Why did you get into speedcubing?

[MostEd]

i found some old cube at school, picked it, i was able to solve none, then slowly over one week that guy taught me to solve it via LbL but not last layer, i met another guy who also knew how to solve it, he finished teach me, they both used LBL, so i wanted to get faster(i still do because i'm new) I found all speedcubing methods gave roux and cfop the biggest try out of others and kept with roux.

now i've got several my own cubes and progressing rather slowly.

 

[chicken9290]

i decided to start speed cubing when my little brother went to a party and there was a kid bragging that he could solve the cube in 75 seconds. for some reason this got me upset and i continued to pursue cubing

 

[QCcuber4]

Some guy on summer camp back in 2007 could solve it in 2 minutes. I thought he was the bomb. He teached me LBL. When I got home I wanted to solve it faster and accidently found Yu nakajima's 7.85 second solve video on YT.... I fell in love and searched for a week till I found Bob Burton's and Macky's webpages. Learned everything from those two.

 

[Blurry]

What got YOU into Cubing? First Cubes and First Impressions

So, A question I feel we all have the answer too.
Question 1:
When & Where did you find out about cubing?

Question 2:
What was your first cube? Your impressions?

Question 3:
What did you originally think about being able to solve this what seemed insanely difficult puzzle?

Feel free to explain in as much/little detail as you want, adding other answers along the way.

So, here is MY story.

Q1:
Ill admit, I'm not the most experienced with cubing, I found out about cubing early 2013, where I stumbled across redKB's video on a bandagable LEGO cube. I knew what a Rubik's Cube was, as I feel the majority of people would be, but I had no clue of the real extent of which the art of cubing was pursued and how it was done and accomplished. I'd watched a fair amount of Cubing videos since then, but I realised that I'd never had a cube. So decided to get one and went from there.

Q2:
My first cube was a Rubik's brand 3x3, and thought it was great! I had no knowledge of speedcubes and makes, so I just assumed the other cubes were either rip offs or modifications on the original.

Q3:
My first solve was great, I felt like I had accomplished and overcome the most difficult task a human could do,
the LBL method, or LayerByLayer, was the only way of solving I assumed. So I proceeded to show all my close friends and family what I had achieved. I was disappointed that I had to carry paper around with me, with the algs wrote down, but I soon had them memorized into muscle memory.


Even writing this now brings back those memories. Wow.

Please share!

Blurry/Jake

 

[TDM]

Question 1:
When & Where did you find out about cubing?

I saw a friend at school with one. Soon, several people were doing it. I tried to do it too, and to be the first one out of us to have solved it without help from the internet, a person or books. After doing that, I was very slow because the commutators I used were so bad, so I decided to look on the internet to see if you could get faster. I was half surprised, half not really surprised about the amount of information and interest in cubes online. I continued to learn and get faster, and I eventually found Speedsolving.com (the first thing I found was the "Where to buy cubes thread").

Question 2:
What was your first cube? Your impressions?

I assume this question means after a Rubik's Brand, otherwise everyone's answer will be the same, although I had two cubes at first instead of just a Rubik's Brand. I had an unbranded cheap supercube which was very bad. The other, a Rubik's brand, was slightly better but two Green stickers had peeled off. When I got the second Rubik's Brand, my first cube purchased since I started cubing (but before I could even solve one), it was much better than both of the other two. I broke it in for the next few weeks, and my first successful solve was 1:15.xx (second, but first was untimed). My first speedcube was a GuHong v2, recommended to me by someone at school. That's what really got me into speedcubing. I liked it, then someone told me about tensioning... I then ruined it. It was dead for a long time. I tried not to kill my second speedcube either, a ZhanChi, but I failed at that too. It pops on whatever tension.

Question 3:
What did you originally think about being able to solve this what seemed insanely difficult puzzle?

I was bored of it by the time I eventually did it. It took me a month. I wasn't trying to solve it most of the time, perhaps 10-15 minutes a day, but it took a very long time.

 

[CiaranBeahan]

So, A question I feel we all have the answer too.
Question 1:
When & Where did you find out about cubing?
I was on a boat to England and my sister bought a crappy sheep cube. Then at the hotel I thought myself a side. Then almost a year later at my computer I decided to learn the whole thing so I went on youtube. After a month of learning I then searched the internet for other people who could do it, and then I found out about cubing.

Question 2:
What was your first cube? Your impressions?
Well my first cube was a Rubik's brand which was lubed which Vaseline. But if your asking for speedcube then it was cube4you speedcube.

Question 3:
What did you originally think about being able to solve this what seemed insanely difficult puzzle?
Kind of hard to explain but it was obviously extremely difficult to grasp my head around it as I didn't understand the notation at first. But then after finally managing to get how it worked I just focused and I solved it in no time(month)!

 

[newtonbase]

1. Saw my nephew just after Christmas. He had been learning for while on a Rubik's brand but had got some kind of speed cube and he solved it in 2 mins which really impressed me. He let me have his Rubik's brand a couple of days later and I solved it from memory the same day. In fact I had first used owned a cube during the craze in the 80s but had never managed to solve more than a side but I hadn't touched one for 30 years.

2. First cube after the 2nd hand Rubik's brand was a Zhanchi. I cut a massive chunk off my PB the day it arrived so I really liked it but I never got it set up properly and moved on to a Weilong.

3. First solve was fantastic. Took me 7 and a half mins. I'm a bit faster now but still one of the very slowest here. Not sure I'll ever hit my sub 30s average goal so may move on to big puzzles (enjoying 4x4) or even blind.

 

[kcl]

1. I wanted to just solve a cube. I wasn't interested in speed. I got one over Christmas break and learned to solve. I got home, and a few weeks later Chris broke the 2x2 world record for the first time. I realized he lived really close to me and that I should try this. I did.. I'm now entirely obsessed

2. First cube was rubiks brand, first speedcube was stickerless zhanchi.

3. I was so confused when I first got it so I took it apart to see how it worked.

 

[Jaysammey777]

I was bored in my math class which was extreamly easy, so I started finding diffrent random things to do in it. Like spinning pins. And I decided a Rubik's cube would challenge me (I really didn't). So I bought one, learned to solve it and found this community one day.

1. 4 years ago on the Internet
2. A Rubik's brand 3x3, this is cool and fun
3. I didn't think much of it till other people started flipping out from it.

 

[DW9550]

1) I was given a cube for Christmas in 2005, I always messed around with it, and had the classic non-cuber comment 'I solved one side', but I was never able to do better. I lost that cube, and found it again in July 2013. I really wanted to learn how to solve it, so I looked it up on the internet. I first solved it on 27th July 2013. I then had an urge to solve it faster and faster. I didn't find this website until December 2013 XD
2) My first cube was rubiks brand, and it said 2005, 25 years of cubing on the white face. It seemed fine at the time. I think it is awful now, and all the stickers have peeled off :/
3) I was buzzing all day, I first solved it in front of my two friends, and when we went out later that day, I told everybody there. I was very happy!

 

[Blurry]

Wow. Thanks for the great response. All your stories have really motivated me, and I'm sure others.

Make sure to post your story if you can!

Blurry/Jake.

 

[pipkiksass]

Question 1: When & Where did you find out about cubing?
I was living in a shack in Haad Rin in Thailand, working on dive boats during the day. One day I woke up and I'd somehow ended up shack-sharing with an Irishman called Finbar, who... was... MAD! This guy was mental. Bearing in mind we lived in a gecko-infested bungalow with acid-induced murals, and I often slept in a hammock outside due to his mad, all-night chatter, I'd assume his brain had been addled by excess consumption of class-A substances.

One day, after returning from work, I was lying in my hammock drinking a beer and staring out to sea when Finbar came home and produced a Rubik's cube from his rucksack. He showed me how to build a cross (on top) and a corners-first keyhole method for F2L (on top). He didn't know how to do the last layer. At least not consistently.

I'm no longer sure Finbar existed. Maybe he was a projection of my own psyche?

Anyway, on my return to the UK I bought a cube. I went off to uni, and in my first vacation I looked up some LL algs. I developed my own odd and ineficient method of solving LL on the bottom. I think my method averaged between 100 and 110 moves - I remember challenging myself to find a sub-100 turn solution.

Then I forgot about my cube for 10 years, when an old friend asked me if I could still solve a cube. I stumbled on a video of Faz on YouTube, and that's how I discovered speedcubin'.

Question 2: What was your first cube? Your impressions?
Rubik's brand. Awful. Retrospectively, even awfuller!

Question 3: What did you originally think about being able to solve this what seemed insanely difficult puzzle?
I thought it was the most awesome thing ever. Back in those days, working out how to solve was an achievement. I remember poring over Jessica Fridrich and Lars Petrus' websites, trying to understand their algs. These days, with YouTube videos, tutorials are so much more accessible.

 

[TinaIsAwesome]

Question 1:
I feel like most people have heard of or know what a Rubik's Cube is but the first time I actually picked one up and tried to solve it was back in 2007 when I was in science class in middle school. My science teacher had a table full of science toys, gadgets, and puzzles and one of them was the Rubik's Cube. He said that he had figured out how to solve it in college and for some reason, I don't remember exactly why, he taught me how to solve it. I was hooked after that.

Question 2:
My first cube was a Rubik's brand 3x3 but my first speedcube was a Type A. My original impression of the Rubik's 3x3 was that it was hard to turn and it hurt my hands but it's all I had so I went with it. As for my Type A, I thought it was okay. I didn't fall in love with it because I could never get it quite to my liking but at the time all I cared about was that it turned better than my Rubik's Cube.

Question 3:
I honestly don't remember how I felt the first time I solved a Rubik's Cube but maybe that's because it never seemed that difficult to me. When I got home from school that day after my teacher taught me how to solve it and going to the store to buy my own cube, I spent that that afternoon memorizing what he had taught me and was able to do it on my own after a few tries. So in reality I didn't think I had done anything special until people started freaking out about how I could solve a Rubik's Cube in under a minute.

 

[Blurry]

Question 1:
My science teacher had a table full of science toys, gadgets, and puzzles and one of them was the Rubik's Cube.

Wow. How I would love to have a class dedicated to solving = My dream.

 

[TDM]

My science teacher had a table full of science toys, gadgets, and puzzles and one of them was the Rubik's Cube.

How big is this table? It probably can't beat my Physics teacher's collection (although it doesn't have a Cube). He has one normal size desk for work and a table probably the size of ~3 2-person desks covered in various toys.

 

[Blurry]

How big is this table? It probably can't beat my Physics teacher's collection (although it doesn't have a Cube). He has one normal size desk for work and a table probably the size of ~3 2-person desks covered in various toys.

I think any Teacher who employs Toy/Puzzle variants into lessons is awesome. I wish I'd had someone similar.

 

[TinaIsAwesome]

My science teacher was a pretty fun guy if I remember correctly. I don't exactly remember everything he had on the table since this was about 7 years ago but it was basically an average folding table. He switched it up often though and I specifically remember when he got a 4x4. It was the first 4x4 I ever used.

 

[Blurry]

My science teacher was a pretty fun guy if I remember correctly. I don't exactly remember everything he had on the table since this was about 7 years ago but it was basically an average folding table. He switched it up often though and I specifically remember when he got a 4x4. It was the first 4x4 I ever used.

Haha, I'd love to know someone else who knows how to cube, or atleast uses ZZ or Rouz or CFOP, and not Layer by Layer..
The majority of people who I know who own cubes either peel stickers, replace pieces or just constantly repeat R U R' from a solved position..

 

[TinaIsAwesome]

Haha, I'd love to know someone else who knows how to cube, or atleast uses ZZ or Rouz or CFOP, and not Layer by Layer..
The majority of people who I know who own cubes either peel stickers, replace pieces or just constantly repeat R U R' from a solved position..

That's unfortunate I ended up teaching a lot of my friends how to solve the cube but none of them ever loved it as much as I do. In fact only one still solves today. On the plus side, I did recently make a cubing friend at a competition.

 

[Blurry]

That's unfortunate I ended up teaching a lot of my friends how to solve the cube but none of them ever loved it as much as I do. In fact only one still solves today. On the plus side, I did recently make a cubing friend at a competition.

That's awesome. Theres no groups here in the UK, apart from some people at comps, I don't get to interact in person with a lot of people.