A majority of my posts are related to personal development. Something more direct like "how to be successful at _____" or "what to do when you feel ______ and get out of it." Today's post will contain a take away message and self-help related nuggets for you. However, overall, I just want to share the experience I had when I met an electric unicyclist youtuber atop a hiking trail the other day.
Ten minutes prior, I had just finished pushing myself to run up a pretty steep incline. I could hardly feel my legs, my lungs were on freakin fire, and I was laying on the ground. That's when I noticed Marty.
Before learning his name, I was fascinated by two things: (1) the cool contraption he was standing on, and (2) the fact that he was apparently riding it up and down this damn hiking trail!
Here's a stealth picture I took of Marty before I approached him and asked him a slew of questions:
I've seen some pretty novel stuff in my adventures. Never had I seen someone use an electric unicycle to go up and down steep hiking trails. Seeing as Marty had a video camera attached to a selfie-stick, I wondered if he was a YouTuber. What's cool is that I had actually recorded a video for my YouTube channel a little bit before noticing Marty doing the same. Synchronicity type stuff, yee!
As I like to do, I started up a conversation:
"Hey, what is that thing?!" I shouted.
He turns around, rolls toward me, kind of circles around me a little bit actually (lmao), and then says "It's an electric unicycle!"
To be fair, I'm pretty sure I'd seen Casey Neistat, uber-successful YouTuber, filmer, and director, use one of these in his daily vlog a year ago or so. Still, I had never seen one in person and definitely didn't know there was a community of people who rode them.
Long story short, Marty went on to share that he and two of his buddies were hiking up and down the trail like the rest of us...except they were riding on these cool one-wheeled contraptions! They go up to 45mph and are legal to ride on the streets without a permit (akin to an electric long board).
He then shared that there's a whole online community filled with Electric Unicycle enthusiasts. Not only that, but Marty's YouTube channel, dedicated to the Electric Unicycle community, has over 10K subscribers! I was impressed and shocked at the same time.
It was cool to meet Marty and his posse. I'd never seen anything like it before.
What I admire about Marty, and people like him, is that they do what they love regardless of what people think. Cause let's be honest, what these guys were up to that day is not "normal" according to social standards. Yet, there they were, full gear and all, living their lives and doing what they love - Electric Unicycling on hiking trails.
Thank you, Marty, for being an unknowing example of bold leadership and passion to me. I don't see myself becoming an electric unicycle enthusiast, but just like you, I will continue to live the life I love and pursue my passion - no matter what the hell people think.
Good luck with everything!
Peace,
GS
