National Geographic Kids USA - March 2017

AST NISHING

ST

IES F

M

THE FILES F

o

Guinness

World Records

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS 9

TORTOISE

SPEED

RACER!

This toy’s definitely too big for the backyard.

Beth Johnson’s Whoa-Yo is the world’s biggest

wooden yo-yo. The towering toy is nearly 12

feet across and weighs 4,620 pounds—about

the weight of three cows. You need a crane to

lift, wind, and release the Whoa-Yo. Johnson’s

storing the toy for now but eventually hopes

to sell it. The buyer better have a humongous

toy box.

STER

GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS (BERTIE, YO-YO); CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / IP / GETTY IMAGES (ZAPATA). INFORMATION PROVIDED BY © 2017 GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LIMITED.

Talk about

walking on

air. Franky Zapata soared for

7,388 feet—almost a mile

and a half—on his Flyboard

Air hoverboard, snagging

the record for the world’s

farthest hoverboard flight.

During the trip Zapata rose to

a cruising altitude of almost

a hundred feet, nearly the

height of an average 10-story

building. Says Zapata, “People

say I look like Iron Man when

I’m gliding through the air on

the hoverboard!”

You’ll cheer for this turbocharged tortoise! Bertie, a

South African leopard tortoise, zips along at nearly a

foot a second. That’s about twice as fast as the average

tortoise. And by moving almost 18 feet in fewer than

20 seconds on a racetrack at his home in England, the

reptile became the fastest known tortoise on Earth.

“He does more of a power walk than a run,” owner

Janine Calzini says. This is one tortoise that doesn’t

need a hare for inspiration!

BY JAMIE KIFFEL-ALCHEH

high

there!

FLYING

MAN