1008 backflips in 6 hours to regreen the planet!

Do you remember Jeroen ‘Nazgul’ van der Linden? Back in 2021, he raised awareness and bunds for us while breaking a world record: 25 kilometres of continuous cartwheeling to regreen the planet!

Those (roughly) 10,000 back-to-back cartwheels clearly didn’t make him dizzy enough yet, because the European breakdance champion returned with a brand-new earth-shattering accomplishment. He broke the world record for doing backflips whilst raising money for our projects!

Breaking boundaries and world records

On Saturday the 22nd of July, Jeroen had one thing in mind: doing more than 1001 backflips in 9 hours, the old world record. No mean feat, but Jeroen quickly found himself in a great groove for the first couple of hours. He would do 3 backflips a minute, followed by a short rest. The last two hours were a different story, though. After an increasing struggle that was more mental than physical, he clocked his 1008th and last backflip at exactly 6 hours and 12 minutes. A new world record. 

“My main reason for doing any of these record-breaking activities is to inspire others to break free of their own, often self-imposed, limitations in their lives. I truly believe that each one of us is capable of so much more than we usually think, we just have to give ourselves permission to do it. And I don’t mean that we should now all go around and break world records or whatever. I mean that if I can even inspire one person to start running 2 kilometres instead of zero, I’m already truly happy with what I’ve accomplished.”

Flips to bring nature back

The world record attempt was performed in the city centre of Gorinchem. Jeroen and his crew gave spectators the opportunity to donate to Justdiggit, either by cash or by scanning a QR code. Just like last time!

“I wanted to use this as an opportunity to raise awareness for a good cause. Justdiggit was a simple choice after I already did a fundraiser for you in the past. For me, there’s absolutely no question about what is the most important thing to do right now: saving our planet and doing everything we can to take immediate action against climate change.”

Jeroen’s efforts delivered an awesome result for the regreening of our planet. He raised €751.33 among the people who cheered him on from the sidelines! 

Dig in

Jeroen, thanks once again for your incredible way of digging in for our mission, and congratulations on this new world record! For anyone that is just as inspired as we are after learning about Jeroen’s story, we recommend checking out our Dig in-page to explore the several ways you can contribute to a greener planet. 

Jeroen ‘Nazgul’ van der Linden is a European breakdance champion and founder of BreakSquad. You can follow him on Instagram to keep track of where and when his next world-record attempt will be!