Seymour Alternative farming Expo: Whip cracker to show how it’s done
NATHAN Griggs is living the dream, travelling the country to demonstrate his world-record- breaking whip cracking technique at dozens of rural shows each year.
NATHAN Griggs is living the dream, travelling the country to demonstrate his world-record- breaking whip cracking technique at dozens of rural shows each year.
The 23-year-old from Mataranka in the Northern Territory will be at the expo this year and while he won’t be having a go at the world record for the most number of whip cracks in a minute, he’ll give onlookers a taste of what it takes to even get close.
He is in training to beat the 646-crack record set by Adam Winrich in November last year after the American had wrested the title from Nathan.
“The original record was 513 cracks in a minute and was held by an American (Winrich),” Nathan said.
“I broke that record a couple of years ago and did 530 and then the American took it back again with 568.
“I broke it again with 614 cracks, and just recently my old mate from America broke it again with 646.
“I’m training to break that record in the next couple of weeks.”
One record that is still safely his is the world’s longest whip. Nathan handcrafted a 100.47m-long stockwhip from $8000 of cowhide leather in three long months and cracked it to secure the record.
“It weighs 38kg and you run it out along the ground, throw a big loop into it and pull back when the loop gets near the end to get it to crack,” he said.
“It took a few hundred goes to get it right. It takes it out of you because it’s so heavy and you’re throwing it a dozen times to practice. I’ve hurt myself (rotator cuff injury) a couple of times and taken a couple of weeks to recover.”
He won’t have the long whip at Seymour, but he will have a selection of other handmade Australian stockwhips.
Nathan will be performing at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm daily.
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