Annapolis Royal teen bounces his way to unofficial world record of solving Rubik’s Cubes on a pogo stick

When Saul Hafting puts his mind to something, look out. The 16-year-old Annapolis Royal resident recently set an unofficial Guinness World Record for most rotating puzzle cubes (commonly known as a Rubik’s Cube) solved while on a pogo stick. Documentation has been sent to Guinness, and Hafting expects to hear back from company officials in January.

“It’s great,” he said of the unofficial record. “I can say I am the best in the world at something.”

And Hafting, a Grade 11 student at Annapolis West

Education Centre (AWEC), didn’t just beat the record. He obliterated it.

The current mark is 65 cubes solved.

Hafting solved 211 cubes. In the pre-documentation work sent to Guinness, Hafting thought he might solve 77 cubes.

“I absolutely destroyed my expectations. I did not expect to do that well.”

But it doesn’t surprise the people who know him the best – his parents Jeff and Paula Hafting.

“It’s a proud parenting moment,” Jeff said.

“Saul has a very long attention span. …

“He will sit down, and he’ll figure something out. He doesn't give up on it. If he wants to do it, he’s going to figure it out.”

SOLVING THE MYSTERY

Saul's first experience with the Rubik’s Cube come while on a family camping trip about six years ago, when a friend from Ontario, Joel Haering, was able to solve the cube.

“I was absolutely blown away by that,” Saul recalled. “I thought it was so cool. So, then I became absolutely obsessed.”

When the family got home from camping, they went to the store and bought a Rubik’s Cube.

Saul spent the next week learning how to solve it without help from others or the internet. But he wasn’t satisfied with just getting the colours to line up on the sixsided cube.

“I got obsessed with trying to do it faster and faster and faster.”

He formed a cubing club at his school and taught his friends. They would compete at tournaments in Halifax. Saul can now solve one in under 10 seconds.

Jeff said he is amazed at how quickly the contestants’ fingers move at tournaments.

“It just looks like it’s magic when it’s done,” he said. “This is working out for your brain. … To be able to process information that quickly and transfer that into moving your hands and making them do what you want to do in seconds is quite a skill.”

NOT FIRST RECORD ATTEMPT

Saul said he has always been interested in the Guinness World Records. He decided a couple of years ago to see if there was something he might be able to tackle given his unique skill.

He soon found a record connected with a pogo stick. Having never on a pogo stick, it didn’t prevent him from giving it a whirl.

“I thought, ‘Well, get me a pogo stick and let’s try it.’”

His parents supported the initiative.

“We didn’t have a pogo stick,” Jeff explained. “He never bounced on a pogo stick in his entire life. So, we bought a pogo stick because, why wouldn’t you? Your kid wants to break a world record.”

About a year ago, Saul tried to break the record for the fastest time to solve a Rubik’s Cube on a pogo stick. He did, but before his record was verified, someone else had already lowered the mark under the time Saul had achieved.

“I was pretty bummed out about that so then I tried even harder on another record,” he said.

This year, Saul decided to make sure he had a decent margin between the record and his achievement.

“I’m fairly confident this one will stand,” he said.

He practised. And practised some more.

He would pogo for about 45 minutes at a time each week, but his legs would chafe. He eventually tried long pants with knee pads underneath and that enabled him to bounce longer.

RECORD DAY

So, with all the preparation work done, the Haftings and group of committed volunteers met at the AWEC basketball courts on Oct. 9.

Saul was nervous leading into the record attempt, but once the clock began, he zoned in.

After solving around 180 cubes, Saul said his legs started to get sore. He decided to push for 10 more. Then he wanted to hit 200. And then he decided to go a little longer.

“Eventually, it just got to the point where my knees just couldn’t take it, so I had to stop,” he said, noting it was after an hour and 12 minutes.

The soreness was shortlived. In fact, he played three soccer games for his high school team in the next week.

Saul said he was grateful for the people who were there to support his record attempt. It included witnesses, timers and people scrambling the cubes before they were given back to him to solve.

“It’s quite a team effort – this record,” he said. “If it wasn’t for them, I would not have this record. It’s just as much them as it is me.”