What started out as a hobby has led to many opportunities for 20-year-old student Eric Limeback.
Last week Limeback, who grew up just outside Fergus, unofficially set the Guinness World Record for the most Rubik’s Cubes solved in 24 hours.
Although not yet verified by Guinness, Limeback solved a cube 5,800 times, averaging under 15 seconds per solve, ending the challenge just before 1pm on Oct. 4.
That total smashed the current official record of 4,786, or roughly one solve every 18 seconds.
The event was held in the Fred Nicholas Campus Centre concourse at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, where Limeback is a third year business student.
He was sponsored by Lubix Cube, which gave him 10 of their best Rubik’s Cubes to use. Volunteers helped Limeback set the world record by randomly mixing up the cubes to ensure he always had one in his hands.
Limeback, who was first interested in the Rubik’s Cube at age 14, has broken many cube records since that time.
He said he was inspired by a fellow classmate and then began teaching himself via YouTube and Google.
When he received his first Rubik’s Cube for Christmas six years ago, he began practicing for at least an hour every day.
“I got addicted, seeing how quickly I could do it every time, and it was thrilling to try and get it down again,” he said.
Limeback participated in his first competition within the first five months and placed 24th.
“That first competition is what inspired me to keep going, seeing my name as a semi-finalist,” he said.
Now he can regularly solve the cube in less than 10 seconds – and less than 40 seconds blindfolded, which he started attempting within one year of receiving his first cube. He is the fastest in Canada for solving the cube blindfolded, at 38.42 seconds.
Limeback has travelled to Germany, Las Vegas and other locations in the U.S. for the World Championships. He placed 17th in Germany and 12th in Las Vegas.
Last year he started the “Laurier Rubik’s Cube Club” and had around 150 people sign up. This year another 80 or so joined.
“The main goal of the club is to teach anyone and everyone who wants to learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube,” he said of the puzzle that first became a worldwide craze in the 1980s.
The Laurier club offers one-on-one and/or group lessons for those interested in learning the Rubik’s Cube, which was invented in 1974 by Hungarian Erno Rubik and is widely considered to be the world’s best-selling toy, with over 350 million sold across the globe.
Limeback noted he would like to begin setting up club fundraisers in the near future, which will consist of different events like “Rubik’s Cube challenges.”
He also would like to set up booths, so people can pick personalized times during the week to learn.
