This one got tricky. I have previously held the record for “most poker chips balanced on one finger” when I balanced 100 poker chips for over 5 seconds on my right index finger. This time I had to beat the current mark of 132.

You only have 10 minutes to prepare the stack and you can only use one hand plus the finger you’re going to balance the chips on. It gets tricky because when I stack over about 120 poker chips in a single stack on a perfectly level surface, it falls over on its own. I have to keep my right index finger on the stack past 120 chips while I’m reaching for more to put on. And then to keep it balanced, you can’t simply have a perfectly still finger, or they’ll still fall over…

Keeping this stack balanced requires positive feedback, and I don’t mean the kind that makes you feel good inside. I mean micro-movements that are quick, small, and fluid. Each movement sends a shock-wave through the chip that’s amplified as it goes up the stack. Just a slight movement is enough to send the chips falling so I had to kneel on the floor for more stability and even then it was extremely difficult. I can keep a pool cue balanced for over 4 hours on one finger since it’s rigid and all you have to do is keep the finger under the object. For this one, you have to move the finger almost before you can see which way the stack is going to lean before it leans. After years of balancing practice plus more for this attempt, it took over an hour and a half of official tries to finally complete a 5-second run. I had one attempt that lastest 4.99 seconds after frame-by-frame analysis and a couple of others over 4.5 seconds. The final run was 150 chips balanced for over 7 seconds for a new Guinness World Records Title.

I went for a half-hour at noon and then came back and tried for another hour at 4.

Four years ago at the Cradlepoint block party held in Boise Idaho in the Basque Block, I broke my very first Guinness World Records Title for longest duration blindfolded juggling. 🤹‍♀️ I’ve broken another one here every year since and this time I decided to get other folks from Cradlepoint involved.

The record was for “Fastest time to pass T-shirts along a chain of people (team of 10)”. I didn’t create this record, but whoever did was unsuccessful in breaking it. The minimum mark was 2 minutes. The way it works is the first person starts with all 10 t-shirts on. They then take one off and pass it to the next person. They put it on and take it off and pass it down the line until the last person who only puts it on. Meanwhile, the 2nd shirt is making the same journey through the 10th. There are 90 complete takeoff and put on t-shirt cycles that have to be complete.

It doesn’t matter if the t-shirt is inside out or backward so long as the 2 arms are through 2 different armholes, the head is through the head hole and the t-shirt is pulled down flat on the body below the waist before being removed again.

We practiced several times as a group individually. One guy took it so seriously he literally wore his ear off and was bleeding. A drill we used was each person got their own shirt and had to put it on and take it off 10 times in a row. Everyone needed to get below a minute for us to have a chance and 3 of us got down to as low as 42 seconds for 10 cycles.

It took a few attempts during the official event and it was very cold so we’d huddle under the propane heaters to stay warm in our single mosture-wicking base layer that allowed for easier shirt sliding.

The final result was 1 minute 59.49 seconds.

I don’t mean I skipped running a planned half marathon. I mean I skipped a half marathon.

I started training for this Guinness World Records Title at Disney Land. I mean, where else can you start skipping without being judged? OK, so I was probably judged, but my family was heading to the next ride and I was off skipping to get our fast-passes and meeting them at the next ride so they didn’t care.

The training profile in 2019 looked like this: 141 miles skipped, 250 miles run, 1040 miles biked. I was planning to skip the Famous Idaho Potato Half Marathon in May but I fell off an electric ride-share scooter in some light rain 2 days before the race (don’t ride them in the rain!) and ended up in the emergency room. I needed to take some time off and delayed the attempt until Oct 13 at the City of Trees Half Marathon. (Boise comes from “Les Bois” in French meaning “the trees”).

The previous record was 2 hours 27 minutes 1 second or about 11 minute 13-second miles. I trained for enough time that I was sure I could break the record but wasn’t sure by how much. I never trained with food or Gatorade and barely had any water on a hot 12-mile training skip. I had 2 power gels and plenty of water and Gatorade at this even which helped immensely.

The biggest problem is the skidding of the feet on the ground. In only 141 miles of skipping I have completely destroyed 4 pairs of shoes. My shoes weren’t a problem. My feet were the problem. Watcher beware on the video above, my feet are absolutely shredded. I got blood-blisters covering the entire ball of my foot during the training runs and the half was probably the worst of them all since I went the furthest and fastest even though I build up huge callouses before.

I had two runners following me for the entire attempt and stuck with the 2:15 pacer for almost half the race after I caught up (I started a minute after the start horn to avoid the crowds). I pulled away at the halfway mark and finished in a time of 2 hours 13 minutes 41.8 seconds. I far exceeded my goal and really hope not to have to do this one anytime soon (hopefully I’ll be able to walk soon).

This is what I wanted to look like for the picture…

This is what me trying to skip after the race actually looked like…

You already saw the most kiwis sliced on one minute with a samurai sword while standing on a swiss ball. Now it’s time for most grapes sliced in one minute while standing on a balance board. It’s both easier and harder than the kiwis.

The roller board is much easier to stand on than a swiss ball. This helps dramatically. I did have one of the grape pieces roll under the balance board which made it harder to roll until I squished the grape. At first, I didn’t realize what was happening and worried I might fall off.

The grapes are harder to slice for 2 reasons. The first is obvious: they’re much smaller so I have to be more precise. The second is that the sword doesn’t slice through them as easily. I think it might be for a couple of reasons. The skins are a little bit tougher than kiwis and have a little more give so it takes more force to break the skin instead of just bouncing off of them. The other is that the grapes have less mass and momentum than kiwis so it’s not hard for them to just bounce away vs the kiwi is going to keep on coming even when it gets hit.

Jonathan got about 70 grapes thrown in the minute and we found 114 grape pieces on the floor when it was all over.

This weekend I flew to Toronto, Ontario to help promote the Science of Guinness World Records Exhibit being put together by Science North in conjunction with Guinness World Record’s their parent company.

I made an official Guinness World Record attempt at the Association of Science and Technology Conference in front of about 150 spectators with an official Guinness adjudicator on site. The dignitaries went first and I was a bit (but not totally) surprised when two of them broke the current mark of 30 feet 1 inch.

On my first throw, which was otherwise phenomenal, it hit the wall since we were constrained to a narrow space. It wasn’t counted against my 3 attempts. On the second attempt (my first attempt that counted) I broke the current record but didn’t best the dignitaries’ marks. On my third throw, the tortilla skimmed the ground before covering a considerable distance. From the adjudicator’s position, it wasn’t readily obvious that the tortilla hit the ground (see the video) so he marked it where it hit the ground the second time but disqualified the attempt when it was revealed it did indeed hit the ground early. On the last throw, I had a good release that flew within between the wall and the spectators and covered 54 feet 5 inches before coming to a rest on the ground besting the previous record of 30 feet 1 inch by over 80%.

It was a phenomenal event overall with so many like-minded people that have a passion for STEM education and reaching out in ways that engage students and adults alike to consider the importance and power of STEM education.

Check out the Science of Guinness World Record exhibit opening at Science North in Sudsbury, Ontario in March of 2020 and reach out if you’d like it to travel to your local science center sometime over the next 5 years!

News coverage: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2019/09/23/Man-throws-tortilla-54-feet-5-inches-to-break-world-record/1791569267369/

Trying to break an official Guinness World Record’s Title during a motivational talk to a live audience makes it a lot harder. I was actually packing up my cameras after giving my alternate closing speech after a failed world record attempt when I looked at my watch and realized I was still on the schedule for 10 more minutes.

I confirmed with the conference organizers of the Idaho DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) county conference that I had time for one more attempt. We set up another 120 matches on the table so I could take another shot at breaking the current Guinness World Record’s Title more most matches snapped in one minute of 84.

On the first attempt, I broke about 112 matches but 32 of them didn’t break fully into 2 pieces leaving me with only 80 completely snapped matches. I thought I had broken the record, but when I got to the final count of 80 completely snapped matches the crowd groaned but then cheered. My whole message is how we should respond to failure, and I had just faced one. I was ready to go back to my day job as a technology product manager when I realized I didn’t need to give up just yet.

On the second try, I didn’t get to as many match sticks, but I was more deliberate when I broke them to ensure I didn’t have nearly as many disqualifications. I still had to move fast, but on the 2nd try, I only had 12 DQ’s with 103 matches broken resulting in a new Guinness World Record’s title of 91 matches broken in one minute.

Thank you to the Idaho DMV for making me part of your conference. It was truly an honor for you to hear my story and I’m so grateful for your support.

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…