through it and I continue to get out on one wheel to do more riding in the wilderness. You can find out lots more about unicycling from any search engine or my club site and I’d be happen to answer any questions as well. You can see some pictures from over the years where I’ve been mountain unicycling and some of the gorgeous surroundings and terrain in the slideshow below.

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Well, there was a fair bit of snow last night leaving a couple inches on the roads and whenever it snows a lot I am probably one of the very few people who actually LIKE getting to work.  Why you ask?  Because I’m am an offroad unicyclist and I love to ride in the snow, especially when driving would be slow, risky and just not much fun.  Its also warmed up today for the first day in a few weeks where its actually just up to the freezing mark.

So, today I hopped on the unicycle before work and enjoyed a nice relaxing (but still quite cold) ride into the office.  It takes me about 25 minutes to commute nearly 5 km.  Its great exersize and more fun in the snow than just a normal bike trail ride in. I just throw on the ipod and listen to a book or some music and try to avoid being seen too much by the traffic as I really don’t like to attract any attention on my ride in.  Now, that seems like a bit of a oxymoron for a unicyclist but since I normally only ride offroad in the mountains where there are VERY few people, I think I can still honestly make that claim.

However, I was unable to avoid the attraction from motorists today as someone felt the need to call into a morning radio show (the EyeOpener on CBC) and warn people to watch out for the unicyclist on there way to work.  I’m really not sure why I would be any kind of threat, its not like I was riding down the middle of the freeway!  I keep to myself off the sides of the road and take as many back streets as possible.  They warned not to be distracted by the unicyclist.  I and my colleague who heard this on the radio, got quite a kick out of this and thought it was a funny story.  So, there you go.

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I finally did my first ocean scuba dive while in Mexico at the beginning of November and it was awesome! Unfortunately, the pictures at 55ft from a my digital camera don’t do it justice. Its so much more colorful and beautiful than these pictures show. You really need some great lights and red filters on your camera for good underwater pictures. Anyway, the experience was so peaceful and enjoyable, and I can’t wait to do it again!!

Click on any of the images to see a large version…

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Went out today for some street extreme unicycling downtown Calgary. I haven’t been out on the street for over a year, since nearly all my unicycling is done off road mountain unicycling. Anyway, even though its been a LONG time since doing an urban assault, I was still able to hold up to some of the local riders focused entirely on street. I ride a hunter frame 24″ uni which is nice and rigid for trials and street riding, but the 24″ wheel is heavy and much more difficult to maneuver than the smaller 20″ trial unicycles every else rides. One of the riders (Daniel) does some HUGE gaps and hucks off stairs! He’s easily got me beat for the height of his drops and he’s getting some really nice height on jumps straight up to rubber. I nearly always peddle climb up anything that is over 26″ tall. That is where you hop up to the peddle and swing the unicycle up from its peddle the rest of the way on top of the obstacle. Its a great way to climb up any object and helps you get up that extra 12 inches of reach that the pedal has over the bottom of the tire. It was great to get out and especially nice to know I was able to still help some of these guys learning new skills and especially the pedal climbs.

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Author: Daniel C. Dennett

Overall, the book is interesting but not the way Dennett left so many areas of the ‘unknown’ scientific gaps implied. This made it very un-stimulating for me. Certainly, some very interesting aspects with quite a bit of animal mind research and related consciousness but many things are implied and assumed. Overall, I was quite bored reading

this one and disappointed in what it left me thinking about (which wasn’t anything that will last). If you’re interested in consciousness and having some brain straining concepts with consciousness, read material by Deepak Chopra.

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