When Josiah Plett puts his mind to something, he goes all in.
“I’ve been solving Rubik’s Cubes for ten years, but only fast for two years,” said the 17-year-old from Colwood.
After first learning to conquer the cube before he was ten years old, his obsession only grew from there.
Today, Plett practices around four hours a day and up to eight hours on weekends. He also studies algorithms and has created several of his own. He hosts video chats to teach his friends, and he’s even made his own Rubik’s Cube photo collection.
“I’ve always been fascinated with puzzles,” said Plett, who used to design and make his own puzzles. “So when I found the Rubik’s Cube, it was a puzzle I couldn’t solve and that was unique to me.”
The Grade 12 Pacific Christian School student is able to solve a Rubik’s Cube in around thirteen seconds two-handed, and just over twenty seconds with one hand.
Lately, however, Plett has added a new challenge: solving a Rubik’s Cube while hula hooping. It took a few months, but
Plett has become well adept at hula hooping to the point that he’s contacted the Guinness Book of World Records.
“So I’m going to be breaking most Rubik’s Cubes solved while hula hooping, and then also the one-handed, and fastest time records while hula hooping,” said Plett.
“I thought wow you’re weird,” said Alvira Plett, Josiah’s mother in a light tone. “But in a good way.”
Although he’s dedicated countless hours to his craft, Plett has many other hobbies. He plays chess at a national level, creates his own video games, and is an origami enthusiast. Academically, he’s pursuing Canada’s top engineering universities.
“Anything, whatever it is, he’s on it and he wants to always be competitive,” said Alvira Plett. “He wants to be the best at it, which is good, that’ll drive you far.”
With no lack of confidence, the aspiring software engineer believes he’ll conquer the record “by a factor of ten.”
“It’s gonna be awesome I’m really looking forward to it,” said Plett, who’s consistently shattered the records during practice. “I don’t really do it for the recognition, I’m kind of doing it because I don’t really know where else to put my speed cubing skills, I just do it because I love it.”
Plett will be attempting the records over a three day period, running Feb. 13-14 and Feb. 20. He’ll be live streaming the feats on his YouTube page.
Kevin Charach
