Retired teacher guides Pleasant Valley students through unicycle stunts, skills

PLEASANT VALLEY — Balancing your whole unwieldy self atop a single rolling wheel doesn’t seem physically possible.

But if you do master the impossible and join the Pleasant Valley Unicycle Team, you’ll do more than simply balance. You’ll hop and bounce, idle in place, dance in formation, perform tricks with props and even roll up a ramp and fly over a classmate’s body, Evel Knievel style. Sort of.

It’s probably a good thing that Pleasant Valley schools’ second- through eighth-grade unicyclists are too young to have heard of Knievel, the canyon-jumping motorcycle daredevil of the 1970s, since unicycle culture appears to be taking over the surrounding neighborhood. It’s reportedly not unusual to see kids piloting their single wheels up and down sidewalks and even school hallways here.

That’s all thanks to retired, but still volunteering, physical education teacher and coach Paul White, whose answer about his own unicycling genesis couldn’t be more concise: “University of Oregon,” he said with a gleam in his eye.

When White was a physical education student in the 1970s in Eugene, he explained, circus skills like juggling and unicycling were a standard part of the curriculum. White wasn’t a single-wheel whiz himself, he said, but when he started working at Pleasant Valley years later, unicycling seemed like a fun, novel activity to introduce to his students. The fact that the Vancouver school district was winding down a unicycling program and unloading used equipment at a bargain price helped the experiment along, he said.

“I’m always looking for something new and unique to do with the kids,” White said. “Fifteen years ago, I started writing a lot of grants for unicycles and incorporating them into the P.E. curriculum.” He scored some unicycles on Craigslist, too.

He was gratified to find his students eagerly taking on the truly tough challenge, he said. “It’s a long, slow learning curve until you hit it,” he said. White usually tells beginners that it’ll take 10 to 15 hours of struggle just to be able to start balancing on your own. Before that, to get a feel for perching up there, you use a ladder or grown-up to help you mount the seat. Then you lean against a wall and creep slowly along.

But eventually you start venturing across the Pleasant Valley gymnasium floor. You master the “free mount,” which means climbing aboard and zooming off unassisted, and the “idle,” which means for unicycles just what it means for cars: revving in place, ready to go. Some graduate to the “giraffe” unicycle which, at 5 feet, is taller than some of these kids, and a rare few even ascend the daunting 7-foot stack known as the three-wheeler — which still balances on a single point and exists strictly for visual awesomeness, White said.

Pleasant Valley offers fall and spring skills classes for novices, and a unicycling club for those who want to commit. From there you can progress to the performance team, which travels to area basketball games to wow halftime audiences. The team has even appeared at a Trail Blazers game, White said.

Whooshing along

At a recent rehearsal, the group of about 25 performing unicyclists started out by sprinting backwards across the gym, then pulling together into a weaving figure eight. They paired up, snatched foam swimming noodles from parent assistants and made arches for other unicycling kids to duck under. They linked into long chains that spun like pinwheels. Then the ramps came out for a little daredevilish jumping (and when no kid was available to lie in front of one ramp, White ran forward and threw himself down — just in time to be jumped). Then came a sudden onslaught of giraffes, a pair of whom held a metal bar that one petite unicyclist grabbed from below, dangling in the air and whooshing along.

“It’s comic relief,” confessed White’s wife, Kristin, who assists here when she’s not busy being principal of Cascade Middle School. But, she added, it’s much more than comedy. Unicycling builds confidence and brings reticent kids out of their shells, she said — and kids love building a special skill that they have and their parents don’t.

Has parent assistant Tina Yorke, who was handing out noodles, giraffes and encouragement, learned to unicycle? “Heck no,” she laughed.

Best of all is how the kids cooperate, White said. “What’s really great is that you’ve got second- through eighth-graders all working together. I like that interaction and team building,” he said. “When the kids start teaching each other, that’s more powerful than me teaching them.”

What’s the secret to unicycle riding? We asked the experts.

“It’s a secret,” said fourth-grader Jackson Kimball.

“It was really hard when I first started,” said seventh-grader Maddie Clouse. “I had to go along the wall for a long time.” But now she’s graduated to confident giraffe, and always sings along with the glory-rock soundtrack (like “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi) as she cycles.

“Lean a little bit forwards. But not too far forwards. And don’t lean too far to the side, either,” said fifth-grader Maya Bohac, or down you’ll go.

Just remember, said fourth-grader Tristan Shambaugh: “Your shoulders are your headlights.” Wherever they’re pointed, that’s where you’re going.

“Lean forward and keep your shoulders straight,” said fourth-grader Amelia Frasier. And try not to “swim” with your arms as you go, she added, because that just doesn’t look cool.