Ashrita Furman
| Ashrita Furman | |
|---|---|
Furman in San Francisco setting a record for the fastest mile balancing a baseball bat.
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| Born |
Keith Furman September 16, 1954 Brooklyn, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | health food store manager |
| Years active | since 1979 |
| Home town | New York City |
Ashrita Furman (born Keith Furman, September 16, 1954, Brooklyn, New York) is a Guinness World Records record-breaker. As of 2014, Furman has set 551 official Guinness Records and currently holds nearly 200 records, including the record for holding the most Guinness world records. He has been breaking records since 1979.
Furman was born in 1954. He was fascinated with the Guinness Book of World Records as a child but never thought he could ever break a record, since he was very nonathletic.
That all changed when, as a teenager, he became interested in spirituality and in 1970 became a devout follower of the spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy.
Sri Chinmoy inspired Furman to participate in a 24-hour bicycle race in New York City's Central Park in 1978. With only two weeks' training, Furman tied for third place, cycling 405 miles (652 km). He later described the experience, “It was one of the most profound moments of my life. As I climbed off my bicycle, I realized that it wasn't my body that had cycled for 24 hours, but my inner Spirit. By using meditation I was able to connect with an inexhaustible energy which we all have but rarely use. At that moment I decided to attempt breaking Guinness records to inspire others to connect with their own indomitable inner strength.” Around this time, he changed his first name to Ashrita ("protected by God" in Sanskrit).
In 1979, Furman set his first official record by doing 27,000 jumping jacks. In 1986, Furman invented and set the record for underwater pogo stick jumping and introduced it on Good Morning America on April Fools Day. That same year Furman began setting records at historic landmarks by doing forward rolls along the 12 ¼ mile route of Paul Revere's Ride in Massachusetts and jumping 11 ½ miles up and down the foothills of Mount Fuji on a pogo stick. While breaking the record for distance traveled via forward rolls, Furman was only allowed to stop in order to be sick.
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