Category: Guinness World Records

I love all animals, but I have a special fondness for dogs. One of the most profound dog stories I have ever heard was about a Skye terrier who became known as “Greyfriars Bobby”. Bobby lived in Edinburgh, Scotland in the mid-nineteenth century. His master, John Gray, was a constable. Bobby used to follow his…

It was an ambitious plan and it actually worked – well, almost! Since I was scheduled to go overseas for a few weeks in September, the plan was to attempt 4 Guinness world records in 4 different countries in less than a month. And to make it even more exciting, if I succeeded, the fourth…

February 2005 An acquaintance of mine was in a taxi in Nanjing, China, the other day and out of the clear blue the driver turned around and exclaimed: “I saw your friend shopping on television!” Needless to say, this acquaintaance immediately became quite nervous and figured there was either a serious language problem or the…

October 2004   Photo: Ashrita practicing in his kitchen. It is said that failures are the pillars of success. I guess I learned the hard way the truth of that statement! Just after the orange nose-push adventure I was invited to go to England to break a record on a T.V. show commemorating the 50th…

Photo: Ashrita hula hooping at Uluru, Australia in January 2003 One of the advantages of breaking a Guinness record, as opposed to participating in other athletic competitions, is that you have the freedom to choose the date and venue of your event. The more creative you get with choosing the location, the more opportunity there…

I’m just hoping that my friend Durjaya Pliske doesn’t find out when or where my next record attempt is going to be. Don’t get me wrong – you can’t find a nicer guy, but whenever Durjaya shows up to one of my events, something unusual happens, and it invariably involves butterflies! Durjaya is a professor…

The most continuous hours clapping. You have to clap an average of 160 times a minute and the claps have to be audible to the official witnesses who are situated 120 yards away. You are allowed 5 minutes of rest after each hour of clapping. This event is a challenge because you have to clap…

The Most 20-ounce Glasses Balanced On Chin The glasses stack one inside another forming an immense single tower of glass which you have to lift off from a rack, place on your chin, and keep balanced (without using your hands) for 10 seconds. Those 10 seconds can seem like an eternity! As you stack the…

The Fastest Time for a Marathon (26.2 Miles) and 50 Miles In 1989, Ashrita set another record by joggling for 50 miles in the time of 8 hours 52 minutes and 7 seconds. No, I didn’t make this up! Joggling, which is juggling while jogging, is a well-established and highly competitive sport. In this case,…

In Bali The idea for landrowing came to me during a boring training session on an indoor rowing machine. “Why not put wheels on this thing and tool around the neighborhood?” I wondered. So I called up my friend, who is a welder, and we went to work on transforming my brand new Concept II…