Around 7 p.m. every Monday night, students head over to the parking lot by Fluor Fountain, gathering near Marshburn Hall. Ehud Lee, a senior in communication studies, also waits here, carrying his unicycle as the other students arrive. Soon they all start getting on unicycles. They wobble and find their balance, cycling around the parking lot and enjoying the fun of it in the Unicycle Club meeting.
THE UNICYCLE CLUB
Lee founded the Unicycle Club in the fall semester of 2022. As president, he hosts this club for other students as an opportunity to learn a new hobby, as well as to foster a community of resilience and encouragement.
“I love this sport, but when people hear the word ‘club,’ they think like, you need to know how to ride [a unicycle],” said Lee. “So when I told people that, ‘Hey, you don’t have to know how to ride, and I’m going to teach you,’ that became the main theme of this club. It is to teach people how to ride.”
Since unicycling is a niche sport, few students have their own unicycle. This does not stop Lee and his friends from finding ways to supply them. So far, they have managed to buy several second-hand unicycles through a website called Offer Up and have received funds as a club to purchase more unicycles for club members to use.
“Everyone will just take back one, and they’ll need to bring it back next week. And that’s how we do it,” said Lee. “I’m not trying to force people to buy a unicycle and commit to this thing. I want them to feel welcome.”
Lee expects to buy more unicycles as the club grows bigger. Last year, the club had four or five members meet on average — this year, there are eight to ten.
LEARNING HOW TO UNICYCLE
Lee began learning how to unicycle when he was six.
“So I was born in Taiwan. So one of my dad’s family friends visited Taiwan, and his son was riding a unicycle. He was riding around, and I tried to chase after him, but I couldn’t [run fast enough]. So I begged my dad to buy me one,” said Lee.
Lee taught himself how to use a unicycle since there was no one to teach him.
“I just tried to ride by myself on a unicycle, but I just couldn’t do it, so I gave up after a short while. But when I moved to Shanghai, when I was eight, I had no friends there, so I picked it up again. Took me a few months, but I got it after a while. My unicycle was my companion during that time,” said Lee.
LIFE’S BALANCING ACT
Learning to ride a unicycle has also taught Lee a lot about balance, both for cycling and for daily life.
“When I’m on a unicycle, I’m constantly balancing,” said Lee. “I need to pay attention to all the tiny pebbles on the ground. If I don’t pay attention, I will fall. That’s life as well, because you’re always juggling so many things. And you’ve got to know what’s happening, your surroundings.”
The act of balancing is not an inherent trait — it is something learned.
“A lot of people, when they’re asked if they want to go on the unicycle, they’re like, ‘No, I don’t have that balance.’ No, you learn to gain balance. No one was born with that kind of balance. You got to seek [it out],” said Lee. “There’s no such thing as static motion. You’re always constantly moving forward. And if you messed up, you got screwed up, try again.”
Lee hopes the Unicycle Club will continue to be a space where students can hang out and learn a new hobby.
“By them learning [to ride] a unicycle, they actually have the spirit and the character to face other things in life. That’s also my hope. I want people to recognize that all of them have the potential to do something they thought it was impossible to do,” said Lee.
Find out more about the Unicycle Club through their Instagram @biolaunicycle, or contact them at [email protected].
