大象传媒

A mountain unicyclist who has competed in World Championships says he now does it "purely for fun".

Edd Hawkes, from Dunstable, Bedfordshire, started unicycling after his brother went to a juggling club.

"Because it was closely related to cycling, I thought 'I'll give it a go, it looks quite fun'," said Mr Hawkes, who was already a keen cyclist and BMXer.

That was 14 years ago, and just one year later he moved on to riding off-road.

"The transition from that to now where I ride down mountains is a little bit more tenuous - I'm not sure how that happened," he said.

The 30-year-old used to run a display team which travelled all over the UK and Europe, and he also made it into the elite downhill category in the Mountain Unicycling World Championships.

"Most people's only contact with unicycles is where they see it in a circus and it's automatically associated with clowns," he says.

"There's not a living to be made... for me it's purely for fun."