17-year-old Jesse Bradford rides unicycle while solving Rubik's Cube - photo credit Derek Brade

By Teagan Rasche

record breaking

‘We knew he could do it’: Brooks teen breaks Guinness World Record

Nov 10, 2021 | 7:30 AM

BROOKS, AB. – Solving a Rubik’s Cube in 26 seconds wasn’t enough of a challenge for Jessie Bradford.

So he decided to start doing it while riding a unicycle.

“Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy,” Jesse said.

The 17-year-old from Brooks first started solving Rubik’s Cubes in Grade 3, even participating in competitions. Fast forward to the summer of 2020, and Jesse learned to ride a unicycle.

Combining the two skills reignited a childhood dream.

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“I’ve always wanted to break a record, ever since I was a kid, but I never could,” Jesse said.

After a quick search, Jesse found a Guinness World Record. Someone else had solved 250 Rubik’s Cubes while riding a unicycle.

After some initial hesitation, Jesse was all in.

“At first, he was really stressed,” Jesse’s dad, David Bradford said. “He’s like ‘I don’t think I can do this’ and I said ‘Why don’t I take the admin side from you and you just practice.’”

David was a big help once Jessee decided to go after the record. He not only helped behind the scenes organizing everything with Guinness, but also helped Jesse with the physical training.

“Lots of help from the siblings and parents, just riding around in circles, lots of mixing up Rubiks Cubes and just lots of practice,” David said. “He put lots of miles on it. He would go and ride the unicycle around town, five, eight kilometres at a time. He had both things figured out, he just had to put them together.”

Jesse wanted to break the record of 250, so the road to 300 began. He practiced in his neighbourhood on the weekends, in between work and school.

Then on July 18, the official record attempt began.

“I woke up and I was really nervous,” Jesse said.

With music on, help in place and independent witnesses in the gym, Jesse started to ride.

“We had three cameras running for two and a half hours from three different angles,” David said. “So again, it was very technical. You need to have certain ways you scramble the cubes, you can’t just mix them up.”

Jesse Bradford after his Guinness World Record confirmation – Photo Credit Jesse Bradford

After 2 hours, 13 minutes on the unicycle and 300 solved Rubik’s Cubes later, Jesse beat the record. After anxiously checking his email daily, three and a half months later, it became official.

“I was really nervous about hearing back cause I was worried they might reject it on account of some technicality but when I finally heard, I was really excited,” Jesse said.

Jesse found out it was official on October 28, but it came as no surprise to his dad.

“We knew he could do it,” David said.

Even though Jesse is now a Guinness World Record holder, he’s not satisfied. He’s considering breaking another record in the next year but the details are a secret, for now.