Hundreds float during world record attempt at Lac Pelletier
Hundreds of people held hands while floating on their colourful inflatables during an official Guinness World Records attempt at Lac Pelletier Regional Park, July 30.
There were 350 registered floaters for the fun event to set a new world record for the longest line of inflatables (unassisted).
The world record attempt took place at Ona’s Beach on the park’s south end. Tammy Tangen from the event organizing committee said it went really well.
The existing record is 215.10 metres and this attempt aimed to improve the record to 300 metres. The unofficial measurement indicated the line of inflatables reached a distance of 338 metres.
“As far as I’m concerned, Lac Pelletier wins,” she said. “We got an unofficial measurement as we measured all the tubes and seeing everybody’s smiling faces and camaraderie throughout that day. That was definitely the big win for us.”
It will take some time before this world record attempt will be officially verified. GeoVerra, a land survey and geomatics company, measured the line of inflatables through the use of a drone and aerial photogrammetry techniques.
Cypress Hills MLA Doug Steele and long-time Swift Current physician Dr. Rizqi Ibrahim were present as official witnesses of the world record attempt.
Tangen said the documentation from the official witnesses and all the information provided by GeoVerra, including drone footage and photographs, will be submitted as part of a written report to Guinness World Records. Thereafter it will take an unknown time for the verification process to be completed.
The idea to use the lake as a setting for this world record attempt was already suggested to the Lac Pelletier Regional Park Board Authority several years ago, but the event planning was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“So back in 2019 it had been brought forward to the board as something to do at the lake, because we do many events throughout the year,” she said.
“We have a Lac Pelletier social committee that does many events for members of the community and surrounding area, and it just came up as a possible suggestion. We put it forward to the board and it was approved, but due to COVID we had to postpone.”
The registration of participants for the world record attempt already started in February and the target of 350 floaters was reached on June 24, over a month before the event was scheduled to take place.
“The response was fabulous,” she recalled. “We started quite early with making it known, just to get a feel to see how many people were interested. Nothing but positive feedback.”
There was a barbeque lunch and various other activities at Ona’s Beach after the world record attempt. Many helping hands ensured the success of the entire event.
“The parks board came to me and asked if I would be willing to be the event coordinator for the event,” she noted.
“I had a co-chair, Brandy Ekdahl, who is another resident here at Lac Pelletier to help support, and then we pulled on residents of Lac Pelletier to help us with some of the volunteer work that took place on the day of the event, from registration to measuring tubes to set up, take down, raffle ticket sales, that type of thing.”
Business support for the event through sponsorships made it possible to host the event. There were early bird registration prizes, swag bags for world record attempt participants, and various raffle prizes.
“We thank all our sponsors and donators, Swift Current Ride for Dad for doing our barbeque, and Robertson Motorsports & Marine for coming out and supporting us on the water,” Tangen said.
“We had many sponsors from in and around Swift Current, small businesses donating prizes, and things like that. It was overwhelming. I’m just impressed with the response that we got from southwest Saskatchewan.”