Blog 31 - Wanna be a Record Breaker!

Challenge 34 was to attempt to break a World Record. I spent most of the year looking out for opportunities and ideas, but nothing really came up. I ended up looking at the Guinness World Records website http://challengers.guinnessworldrecords.com/challenges to get ideas. 

My children and I decided to entertain ourselves in the summer holidays by having a day of attempting records. After looking at this website we decided on four records to attempt:

• Put the most socks on one foot in a minute
• The longest time to keep 5 balloons in the air
• The most cartwheels in a minute
• Most jelly eaten with chopsticks in a minute

The first record we all attempted was the sock challenge! We watched the video on the challengers website to get tips and see what the current record was. The Italian in first place at present managed 45 socks! The rules were as follows;

• Socks used must be standard, commercially-available socks. Non-standard socks such as Christmas stockings etc are not acceptable.
• The challenger must begin the attempt wearing a single sock - however this is not counted towards the final tally.
• The socks must be put on, one at a time, on the same foot, and with no outside assistance.
• Only socks completely on the foot at the end of the one minute period will be counted.
• Various sizes of sock may be used to compensate for the increased size of the foot as more socks are put on.

                                

 

It was much harder than it looked and I only managed 13 socks and Iolo and Menna managed 12 each. You can watch a video of our attempts here; 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fbvxq-UCmNw&feature=youtu.be

                       

The second record attempt was to keep 5 balloons up in the air for the longest time there isn’t a current World record for this but a couple of attempts on the website. In order to qualify for the record you have to try and keep all balloons up for a minimum of 135 seconds, but the video attempts on the website were between 4 seconds and 9.4 seconds. The rules for this challenge were;

• Standard, commercially available party balloons should be used for the attempt.
• All balloons must be blown up and have a minimum diameter of 20 cm.
• Balloons must be filled with air only, helium is not permitted.
• This challenge must be attempted indoors, and in an area not affected by strong air currents from e.g. air conditioning.
• Balloons may not be tied, glued, or otherwise attached to one another.
• Participants must start with holding the five balloons in their arms.
• Any body part is allowed to be used to keep the balloons afloat.
• No tools or objects are permitted to be used.
• The time starts as soon as the fifth balloon has been released from the contestants’ arms.
• If the balloon touches any other item/object apart from the contestants body (e.g. the floor, a table, another person) then the attempt is over, at this point the time is stopped.

Again this was much harder than it looked and we were all rubbish! The video of our pathetic attempts can be found here;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxaPhdzK5vg&feature=youtu.be

The third attempt at a record was doing the most cartwheels in a minute! Unsurprisingly only Menna attempted this one as I couldn’t do more than one and the one was a bit dubious! The World Record is currently set at 63 cartwheels but in first position on the website was an American gymnast who completed 40, and the second position on the website was 34. The rules were as follows;

• Each cartwheel must involve both hands on the floor with legs straight and feet pointed directly upwards once in the air.
• Only complete cartwheels, deemed of the suitable form by our adjudicator, will be counted.

Menna was amazing but had a little fall half way through from dizziness but managed 39! We have uploaded her attempt on the website and are awaiting for it to be verified! You can see her attempt here;  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUeOpKI-kuM&feature=youtu.be

The final attempt was to eat the most jelly with chopsticks in a minute. We all attempted this one as there isn’t a current record set or anybody attempted it on the website! The rules for the record were as follows;

• The jelly used should be a commercially available variety. The flavour is at the challenger’s discretion.
• Only chopsticks may be used to transfer the jelly into the mouth and the challenger’s hands are not to touch the jelly.
• Following the instructions on the packet, the jelly should be left for the maximum time specification it recommends for the jelly to set.
• The jelly should be taken from the fridge immediately prior to the attempt.
• An amount of jelly is to be laid out on a plate in front of the contestant. It is recommended that the jelly is lightly mashed to give it texture.
• Both the jelly and the plate should be weighed prior to the attempt.
• Only one hand is to used at any one time. The alternate hand is to remain behind the challenger’s back and under no circumstances may it touch the plate.
• Once the one minute time limit has elapsed, the plate containing the jelly should be weighed to determine the amount eaten (the weight of the plate should be deducted from this total). All jelly that is dropped on the table/floor or otherwise not consumed is not to be counted and is to be returned to the plate for weighing.

Hilarity ensued as we attempted this record and I’m pretty sure we probably will all be beaten very quickly, Menna managed 14 grams of Jelly, Iolo managed 22 grams and I managed 92 grams!! I have uploaded all three videos and we are awaiting verification.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlzGyrHkql8&feature=youtu.be 

It was such a funny afternoon and a great way to spend time with the family, definitely might attempt more challenges on another rainy day as it was such a laugh!