"Early Record Breakers"
In this week's "Early Record Breakers" series, "The Early Show" features several feats and objects that have gone down in the record books -- and people trying to:
Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
November 12 is "Guinness World Records Day," and to celebrate, "The Early Show" continued its "Early Record Breakers" series with the several attempts to break world records already on the books.
Nine-year-old Jake Lonsway, maker of the world's biggest ball of plastic wrap, and his mother, Julie Grames, appeared on the show with Lonsway's 300-pound creation.
Lonsway, who sat on the ball during his interview with co-anchors Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith, said it once weighed 281 pounds, but he's been working on it for a year now and it keeps on growing and getting heavier. The current circumference is 140 inches. He set the record in 2007.
The Largest Ball of Plastic Wrap
How did he get the ball all the way from his hometown of Bay City, Mich.?
Lonsway said, "A big Fed-Ex truck came to my house and took it. The guy thought he was picking up a bunch of boxes!"
He added that to transport the ball, they had to tie the ball to the wall of the truck.
Where does all that plastic come from?
Lonsway explained that his mother works at the Coca-Cola Company, and gets the plastic from discarded, "dented" plastic that can't be used.
Smith pointed out that the ball is "essentially recycled."
Separately on the broadcast, Paul "Dizzy Hips" Blair, a Guinness World Record hula hooper, tried breaking the record of 211 rotations with a hula hoop in one minute. Using a metal hula hoop, specially designed for aerodynamics, Blair gave the record his best shot on the windy day on the plaza. However, he came up just short of the record with only 206 rotations.
Still, Blair wasn't finished. He tackled yet another record of rotating as the most hula hoops on one person (with at least three rotations between his shoulders and knees). The former record, which stood at 107, was smashed on "The Early Show", as "Dizzy" successfully rotated a whopping 132 hoops.
Hula-Hooping the Most Hula Hoops
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009
Asha Mandela, record holder for the longest dreadlocks on a female, topped her own record of eight feet six inchesm which she set last year, with a dreadlock that's 19 feet six and a half inches long.
Stuart Claxton, Guinness World Records judge, measured the dreadlock on "The Early Show," finding it did officially beat her old record considerably.
Mandela, who has no relation to Nelson Mandela, said she didn't measure her longest dreadlock a year ago, but when her hairdresser said she should take her hair down, she discovered her hair was much longer than she thought.
Mandela's hair weighs three and a half pounds when dry. She said she hasn't cut her hair in 21 years.
Separately on the broadcast, Kenneth Lee, a marial arts expert, attempted to beat the world record for slicing apples in mid-air with a samurai sword.
Lee is a fifth-degree black belt. He once held the world's record for the slicing the most apples in mid-air with 23, and later 25. However, Ashrita Furman broke Lee's record in 2008 by slicing 27 apples in a minute. Lee hoped on "The Early Show" to re-claim the title.
But after a minute of hacking apples, Lee came up short with just 20 sliced apples.
"Every time a performance is under different circumstances," he said. "The elements are different, (but) we make no excuses, rain, shine, wind, we still go to keep going."
He added, "By the end of this week, we'll have it, guaranteed."
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009
The current record holder for world's biggest bubble gum bubble ever, Chad Fell, tried to break his own record of a 20-inch diameter bubble on "The Early Show."
Fell, a journalist from Alabama, calls gum chewing a "hobby." He set the Guinness World Record for largest bubblegum bubble in 2004. To make his bubbles, Fell chews three pieces of Double Bubble gum.
So, how did he do on "The Early Show"?
Fell had a promising bubble blown on the broadcast, but at the last moment the bubble broke.
Monday, Nov. 9, 2009
Ashrita Furman, a health food store manager from Jamaica, Queens, N.Y., has set 248 Guinness World Records, more than anyone else on Earth. Furman currently holds 97 records.
And on "The Early Show" Monday, the 55-year-old set out to break his own record for most eggs caught in one minute.
In order to break the record, Furman had to catch the eggs and then place them on a table. He received the eggs from his throwing partner Bipin Larkin who stood five meters away.
Unfortunately, Furman failed in his attempt to beat his record on "The Early Show," only catching 57 intact eggs. Furman's current Guinness World Record still stands at 65 eggs caught in one minute.
Furman has set the most Guinness records overall with 248 in categories ranging from eggs crushed on his head in one minute (80), and number of situps in an hour (9,628). He has set a record in every continent.