To break a record, you must do something not done before. The possibility and thought of failure can lurk in the back of your mind. And when an obstacle happens, possibly keeping you from reaching your goal, it might be easy to give up.

(UPDATE: Broke record again by building card tower over 30 feet)

After a major obstacle occurred during the recent event of Building a Tower for the Record Freestanding Card Tower, Kardtects was confronted with such a choice: Keep on or Give up?

Kardtects chose to ‘keep on’ and broke the previous record of 26’10” for a freestanding card tower.

27’7” is now the new Record, and Kardtects will attempt to break this too in coming months.

This record would not have happened though if Kardtects would have chosen to give up. The following is what happened, and I hope it inspires you to keep after your own goals. The saying- ‘The moment you are ready to give up, is usually the moment right before success’ -is one to always hold faith in during times of trial.

Every card structure, no matter how big or how small, starts with two cards. One card leans on the other to provide a balance for both to stand up and build from. It’s teamwork from the very beginning, and a deviation from this might have consequence.

To build a tall card tower, you need a strong base. This takes time to build, but is the most important element to achieving a great height. Depending on high you want to go, decides on the size of foundation you need.

Although the first and foremost goal for this recent build was to break the record of 26’10”, I had in my mind of going over 30 feet. I built the base for this quiet, personal goal of mine. It was 6 Kardtects Building Cards long by 6 wide, T’d together, so by the time I tiered in every 10-15 levels, I would have single card squares on top and reach the goal of over 30 feet.

I was within minutes of achieving the 30-foot-high goal and breaking the record at a greater height.

But at 26 feet- within seconds of beating the previous record- LITERALLY- There was a shift in the NorthWest Corner of the Tower. Down below they were saying my 3 ½ x 3 ½ level was buckling in the back corner and the tower started to lean.

I knew the spot. While building from the scissor lift, I was struggling to reach that corner to place the cards as tight, and therefore as secure, as I would have liked them to be. Each card works with other cards to gain strength and create a strong structure. This teamwork is essential. I thought it would be ok. 🙂 I was wrong. And will now know that for the next build!

Anyway, I was at 88 levels when the top of the tower leaned too much and fell (goal to beat previous record was 89 levels with a pillar, and goal to go over 30 feet was 100 levels and 2 pillars or 103 levels).

It tumbled all the way down to 18 feet (61 levels). I had lost 27 levels. And the top base of tower wasn’t complete.

You might say I was disappointed. Honestly, I’m not sure how I felt. Still don’t. I’m sure it was more than disappointment, because I also felt some accomplishment which I immediately began to think about. I knew I could have reached my 30 foot goal with the 6×6 base, location, and size of scissor lift. These were questions of mine and so I felt although I hadn’t completed that quiet goal of mine, I now knew I could do it next time.

I also had built a strong base which was still standing and proved its worth. It takes more hours to build a sound 5 foot foundation for the tower to be built upon, than it takes to build the rest of the 25 foot tower.

Because I had taken the time though, the collapse of the top levels, hadn’t affected the core of the tower’s foundation. It was still sturdy, and I decided to go back up on the scissor lift to see what base at the 18 foot level there was to build on.

I knew to beat the previous record I would need to build around 30 levels more (or 28 levels and pillars). But this requires a base. You can’t just build single square card structure 30 levels high. With that amount of levels, you should tier in- preferably every 10-12 levels for the best reliability of staying up on narrower bases. I was thinking if I could build a 2×2 base on top of the height the tower fell to, the record could still be broken.

But when reaching the point of collapse, I could see I could really only build a 1 ½ x 1 ½ base in the South East corner of the tower. This would require stretching the preferred build level amount to 15 or more.

I have challenged myself to see how many levels you can build by single square towers. Playing as a child, with cards which were the inspiration for Kardtects, that is much of what my brothers and I did. We would compete to see how high we could go doing so.

And with Kardtects cards, I’ve done the same. It is possible to build 25 levels, single square, relatively easy. I’ve done it. But it is fragile. However, I didn’t have to build 25, I had 1 ½ levels to build too. So I needed to build 15 levels each, and add a pillar (which is a card straight up leaned on another card straight up).

The decision was made. I could see it was possible, albeit challenging, but I wasn’t going to give up at this point. No, I wasn’t going to build over 30 feet, but knew that would be the next time! Let’s just break the previous record today!

So the build was a go on top of the damaged tower. I actually thought the tower with the ruined corner looked quite cool, and once finished and on ground once again, I joked with people I built it that way for special effect.

The Kardtects Record Breaking Tower finished at 90 levels and pillars for 27.7 feet high.

Mission Completed!

New Record planning for going over 30 feet (103 levels high) in the making!

Keep Building and Reaching for the Stars!