Coaching My Nephew Corey to Finally Ride a Unicycle

I, Gin, got a unicycle for Christmas in maybe 1978:

It took four painful days to learn to ride it. I got good enough to ride it around the block even after three beers, but for one reason and another, I gave up riding. In approximately 2015, I gave the unicycle to my nephew Corey, a very athletic guy about 30 at the time, who had so far in life aced every athletic endeavour he tried. But he just wasn't able to 'get it'—just like you have to 'get' how to ride a bicycle, you have to 'get' how to ride a unicycle, though the latter is much harder—which was very frustrating given his athletic prowess at everything else, and given that his 'old' aunt had been able to ride. 'Course, if he'd paid attention to my instructions about the 2x4, he might have done better.

I mentioned over the years that if he gave me just one day to coach him, he'd learn, but he was always busy. On Jan 1, 2025, I texted him:

BTW, my New Year’s resolution is to make at least one date with you this year at your house for a unicycle workshop.

That sounds amazing.

Sunday, May 11

My goal this summer is to master the unicycle.

Let’s set a date for unicycling this month. The weather is good, the streets have been cleaned. Do you have a tire pump and a 2x4 at least 2 feet long? We need those. And we’ll be borrowing garbage and recycling bins from your neighbours. My schedule can probably fit you in cuz, let me see … It’s. Wide. Open!!

I have a 2 by 4.

Mark has a tire pump; I gave it to him.

K. I have a tire pump too.

Does a weekday or weekend work best for you?

Let me check. Oh, look, except for Thursday mornings, my everydays are wide open. Weekday, weekend, wide open.

Okay. I will figure out a day and time ASAP

I won’t rest until I hear from you. 🙃

Haha. Okay.

May 23rd. A Friday.

4 o’clock.

Good! I hope I don’t forget.

That’s pm, right.

Haha. Yes.

I’m punmped.

Me too

I’m gonna wear my helmet, and wrist, elbow and knee protectors.

Love it.

Corey lives in house in a quiet neighbourhood with no sidewalks, across the street from his dad, my brother Errol. Their driveways are right across the street from one another. My other brother Errol (whose name is actually Mark and is Errol's twin) lives in a house beside Errol's also across the street from Corey. It would be hard to image a residential setting more idyllic and conducive to learning to unicycle. Plus, I had a plan.

Wednesday, May 14

Be sure to let Mark and Errol that you will be borrowing their garbage and recycling bins on the 23rd. Six, with your two and their four, ought to do it. We’ll need your driveway and the street in front of your houses otherwise clear. Actually, it would be great if Errol’s driveway was clear as well.

Yep

Done

Give me the measurement of your inseam. Mine is 31 inches. We’re probably close enough to use the same height for the seat

It used to be 32. Dang shrinkage!!

Ha. I am like 30-31

Tuesday, May 20

We need to start at 430 this Friday. Not 400

No problema. Have you pumped up the tire to make sure it holds air?

I haven’t. But will.

Thursday, May 22

I filled the tire last night as it was completely flat. Still holding air. There must be a slow leak but it should hold up for our practice session.

Friday, May 23 9:36 am

Do you have hockey pants? I was thinking bubble wrap to protect my hips, but someone suggested hockey pants. If I break a hip, everyone in my building will say, “I told you so!”

I do have hockey pants.

Coaching Session 1:

The day is Friday, May 23, 2025. I am 70 years old and Corey, my nephew, is 39. I haven't ridden a unicycle for at least 25 years. (Twenty years ago, I started Lithium for depression and one of the side-effects, along with an elevated startle reflex, which is always fun, was bad hand tremors and kinda tremory arms and legs with a mild loss of coordination. For instance, I could no longer bowl or play badminton, both of which I used to be quite good at.) Since I didn't ride it anymore, I gave my unicycle to Corey. I had checked in with him every year or so to see if he was having any success. He only tried about once a year and never succeeded. I started thinking of how I might help him and came up with an idea.

1 So, the first thing we did on Friday, May 23, 2025, at Corey's house to get ready to learn (re-learn, in my case) was to build a chute out of ten of Corey's and his neighbours' garbage, recycling and compost bins in Errol's driveway. I'd thought of this years ago. I had no idea if it would work, but it seemed like a really good idea. (You may recall I mentioned 2x4 earlier. In the picture of Corey below at the top of the chute you can maybe make out the 2x4 behind the tire of the unicycle. That's there to keep the unicycle steady i.e. from going backwards. Notwithstanding that I had always stressed the 2x4 to Corey, I don't think he ever understood what I was getting at and he'd never used one. When I was finally able to show him what I meant, 💡.)

2 Then, Corey's wife, Katie, our photographer/videographer, took pictures of us before we started in case one of us broke a hip (70 year old me) and no more pictures were taken in the rush to the hospital.

3 I went first and as you can see, I was an 'old' pro at it.

Actually, I wasn't such an 'old' pro; this is what really happened:

Me tipping off the unicycle above was no big deal compared to what happened on my first attempt (which wasn't taped), when I went splat onto the pavement with my whole body, taking the worst of it on my wrist guard (stuffed into a padded winter glove), elbow pad and hip. As I lay there, mortified, and Corey reached down a hand to help me up, a look of horror on his face, I realized I had forgotten to insert the bubble wrap to protect my hips.

(After unicycling was over for the day and we were laughing and marveling about all the things that had happened, Corey mentioned how amazed he was that, after my horrific first splat, I just basically bounced up when I grabbed his hand and acted like nothing at all had happened, when he was actually quite convinced that I must have been badly injured. Katie said she was surprised, too, and that I was pretty strong for a 70 year old. She admitted that she could hardly bring herself to watch.)

4 Right after my first bad fall, I inserted the bubble wrap to protect my hips. Right after that, my 66 year old brother Errol came home in his truck to see his driveway half blocked with the unicycle chute. As soon as he saw me in all my protective gear (which ended up saving me from some probably very bad injuries), and the unicycle in my hands, he shook his head and said I should not be doing this. Corey asked him if he wanted to try. "NO!"

5 Corey and I took turns taking a number of runs each. We both had a few very short runs (maybe five feet) that looked promising, but I also had two more very bad splats; one I landed on my butt (no protective gear there!), and the third, I landed on my other hip (at least the bubble wrap did its job to lessen the bruise that resulted on that side). Errol just kept shaking his head and telling me I had to stop and finally, I realized some things:

I was pushing my luck; I really should have broken something by now,
I was feeling more timid each time I went,
it wasn't at all like riding a bike; it wasn't coming back to me and there was really no point in trying to learn to unicycle again this late in life, and
I was here for Corey, not for myself.

6 Corey tried to encourage me to keep going, but he was starting to do a bit better than I was doing, so I wanted to concentrate on helping him. We moved the chute to Corey's old, cracked driveway because there was a bump all along the end of Errol's where it met the street that Corey just couldn't get past.

7 Corey's driveway had a lower bump but it still stopped him, so we moved the chute onto the street, only with six bins instead of ten. And that's where the magic happened! You can see in the video how effectively he uses the bins with his hands to steady himself and move himself forward. I'm a genius!

8 Corey ended up having three runs of at least a hundred feet before we called it a day. (I took the 25 screen shots below from the above video just for fun, to show his spectacular (though tiny) dismount in sorta slow-motion. The little girl who rollerskates in at slide 10 is his daughter.)

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Oh, one more thing you need to know! Corey has a brother Kevin, who is one year younger than Corey. At some point, Kevin grew to be taller than Corey, like maybe six inches, and stayed that way. Not much bugs Corey, but being kinda short for a male and Kevin being taller than him bugs Corey. While his dad, Errol, and I were watching Corey pedal off into the distance on one of his runs, Errol said, "He looks like Kevin." I realized he was right. On my way home that night, I figured out why.

Friday, May 23 9:57 pm

I figured out why your dad and I thought you looked like Kevin when you ride. On the unicycle, yer taller!

Haha!!!!!!!!!!!

❮ ❯ ❮ ❯