DANGER and Intelligent Unicyclists

Interesting thread.

Someone care to add updates?

Personally, I think that there are a lot of young riders with a "no
helmet, I'm too cool" attitude borrowed from skaters. No good. Their
moms should spank them.


--
ivan

Sledgehammer for Jebusentropy isn't what it used
to be.





Trying is the first step towards failure.
-Homer Simpson-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oagr6Ydjzdw
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ivan wrote:
Interesting thread.

Someone care to add updates?

Personally, I think that there are a lot of young riders with a "no
helmet, I'm too cool" attitude borrowed from skaters. No good. Their
moms should spank them.


but hitting people is wrong!


--
thejdw

I didn't spell it wrong, you just read it wrong!
kington99 wrote:
A hobnob is an oaty biscuit, the fact that they don't exist in america
just goes to show that you have no culinary heritage


don't follow Jesus, follow me!
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ivan wrote:
Interesting thread.

Someone care to add updates?

Personally, I think that there are a lot of young riders with a "no
helmet, I'm too cool" attitude borrowed from skaters. No good. Their
moms should spank them.


Another trend I've seen surprisingly is the glorification of no leg
protection. Somehow its cooler to have large bloody gashes down your
legs.


unifreak7 wrote:
YES NO PADS!! That's the way to ride nowadays. Padless for 6 weeks, how
about you?

-Shaun Johanneson


Shaun of all people. Not quite as noble as Mr. Holm now are we?


--
Brian O.

*'ProjectUNI' (http://www.otherworldsociety.org/projectuni) - *The First
Serious Unicycle Computer Game* - -Simple multiplayer muni concept demo
soon.-*
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Mr. Holm maybe humble and all, but -why- does he have danger_uni as his
username? Glorification of danger?


--
ivan

Sledgehammer for Jebusentropy isn't what it used
to be.





Trying is the first step towards failure.
-Homer Simpson-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oagr6Ydjzdw
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ivan wrote:
Mr. Holm maybe humble and all, but -why- does he have danger_uni as his
username? Glorification of danger?


Hardly glorification, its a warning for us to remember how dangerous it
can be.

Sort of like those "Danger: curve ahead." road signs.


--
Brian O.

*'ProjectUNI' (http://www.otherworldsociety.org/projectuni) - *The First
Serious Unicycle Computer Game* - -Simple multiplayer muni concept demo
soon.-*
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Interesting.

Risk breaks down into two completely separate areas:


- How likely it is to happen.
- How serious the consequences are likely to be if it does happen.





Most people's risk assessment skills are poorly developed. The typical
western person's upbringing involves two conflicting influences on
their risk assessment:


- A health and safety first, take no risks, take no responsibility
attitude. (School trips banned because they are dangerous; fire
fighters banned from standing on a step ladder to fit a smoke
detector; the balme and litigation culture.)
- Entertainment media that show people surviving improbable or
impossible levels of danger.




The safety first upbringing means that most people have no intuitive
understanding of how to assess risk. They have never faced risk.

The entertainment media thing then paints a misleading image on this
blank canvas: you can survive the most extreme accident, fall, etc., if
only you are brave enough and cool enough.


If you see something happen enough times, it becomes the norm. Most
people spend more time watching TV or playing computerised action games
than they do taking physical exercise.


So then someone gets the chance to take part in a risky activity. They
can react two ways:


- Maintain the safety first at all costs attitude, and think they are
living on the edge when they ride their 21 speed mountainbike along a
level fire road in the forest. They glorify the icons of danger: the
helmet, the "body armour" (does "padding" sound as glamorous?), and
the totems: brands, colours, technical features. They are role
playing.
- Or they can role play the action scenes they have watched a
thousand times - but with no real understanding of the real risks.




It's the second sort we're concerned with. Any fool can get on a
mountain bike and ride it down hill moderately fast. If they have
enough padding, they can even survive a few falls - then exaggerate
them in their memories.

And any fool can ride a mountainbike off a 1 foot drop, or 18 inches,
or 2 feet.

Then they notice two things:


- It wasn't that exciting
- They didn't hurt themselves




To make it more exciting, they try a bigger drop, or a faster drop.
They try to recreate the adrenaline rush, and it's never quite as good
as they hoped.

But because they've never fallen badly before, by inductive reasoning,
they sort of assume they'll never fall. Until they do.

But a unicyclist or a scuba diver has to do a lot of work to earn each
step of his or her way. Riding a unicycle is a few hours' hard work,
and there will be some falls along the way, and you will probably hurt
yourself just enough to learn respect. then freemounting is a few
hours' more work. And idling is. And so is your first mile long ride.
And so on.

In bicycling, you can go from complete novice to appearing to be in
control at moderately high speed on the smae day.

On a unicycle, you earn every bit of your skill, and appreciate it
more.

I think that there is a double effect he


- It takes a certain personality type to have the determination to
learn to unicycle. They will generally have a better "attitude" to
risk.
- Unicycling itself teaches you to assess risk, because there are so
many falls and knocks along the way.




Some rock climbers are safety fetishists, and enjoy the risk management
(look at all this equipment) as much as the climbing. It is an arcane
mystery, and men like arcane mysteries that involve shiny bits of metal
and "rituals".

Other rock climbers are gung ho. Free climbers who do short but
extreme climbs. Many years ago, I was interested in rock climbing. I
remember reading in High (the BMC magazine) about a bloke (Ron
Fawcett?) who had broken every major bone in his body several times in
his climbing career. he was an adrenaline junkie.


--
Mikefule

I don't know what hurts most when I ride my uni: my left leg, my right
leg, or something in between.
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I agree with Brian O on leg protection... If I'm riding along as
transportation I usually only wear wrist guards (though I should wear a
helmet)... Every time I try a trick or something challenging when I'm
not wearing leg armor, I end up bleeding :P


--
evil-nick

Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total
obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and
through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see
its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will
remain.

* Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear.

I'm late for checkers with the Dalai Lama!

My gallery:
http://evil.linuxfreak.ca/uni.html
Our Club:
http://cs.ubishops.ca/~buuc/
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Brian O. wrote:
Another trend I've seen surprisingly is the glorification of no leg
protection. Somehow its cooler to have large bloody gashes down your
legs.


Hmmmm I wonder if the girls like blood...


@Mikefule- intersting write up


--
thejdw

I didn't spell it wrong, you just read it wrong!
kington99 wrote:
A hobnob is an oaty biscuit, the fact that they don't exist in america
just goes to show that you have no culinary heritage


don't follow Jesus, follow me!
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Then went on to do more to make uni riding look like danger MTB then all
the rest of us put together LOL !

To me, a big part of the coolness of uni is how I can do it in my own
yard. If I lived next to a motocross track or mountain, maybe I
wouldn't have seen the attraction.

Now that I'm started, I see it as a game that makes simple obstacles a
fun challenge.

The danger part actually has little appeal. Having broken 2 bones at
motocross, I think I would rather break the next one at motocross, LOL.
I see uni as plenty risky. Plenty dangerous as well. I am looking
forward to the cooler weather when I can actually stand to wear my leg
guards and start taking chances.

The fun part of uni is balance.In motocross it was a whole bunch of
things. Speed, track position, body placement, intricacies of bike
control, clutch, throttle and brakes. To many factors to list at 35
mph.

Uni is balance and simplicity. Always at low speed. Always in the same
gear.

It's not really easier, or less challenging.

But it took Kriss to make it look bat **** crazy and as dangerous
LOL!


--
feel the light
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ivan wrote:
Mr. Holm maybe humble and all,.....


he is humble but his name is on EACH unicycle what? 15-18 times ???


--
skrobo

Unicycle For Christ
'YOUneedtoTUBE MYTUBE' (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=skroboskim)
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