Owen is a muni, trials and distance rider from Fremont, California.
Personal Story
I learned to ride a unicycle back in the summer of 2007 with my cousin in Taiwan, when I was 8 years old. We had seen a little red 16 inch at the grocery store and it inspired us to practice all summer to learn how to ride it. I mastered riding forwards, and then riding backwards, and then I got bored with it and moved on to the next challenge. That was until I discovered the internet 4 years later and saw a video from Shaun Johanneson. I started looking for tricks to practice and started making my way through the IUF skill level list, and then moved onto some basic flatland moves. What really caught my interest though was trials. I went on trials rides every day and continued to improve as I got older. When I went to university, I moved to a new city where I met Tom Holub, who is a local legend of unicycling in the East Bay and still one of my biggest role models. He introduced me to muni and took me out on some of my first off-road rides. I loved how similar this new style of riding felt to the trials moves I had been practicing, yet how different the mechanics of riding on trails could be. We went on a lot of group rides that year, and since then I have been riding pretty much exclusively muni. I love the process of sizing up an obstacle, talking through different approaches, and the adrenaline rush of letting my instincts take control and getting me through to safety. Since then I've combined my passion of unicycling with an interest in traveling, and I've been all over North America with my wheel, as well as in Europe and Asia. I'm extremely grateful for the sponsorship and excited to see what it will inspire me to do and how else I can try to advance the sport.
American
