Unicycle group puts its own spin on basketball

From a distance, figures move like Disney's Animatronic characters. Across the lawn at the Thousand Oaks Community Center Park, those aren't robots; they're real people playing basketball without the normal staccato movements of basketball players. The motion is fluid and constant.

It's unicycle basketball, and Shawn Pettit, Tom Bennett, James Bragg, David Attkisson and Kyle Sumner are riding single-wheel cycles. The group got together Saturday, and as the game sped up, it was hard to follow the players until they came close to the basket, where they necessarily slowed.

"I've been unicycling since I was 12," said Pettit, who lives in Camarillo and found some hoops-shooting, unicycling friends using social media. "This is only our second time playing, but it's so unique, so much fun, I want it to grow."

Pettit said he started out juggling on his unicycle and has worked his way up to basketball, learning how to stop and start using fast motions and controls.

Pettit, 27, who works with his father's manufacturing company, Pacific Register in Camarillo, is just starting to find people who are interested in playing unicycle basketball and wants to expand the group.

"If you go on YouTube, you find a lot of videos of people playing," Pettit said. "There are a couple of big groups in Berkeley and in San Luis Obispo, and just watching them play is really great," he said.

Bennett, a sergeant with the Ventura County Sheriff's Department, is the oldest member of the group. In his 50s and a new grandpa, Bennett has been riding a unicycle since he was 9 years old.

"I found Shawn and this group through Facebook," Bennett said. "It sounded like a lot of fun to me, and it's certainly an interesting challenge. I'll let you know if it's fun when I start playing. This is my first time."

Bennett rides a unicycle off-road and participates in long-distance rides, as well. He'll participate in a unicycle fundraiser for a diabetes cure in Long Beach next weekend.

"I ride four days a week," Bennett said. "My record is 1,000 miles in a year. This year, I'm already up to 500 miles, and it's only April. It's just a lot of fun to do."

Pettit's girlfriend of three years, Audrey Ruiz, was on hand with her 6-year-old son, Aidan, to watch the group play.

"I can't believe how many people I've met who see Shawn unicycling and say they used to do it and want to do it again," Ruiz said. "It's amazing how popular unicycles are."

Ruiz said she'd never seen Pettit or anyone else play unicycle basketball before.

On the basketball court, the workout is extreme. Quick stops and starts are the norm and the demand on the rider/player is all-encompassing.

"It's unicycling with a purpose," said Sumner, of Ventura. Sumner, 28, is a basketball player first and a unicyclist second, having ridden for only two years now. "It can be really fast-paced, and it's a pretty serious challenge," he said.

Bennett was sweating from head to toe.

"This takes so much effort," he said.

On a unicycle with a 29-inch wheel, he said he can turn an eight-minute mile, and on a 32-inch wheel, he can do a six-minute mile.

"But there's so much turning and stopping and you use your core a lot more than your legs and arms when you play," he said.

Said Pettit, "It definitely wears you out with all the twisting and turning."