May 10, 2007 1:07 pm US/Pacific
Man Seeks World Record For Hula Hoops Underwater
KEY LARGO, Fla. (CBS) ―
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Ashrita Furman during his attempt to break the underwater hula hoop record May 10, 2007. (File)
Florida Keys News Bureau
The man who holds the world record for the most world records was in South Florida Thursday trying to break another world record--this time underwater.
Ashrita Furman of Jamaica, N.Y. is a health food store manager with a passion for setting Guiness World Records and Thursday he took a dive in the Florida Keys to establish another Guinness mark. Miami's WFOR followed his quest.
Furman gyrated with a custom-made metal hula hoop for 2 minutes, 20 seconds while standing on a platform completely underwater, at Island Dolphin Care, a Key Largo-based facility that provides dolphin-assisted therapy to children with critical illnesses, disabilities and special needs.
Furman has set 144 official Guinness records and is the holder of the most current record standings, 59 and counting. He has set records in all 7 continents and in more than 30 different countries.
"I just love finding something in the Guinness book, training for it and trying to break the record or inventing something," Furman said. "I like doing underwater records and I have a record for underwater jump rope and underwater juggling and I was thinking what else could I do and I came up with the idea of why not try to hula hoop underwater."
As Furman was executing the stunt, breathing air from a portable scuba tank, the resident dolphins sped by with inquisitive eyes.
"I think the dolphins thought I was totally crazy," he said. "I'm sure they've never seen anyone do that before. Who knows, maybe they'll try that themselves."
It will take about a month for Guinness to register and verify the feat.
In the last 30 years, Furman has climbed Mount Fuji on a pogo stick. He has somersaulted the entire length of Paul Revere's ride. In Cancun, Mexico, he played 434 games of hopscotch in 24 hours. He ran seven miles in Cairo while balancing a pool cue on his finger. And in 2002, the Guinness company invited him to London, to set his 100th record: spinning a 16-foot-diameter hula-hoop around his waist three times.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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