Hooray for content creators!
As a person that had my childhood before internet was a thing, it sometimes hits me how amazed I am over how I've been able to learn to ride and do a few tricks on a unicycle, thanks to a person that I've never met and who lives on the other side of the world!
I just love it when you can learn stuff because people have been sharing their know-how on the net, and even more so when the content is of high quality and well structured. Just like Chris Huriwai's UniQuest-series on his YouTube channel PrettyGoodChannel. And it's free! With the possibility to support through patreon.
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| Image from the intro sequence to Uniquest videos. |
So, what makes me think that Chris' content stand out from the rest of the "learn to unicycle" stuff you find when searching YouTube? Well, one thing that trigger my lust for learning is that he arranged his videos in a leveling tree. That way you always have tricks to learn that should be pretty much in reach to nail.
The leveling tree
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| Leveling tree |
Beginner
Level 1: Assisted mount, Assisted ride 3+ revs, Assisted idle 3+ revs, Unassisted ride 1+ revs
Level 2: Unassisted ride 4+ revs, Assisted bunny hop, Unassisted idle 1+ revs, Free mount 2+ revs
Level 3: Unassisted ride 8+ revs with dismount, Ride down curb, Assisted backwards 2+ revs, 180 turn
Level 4: Ride in a circle, Rolling bunny hop, Riding one footer, Jump mount
Street
Level 1: 90-90 twist, Rolling hop down curb, Drop mount
Level 2: Halfrev, Hop up a curb, Roll-flip mount
Level 3: Hop down 2 stair, 180 twist, Crankgrab
Level 4: Fakie 180 twist, No footer footplant, Crankgrab 180 out
Level 5: 180 down curb, Outspin footplant, Running jump mount, Pop-plant
General
Level 1: Idle 2+ revs, Switch freemount, Standing ride 3+ revs, Backwards ride 2+ revs, Ride in a figure 8
Level 2: One foot ride 2+ revs, Ride down 2 stair, Backwards 4+ revs, Stillstand 3+ seconds
Level 3: Blind idle, 360 wall push, Ride down 4 stair, Assisted wheelwalk, Kick-up mount
Level 4: Idle to one-foot ride, Can-can, Stomach ride, Suicide mount, Footjam
Level 5: Wheelwalk, Feet back to pedals one-foot ride, Seat in front backwards, Blind one foot ride, Seatdrop one foot pick up mount, Bay hopFlatland
Level 1: 10+ static hops, Leg wrap mount, Seat in fron ride 3+ revs
Level 2: Seat in front bunny hops, No footer, 180 unispin mount
Level 3: Leg extension, Seatdrop, Seatbounce
Level 4: 90 unispin / hop on tire, Tiregrab superman, Body varial mount
Level 5: 180 unispin, Seatdrop-legwrap, Half roll
The videos
Beginner
Me
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| There hasn't been any accidents to talk about, but sure, sometimes things don't go according to plan. Mishap when practicing "Ride in a circle" |
Me level 1 (2021-05-01)
Street
Me level 1 (2021-09-05)
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| Rolling hop down curb |
Flatland
Me level 1 (2021-09-23)
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| "Seat in front riding" with the seat a bit too far in front |
Current state
As you can see from the dates after the links to my recordings of myself I learned the basics during 2020 and cleared five levels during 2021. When writing this it's a few weeks left of year 2023 and I haven't published any unicycling videos since 2021. Did I quit? No, but I've been focusing on General level 2 where one foot riding has shown to be hard for me to learn. So far I've learned one foot idle (a trick that Chris became aware of later on that he forgot to add on the right level 😘) which seems to be a good stepping stone to one foot riding!
When you start digging...
Another thing that fascinates me is that every time I've started a new hobby and I begun to learn a few things about the subject it always unfold countless variations and it seems you can devote your whole life to it but still not learn it all. As a simple example, did you know that a person has tried to ride a unicycle around the world? Or that you can do downhill unicycling?
Once I had a Harmonica teacher in USA
During the years from 2011 to 2017 I learned to play blues harmonica from David Barrett at bluesharmonica.com. He also has a leveling system, named "Levels of Achievement™ Program" where you get (to buy) a pin for each level you clear. His content is not free though, but there is a lot of it, it is well arranged and he listens to your recordings of the lessons you've taken and gives you feedback.
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| I cleared level 6 before quitting |
Looking through my mail history it seems trying to clear level 7 gave me at bit of a sweat and it finally made me give up the program.
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| The levels in "The level of achievement program" |
During the course you learn to create your own songs, here's one I composed, following a few rules of what it should include.
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| My own blues song on Soundcloud |
When you play blues harmonica one single harmonica won't do 😛 Bluesharmonica.com has videos that also covers how you do harmonica maintenance and enhancements. Yes, there are tools built specifically for harmonica needs.
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| A harmonica for each key and then some. |
So, what about you?
What is your favorite sources on the net for learning something? If you have any, I'd love if you write a comment about it! 😃😍
