Oldest Bungee Jumper!
All across the world people look forward to retirement, but how many could say that they would really make the most of it and do all of the things that they’ve never dared to do before? Okay so different people have different ‘bucket lists’, some more extreme than others. One daredevil who recently broke a world record is South African, Mohr Keet.
Mr Keet is a World War II veteran, and spent an incredible four years as a prisoner of war. It’s of no surprise then that this gentleman is not shy of a challenge. Completing his first bungee jump at the age of 88, and inadvertently becoming the world’s oldest bungee jumper at the age of 96, Mr Keet, who was born in 1913, is proof that it’s never too late.
World’s Largest Jumper!
Everybody loves a knitted jumper, especially a nice thick one made from quality yarn like King Cole Chunky. The Peruvians have recently taken this one step further, with one of their companies, ‘Coats Cadena’, knitting the world’s largest jumper! This knitted jumper wasn’t knit with King Cole Chunky however; rather it was made out of acrylic yarn which was donated by Coats Cadena themselves.
Volunteers helped to knit 6000 (40x40cm) squares over three weeks to help with the effort. These squares were then knitted together to produce one massive knitted jumper. When you consider the average chest size for a man is 40 inches, this mega-jumper is extreme with a chest measurement of 33 feet and 4 inches. That’s an impressive 10.16 metres, with the sleeves of the jumper stretching 6.60 metres.
Now you may have noticed that I’ve been referring to the world’s largest jumper in the past tense and there’s a good reason behind this. The jumper is sadly no more, shortly after its creation it was taken apart to go to a new home. The parts of the jumper were used to make 1500 children’s ponchos, destined for some of the poorest parts of Peru.
World’s Highest Trampoline Jumper!
Heide Park theme park is located in Soltau, northern Germany. The park is owned and operated by Merlin Entertainments, the company behind some of the best visitor attractions in the UK, like Thorpe Park and Legoland.
Heide Park’s Pirate show is part of the attractions offered in the ‘Bucht der Totenkopfpiraten’ area of the theme park. This show is where the world’s highest trampoline jump occurred in September 2010. Denys Vrazhkin bounced 6.70 metres into the air from his stomach, propelled by two fellow members of the show, Oleksandr Nakonechny and Kostiantyn Chykhun. All three of the jumpers are from the Ukraine and permanently work at the theme park as specialist performers.
This incredible feat was only attempted in the first place as a celebration of the launch of Guinness World Records 2011 in Germany.
If you fancied knitting your very own record beating jumper, king cole chunky yarn is a great material to choose and can be found at Yarnfest’s wonderful online store.