Record Broken!

See Current

Longest Distance To Blow Out A Candle

Canada

1 like

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada / March 15, 2011

Darryl Learie blew out a candle using a 3.5-inch straw while laying on the ground eight feet (96 inches) away.

- must attempt record indoors in area with no wind
- may only use breath to blow candle

Embed

Tags: longestfireblowingcandleflame

Comments
  • Canada Darryl Learie

    I never payed attention to the straw popping sound, I have this thing where I blow out, and my tounge hits the end of that part of the straw in my mouth - I think it's like a subconscious technique I developed to push that air on it's way - I know weird right?

  • Australia Peter Craig

    Look forward to seeing it and hopefully trying some soon! Further technical thoughts on this record for discussion to add to criteria or move to another category is filling your lungs with a different gas or simply more carbon dioxide removing the oxygen, surely this could have a considerable affect - if so would you consider it a technical improvement or swaying too far from the original feat? Also any potential draft in the room is stated in the criteria but very difficult to determine by video evidence. I do like the two camera angles you have set up. I wonder what that straw "pop" is when you blow? Maybe the straw also needs to be shown to the camera, someone could hide some kind of engine/fan/device that somehow blows for you - again by no means doubting your effort but trying to point out some potential flaws in validating the evidence. Look forward to giving this a go myself but have a feeling it's now just beyond my reach!

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    Once again, Peter you have a fantastic eye for criteria, On my next attempt I'll measure this right to the millimeter (right to the center of the wick), because it is a good point. And this record has potential, I realized prior that even timing of breaths can make a significant difference. Now I am submitting a new record category dedicated to you, and Brain Pankey - The most steak knives in an inflated balloon (hope you'll guys like it) :)

  • Australia Peter Craig

    Wow, I like that you're keeping at it to make sure the benchmark is the best it can be. hmmmm... getting technical, maybe it should be measured right up to the center of the wick? If I were to do the same distance as you wit ha dinner candle I'd shave off another half inch, and if I did it with a birthday candle it would be even "further". I would add the distance of the wax to this measurement. What do you think?

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    Thank-you, Josh, and Thomas - much appreciated - they didn't feature the split screen video I submitted to them where I used 2 cameras shooting at once, and I sent them a e-mail about it. Anyways for anyone who wants to see the proof here it is on YouTube -

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywFX5G2rurg

  • United States Josh Graber

    No way... That's ridiculous. Congratulations!

  • United States tmcginniss

    Now THAT is impressive!

  • United States Josh Graber

    Thanks Darryl, quite a fun record you set here. Though not sure if I'd have it in me to do it again, as it's a lung workout.

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    Congratulations Josh, I'm happy some-one raised the bar for me - whether I break this or not, I know it will bring out the best in my performance. Once again, Great Job! :)

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    I'll try baby power next time, it should blow easily - this last attempt took me an hour of huffing, and puffing before I finally got it. But you don't see all the failed attempts in the video. ;)

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    Yeah, I used a birthday candle because I figured it would show up on video better because you can more easily see the entire flame.

  • United States Brian Pankey

    You're awesome Darryl. you are one my favorite record holders as of now

  • Australia Peter Craig

    I wonder if you could do another category where you blow through a pipe the whole way, maybe a large straw - that could probably get some pretty good distance

  • Australia Peter Craig

    oh, and you went with a dinner candle this time, any reason for that?

  • Australia Peter Craig

    Wow Darryl, great job - already beating your own records and only 4 days later! You know what this record makes me think of? Sand. Have exactly the same set up but lay down sand/sugar or some kind of dirt and see how far you can blow into it. This would be a direct visual representation of almost the same thing and might help determine how far you're actually going.

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    9 feet - I can't wait until this gets verified :D so excited.

  • Australia Peter Craig

    And by the way, I think this record should probably be measured in inches or cm as the following increments certainly wouldn't be in feet!

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    I am sure you can do it, buddy :D I would really love to see how far this record can go. ;)

  • Australia Peter Craig

    Well knowing the 6 foot mark was difficult, I didn't try laying down, not sure if the ground helps keep the blow straight also, and didn't try a straw but I already know it's a pretty decent benchmark and so am willing to heartily congratulate you and at the same time get into some serious lung training to then blow your record out of the water, pun intended!

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    I just hope I set a respectable benchmark :) You'll have to let me know if a congratulations is in order ;)

  • Australia Peter Craig

    I'm glad you filmed back up the measurement to show your set up. We had a black out some time ago and so we lit up some candles. When it was time to go to bed I was trying to blow out the candle across the room which got me thinking how far could it go... so I've always envisages this being a tall dinner candle... I just measured my distance to be 6 foot but not on the ground and with a dinner candle... so I'm intrigued to give this a go.

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    Thank you Peter for the compliments, no, I originally took the video in HD Video to get the clearest highest quality video I could but I lost some quality during conversion to make the video reasonably shorter.

  • Australia Peter Craig

    oops, I didn't see the last few seconds where you explain you used a straw :) I reckon that would help direction your blow... although might lessen the force? Although I trust your method, it's difficult to see clearly where you are blowing from - is the straw overlapping the starting point?

  • Australia Peter Craig

    I love that you're creating all these new categories Darryl, this is an idea for a record I've had for some time along with a few various other candle-related records. Good job, look forward to seeing more from you soon! What are you blowing through?

  • Canada Darryl Learie

    I can't believe I got featured, thank-you URDB for this honor. There is a lot of amazing talents on this site, and only a matter of time until some-one else takes this record from me. To the next champion candle blower,"Congratulation's."

Under review comments