Author Spotlight
Lyda Cosgrove
Sucked into a black hole of endless YouTube videos, freshman Griffin King stumbled upon one video featuring a unicycle. Knowing his fellow Dungeons and Dragons club member, sophomore Eero Alber, had recently picked up the one-wheeled hobby, he proposed what seemed, at the time, like a crazy idea.
“Yo, Eero,” King sent in a text over the summer. “What if I get a unicycle and we start a unicycle gang?”
What started as a Dungeons and Dragons club in middle school has morphed into the unofficial unicycling club, dubbed “Hell on Wheel,” teaching this group of six teenage boys commitment and providing them a close-knit group revolving around a wheel.
Hell on Wheel is comprised of King, Alber, sophomores Spencer Collins and Luke Kounkel and juniors Alex Blickhan and Flynn Brundige, who the group deems their “diversity hire” because he opts to ride his skateboard over a unicycle.
“It was a bit of a domino effect,” Alber said. “Me and Griffin learned first, then Luke did because he hung out with Griffin a lot. Then after a few weeks, we finally convinced my friend Spencer to get a unicycle and learn.”
When Hell on Wheel co-founder Alber received his first unicycle from his grandfather last summer, he wasn’t sure if he could take on the challenge. But it soon became a part of his daily life. Now, it’s rare for Alber to go a day without cruising around the neighborhood.
“The main reason my Grandpa wanted me to start unicycling was because it’s a good way of teaching commitment,” Alber said. “It’s a good way of sticking with something…and good things come if you work hard at something.”
For the group, learning to master the craft of unicycle-riding was a process of trial and error, with no real step-by-step way of learning. And for the members of Hell on Wheel, it only took two weeks — with a few sprained wrists and scraped up knees along the way.
“When you start unicycling, you push off of a wall and you fall immediately for like the first week,” Alber said. “You might get five feet out or seven feet out, but you still fall, and it can get really discouraging. But once you push your [distance] record or you go a little bit past your maximum, it just feels amazing.”
It’s just like riding a bike, according to Collins. Once you build your core strength and figure out the balance, it becomes second nature.
Hell on Wheel meetings occur sporadically, usually with just a few members at a time once or twice a month. It’s nothing too structured — just a small gathering in one of their backyards. They start out with a card game like Poker before mounting their unicycles and riding around the neighborhood.
As a stark contrast to the cookie-cutter suburban streets of Prairie Village commonly filled with kids in strollers and fluffy dogs on walks, the unicyclists are used to the odd glances from passersby.
“That is the best part about riding a unicycle,” King said. “It feeds my ego. People look at you and they think, ‘Oh my God, it’s a person on a unicycle, that’s amazing. That person is so cool.’”
Unicycling isn’t just a hobby for Alber, it’s his main mode of transportation: riding the one-wheeler to school, friends’ houses, the Prairie Village shops — you name it. But for Alber and the other members, Hell on Wheel has given them more than just a new way to travel around. Bonding over their unique passion has given them some of their closest friendships.
“Back in middle school and elementary school, I only really had like one friend, which is weird because I had a bunch of superficial friendships,” Alber said. “I had a bunch of people that I knew around school that I could get along with, but I never really connected with anyone on a deeper level. Once I got to high school, I actually found this friend group and we had a bunch of similar interests like everyone in the group played D&D, we’re all nerds and we all love unicycling.”
The members all agree that their socially-distanced and masked meet-ups, allowing them to stay active while bonding over their passion, have been a source of light throughout the pandemic. With everything from dangerous trick attempts to tossing Swedish Fish and Twix to neighborhood kids, there’s never a dull moment for the members of Hell on Wheel.
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