Kozak lands spot in Guinness Book
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In fact, Kozak managed to use his skill with a rope to get himself in the Guinness Book of World Records as the holder of the “Biggest Lasso Loop” record. The “Big Loop” is a trick where the roper stands on his horse and twirls out the biggest loop he can manage. Kozak was featured in the 1994 Guinness book in the rodeo category, but when editors revamped the book and changed some categories, Kozak noticed the record disappeared from subsequent editions and decided to remedy that situation. He contacted Guinness officials and they agreed to put it back in under the trick-roping category.
So Kozak gathered some witnesses together at his friend Philip Pelham’s farm last April to document his new attempt. Providing written confirmation of the attempt was no less than Sheriff Jackie Matheny, Dr. John “Doc” Malone, Steve Stubblefield and Jeff Stubblefield, with local photographer Gretchen Solomon on hand to provide photographic documentation.
It took three tries, but Kozak eventually beat his old record of 78 feet by twirling out a loop 86 feet in length. Then began the long process of working with Guinness officials to get the record accepted for the book, but the effort was worth it. Kozak was notified this week that Guinness had accepted the record and it would eventually be published in a future Guinness edition, though Kozak isn’t sure which year it will appear.
“They e-mailed me and said there’s 65,000 world records of some sort,” Kozak said. “There’s 4,000 printed in the book. So they said they may put it in the book this year, they may put it in next year. They kind of alternate.”
Kozak will receive a certificate acknowledging his accomplishment though, even if the record doesn’t show up in this year’s book. According to Kozak, the process of getting in the book isn’t a simple one.
“Being able to do it is one thing,” Kozak said of performing the trick itself, “but getting it through Guinness is another.”
Kozak said he is grateful to all those who helped document his attempt.
“If you can’t document it right then it doesn’t go,” he said. “So all the people that were there really helped. If it wasn’t for them it wouldn’t be there.”
It took almost eight months for the documentation to move through four different committees, stalling in the last for more than two months.
“And I’m over here sweating,” Kozak said, noting there may have been others trying for the record. “But finally mine got it,” he said. “It took a long time to get approved.”
One might think Kozak would be satisfied with even one record in the Guinness book, but it seems he isn’t.
“I’m doing another one on February 26,” he said. “This is the fastest 100 meters doing the “Texas Skip.” This trick consists of running while jumping through the lasso loop side to side. Kozak says he can perform this trick in around 20 seconds.
Once he informed Guinness officials, they told him to pick a date, and Kozak said he had a good reason for scheduling the attempt early next year.
“I thought, “we’re going to have to do this as soon as possible,” Kozak said, “because I’m getting older. I’ll be 45 the week after I do this next one.”
But his age hasn’t dimmed this cowboy’s skill, or his ambition, and Guinness may have another multiple record holder before the year is over, at least if Ray Kozak can manage to rope it in, and he’s pretty good at that.