By Maddie Gee | Reporter
Across campus, students can see people using all types of transportations being used — cars, mopeds, bikes, even segways. However, one type of transportation is definitely unusual: unicycles. The Baylor Unicycle Academy is showing everyone on campus how much fun unicycling can be.
Midway City, Okla. senior Wyatt Snyder recently discovered his love for unicycles. His friendship with Peter Doe and love for the sport led to the formation of Baylor’s Unicycle Academy.
“I got into unicycles two summers ago when I borrowed my brother’s unicycle, and I learned how to use it over the summer. I heard that Peter unicycled, so I started unicycling with him the next semester,” Snyder said.
Katy junior Peter Doe has been involved with the sport for much longer.
“I started unicycling when I got one for Christmas when I was about twelve years old. I learned then kinda off and on. Last fall I brought it on campus for the first time and thought ‘this could be fun.’ I learned that Wyatt also unicycled so we learned together and took off,” Doe said.
“I was at home for winter break, and I was talking with my parents about applications for grad school and resume items, and they said ‘Hey, you could start a club and be the president of it.’ I thought that sounded like a fun idea. So Wyatt and I were riding one day, and I mentioned it to him and he said ‘That would be amazing.’ So we went back that evening and looked up all the requirements to be a club. We applied and eventually got chartered,” Doe said.
Along with being able to become stronger unicyclists, the Unicycle Academy has had a positive impact on both Snyder and Doe.
“I made a lot of friends through Unicycle Academy, met a lot of people. It encouraged me to push my own unicycle skills. Being president of the Unicycle Academy, I should be able to unicycle pretty well. It helped me get that push to pursue my own work with unicycling and be in a great community that is really helpful,” Snyder said.
Along with learning new skills for themselves, the Unicycle Academy made them better teachers for others.
“It taught me how to teach other people. A lot of our job is to get people on top of a unicycle and help them to balance and see them grow. But also, we are now meeting people who can unicycle and are better than us. We see how they learned, ask how they learned that trick, that skill. It pushes us to practice consistently,” Doe said.
The Unicycle Academy has big plans for the school year to spread the message of the organization across Baylor.
“As a long term goal, we hope to participate in the homecoming parade. We hope to also do a race,” Doe said.
According to Snyder, they also hope to have an ultimate frisbee game on unicycles.
“We want to build the community to where people can learn together and see everyone else progress. We do have an high emphasis on learning and putting in continual betterment of yourself, balancing your life. There are a lot of people who can unicycle already. We want to have a place for them to be able to find other people who can unicycle,” Snyder said.
At 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday outside the Baylor Bookstore, through hard work and community, the Baylor Unicycle Academy can have students riding like a pro.
