SHAWANO, WI (WTAQ) – A pending Guinness World Record was set in Shawano
It’s a record the Dave Passahl of the Shawano Ski Sharks says his group has broken twice before.
“We rebroke our record that we set in 2017”
This month, 38 barefoot water skiers stayed up on water for 300 meters, breaking the old record of 33 that the group Big Pull set earlier.
The group is made up of 17 teams from four states, as far away as Florida.
“So about 25 percent or so is represented by the Shawano Ski Sharks,” Passahl said.
The record attempt start before 5 a.m and went for about 4 hours.
To break the record, weight was an issue.
Passahl says each skier had to weight 175 pounds or less, which narrows down the quality of skiing based on experience. He says they also have a lot of red tape to cut before the record can be confirmed.
“They have camera angles from every single angle, video and still shots and drone shots that is all submitted under high definition.”
Passahl says Shawano’s Wolf River was the site
“We can guarantee no boat traffic, the winds are usually just right and we are kind of centralized in the state of Wisconsin.”
He says the city has also been supportive by closing down waterways for the record attempts.He says the review process has started.”Sometimes it takes six months for Guinness to get to your record and review it so we just have to sit back and wait and see.”
The future of breaking the barefoot record again is up in the air. Passahl says record are made to be broken, but to add more skiers, it would probably mean that they would have to lower the weight limit for each skier. He says that means the skiers would likely have to be younger and it is more difficult to find quality barefoot skiers at the younger ages.
