Students try to break Guinness World Record
On Friday at 9 p.m. after 100 hours of teeter tottering, Cameron Thompson and Greg Payne will accomplish what they say has been a life-long dream, a Guinness World Record.
After watching a documentary on breaking records, Thompson and Payne looked for their own record to break, choosing teeter-tottering because with the current record being just over 75 hours, they said they felt it was breakable.
“Teeter-tottering is a dying art and we are bringing it back,” Thompson said. “Even though it looks like it is simple, it’s not. It hurts.”
Thompson and Payne have been in contact with the current teeter-tottering record holders who they say have been supportive of the duos attempt to break the record even giving them tips and ideas as how to stay awake and sharing stories of their hallucinations while teeter-tottering.
“They told us interesting facts like at the end (the current record holders) were both bleeding from chafing so much,” Thompson said.
One of the biggest challenges the pair says they face is not falling asleep and getting “pretty incoherent,” Payne says at times. In order to stay awake the pair is watching movies, playing Guitar Hero and visiting with friends and other people who happen to stop by with questions, they said.
“Forty-eight hours of no sleep is the equivalent of having the blood alcohol content on .1 and we are going for well over double that, so it should be a lot of fun,” Payne said. “It is a new experience for both of us.
The pair are allowed one five minute bathroom break every hour which they can save up to equal longer breaks, they said. With the five minute bathroom break every hour the total time spent trying to break this record will be 108 hours since the bathroom breaks don’t count towards the time they have spent teeter tottering. The two have used saved bathroom breaks to help save them in the incident that one falls off of the teeter totter, starting a break if one of them hits the ground, they said.
The pair says their teeter-totter, located in the courtyard of the Fine Arts building, has been attracting a lot of attention of students between classes, something they say they are hoping continues because in order to get Guinness to take notice and put them in the book of world records they need people to come witness what they are trying to do.
“We figured that a lot of people pass through (the Fine Arts courtyard) and the more people that we can get to sign a witness paper the more likely we are going to be able to get into Guinness,” Thompson said.
Thompson and Payne said they have been surviving the long periods of teeter-tottering with help from their sponsors, the Iron Gate Grill, Firehouse Pizzeria and Wendy’s, as well as support from their families.
“(Our families) think it is really crazy but they have been really supportive,” Payne said. “Out of the people who would do this they would probably expect it to be us.”
Although both Payne and Thompson said they are “psyched out” and “totally committed” to breaking the world record, they are actually two of four people that originally started teeter tottering 9 a.m. Monday morning, the other two quitting after about 25 hours.
If they do make it the full 100 hours and Guinness doesn’t accept their submission, Payne said it will still all be worth it, “because after all, who can say they have teeter tottered for 100 hours?”
Payne and Thompson will finish their attempt at teeter tottering 100 hours on Friday night at 9 p.m.
-debrajoy.h@aggiemail.usu.edu