Marine sciences sophomore Jacob Hinshaw is one of the few Cal Poly Unicycle Club members who came to Cal Poly already knowing how to ride.
He started unicycling when he was 16 after getting a unicycle for his birthday and he said he has loved it ever since.
“[Unicycling has] given me almost an identity, because I’m like ‘the unicycle guy’ now,” Hinshaw said. “If you’ve ever seen the unicyclist with the duck on their helmet, that’s me.”
Hinshaw is deeply involved in the Unicycle Club and recently won the club’s “Unicycle Assassin” game, a club tradition that started last year and was a way for club members to stay engaged throughout the spring quarter.
Throughout April, club members tried to tag other members who were off their unicycles with foam swords during a specific time frame designated by a Discord bot.
“Unicycle Assassin” is not the club’s only tradition that keeps members excited.
“Another tradition we have is on Fridays our practices unofficially, like tend to, just not end,” Nakul Mohakar, an electrical engineering senior and the current club president, said.
Instead of going home, members continue to hang out at practice and often go to Subway or SloDoCo late at night.
“It’s a very interesting collection of people for sure,” Mohakar said. “Like [everyone], is open to more impulsive, weird activities. Anytime we suggest a strange activity to do, everyone’s just like, ‘Let’s do it.’”
These traditions reflect the club dynamic.
“[Unicycling] is a silly thing, you have to look silly to learn it. So it attracts a good kind of people that are all very friendly and inclusive, and are really fun to hang around,” Hinshaw said.
Unicycle basketball is also an important aspect of Unicycle Club and the greater unicycle community, according to Mohakar. Unicycle basketball is even an official event at the Unicycle World Championships.
The Unicycle Club plays unicycle basketball for halftime shows at Cal Poly Basketball games during the winter quarter, which helps them gain more visibility on campus.
The club is currently working on planning more events to share their passion for unicycling with the community. Over Memorial Day weekend, the club will host a regional unicycle event, according to Mohakar.
Mohakar said the event will give unicyclists in the community an opportunity to come together to learn and share their passion similar to what they would experience at a national unicycle event.
“When you have the perspective of what’s possible with a unicycle you know, more than just riding forward and backward, things get a lot more exciting,” Mohakar said.
Mohakar said people from across California, Nevada and Arizona will come to Cal Poly for the weekend for the event, including a unicyclist who got second place in a world unicycle basketball competition.
“It’s gonna be great,” Mohakar said.
Hinshaw, who was just elected to be the club’s president for next year, said he is excited about this event and hopes to host more events in the future to get the community more involved.
“I want to hold more events on campus for both the unicyclists and for people that are non-cyclists so that they can learn,” Hinshaw said. “[We would] advertise it and make it somewhere that’s more public for people to see and get more people involved with unicycling.”
Mohakar said the Unicycle Club – which meets every Monday and Friday from 6-9 p.m. – is happy to teach anyone who shows up how to ride. He encourages anyone interested to come to a meeting.