Three years ago at the Cradlepoint Block Party, I set my first Guinness World Record. The next year I set my 10th. Last year I broke my 23rd. Today I broke my 74th and 75th Guinness World Records. Half of me is in disbelief that it’s that many, and half of me remembers all the hours it’s taken to get here.
Today, the first record I broke was for the most juggling catches while standing on a balance board while blindfolded. The minimum mark for this new record was 15 catches. On my 3rd try, I got 52 catches. Next up was the longest duration juggling while standing on a balance board. The record held by professional and impressive Niels Duinker was 17 minutes 21 seconds, I went 31 minutes 20 seconds. I have been putting off breaking this record for a couple of years since I met Niels on a Disney cruise several years back and he tipped me off that there were professional quality juggling balls that I wasn’t allergic to (I’m literally allergic to 70+ juggling balls that I own!).
The hardest part of balancing and juggling blind is not what I expected. I have several blind juggling records and am likely one of the most experienced blind jugglers in the world so that was relatively straight-forward. I’m also pretty good on a balance board and can juggle five balls while balancing on it for several minutes. What I can’t do for very long is simply balance on the board with my eyes closed. If I practiced that more on that particular skill I suspect I could juggling blind for a couple minutes vs 13 seconds.
Thanks to Cradlepoint for being so supportive of my efforts to promote STEM and to all the individuals who helped out. Thanks also to witnesses, timers, photographer, and family who help make it all possible.
