That’s how far a marshmallow flew through the air before it landed in my mouth. Who knew a marshmallow could hurt so much? The previous record was 75 feet. Many of the practice shots did not travel 75 feet. We dialed in the proper way to hold the slingshot and angled the trajectory just right. All I had to do was get my mouth to the right spot.
I broke the record at the Cradlepoint Company BBQ to promote STEM education. It’s the first time we’ve had all our employees from around the world in Boise including our remote USA, Canada, Europe, Africa, and Asia Pacific teams with members from as far away as South Africa and Australia. We also have our Boise and Los Gatos, CA engineering teams together.
Ed forgot to ask someone the all-important question: “Hold my Beer”
Today I had a major achievement: I got my 2-year-old son to eat peas.
All I had to do was to fill up an entire plate full of canned peas, grab a toothpick, and start eating them one at a time after a loud: Ready! Set! Go! My son loves Ready! Set! Go! After he saw me down 295 of them by skewering and eating them one at a time off of a plate in just 3 minutes, he had to give it a try. He climbed up in my chair, grabbed a toothpick and excitedly called out Ready! Set! Go! He finished the rest of the plate.
Incidentally, the previous record for most tinned peas eaten with a cocktail stick (toothpick) in 3 minutes was 222. The footnote here is I broke a Guinness World Record today – my 59th. I’m more excited that I got my 2-year-old son to eat peas.
Today I took on the giant: gravity. I took it on with not a small pebble but three large stones. I then broke the Guinness World Record for “Most Bowling Balls Juggled”.
You might wonder how many bowling balls it is possible to juggle. I hope you guess it’s one or two because I can only juggle three. In fact, nobody can juggle more. There are two reasons for this: 1) bowling balls are heavy (Guinness requires each to weigh over 10 pounds and 2) they are not, in fact, meant to be juggled. If they are juggled, Guinness requires they be juggled for more than 20 seconds.
Last year I bought 5 bowling balls at a killer rate from a shutdown bowling alley. I got all 5 for $10. I never thought I’d be able to juggle five but I got four 10 pound balls and one 6 pound ball for fun stuff. I thought maybe I’d be able to get a qualifying run of 4 balls in (8 catches) but then found out Guinness requires a 20 second run vs 8 catches. I have yet to juggle 2 balls in one hand so I’m still a way of.
I broke this record at the CBS 2 News STEM day at the Fair today held at the Western Idaho Fair.
It was kind of a last-minute record attempt since my wife had our 2nd son on Tuesday night (2.5 days ago). We decided about 11:30 AM we were feeling good enough to stop by the fair and at noon I decided I should break a record while we were there. By 1 PM we were on site with 30+ lbs of bowling balls and I made the attempt in front of a small audience in the STEM area.
I juggled for 30 seconds, or 50% longer than the required length and was sweating profusely and breathing so hard I could barely answer the news questions after.
I loaded up my water pistol and went to town. Thirty-six targets were shot out in 30 seconds. The previous record was 28.
This record took more prep time and effort than most. The targets were required to be poi/goldfish scoopers. I had no idea what they were but it’s a traditional Japanese kids game that involves using round plastic frames with a thin sheet of paper to scoop fish out of the water. You have to scoop the fish out without the paper breaking. In my case, I had to break through each piece of paper with a water pistol/squirt gun before moving on to the next. Jennifer was on a business trip to Japan and had a friend buy both the poi scoopers and 1,000 sheets of poi scooper paper.
I was all set up which takes a considerable amount of time since all the paper needs to be loaded and then the targets need to be vertically positioned. I also had the squirt gun that I had been practicing with for months. I practiced with it before getting set up and just as I was about to start the attempt it got clogged and no water would come out. I tried shaking it. No luck. I finally stuck a paper clip in the opening since I couldn’t find a needle and cleared the obstruction. But then I shot it and the spray came out was no longer a jet of water. It went everywhere. I couldn’t even reach the targets 2 meters away. I quickly left for the neighborhood Walmart but they didn’t have any. The next stop was Fred Meyer and they had a couple options. I bought 2 different types of guns (10 in total since they came in 1 packs and 8 packs and I wanted a backup). It was a grand total of $5.06.
I raced back to find I only had the bare minimum people left to even attempt the record. I started and after 10 seconds I was ahead of pace and slowed down to shoot a little more deliberately. I shot through the 36th target in just less than 30 seconds.
Next up: I’m looking for challengers to a precision-based water gun fight.
Here’s a lesson on how to break a Guinness World Record with 20 friends. At the Cole Community Church Family Camp 2018 at Ponderosa State Park we attempted the world record for “Fastest time to high five 20 people (blindfolded)”. And we broke it!
There was a list of 14 rules to qualify what counted as a legitimate high five and what didn’t. It took 22 tries but on the 22nd we made it through the entire line with 20 solid high fives in 5.65 seconds breaking the previous record of 6.53 seconds by nearly a second.
It was a day of pop culture excitement. I had my official witnesses and the MC joked that he was once a witness. In fact, at one point 74% of Americans could identify him vs only 25% that could identify Vice President Al Gore. The MC was Kato Kaelin.
The record attempt was for most socks removed blindfolded in one minute. The record of 24 was held by Ryucheru of Japan Teen personality fame was broken when I got 39 socks in 1 minute. It appeared I got 40 socks but the last one came off a fraction of a second after the minute expired.
I had 30 volunteers at the Wizarding World Comic Con lined up on 30 chairs with 60 brand new socks. I was hoping to make it through all 60 but there were a few feet that weren’t quite as dry as necessary for the socks to slide off as easily as they did in practice. It was a lot of fun anyway.
We also got our picture taken with the Star Trek The Next Generation Crew of Data, Deanna Troy, and Tasha Yar and I had a short conversation with John de Lancie (Q from Next Generation) about STEM education.
Thanks to everyone who came out!
David Rush Breaks his 55th world record besting the previous mark of 24 socks removed in one minute while blindfolded .
WizardWorld Comic Con is coming to Boise this weekend. There will be folks from the first two Star Trek series, power rangers, Hellboy and more. The more includes me on the main stage from 1-1:30 PM on Saturday going after my 55th Guinness World Record.
I’ll do some juggling, balancing, and STEM promotion. I may even break out a Gollum impersonation if the conditions are right.
Then I’ll recruit some volunteers (have you ever wanted to participate in a Guinness World Record attempt?) to break the record for “Most socks removed in one minute blindfolded”. Don’t worry, I’ll bring all the brand new socks.
Today I threw chopsticks at balloons. It was all in the name of promoting STEM education. I gave an hour-long presentation at the Lake Hazel Library about growth mindset, grit, and failure culminating in a world record attempt for “Most balloons burst in one minute with chopsticks”. From 2 meters away I threw chopsticks at balloons mounted on the wall knife-throwing style trying to break more than 24 in one minute (the previous record).
I achieved 28 for my 54th world record. Not bad for an unathletic guy who got picked last for two-hand-touch football and wasn’t smart enough for the gifted program.
I juggled, balanced, and had an otherwise wonderful time with 100 kids and their parents today as part of the library summary program.
Next up is Wizard World ComicCon in Boise on Saturday for most socks removed in one minute blindfolded (off of other people).
It may look like an ordinary chopstick, but standing two meters away I will use it to pop more than 24 balloons in less than one minute.
While not quite a magic wand, it will hopefully be good enough for another World Record Attempt at the Lake Hazel Library promoting STEM education. “Most balloons burst with chopsticks in one minute”.
Today I juggled axes. I’ve been preparing for this record attempt for more than 2 years. The longest lead-time item was finding the right axes. It took over 2 years to find them. The next longest lead-time was building up the strength, endurance, and accuracy to juggle the axes for over 5 and a half minutes. I have been lifting weights for months. I regularly do 60, 80, and 150 rep sets with 20, 15, and 12 lb weights. In five and a half minutes I lifted over 5,000 lbs with my biceps while juggling these three, 3 lb axes. It was almost 2,500 raw pounds plus it about doubles the effort to throw them airborne.
I had to chop wood with them before the attempt per Guinness rules to confirm they were real. I have cut myself a couple times in practice but mostly practiced with the sheaths on to avoid injury. I would have had significant injuries if the sheaths hadn’t been on. The City of Boise wanted to make sure we were prepared so a space was cordoned off for the attempt. There were several officers on hand. The paramedics also brought out a gurney just in case… that was a first.
Josh Horton of Jake and Josh was the previous record holder with 604 catches.
Boise is hosting the “Road to the X-Games” with ESPN at the Rhodes skate park. On Friday and Saturday competitors are vying for a spot on the finals in Minneapolis for Skateboarding and BMX biking.
I had 2 radio station interviews (I think that was the first time I’ve been interviewed for radio…). It got to wear the headsets and talk into the mic. It was fun.
Thanks to the City of Boise, ESPN, the witnesses, timekeepers, police, and paramedics for coming out to support the event!
Promoting STEM education through my story and juggling
