Man Slices Watermelons On Stomach To Set New Guinness World Record

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A man has set a new Guinness World Record for slicing the most watermelons in half on his own stomach in 60 seconds.

Ashrita Furman, who has been setting Guinness World Records for 35 years, set his new record on Tuesday in New York.

Furman sliced through 26 of the gourds in one minute, six more than Guinness organizers said he needed to establish a new record.

"It went really well," said Furman. "My first reaction is I'm relieved that I didn't kill myself and the second is I'm exhilarated because it not only is a skillful record but also it's something that I invented and now it's out there and other people can challenge it."

Furman previously set a Guinness Record slicing watermelons on a friend's stomach.

This time he made a few tweaks.

"They came up with the rules and said I had to at least 20 watermelons, which I thought was actually a little high, because I thought 15 would be safe, but 20 was pushing it a little and fortunately we had a good team and everything worked well," he said.

Furman said controlling the danger involved a combination of proper aim, and just the right about of strength.

"As it went along, I have to sort of regulate how hard I hit the blade, and so doing that but trying to be very conscious of where the blade was and I noticed at one or two points it was getting very close to my arms so I had to make an adjustment," said Furman.