i recieved an email this morning about a guiness world record TV show starting up here in aus.
i was wondering everyones thoughts about what sort of records i could set or break either live in a studio or in an australian unicycling extraviganza segment…
Hi Alex,
It was good to chat with you this morning and I’m exited at the prospect of having you on our show. As promised here are a few details pertaining to the show.
We’re already sending camera crews around Australia documenting record attempts or existing record holders. We will also feature Guinness World Record attempts LIVE in studio when we tape the program in front of an audience.
I will contact our head office in London today and find out whether there are currently any existing records for some of the possible unicycling categories we discussed earlier eg, Longest Handrail Grind on Unicycle, Longest Distance on Pole on Unicycle, Highest Drop into Ramp on Unicycle and Unicycle High Jump. If there are current records I’ll get the guidelines and statistics sent straight away. If these categories don’t yet exist we will try and create new records with future guidelines to be based on your methods.
I’ll be in touch as soon as I know more and look forward to seeing the mpegs you mentioned. If you have any further queries please don’t hesitate to contact me.
im not too sure why, but i think i am breaking this out of confidence, oh well…
Highest drop would probably be a good one. It would have a good audience appeal. I think the current record for highest drop on a bike is about 13 feet (straight down, without run-up), so if you could manage a little more than that, you could even beat a bike record on a unicycle!
How would these proposed records relate to previous unicycle records which are well-documented in unicycle circles, but which wouldn’t necessarily be accepted by Guiness? It would seem kind of dishonest, for instance, to set a high-jump record of 90cm, when it’s well known other riders have done higher. (I’m not making any assumptions about your ability, just saying that Guiness might consider something like that to be a record, when it actually wouldn’t be.) Any records you set should be real records.
Tomsey, are there any tricks that you actually think you are the best in the world at? If there are, then present all of them to Guiness. If there aren’t, then you should probably direct Guiness to the people who actually have the records in these categories (highest hop). It would be lame to have a record only due to Guiness’s ignorance.
Longest rail grind seems reasonable, but who knows if you’re the best at it.
Maybe you can post some of your personal best records here, and people who can top them can let you know. If there are any records that people can’t top, there you go. It seems like a tough position to be in, bitter sweet.
What you guys are asking is that all potential record attempters eliminate themselves from possibly holding a record if there may have been or may be someone who, if they could be bothered to go through the formalities, could do better if they felt like trying.
Go for any record you want. If you can get it, it’s all yours and you’ll be on the books. If you can, improve and try again until you have it.
Don’t let real or imaginary ghosts defeat you before you even start.
For longest stillstand you’ll have to do better than 15 minutes, I believe. Yes, I think KH has done a drop of about 14’. Doing these is very dependent on the landing surface (and landing angle). Kris landed to soft, angled dirt. It is not an official record. The 15-minute stillstand was done at Unicon last summer with many expert witnesses.
I would say try to get the longset grind. Its something that is not well documented, you can do it on a sloped rail on the ground or a handrail. And I dont think there is currently anyone out there that has really pushed this part of grinding.
Good call Mike. And there are several people who are pushing it, at least with attempts if not successes, a record handrail grind would actually have to be pretty big these days.
I didnt mean that people wernt going big and doing record grinds all the time, I just dont think anyone is recording the actual distance of the grind beyond a 6set, 8 set, whatever.
That means even if someone sets a record for a 16 foot grind it would be one, as no one has officially recorded doing one for distance, not that no one has ever done a grind that big.
im gonna have to agree with alot of the folks and highest drop would be the most spectacular and cool, to those none uni’ing folk out there, and the longest grind would be cool becuase they have to longest grind for skateboarding in there
Given that it’s for TV and a live audience it will need to be something visually appealing. I think that while something like a pedal grab would be interesting for a unicyclist- it’s not likely something a non-unicycling audience would necessarily get. Maybe a simple high jump over a bar would be better. And there are well documented records so you know what you have to beat.
Something like a longest grind or biggest drop (but Kris’s or Yoggis would be tough to beat), or longest glide or fastest glide might work too.
the guy said the longest grind etc. would be real complicated coz of the angle, stair length and rail width amongst other vairables that would have to all be documented… sounds like too much work…
i aint forgetting all the other guys. mike, kevin, shaun etc. but im gonna have to go big or die trying to set the first ever handrail grind record. 18+ sounds like a pretty good goal. i dont want it to be a 14 like my current pb.
dude… if i was gonna set a record i wanna make sure i beat current unofficial world records. i reckon if i work hard enough i could get up and around the 105 mark rolling hop. and as for highest drop, it all depends on my unicycle holding up, but again its gonna have to be huge to beat unoffical records.
i could also get another record, first person killed whilst trying for a unicycling world record, how awesome would that be.
its gonna take a lot of work (if this thing gets the ok from producers) on my behalf to put up an outstanding record.
i do know this
side note: imagine a record purpose built grind rail that was endless, with a smooth slope and nice grinding surface, ahhh
It would be a very hard record to beat.