After FINA added a 6th discipline, high diving, to its official aquatic sports lineup this summer at the 2013 World Championships, perhaps American Ashrita Furman has another addition for the future: underwater unicycling.
Furman, who on his website refers to himself as “Mr. Versatility,” has broken nearly 500 official Guinness records since 1979, of which he still holds 170, having traveled 1.16 miles (2,100 meters) underwater, with a scuba tank…on his unicycle. He did so in a pool in Portugal, and the feat took him two hours, including one change of his oxygen tanks.
Among Furman’s other impressive underwater records include 1608 underwater jump ropes in an hour; 2 minutes and 38 seconds of underwater hula hooping; 1680 feet of underwater pogo stick jumping; and 3.03 kilometers of underwater Bicycling.
He also holds the World Record for the fastest mile run in swim fins (7 minutes, 47.25 seconds), and the fastest 5k will running and juggling with swim fins (32 minutes, 3.77 seconds).
Some of Furman’s records are actually incredibly impressive, if incredibly inane. He opened 59 aluminum cans in a minute, caught 32 ping pong balls with chop sticks in a minute, and inflated 380 balloons in an hour….with his nose. His first ever World Record was doing 27,000 jumping jacks in Australia.
To see a full list of Furman’s currently held records, visit the list on his website here.
What a weird and interesting person.
This is awesome! Since I can’t swim fast in my old age anymore, maybe I’ll go after some of these world records.