How about some real-life fruit ninja with a twist? Jonathan Hannon and I broke the Guinness World Record’s title for “most kiwifruits sliced in one minute while standing on a swiss ball”

This record was attempting during the filming for the Science of Guinness World Records exhibit that will travel around the US and Canada for about 7 years starting in 2020.

We practiced with ping pong balls. Most would simply bounce off the blade, some would get nicked, but I also sliced through several when I got overzealous. More than a few bounced back and hit Jonathan in the face. Fortunately, kiwis don’t do this.

When we first put the 100lbs on the swiss ball to ensure it was properly inflated it compressed too much so we had to add a couple hundred more pumps of air (it can’t compress more than 20% with 100 lbs of weight). The first time I was getting on I fell off which is more than a little scary with a sharp samurai sword in tow.

This one was tricky because standing on a swiss ball is significantly harder than standing on a roller board or riding a unicycle. It’s much easier to fall off and in fact, I did twice, the first time when I tried to mount and the second a few seconds before the minute expired. Fortunately, we’d already passed the mark of 35 sliced to break the record with 62 successfully sliced before I fell off.

We also had to time the throws correctly because the next kiwi couldn’t be thrown until the prior one had either been sliced or the unsliced one had hit the ground. The other important thing was to make sure I didn’t slice the sword up and down at the resonant frequency of me bouncing on the ball otherwise I’d bounce right off like you do when jumping on a trampoline.

The large pieces of kiwi were washed, sliced and eaten and the little pieces were put in the city compost.

I practiced for this one on and off for nearly a year.

I previously broke the Guinness World Record for most cucumbers snapped in one minute at 118. I thought pencils might be similar. I usually bundled up 8 or so bamboo chopsticks and pushed on them as if I were going to break them with my thumbs and they’d flex and rebound. I did this for months. Then in one live pencil snapping practice, my thumbs got so fatigued that I realized it was easier to break them using my index fingers with the other 3 fingers as backup.

I then switched to my bamboo flexing / weight-lifting routine to that motion and saw even more success. I never conducted a full-scale practice since the graphite from the pencils goes everywhere and Amazon charges $10 per 144 pencils. I know it’s not a lot of money but I’m cheap sometimes. Frankly, it was picking up all the pencil pieces and graphite that stopped me. After several thousands of repetitions with the bamboo chopsticks, I figured I was ready.

On the day of the attempt, I had the honor of speaking to the Idaho out of school network conference attendees about the power of a growth mindset, the importance of STEM, and how grit leads to success.

I then gave my one shot at breaking pencils arranged around the outside of the stage. The first 30 seconds went better than I could have hoped with 55 snapped (close to the original record of 57 snapped in a full minute set by Tyler Toney of Dude Perfect fame who when on to break 87 in one minute at his best. He claims, perhaps jokingly, that it is one of his most proud moments… but perhaps it was…)

I wasn’t sure before I started if I was going to break 68 pencils or 110. I ended up at 98 which broke the previous record of 90 by almost 10%. I was thrilled. I was ecstatic. I know I can do better, but I also know I’m the best in the world at this today.

Thanks for having me out!

We set a tricky basketball passing record. Jonathan and I had to practice for months to pull off this Guinness World Record’s Title for most behind the back basketball passes in one minute. The previous record was 54. After a few practice sessions, we realized the mark was within reach. A few more practice sessions and we finally hit the mark in practice. A few more and we were ready to set it in front of the camera crew and the official witnesses (that were required to include a certified basketball referee).

We were on stage at the Cathedral of the Rockies in Boise, Idaho when we finally got a run with 62 behind the back basketball passes throw and 61 of them caught cleanly before time expired. We did have one pass that bounced before being corralled that was subtracted from the total.

If you would have asked me a few months ago if I could break a basketball passing world record (not ever having played organized basketball) when there are organizations like the Harlem Globetrotters who seem to break all the basketball Guinness World Records out there, I would have been skeptical. We approached this with a growth mindset – the idea that you can get better at anything, with no hard upper limit, and the mindset and hard work paid off.

If you think you can break this one less us know in the comments and give it a try with a friend!

It took a lot of work and was exhausting (as well as great exercise). At the end, Jonathan had to take a timeout, but I’m not sure 30 seconds was long enough…

I broke a two-fer today. It wasn’t advantageous if I wanted to do my best at both but it helped me avoid feeling the intense pain in my neck twice.

I’ve held both these records before after beating Ashrita Furman’s mark, but he took them both back. Today I pushed the mark for each further than it’s ever been pushed before.

The records were for “Furthest distance walked balancing a lawnmower on the chin (non-powered)”. The previous mark was 249 meters (my previous record was 200 meters). The other was for “Longest duration balancing a lawnmower on the chin (non-powered)”. The previous mark was 6 minutes 27.99 seconds (my previous mark was about 5 and a half minutes).

Today I was shooting for both records but thought I would break them both in 1 lap. I ended up walking so fast I was done with the first lap in a little over 4 minutes. I needed to keep going, so I figured I’d go for another full lap. At about 760 meters I got a little overextended and started walking fast and just about ran into my stroller/pole/high camera and slowed so the lawnmower fell off my chin. I went almost a half-mile! 778 meters. That’s 3.1 times as far as the previous mark. It took me 9 minutes 14 seconds passing that mark by 2 minutes 46 seconds adding over 42% that that record.

It would be a lot less strenuous on my neck to just balancing the lawnmower without walking, but since it hurts so much, I prefer to get both out of the way at the same time if I can.

Update: The day after… my neck is ridiculously sore! #totallyworthit

Thanks for the help! Michael, Michael’s neighbor, and her son, Chris, Chirs, Patrick, Alyssa, Alyssa’s sister, mom, dad, Jennifer, and the little guys!

Tonight I broke a slippery Guinness World Records Title: “Most bars of soap stacked in one minute”. The trick was that the bars of soap had to be soaked in water for over one minute before the attempt could begin, and they had to be smooth (no oatmeal soap here), and they were defined as “smooth, solid object used for cleaning the body in water which becomes slippery when in contact with water”. These bars of soap were slippery. Even with my fingernails grown out, it was hard to even pick them up. Keeping them in a stack was even harder.

The previous record was 21, but after some practice, I knew I could pass that mark. The question was, how aggressive could I get? With grown-out fingernails, I could grab and stack. The trick was getting the stacked bars of soap to stick together and not slide off. I got 30 stacked and then ran into all sorts of trouble. The second to bottom bar slide off the bottom bar and was only attached by 20% of its surface area. Fortunately, the stack remained standing for over 5 seconds and I broke the Guinness World Record’s Title.

In the news: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/07/29/Man-stacks-30-bars-of-wet-soap-for-Guinness-World-Record/4161564410530

Then my son decided to make his own stack. I’m pretty sure it was higher than mine. He’s destined for great slippery things.

My wife took her support of me breaking Guinness World Records to promote STEM education to another level. She let me wrap her entire body with cling/plastic wrap (multiple times!). The record was for “Fastest time to wrap a person in cling film/plastic wrap”. The previous mark was 1 minute 59.71 seconds. I thought it would be a piece of cake to beat, I was wrong.

The person being wrapped has to be over 5 feet tall and the arms and legs need to be wrapped individually, including the bottoms of the feet. There can be no rips, tears, skin or clothing showing from the bottom of the feet all the way up to the neck (but not the head).

The arms, legs, and torso are easy. The joints are hard. There’s a reason I stuck with my wife for this attempt as it required getting personal to get everything covered. The wrap tends to bunch up at joints which makes it hard to cover them. The most clever move I had to make was over the shoulders and back down through the legs.

It took 4 practices and then another 12 official tries to finally get it. On many of the attempts, the wrap ripped and I couldn’t get going again. On 3 of the attempts, I called time and thought I’d broken the record but the judges found small patches that were uncovered (at the joints!)

On the final try, we finally got everything covered in 1 minute 57.1 seconds beat the previous mark by less than 3 seconds! My wife is a saint. In all I used over 1,000 feet of plastic wrap on her… and it takes just as long to get off as it does to put it on!

Today’s record was the 2-person version of the one I broke on December 31st of 2018 while in Costa Rica: Fastest time to bounce 5 ping pong balls into 5 pint glasses (team of two). Mike Hagman was up for the challenge.

Mike isn’t new to Guinness World Records as he once supervised a project while at SAP to be recognized as having the largest database in the world. I’m glad he finally broke a record he can be proud of. I have to say, from the time we started practicing together was months… wait, no, minutes, yes, minutes of practice before we broke it. To be fair, I practiced up for the record 7 months ago and I had to land 3 balls and he only did 2, but he was more consistent in getting them into his cups that I was into mine.

The first time we thought we broke the record we realized we didn’t say stop after the last ball which is required. We had to do it again. The previous record was 5.35 seconds and we got 2.52 seconds.

I applied for this title 3 years and 3 months ago. It was one of the very first records I wanted to break and it took me that long to prepare. The record was for “longest duration balancing a lawnmower on the chin (powered)”. That means the motor is on and the blades are spinning.

The previous record was 3 minutes 1 second. I know I can go much longer with a stationary object, but this object was not stationary. Not only could the spinning blades chop through matter, they also created angular momentum, thrust like a helicopter, and vibrations. I was also looking into the sun, faced gusts of wind, and had to deal with an electrical cord pulling the lawnmower around. That’s not to mention the live audience adding pressure. It’s a good thing I spent over 3 years preparing for this moment. Kids, do not try this at home. In fact, I never even let my 3-year-old son see me preparing for this record because I don’t want him to even think about trying it.

The previous record of 3 minutes 1-second fell to a 3 minute 54-second run. Check out the video for details.

Thank you to the team: Michael, Summer, Jonathan, Aparnika, Mike, Linda, Daniel, ESPN, and the City of Boise!

News Coverage:

https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/07/01/Man-balances-running-lawnmower-on-his-chin-for-nearly-4-minutes/9831562005878/

https://www.power99fm.com/2019/07/02/man-balances-running-lawnmower-on-his-chin-for-4-minutes/

https://98rock.iheart.com/featured/crash-mornings/content/2019-07-04-guinness-record-for-balancing-a-running-lawn-mower-on-the-chin/

http://www.101wkqx.com/2019/07/02/who-would-ever-balance-a-running-lawnmower-on-their-chin-oh-wait/

http://www.93x.com/2019/07/02/man-balances-running-lawnmower-on-chin-to-break-record/

https://www.951wayv.com/man-breaks-guinness-record-for-balancing-running-lawnmower-on-chin/

https://y98.radio.com/blogs/kevin-intern-berghoff/watch-balancing-running-lawnmower-chin-world-record

https://www.theranch.fm/man-sets-guinness-record-for-balancing-a-running-lawnmower-on-his-chin/

https://www.arcamax.com/entertainment/weirdnews/s-2225146

https://www.1029thebuzz.com/2019/07/03/man-breaks-guinness-record-balancing-a-running-lawnmower-on-his-chin/

http://www.997cyk.com/2019/07/03/crazy-daredevil-breaks-guinness-book-of-world-record-for-balancing-running-lawn-mower-on-his-chin-the-longest-watch/

https://1063thebuzz.com/a-guy-broke-the-guinness-world-record-for-balancing-a-lawnmower-on-his-chin/