Idaho unicyclist suffers embarrassing injury in Guinness World Record attempt

An Idaho man with his sights set on a Guinness World Record for juggling flaming torches while riding a unicycle had a hair-raising close call in his quest for glory.

Hair-singeing, at least.

David Rush, who holds several world records in both juggling and unicycling, decided to combine the unique skill sets into an attempt to break another world record: topping 37 successful torch catches from the seat of a unicycle.

After a few failed attempts, David Rush rolled and juggled his way into a new world record. YouTube / Record Breaker Rush

He charged headlong into the effort, “brimming with unearned confidence,” he wrote in a blog post, but quickly learned the high price of his hubris — and paid for it with his eyebrows when he underestimated the physics of the wind’s effect on the flaming kerosene torches.

“I found that out within thirty seconds. My eyebrows were instant casualties. The hair on the back of my hands was scorched down to the skin, and the garage filled with the heavy, stomach-turning stench of singed keratin,” he wrote.

“I realized quickly that not all fire behaves the same way under centrifugal force. After painful trial and error, I finally settled on kerosene for its predictable burn characteristics. I had to swallow my pride, put the fire away, and spend weeks practicing the entire routine with completely unlit torches just to build the muscle memory without melting my face off.”

Scorched but undeterred, Rush resigned himself to practicing with unlit torches before taking to the streets last Halloween night to make his official attempt.

After dipping the wicks and igniting the torches, Rush mounted his unicycle and instantly dropped all three of them on the ground.

“Failure in under three seconds,” he wrote.

On the third attempt, however, he got out of his head and into the groove — ignoring the nagging flames flying inches from his face until he shattered the record, managing 175 consecutive catches.

Rush’s latest successful stunt adds to his world record tally, which includes unicycle distance juggling, unicycle juggling catches in a minute, blindfolded unicycle riding and long duration torch juggling. Facebook / David Rush

“I forced myself to zone out the panic and lock into the rhythm. Catch after catch, I kept the pattern alive until I cleared the old benchmark and landed 175 consecutive catches before dismounting,” he said of the big moment.

After triumphantly dismounting the unicycle, a group of enthralled trick-or-treaters had gathered to watch the strange sight. Rush let them blow out the lit torches one by one.

Guinness reviewed the video of his stunt and he was anointed the official holder of the world record.

Basking in the afterglow of securing his latest world record, Rush got philosophical in comparing his successful attempt with the familiar struggles we encounter in our day-to-day lives.

“We spend so much time looking for the smooth path to a goal, but real progress is messy. It smells like burnt hair, it involves dropping your props on the first two tries, and it requires you to figure out what went wrong in real time,” he wrote.

“Preparation and luck only matter after you accept that you are going to get burned a few times along the way.”