Guinness has really dropped their standards....

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Permalink Reply by Erik Torgerson on September 13, 2009 at 7:26pm

Solo? How else would one do this? Do they make skates that hold two people? I agree, silly.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on September 14, 2009 at 1:36am

What? So no motorbike and cameraman, no support vehicles, no team radio? Get a grip guys. Does Lance Armstrong ride an 'individual' time-trail without all these things? No. Were you to swim 'solo' across the English Channel would you do it without a support boat? No. What's your problem? That a hockey skater might take a 24hr Guinness World Record for something you feel should only be in the speedskater's domain? The French guy who did A2A backward only did 138km - maybe he should have carried on for another 14hrs, but he didn't. Matthew Grainger only needs 139 officially recognized kilometers for a WR and to raise much needed awareness for Parkinsons Disease. I wish Matthew the very best of luck (hope he did it) and that Jonathan and Eric could understand the semantics of the word solo before they go making more snide unfounded remarks.

Go back and read the article properly, there is no mention the word 'solo' in it at all. Where did you get the word solo from or the bitter-twistedness that allowed you to use words like 'extremely weak and lame!' when referring to someone aiming to set a world record for the greatest distance travelled backwards [sic] on inline skates in 24 hours? Shame on you.

Solo with a person next to them? Eric Clapton, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Yehudi Menuhin, Lang Lang, Kenny G.... phhhtt

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Permalink Reply by Erik Torgerson on September 14, 2009 at 6:07pm

Hey Ben, sorry to offend you. I was just trying an attempt at humor. I guess I won't give up my day job for stand up comedy.

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Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on September 15, 2009 at 1:19am

I apologise Erik, your point is humorously valid, but Jonathan should know far better than to throw around misquotes.

Erik Torgerson said:

Hey Ben, sorry to offend you. I was just trying an attempt at humor. I guess I won't give up my day job for stand up comedy.

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Seutter on September 15, 2009 at 8:51am

"Guinness has really dropped their standards" is what I said and here's why:

Since about 8 or so years ago the parent company, Guinness Publishing Company of UK, has taken the view that their Book should be more "sensationalistic" than "reference".

Look at the book from 10 years ago, or 15 years ago, or 20, 30, 50.

Now there are mostly pictures, no problem because Guinness is a publishing company in the business of selling books.

Skating with a cyclist "alongside" for motivation, is like having a taxi next to you - its SO easy to take a "tow" during periods of fatigue, there won't be (according to what was published in the UK article) any sort of officials watching...

Guinnessnow allows skating records to be listed with a "package" of paperwork, not requiring constant (meaning watched every second) observation of the skater.

You could get a record listed now for skating 24 hours in Guinness, and just dummy up the entire proof package.

I think the record should be called "paced" - when you have a cyclist (his brother) riding alongside "for motivation" , thats pacing.

Backwards for any amount of time is very impressive, 200km in 24 hours backwards is also impressive.

Doing an effort that Guinness deems worthy of including in their "for profit" publication is also impressive.

Skating backwards for 24 hours, no matter with or without an accompanying "pacing cyclist alongside for motivation" is also impressive .

Its "paced" effort , and in my opinion having someone who is close enough to touch (tow, push) next to the record setter, without contant observation by an impartial qualified official, is "lame" and there will always be questions (from those who care) about it.

Guinness used to care more about the sports records it listed, but now they want more to sell books.

The Guinness Wr Book used to be more reference publication - now it seems more like Ripleys "Believe It Or Not" .

Ultrask8

Ps I hope that backwards skater has a chiropractor and a massage person on his crew!

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Permalink Reply by Bill in Houston on September 15, 2009 at 8:59am

Erik, I was with you until you mentioned Kenny G. :)

How far has the backwards skater gone at past occurrences of the 24 hrs of Montreal?

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Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on September 15, 2009 at 10:14am

Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan, where do we start?

""Guinness has really dropped their standards" is what I said " is not what you said, it was the title of your piece which then went on to misquote an article from London, Ontario, Canada (another of your factual inaccuracies) without any further mention of Guinness. Guinness World Records haven't changed and I'm sure they set some very specific rules for anything out of the ordinary to apply as a GWR. Why does it bother you so much?

Your rant about a word, solo, that didn't appear in the article is very troubling because you are now accusing Matthew Grainger of cheating. How dare you imply that someone who you are so at pains to point out is doing something "impressive" might be devious and dishonest in their record attempt? You wrote:

"Skating with a cyclist "alongside" for motivation, is like having a taxi next to you - its SO easy to take a "tow" during periods of fatigue, there won't be (according to what was published in the UK article) any sort of officials watching..."

You're throwing around massive allegations there, what is your evidence? Since when does 'alongside' mean close enough to touch or imply any intent to contravene the rules?

Jonathan, you got it wrong and you were mean: You owe everyone, especially Matthew Grainger an apology.

Ben

PS. Sorry about the Kenny G reference, I was reaching for an easy-listening musical artist (or should that be 'artist') to demonstrate that 'soloist' can be accompanied, just in case the other names were too high-brow...

PPS. I wonder if Guinness would ratify an egg-and-spoon-skate? The greatest distance traveled on skates while carrying an egg with a spoon...

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Seutter on September 15, 2009 at 10:28pm

Ben Ben Ben Ben Ben Ben

Guinness HAS changed their publishing outlook - they have taken much control and authority back from the multitude of different language publishing companies around the world, that were authorized to publish an individual countries book (for example, in the 80's and early 90's here in USA it was "Sterling Publishing Company" in NYC, then changed to "Facts On File" publishing company in NYC)

Guinness Publishing Company, UK, made a corporate to reduce the amount of the different books published around the world, made a decision to make the different editions more closely resemble each other, made a decision to increase (by a lot) the percentage of print space in the book(s) that have pictures.

Take a look at the last few years editions, take a look at the editions from the late 90's mid 90-'s early 90's, 80's, etc.

Use your eyes, you can see it.

Guinness HAS dropped their standards for inline (speed style) skating , they used to follow a pretty strict set of rules , for example for 24 hour events - those rules would define having a person "cycling alongside for motivation" as a "paced" record.

Ben Ben Ben I didn't accuse Matthew of cheating - you implied I said it .

And it bothers me that Guinness has dropped their standards from the higher standards they used to follow for a period between 1988 and early 2000's.

Use your eyes and read the Guinness guidelines for our sport (speed style). They are extremely lax .

Some sports Guinness accepts rules and guidelines much stricter than what the for profit publishing company publishes as their "rules for setting a Guinness WR".

For example cycling, running, ice speedskating, etc.

I personally believe that having someone cycling alongside for motivation, with no officials from any independent sports officiating body observing (I didn't read anything in that article about officiating ) brings a big question mark to the result (when there is a result - he hasn't done his attempt yet, and by the way how could he be accused by me or anyone of cheating BEFORE the event)

And Ben , btw who the * are you to tell me "how dare I" anything?

Who gets to have an opinion on this? Are only past or present Guinness WR Book published WR holders be the only ones (you deem) allowed to have opinions on this subject?

Well I do grudgingly regret my use of the word "solo" , but I can tell you my dear Ben that having a cyclist alongside (as in next to, close enough to talk to, meaning close enough to touch, and all that implies) certainly would add a big question mark to a record attempt with no officials watching .

But what do I know?

Ultrask8





Ben Roberts said:

Jonathan, Jonathan, Jonathan, where do we start?
""Guinness has really dropped their standards" is what I said " is not what you said, it was the title of your piece which then went on to misquote an article from London, Ontario, Canada (another of your factual inaccuracies) without any further mention of Guinness. Guinness World Records haven't changed and I'm sure they set some very specific rules for anything out of the ordinary to apply as a GWR. Why does it bother you so much?
Your rant about a word, solo, that didn't appear in the article is very troubling because you are now accusing Matthew Grainger of cheating. How dare you imply that someone who you are so at pains to point out is doing something "impressive" might be devious and dishonest in their record attempt? You wrote:

"Skating with a cyclist "alongside" for motivation, is like having a taxi next to you - its SO easy to take a "tow" during periods of fatigue, there won't be (according to what was published in the UK article) any sort of officials watching..."

You're throwing around massive allegations there, what is your evidence? Since when does 'alongside' mean close enough to touch or imply any intent to contravene the rules?

Jonathan, you got it wrong and you were mean: You owe everyone, especially Matthew Grainger an apology.

Ben

PS. Sorry about the Kenny G reference, I was reaching for an easy-listening musical artist (or should that be 'artist') to demonstrate that 'soloist' can be accompanied, just in case the other names were too high-brow...

PPS. I wonder if Guinness would ratify an egg-and-spoon-skate? The greatest distance traveled on skates while carrying an egg with a spoon...

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Permalink Reply by Bill in Houston on September 16, 2009 at 6:28am

Hold on, you two, it's a dessert topping AND a floor wax!

I hope the guy does great. Anyone who can get inline skating into a newspaper story has done us all a service. If he has any endurance sports training at all, I expect the he will make his goal. I can't skate backwards worth a hoot, but that guy looks like he knows what he's doing.

He has actually started skating. Turns out he has done stuff like this before. Click through to Inline Planet and then to the article so that Robert get the click on his site...

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Permalink Reply by Ken on September 16, 2009 at 9:34am

Let's put the emphasis where it belongs. On Matt's attempt raise awareness of a dreaded disease, not on Guiness' standards. I doubt I could skate backwards around that track once without falling of my ...er...ah..., you know. So I take my hat off to his ability and endurance, but above all, for him making us more aware that a lot needs to be done to help those with Parkinson's disease. You go Matt! and... LezSk8!

Ken

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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Seutter on September 16, 2009 at 9:49pm

Of course I wish him all the best as well, it's a worthy cause - unlike this thread - I'm sorry I started it with such a negative title.

Guinness has dropped their standards , but Matthew is doing a good thing .

"Desert AND floor topping" lol

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Permalink Reply by Ben Roberts on September 23, 2009 at 9:54am

He made it, 202 km backward. Rather him than me but anyone's free to challenge his record. Story here: http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2009/09/23/11067336-sun.html

But Jonathan, that you "grudgingly regret" making a fundamental error, ranting about a word that wasn't there AND questioning the scruples of a guy trying to do a good thing is SHAMEFUL. Shame on you. Please read the above article carefully before making a sincere apology to everyone for your reckless use of words. Former Editor of "1st In-Line" magazine (UK) and senior editor at INLINE (US) is "how dare I" call you on your poor comprehension and use of the English language.

Congratulations to Matthew, I hope the record is fully ratified so even more awareness of Parkinson's can be achieved.

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