While most students choose to walk or ride a bicycle to class, Matthew Huber takes a more unusual approach — he unicycles.Huber, geology graduate student, can often be seen riding his unicycle through the Quad, around the lakes, on the Parade Ground and even down the Indian Mounds.”When I got here, I started looking at bikes,” he said. “I was looking to find some way to get across campus better than walking because walking is not efficient around here.”Huber, who learned to ride the unicycle while he was an undergraduate at the University of Tennessee, decided to purchase one for $75 dollars when he moved to Baton Rouge.”I thought ‘I just need to get a unicycle. That would be a lot better than getting a bike,'” he said.Huber lives in Nicholson Apartments and uses the unicycle as his primary mode of transportation. He has ridden the unicycle as far as downtown and even to the Wal-Mart on College Drive.”I almost never have to drive anywhere,” he said. “I can go pretty much anywhere I want on the unicycle.”Huber received his first unicycle as a gift from his parents for Christmas as a joke when they couldn’t think of anything better to give him.”They went to the store and got a kiddy unicycle,” he said. “I learned to ride it, but the entire unit was too small for me. It was nearly impossible to ride.”Huber began to teach himself to ride a few days after Christmas and was proficient by New Years. He said holding onto the wall and falling down helped him to become skilled at riding.”I got poles, and I used the poles to prop myself up,” he said. “I eventually got rid of the poles. I’ve just ridden ever since then.”Huber said although he has ridden his unicycle daily for years, he still has a number of embarrassing accidents.”The thing about the unicycle is when you’re sitting on it, you’re almost vertical,” he said. “If the unicycle slips out from under you, you go straight down. So unless I’m really going fast or doing something a little more difficult, I’m going to just fall on my feet.”But one day on his way to class, Huber’s shoe laces got caught in the spokes of the wheel, throwing him on his back and leading to a crash that resulted in a broken shoe lace and backpack strap.”Riding around on game day, having a bunch of people chant ‘Unicycle, Unicycle!’ and falling in front of them is on the embarrassing side,” he said. “Nobody beats me up, but they laugh at me.”Huber has joined Critical Mass, a bicycle organization that travels as a group through the city, but he said it’s frustrating because he isn’t able to keep up with the other cyclists. Huber said his unicycle will travel up to 10 miles per hour.”When I ride around the lakes, if there are people jogging, I usually pass [them],” he said. “But people running pass me.”Huber said he has the most fun riding along the levee and riding fast downhill.”One great spot that I love going is down the Indian Mounds,” he said.  “I just love riding down those. I haven’t yet been able to ride all the way up. I’ve tried several times, but it’s just too steep.”Huber said he doesn’t know many others who ride a unicycle in Baton Rouge, but students are always asking to learn.”I will let anybody who wants to learn try it,” he said. “When you’re actually learning, it takes a few days to let your body adjust. No one has signed on to that commitment.”—-Contact Leslie Presnall at [email protected]