Riding a Giraffe

Tonight at juggling club I succeded in doing something that I never thought I'd be able to do: ride a giraffe (tall) unicycle. I used to own a uni and could do the very basics - ride and turn and get off without hurting myself. But I was never so into it so I sold it to my friend some 9 years ago. Maybe 2-3 times/year I see a uni lying around at juggling club or the convention and I prove to myself that I can still do it.

A couple times I sat on a giraffe unicycle to see what it was like. Once a few months ago some friends and I took turns trying to ride one and it seemed totally hopeless.

Recently my friend Yaakov went somewhere and saw someone with a really good giraffe unicycle and he decided that he needed to get one. Tonight I picked him up from work and we picked up his new uni. At juggling club he fixed up the chain and pedals and things and got to work riding back and forth holding on to a wall.

Soon he let me try. I didn't think it was going to work, but it really did. This was a great unicycle. Within a few attempts I was able to make 10 pedals along the wall without holding on. Shortly after I made a leap by going away from the wall some 4 meters across the room. Soon after, I was able to ride fairly freely and once did a nice figure eight for about a 30 meter ride. I even succeded to juggle 3 clubs for about 10 throws while riding.

Anyway, I'm thrilled with this new toy. I'm going to help Yaakov bring it most weeks and hopefully we'll both get better. And have a lot of fun in the process!

Updated Feb 5: Thanks to Yaakov for some pictures:
http://www.juggler.co.il/images/Image008.jpg
http://www.juggler.co.il/images/Image009.jpg
http://www.juggler.co.il/images/Image010.jpg