From breaking coconuts with your hand to letting your child fly an airplane, here are 8 attempts
to break world records that went terribly wrong!
8.
Fire Walking
Fire walking… science or spirituality?
There was a controversy around this subject for a pretty long time.
People were going on and on arguing if this… unusual activity could be explained by physics.
I totally get why people would debate this, it’s dangerous!
Seriously, it’s not an activity you would want to try with your family during summer
holidays.
Maybe if you are trying to go through a spiritual awakening?
Back in the summer of 2004, people in New Zealand attempted to break the record for
fire walking.
The goal was clear.
To have as many people running through a pit of hot coals as possible.
If you didn’t guess already, from a total of more than 300 people who volunteered, not
everyone had the body of a Greek God, or the resistance.
About 30 people ended up needing treatment for severe burns.
Eleven were in such a bad state that they needed to be transported to a hospital.
Didn’t run quickly enough!
I bet the medical team who transported them were not impressed by this whole event.
At least the entire thing had a noble goal: to raise money for an ambulance service.
Unfortunately the ambulance spent a lot more time treating the volunteers.
In this case, this attempt at a record gets an E for Effort.
7.
Skydiving
Parachuting was developed by the military as a way to save aircrews from emergencies
aboard aircraft in flight.
Later on it became a method of delivering soldiers to the battlefield.
Not so long after that, the first skydiving competitions were held, in the 1930s.
I guess some friends in the military just couldn’t get enough of it and with no war
in sight, they had to improvise.
People liked the idea of parachuting competitions so much that in 1952 it became an international
sport!
Danger and sport together!
Of course someone is going to want to break the record!!
Skydiving surely has both, and because of this many people tried to break records while
free falling from an airplane.
What could go wrong!?
Actually not so much, despite what you would normally assume about skydiving.
Fatalities are pretty rare.
Statistics tell us that about 21 people die skydiving each year in the US.
For the sake of comparison, the average number of people who die from getting struck by lightning
in the US is 31.
One such record-breaking attempt happened in 2014.
A team of 222 people wanted to be the largest group to free-fall from an airplane in formation.
One of the 222 skydivers, Diana Paris from Berlin, was unlucky enough to have her main
parachute fail.
She was unable to pull her reserve parachute in time and died.
The entire team met after the accident to re-attempt to break this record, this time
with only 221 members, leaving one slot open in the skydiver’s honor.
And now for number 6 but first be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell
so you don't miss out on the latest videos!
6.
Coconut Breaking
There are some times when a man just wants to prove to himself and the world that he
is indeed the representation of manliness.
This is the moment when he feels that fire in his eyes, and he wants to show it to the
world!
And what else can a man do to prove he is powerful than to break coconuts open with
his own bare hands…?
The trick was to break as many coconuts as possible in as little time as possible.
Why not, ladies and gentlemen!
The man probably knew what he was getting himself into.
So I guess he trained hard, day and night.
And when he was ready, and ONLY THEN he called all his friends, his mom and of course the
television to witness his incredible ability.
When everyone was there and the cameras were on, he did this:
Nine tries.
Apparently the coconut man only managed to prove that punching coconuts with your hand
will just bust your knuckles open.
And for the sake of not embarrassing yourself to everyone, I recommend that you at least
- do not call live television.
That was kind of a dumb move.
And speaking of dumb moves, let’s move on to…
5.
Domino Toppling Domino toppling is pretty fun.
You’ve seen it, right?
What’s not to love?
I mean there are 5-minute long videos of domino pieces falling and forming paintings, designs,
structures, all kinds of things!.
But if you think spending 5 minutes watching a video like this is too much, try imagining
how much time someone has to spend to line up all the dominos in the first place!!
A team of Dutch people wanted to beat the record for the most domino pieces knocked
down all at once.
And they were not playing around; we’re talking 4.1 million dominos.
Is not hard to figure out how hard it is to set up 4.1 million dominos.
The entire team had to be extremely careful, one wrong move and the entire thing could
be destroyed.
They managed to do the job pretty well for about a month.
And when they were almost done, the worst happened.
An errant sparrow somehow got into the building where the project was going on and started
flying around.
Someone probably left a window or a door open.
The bird knocked over more than 23,000 pieces in its short visit.
Karma came a calling though.
The sparrow was shot minutes after the accident, probably because of the rage inside the entire
team.
Who shoots a sparrow in a building?
But the story doesn’t end here.
Apparently the bird was classified as an endangered species in the Netherlands.
Guess who got some unexpected visits from some animal rights groups?
Despite the fiasco, they did end up setting the world record.
And I know you’re wondering, how long did it take to topple all those dominoes?
Over 2 hours.
4.
Zip-Wire Attached to Hair
There is a record for pretty much everything.
I mean seriously, just pick any activity, and then do some research online.
Chances are someone holds a record for it doing it.
Some are done by people with inhuman abilities.
Some are simply weird.
You know, the kind of thing that makes you think “Why..Just why…”
We’re pretty sure we can put this one in this category.
Are you ready?
There is a record for the… longest distance ever travelled on a zip wire using … your
hair.
Exactly.
Sailendra Nath Roy is the name of an Indian policeman who travelled on a zip wire for
82.5 meters.
Of course, he was attached to the zip only by his hair.
Impressive… pointless, but impressive!
Fighting crime by day and daredevil by night, Sailendra Nath Roy managed to attract the
media’s attention once again when he pulled an entire locomotive with his ponytail for
about 2.5 meters.
See, hair can do all kinds of things!
A year later he decided that his own record just wasn’t good enough.
So in 2013 he tried to beat his own record.
A large number of people gathered to see the ambitious attempt at the Coronation Bridge,
over the Teesta River.
His ponytail got caught in the wheeler.
He tried to continue moving forward using his hands.
But after almost an entire hour of struggle he suffered a massive heart attack and died.
3.
Cycling Around the World
Cycling is great.
It’s good for your health, it’s a great alternative for commuting and most important,
it’s fun!
Juan Francisco Villa loved cycling and travelling.
He planned the greatest bike trip ever: He wanted to travel around the world, starting
from Chile, his home country, and go around five different continents, cycling for more
than 250,000 kilometers.
This entire trip was supposed to take five years.
At first he began his journey alone.
I imagine he tried to convince his friends to join him, but failed.
The phrase “Come on guys, let’s go.
Five years of adventure,” just isn’t that attractive for most people.
Everything was going just fine.
If we ignore the 700 flat tires he got during the process but no worries for him!
The trip was scheduled to end in November 2015, but unfortunately in February, Guillermo
died in a car accident, when he was hit by a pickup truck.
Police reports tell us that the driver of the truck was to blame.
He was arrested and then later released on bail.
Just in April of this year, 2018 two European cyclists were also cycling around the world
over the course of several years when they were killed in Mexico.
They were assaulted and murdered as they were travelling through Chiapas.
In May, people in the nearby town gathered and carried a bicycle along the road the cyclists
had taken.
The bicycle had been painted white - a symbolic gesture used worldwide for cyclists who die
while riding.
2.
Youngest Person to Fly Over the US
Flying over the US is not big deal.
A lot of you have probably done it already!
Flying the plane over the US yourself, when you have only seven years’ experience OF
LIFE definitely would make a great record.
At least that’s what Jessica Dubroff’s father must have thought when he decided to
let his daughter become the first seven-year-old kid to fly over the United States.
The first flight was a success.
The little girl managed to fly to Half Moon Bay, California and executed a flawless landing
in pretty harsh conditions in Cheyenne.
She was, of course, not alone in the plane.
The plane had dual sets of controls, one for her and one for veteran flight instructor
Joe Reid, aged 52.
But somehow even if Reid was a veteran, he decided to let her fly the next day too, even
if the weather conditions weren’t the best.
And we all know what bad weather means.
It means you don’t let a 7-year old take flight lessons.
According to the New York Times, a man stopped in his car at an intersection near the airport,
was shocked to see an airplane trying to take off twice in the severe weather conditions.
The plane was struggling and dipping, and just moments after it lifted off the ground,
it crashed.
Unfortunately all three passengers were fatally injured.
1.
Staying Underground
Remember when I said there is a record for pretty much everything?
I said “pretty much” everything because there are some things even the Guinness Book
of World Records will NOT authorize as an effort to discourage dangerous stunts.
Burying yourself alive and trying to beat the record of “longest time staying underground”
is one example of a stunt that they consider “dangerous”.
Tying your hair to a zip-wire and then attempt to travel along the wire about 100 meters
is completely fine though.
Anyhow, apparently Janaka Basnayake had no idea burying yourself alive is a no-no for
the people at the Guiness Book of World Records.
So he did exactly that in an attempt to beat the record!
Even though today there is no exact data about any such record.
What record was he trying to make?
The 24-year-old sealed himself in a hole using wood and soil at 9:30 a.m. on a Saturday in
March 2012.
Friends and family helped him!
His mother said that he had always enjoyed unusual and bizarre stunts since he was a
child, and that he had buried himself alive before: once for 2 hours and once for about
6 hours.
Is it just me or is this super creepy??
This time though, he had to break a record.
Again, I’m not sure what record, but he definitely had to do it.
So his friends pulled him out around 4 p.m. on Sunday.
Unfortunately Basnayake was unconscious.
He was rushed to the nearest hospital, where he was pronounced dead of suffocation.
Please don’t try any of these things at home!!
Thanks for watching and if you are cycling, be extra careful out there!
Be sure to subscribe and see you next time!!
Byeee