Tennyson Ha is known for riding his unicycle around the bus canopy and to and from school on one wheel, but what else do we know about him? 

Photo by Hamilton Sule, Staff Writer.

Natalie Damer-Salas, Staff Writer

Many Northview students ride the bus, drive, or bike to school, but Tennyson Ha, widely known as “The Unicycle Kid,” is the only student getting to school on one wheel. 

Before moving to Johns Creek, Ga., Ha lived in Port Angeles, California. Ha’s father, having bought a unicycle in high school because it was more economical than a bike, introduced Ha to unicycling at the age of 4, and by the time he was 10, Ha was fully committed. In California, his father gifted him an electric unicycle, that reached a speed of 25 mph, and his father had one that went up to 50 mph, but Ha moved to Georgia without it.

“That kind of changed my transportation here compared to California,” Ha said. “But, I prefer normal biking speed.”

Even without the benefit of speed, Ha appreciates the health benefits of a normal bike and is still a committed cyclist.

“[Unicycling] is my main form of transportation,” Ha said. “Unless the weather is not to my liking, I ride to school every day. ”

The school’s roads are not the only place Ha has ridden with his unicycle. He has progressed passed just balancing on flat ground and has gone mountain cycling; although, with gravity working against the rider, it is much more strenuous. In addition to challenging himself on rough terrain, Ha has also focused on mastering new skills. An early skill he learned was bunny hopping: essentially being able to jump the wheel with your body weight to travel over curbs or holes. A more recent endeavor is riding backward, which Ha has felt to be counterintuitive. 

“I’ve been able to ride a few feet without falling backward,” Ha said. “But I also have to learn to look back while riding.”

Not only does Ha have to balance on the wheel but he is also committed to many extracurricular activities. Unicycling is only one of Ha’s many interests.

Ha was homeschooled with the Classical Conversations Academic Program until he entered sixth grade at a California public school. Without the same strict academic schedule, he had more time to explore and pursue his unique interests.

“I wrote all [of my hobbies] in a book. I think there are around 20,” Ha said. “Rollerskating is one of my main passions in addition to cycling.” 

Ha proceeded to show how a button on his shoes released four wheels—turning them into rollerblades—allowing him to continue to ride on wheels even off his bike. In addition to rollerskating, some of the 20 hobbies Ha mentioned included martial arts, tennis, baseball, flying planes—which his father taught him at age 11—chess, and drumming. Like unicycling, many of his interests stem from his parents’ diverse talents that they have taught him.

His father played in a Brazilian Samba drum bateria (or Spanish drum set/band) and his mother, Diana Ha, had previously taught piano and composed her own music. With so much musical influence in the family, Ha began playing the drums at the age of 3 and was able to quickly learn how to play new songs.

“We have pictures with Tennyson surrounded by drums bigger than he,” Ms. Ha said. “He totally had the beat.

Ha was self-taught in his early years of drumming and entered a drum school at age 7. He has performed numerous times and placed at talent shows on the steel drums. In addition to his extracurriculars, Ha is very academically ambitious. While being a part of the Classical Conventions Academic Program, he was deemed the “Triple Crown Memory Master” for memorizing and reciting three years of curriculum in seven subjects.

“It took him two and a half hours non-stop through four levels of testing,” Ms. Ha said. 

Although Ha strives for success in many areas of his life, the people in it who see him outside of his busy schedule observe his good nature as a person and friend.

“He is very kind,” freshman Henry Lee said. “He tries his best to understand what people are going through.”

Being new to the area, Ha is still getting accustomed to the roads and activities in Johns Creek, Ga. Although Georgia does not have the same sandy stretches as California, Ha appreciates the new environment and is already keeping himself busy: drumming on Sundays in his church band and Krav Maga (an Israeli martial art) lessons in the evenings. At school, Ha considers himself to be introverted but still excited to make friends at Northview.

“There is so much more activity going on here and there are so many more people here,” Ha said. “I like getting to know people. That is, when I have the time.”