Like ducks to water.
The comedian Leo Bassi attempts a new Guinness World Record swimming in the sea with the largest duck shaped rubber ring in the world.
A childhood trauma. That’s the explanation that comedian Leo Bassi gave in Benidorm to those who asked what on earth made him want to swim in the Mediterranean with a giant yellow duck shaped rubber ring.
The comedian, deadly serious explained while a small motor inflated the rubber ring, that when he was six years old his parents refused to buy him a duck shaped rubber ring that he had set his heart on, telling him that it was dangerous and once in the water it could not be controlled.
This frustrated childhood dream took him to the Poniente Beach in Benidorm last Saturday on the back of a duck measuring more than 40 metres in perimeter.
The diameter of the creature was 14 metres and 6 metres in height. Weighing approx 250 kilograms it was dragged down to the waters edge by Bassi’s team and officials from Benidorm.
Three hours later the duck took shape, technical problems according to Bassi meant that the duck could not be inflated until 11:20. This delay meant that his schedule was put back so it wasn’t until 14:40 that the comedian wearing a black suit that looked out of place among the spectators congregated in swimsuits, climbed aboard the duck via a ladder incorporated in the plastic animal.
The specific details, measurements of the duck, photographs etc. will be given to the Guinness Book of World Records to establish Basis’s world record and to see if anyone has attempted anything similar and if a record already exists. We will have to wait six weeks to find out.
This is the first time that Leo Bassi has attempted to enter the record books although he states he has done “many things “in his life. The beaches of Benidorm were chosen due to their popularity and calm waters. The comedian also happened to be performing that same evening in the Amphitheatre Oscar Espla one of the cultural events organised during the summer months by the Town Hall.
But let’s get back to the yellow duck and a 60 year old man still dreaming of toys.
Bassi was forthcoming about his record attempt but held back key information about the colossal dimension of the float and where it was made. All he would say was that it was “made in Spain “ He did not want to leave too many clues or to make things easy for another visionary who could follow and attempt to beat his world record.
MACU ESTEVE
