'I even brought a snorkel to help': Drayton Valley students tie one on for world record run

Elementary school students in Drayton Valley had some fun Friday helping in a world record run.

Greg Wedman, deputy superintendent for the Wild Rose School Division, attempted to break the world record for most neckties worn around a person's neck at one time.

"It will be quite heavy and quite large," he said before the attempt. "As it starts building up, if it gets a little hard to breathe I even brought a snorkel along to help."

Wedman was inspired to make the attempt by his niece, who recently set her own youth world record for the most socks put on in 30 seconds.

"Being a teenager, she's giving her uncle a hard time about not having a Guinness record," he added.

A challenge involving ties made sense to Wedman, because he's been using the neck accessories to teach patterns to Grade 1 classes at Aurora Elementary School for more than a decade.

The current record for most ties worn around a person's neck at one time is 330. For good measure, Wedman had around 400 donated ties for his Friday attempt.

"It's going to be cool, and if we can get all 400, it's going to take a long time for someone to break that record too."

Students piled into the gym to cheer Wedman on and help count. The Grade 1 class, wearing ties of their own, had the special assignment of laying on the first round.

"It was very exciting," said Grade 1 teacher Cora Turner. "The kids were so excited to watch it all and to be a part of it."

Things sailed along smoothly at first. By 141 ties, Wedman's was almost half covered. At 184, the snorkel came into play.

Three ties later and it was over, with the whole gym cheering him on just as hard when he tugged some ties off as they had when he had first piled them on.

Greg Wedman"I tried holding on and it just got to the spot where the claustrophobia was a little too tight," Wedman said.

World record hopeful, Greg Wedman, said he learned a lot Friday about what's needed to make his second attempt at wearing more than 330 ties more successful. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton)Afterwards, with ties still piled around his neck, Wedman admitted that a practice round might have helped and he said a better spacing strategy is a must for future attempts.

"It was just getting too hard to breathe, even with the snorkel," he said. "There's a reason why 330 is the record, but we got over halfway there so we're going to try again another time."

Despite failing to beat or even tie the record, Turner and Wedman said it was a good day for the students. The kids had fun and they learned that "practice makes perfect," Turner added.

"You're not going to get it right the first time," she said. "These little guys know that, they know that they have to work hard and practice hard and so they're totally behind Mr. Wedman."

Wedman said this was just the first try and he's excited to retool his strategy and give it another go.

"It was good. It was really fun. I could see the kids, and the excitement in the kids," he added. "I think I'm going to do some training, do some work with the kids, re-tie the ties and set them out, get a strategy a little bit better.

"We came into it a little naive I think."

With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson