14 DAY TRIAL // A Rubik's Cube world champion has decided to try something new and take his skills to a new level. So, he started practicing underwater.
Rubik's Cube is a logic game and math puzzle that develops critical thinking and spatial reasoning skills.
The YouTube video included above shows 19-year-old Kevin Hays solving three Rubik's Cubes in one minute while holding his breath underwater. The world champion needed 5 seconds to solve the first cube, which was a 2x2 puzzle. The traditional 3x3 took 11 seconds to solve while the final 4x4 cube was done in 51 seconds.
He would probably have solved them in less than a minute, but he lost a few seconds trying to find the last cube in the swimming pool.
Hays is a second-year student at Washington University in St. Louis and a world record cuber. What's more, he is also a division three swimmer, which explains his ability to hold his breath for so long.
“The advanced method for solving Rubik's Cubes does involve knowing a large number of algorithms. I know about 120 different algorithms for different potential patterns that can occur during a solve,” explained Hays in a statement to Seattlepi in August 2013.
“Other than that, getting fast was mostly just about practicing,” he added.
