Megan's mount

The folks at Twin Cities Unicycle Club during the lessons I attended recommended freemounting using a technique similar to the one described at
Freemounting a Unicycle that starts with cranks at 9 and 3 o'clock. You rest one foot on the near pedal, apply very little pressure and, with your crotch in the seat, you spring off the other foot, so that you and the seat rotate over the center of balance and simultaneously place the free foot on the forward pedal with enough pressure to begin your forward rotation. The video at How to Free Mount shows this technique and some exercises to get used to springing off the free foot with the right force.

Unfortunately, for me as a new unicyclist, it was all but impossible to keep from applying pressure to that back pedal, and I just couldn't control the spring of the free foot up to the forward pedal.

The technique that first worked for me is demonstrated by Megan Rouch who does a series of videos on off road unicycling that shows her unique mounting style. She starts with the cranks at 9 and 3 o'clock as above, but instead of immediately springing up with the free foot, she first leans forward and places a hand on the wheel to resist the backward rotation and uses that hand to initiate a forward rotation. She then rotates and straightens the body over the unicycle, and brings the free foot up to the forward pedal. It sounds complex, but for me it was very intuitive, and I see from posts elsewhere that it has worked for others too.

Now I find I have some success with the hands free technique, and will probably adopt it as my main mount in the future, but I think the ability to mount with the hand stabilizing the wheel may be useful on up or down slopes, and with larger wheels.