Newbie So SAD UPD and Broken Toe

n9jcv said:

* Do you think when I get back on I will still be able to ride or will
I be at ground zero?

I am assuming that once I learn how to ride, that UPDs will occur
verrrrry infrequently, does everyone else agree???

Any cheering up or encouragement would be great. The two things that
hurt the most were knowing I can not ride for weeks and having to tell
my wife. I can deal with the pain of the toe!!!
B *

I feel so sorry for you, seriously. In my opinion, getting from 20 feet
to 200 feet was one of the top 10 feelings i've ever experienced. To not
be able to do it -just- after learning must be excruciating!

At most i'd say it will take you 30 minutes to get back to 200 feet.
More likely it will come right back immediately. ground zero is gone
forever whether you like it or not, your body is now officially in
unicyclist mode until you die. i dont think you can unlearn
unicycling.

UPDs will occur as often as you choose to let them. If you just cruise
around town on hte sidewalk or whatever, you'll probably have a UPD per
day, maybe less. However, let me remind you that 90% of UPDs are
semi-controlled and you land on your feet. So it is difficult to compare
UPDs to falling while roller skating... i assume that roller skating
falls are much more severe.

Go easy on your toe, i hope it heals soon!

-grant

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At least your story is cooler than mine. I broke my big toe in 5th
grade by... tripping over the Nintendo controller cord while my little
brother was playing. Is your toe splinted at all? Mine was, and my
doctor said that because of the hard shell of a ski boot, I could still
ski (this happened right before ski season.) Try a pair of Brahma work
shoes, ~$25 at Wal-Mart, they're steel toed so that might be doable 🙂
I wear thfor both work an uni, and everything else for that matter 🙂

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Don't give up, Mr B!
I agree with Grant about getting back into it when your toe permits, and
about the UPDs.
Don't worry too much about UPDs in the future--lightning never strikes
twice, as they say. I've discovered that UPDs start to feel more like
controlled falling the more you get used to them. I've been riding since
May (much of that time, riding very badly as I was learning) and I think
I must have had hundreds of UPDs, but only three or four of them had me
on the ground--the rest, on my feet. Every fall was a learning
experience--now, I hardly fall at all, thanks to those UPDs. The same
will happen for you...

Perhaps, (and I'm sure many here will disagree) you progressed a bit too
fast for your own good? One thing I discovered, being the slow learner
that I am, that while I did not progress quickly, while I spent a lot of
time just riding along walls and fences, tapping them with my hands to
maintain balance, I became sensitive to the ground surface, and figured
out how to quit voluntairly whenever my balance appeared to start
failing. Being 44 years old, I'm not too keen on falling, so I became
hyper sensitive to what was coming before my wheel. Perhaps there is
something good in progressing at a slower rate, I don't know...

Anyway, think of your broken toe as a good luck charm to all the
excellent times you have ahead of you on the good old one-wheel! Those
UPDs can run, but they can't hide, and now you have your "big fall"
behind you! The rest will be smooth sailing!

Get well, then get rolling!

Dogbowl

PS--I know all too well the thing of having to tell the wife--that's
what I dread more than anything--getting injured, then hearing my wife
say "I told you so!" (she is skeptical about the uni thing, but less
with each day...

--
dogbowl - Freemounting--20% of the time!

"Got an urge, got a surge, and it's out of control now. Uncontrollable
urge I want to tell you all about it." --DEVO
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Very sorry to hear about your broken toe. I slammed mine a couple of
weeks ago in Santa Barbara, but luckily it wasn't that bad. About
UPDs...I hate to tell you this when you're down and injured, but the
actual truth is that even experts crash sometimes. I once was lucky
enough to go on a Muni ride with George Peck, and watched amazed as he
went down hard on a smooth easy section of the trail. All it takes is a
moment of inattention, maybe a tiny pebble, and even the mighty George
Peck was on the ground.

After I don't know how many miles (probably around 6-7000 in 5 1/2
years), I was Cokering to work the other day and went flying forward off
the uni, right in the middle of an intersection that I ride through 5
days a week. Luckily I amazed myself by rolling smoothly and popping
back up completely unharmed (except maybe my pride).

Anyway, I think it can happen to anyone, any time. The result can be
anything from broken bones to dust on your jersey.

Good luck recovering and I hope you're back on the wheel very soon.

---Nathan

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severe sympathies all round

your achieved level of skill will come back to u real quick
there r a coupld o f people on these fora that have taken 'breaks' of up
to 30 years from riding and got back on with very little drama
some of the finickier skills may take a while longer to come back, but
since u didn't have any of those yet, u're safe

tell the wife u maxed out the credit card at a
casino/stripclub/shoeshop
then tell her about the toe
decide when a good time is to tell her that the credit card story was
bogus
:p

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Namaste!
Dave
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