Rowan wrote:
> *I'd say a few people would have invented crank grabs and pedal grabs
> over the years, because of the lack of communication between riders.
> Not all the techniques get discussed, and things get invented by
> people who think they are the first even if it has been done before. A
> lot of unicyclists think for a long time that they are the only
> unicyclist around, until they find out about the others. *
This is true. In the past, this usually applied to "tricks," which were
parts of shows, and were done by performers who had much to lose by
sharing their "inventions." So many of today's tricks were likely done
by top performers 100 years ago.
That doesn't keep others from inventing them on their own. If the old
performer's tricks were not recorded or known by others, it may be hard
for them to be credited.
So for purposes of today's topic, the question could be who did a move
first, and shared it? In other words, who popularized a move? The
popularizer might not be the inventor either, but should credit the
inventor if they were inspired by that person.
Here's an example I like to use, the kick-up mount. Who did it first? No
idea. I'm sure somebody had figured it out by the year 1945. But the
unicycling community (which didn't exist in 1945) didn't know about it
until Daniel Dumeng did it a the USA Nationals in 1982. Many people
learned it relatively quickly, and by the end of that year, Peter
Rosendahl was doing it on his Christmas cards, in the snow, while
juggling three torches. I'd give Daniel the credit for that one, while
acknowledging someone else may have done it years before, but not shared
it.
Same for coasting. Coasting was "invented" in late 1980 by Joaquim Malm
of Sweden. He showed it to Jack Halpern, who was visiting Sweden on a
trip to promote the idea of an International Unicycling Federation. Jack
freaked out and told everybody, and sent a picture in to the USA
Newsletter where all us USA people could see it.
Or here's one of my own. I am known for two moves, the swing-up mount,
and that thing where you spin the unicycle with your hand on top of the
seat (while not riding). I could claim to have made them up but I
didn't. The swing-up mount (see the Standard Skill list) came from Luc
Tremblay of the Montreal Circus School. It took me a long time to learn
it and I still can't do it as consistently as he could in 1983. And that
spinny thing, I got that from watching Frank Birdsall do it for about 2
seconds in the video Unicycle, from 1981 (Corey Riback). But I am
definitely the popularizer of the spinny thing. I also am for swing-up,
but perhpas only at USA/IUF events. Luc was a performer and he probably
used it in his shows.
So what about the pedal grab? Surely someone figured it out in the past.
But nobody was doing Trials, so there may have been minimal interest,
and whoever did it earlier did not share it with other riders. So for
now Kris gets the credit.
If someone comes out of the woodwork and says they were doing it in the
70s, and can prove it, they get credit for doing it first, but kris
still gets credit for popularizing it. Just as I assume Dan Heaton and
Adam Ryznar do for grinding.
--
johnfoss - Home of the Garage Page
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com"
www.unicycling.com
"Hey, could I have some of that spinach? I need to get this pork rind
taste out of my mouth." -- Ryan Atkins to Kris Holm, on the way back
from Moab after sampling some of my pork rinds. They grossed out the
whole van!
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