There’s a unicycle man in our midst.
Joey Witten, acting junior, has been unicycling since last October.
“I always thought it would be a good time, kind of a quirky, fun little thing,” Witten said. “Then, I had an assignment for vocal prod called the curiosity project where you have to explore and dive deep into something that you’re curious about.”
Witten said his decision to take the plunge into the unicycling world was spontaneous.
“I kind of impulsively bought a unicycle online,” he said. “I built it in my intro to theatrical design class and just started going at it. I used the wall outside of the chapel to hang onto while I first learned. Then I graduated to the sidewalk with a trash can to hold onto, and now I can just hop on and go.”
The unicycle’s name is Bike Wazowski, he said.
Witten said there is not an exact science to the art of the unicycle.
“I realized pretty quickly that there’s no definitive right way to do it. Some people will tell you to do it one way or another,” he said. “One thing I did learn from tutorials is that you need the seat height to be higher than you think. I realized if you place it higher, it’s less work for your legs.”
Allie Milburn, music theater and vocal performance sophomore, said she has seen the infamous Joey Witten cycling on one wheel.
“I have seen the unicycle man,” Millburn said. “The thing is, I’ve always wanted to know him. I’ve never gotten to talk to him because I’ve only ever seen him from across the quad doing wonderful tricks.”
Millburn said the instant she saw Witten, her day was put at a standstill.
“I was walking from Cokesbury and there was a man on the quad, and I was walking with my friend and we stopped our normal everyday routine and said ‘Who is that man?’ It was just me. They didn’t care. I cared,” she said. “And I just wanted to know the man on the unicycle, because he was doing some fancy tricks, but I was too scared to talk to him.”
Millburn said she has worked up the confidence to give Witten a message.
“My name’s Allie. I’m a sophomore, if you ever want to come say hi,” she said. “The unicycle man is pretty cute.”
Witten currently owns a 24-inch wheel unicycle; however, he’s looking on to bigger and better things.
“I have plans to get a 32-inch unicycle, but it’s like, $200,” he said.
Bike Wazowski was unable to comment on the matter.
In addition to investing in a bigger unicycle, Witten said he has more goals for his mono-wheel hobby.
Witten has unicycling, juggling, making balloon animals, and playing accordion on his resume. However, he is currently unable to do any of these tricks simultaneously.
“I would love one day to juggle or make balloon animals on the unicycle,” he said. “I still need to use my arms and upper body a lot to balance, but I’m getting to a point where I can sink lower and use my lower half to balance.”
Witten said he admires multiple unicyclists, one of which is on campus.
“There’s no one that I sought to be like by unicycling, but after discovering the unicycling community, I’ve come to have some favorites. Ed Pratt is a British unicyclist whose goal is to unicycle across the whole world to raise money for a charity. He’s doing it country by country,” he said. “Marcus Canada is a fellow on-campus unicyclist, but I haven’t really talked to him about it. He seems like a nice guy.”
Marcus Canada, music theater senior, can juggle and unicycle at the same time. Canada said the ability to do both is no easy feat.
“It’s pretty hard,” Canada said. “You have to be able to idle on a unicycle, which means pedaling forwards and backwards to stay in one spot, and that takes people a really long time to do, even apart from juggling.”
When asked for advice on the topic, Canada offered a suggestion to Witten on the subject of mastering both skills.
“Keep trying,” Canada said.
Witten said he still is more comfortable on a bicycle than a unicycle, however, he accomplished unicycling a mile on one wheel.
“My record is 10 laps, and if you go on Google Earth and use the little ruler thing and find out how big the quad is, it’s .15 mile,” he said. “So, 10 laps is a little over a mile.”
Witten is still pushing for more, he said.
“My goal this year is to get to 15 or 20 laps,” he said. “But my stamina has gone down the drain, and it’s so hot right now, but I’m hoping once it cools down I can just go.”
When asked when this feat would be executed, Witten gave his honest answer.
“One day,” he said.
Witten said whenever he falls, he remembers this advice.
“The time you get hit the hardest is the time you go the farthest,” he said.
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