Unicycle Lessons In Chatham Ontario

Unicycling is a fantastic activity for the whole family.  Brian has taught dozens of people to ride ranging in ages from 6 to 55.  Almost all of Brian's students were up and riding after only 10 lessons.  Brian was very active in all sorts of sports like Mountainbiking, Snowboarding, Running, and Rollerblading.  Since learning to unicycle in 2002, Brian has adapted his unicycling to cover all those activities, and has been the only thing he has done to stay active ever since.  Brian's philosophy has simply become 'why can't I do this on a unicycle instead?'

Benefits of unicycling:

• Fun for the whole family
  What is great about unicycling is the whole family can ride together.  An athletic dad who has been riding for years can have just as much fun, and get the great workout he is seeking while riding by his young child who just learned to ride a few months ago.  While the kid is wobbling down the street, the adult can be doing plenty of cardio intensive slow speed skills training like wheel walking and riding with one foot.
• Exceptional cardio without going to the gym
  It does not take long to get tired on a unicycle if that's what you are going for.  You can choose to ride slowly along at a walking pace, or pedal as fast as your legs will spin for a lung burning work out.  Much like sprinting sessions a jogger may enjoy.  I use my unicycle as my main mode of trasportation.  My commute is 2.5 km from home, but I enjoy riding so much I typically take a route that is over 6km, just because it's so fun, and such an easy way to add two workouts into my daily routine.  I have a fan and spare clothes in my office, so I don't mind getting to work as exhausted as I can handle.  Two full workouts a day without really going out of my way.  I have dropped 35 pounds in the last 7 months without really changing my eating habits.  I love McDonald's and I love beer!
• Great conversation starter
  Everyone seems to love to hear about unicycling when they find out you ride.  A lot of the kids I have taught have been very shy at school.  Once people find out they are 'the unicycle kid' the conversations naturally start.  I have become great friends with so many people I would never have met because shared the passion for unicycling.  A shy quiet kid in school could be riding along side the most athletic kid in school and become great friends through the common passion. 

Common misconceptions about unicycling:

• I could never do that, I don't have the balance
  Nobody gets on a unicycle and says 'wow, does this ever feel natural!'  With proper coaching, you get noticably better with each lesson.  At the end of hour one, you can teeter for a few seconds before coming off.  This may sound like nothing, but to the rider who could not even get on it at all an hour ago, this is a very noticable success, and it's these ongoing successes that keep the rider coming back for more.  It's the most self motivating sport I have ever done.
• That looks dangerous, I don't want to get hurt
  Unicycling has been the safest sport I have ever done.  Everytime  I took my mountainbike out, I would get hurt  (and break a $100 component from my disasterous wipeouts).  When learning to ride a unicycle, while you technically 'fall off' of it, we call these UPDs (unplanned dismounts).  Sure you are no longer on your unicycle, but it just got away from you, and you are typically left standing on the ground needing to bend down and pick it back up.  Learning to ride can often be thought of as 'try to get on unicycle...drop it 1000 times...now you can ride'.  The constant reptition of the trial and error you put yourself through soon starts to condition your body to start predicting what's going to happen.  You feel that you are about to dismount before it happens, so you can predict what you need to do in order to land on your feet.
  
  By the time I figured out  I wanted to take my unicycle into the woods for some offroading, I was already well aware what what about to happen if things took a bad turn, so I was able to look at all possible disaster avoidance possibilites before I had to use them.  Compare that to skateboarding and mountainbiking...you can just hop on these things and take try to do tricks on them, but a lot of times you better be going the proper speed in order to make the landing (a landing you have never done yet, so who knows what that proper speed might need to be?  I certainly didn't a lot of the times!...ending in more blood and broken bike parts).  So while it's true you can get hurt when unicycling, you don't get really hurt until you get really good and start attempting really hard tricks that most 'normal' people wouldn't think about doing anyway.  (like dropping from a 10 foot height onto a steep technical downhill section...you may get hurt...but certainly a lot less than if you tried the same thing on your mountainbike!)
• I ride a bike, unicycling looks really slow and boring
  While unicycles are made up of bike parts, that's pretty much where the similarities end.  When riding a trail on your bike, you typically have to ride it as fast as you can at a dangerous speed before it gets any fun.  I have riden trails at 40 km/h and more on my mountainbike because it was not going to be any fun at all any slower.  I can take my unicycle on the same trail and ride it at 10km/h and have more fun.  When you get on a unicycle, fun is all around you, and I tell you this...if you are riding as fast as you possibly can on the unicycle you are on, it feels fast.  But unicycling in the woods is much more about choosing lines, finessing your way between the rocks and groves, hopping over and along fallen trees...things you usually don't even look at when riding your bike.
  
  

Contact Brian today to arrange for your unicycling lessons and start your new favourite past time!

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