Inspiration for Cubing

[BadgerSex]

What made you start cubing? Maybe you saw a movie, maybe your friend cubes, maybe you found one at your grandmother's house... just tell us, what was first made you say, "I'm going to solve that [expletive deleted] cube!"... I'm interested to see what people have to say!

 

[Unknown.soul]

I started cubing when I was at a thrift store when I was 12. I found a cube and I wanted to solve it, so I found a beginner's solution online. Turns out the cube was a cheap kind with really good stickers (I still have them, but 3 sides chipped like crazy). It broke when I sprayed DuPont Teflon Silicone inside without disassembling and the center cubies went flying along with the rest of the cube.

 

[waffle=ijm]

Lets see. Umm I got into cubing in 2001 never could solve it and just gave up. 6 years later.

A friend of mine brought in a cube to school and could solve it in 1 minute and I was determined to beat him (trying to impress the same girl). But I still didn't know how to solve it.

After his amazingness with the cube, the entire class knew how to cube. Then after days of just doing the cube intuitively (very very hard for me), I did it. I finally decided to use the LBL method that i had no idea about at the time. And I could get sub-1 min after a week.

We were using a 4LLL before we even heard about online guides and the fridrich method. I eventually beat him with my record of 39 seconds. Then he brought in the 4x4 and 5x5....I failed to beat him in that.

After I got my 4x4 and 5x5, i started solving them with ease. Nowadays, I'm beating him in all the puzzles he has. but i never did get the girl we were trying to impress. Eh, no big deal.

 

[rubiksfriend]

I saw a friend at school doing it. I knew he wasn't smarter than I, so I decided to learn. He lost interest and averages above a minute still.

 

[TimMc]

A friend at work, team leader, was playing with a Rubik's Cube and solving it in under a minute so went out and bought a cheap cube.

After a week or so I was solving it.

You've got to love all that "free" time.

Tim.

 

[ductape98]

four words fresh prince of bel-air

 

[Hadley4000]

One of my friends brought one to school last year.

 

[pjk]

Hearing of the 11.13 WR by Leyan Lo. I then started cubing in Feb '06 to see how it worked.

 

[hagendaasmaser]

four words fresh prince of bel-air

i hear ya, same...that show is awesome!

 

[hikepark]

I starting cubing when me and my family were watching The Pursuit of Happiness and the scene of Will Smith solving the cube brought apparently some painful memories up for my Dad about how he could never solve a Rubik's cube. I then bet I could learn how to solve a cube and my dad disagreed so I bought a cube and learned how to solve it. The funny thing was my dad didn't really recognize my ability to solve a Rubik's cube (I guess if he did that would kinda be like admitting he lost) until I reach my current record of 32 seconds(yes I am very aware that is not very good that is why i am almost finished memorizing the last of the PLLs and working on perfecting my F2L)

 

[hdskull]

One time working with one name: Shotaro Makisumi.

 

[nitrocan]

i saw Dan Brown's video, then i wanted to learn how to solve it. i quit his method after 2-3 weeks though.

 

[Marvolo]

I get rubik's cube at Christmas 2007 and I wanted to solve it... After 2 hours I can solve this without any help (algoritms internet) and i have times about 6-7min 3 week later I started learn 3LL Fridrich (EO+CO+PLL) and in march i was average about 40sec Now I can solve cube in sub-20

 

[Neutrals01]

I saw one of my school friend solved it in school during teacher's day, I thought cube solving is only for ultra high IQ people at that time, and I only seen it in TV before, not in real life(because my country is not popular in cube). After I saw my friend(he played since around november~december 07) played it, I asked him how to solve and he sent me a beginner link on 25th may 08, then it took me 5 hours to read the guide and managed to solve, a week later I went to buy 2x2 and 4x4 and managed to solve a day too,then another week managed to get 5x5 and solved it too.Then last month I learned blindfold and managed to get my first solve in around 12 minutes. Currently memorized all the PLL's, and 2 days ago started using fridrich f2l(but still prefer the working corner method for f2l,easier to master<around 5~8 turns diff from fridrich f2l), now can get an average of 30~35 seconds for fridrich f2l...still hoping to improve, currently average around 50sec with a best record of 34.79 sec.

 

[Henxu]

Shotaro Makisumi.

I began cubing too seeing Shotaro Makisumi cubing...

 

[mrbiggs]

One time working with one name: Shotaro Makisumi.

It was his WR video of 12.11 (old by that time, but I didn't know it) that made me want to start cubing.

 

[MistArts]

I got one for Thanksgiving 2007. It took me 2 days to figure it out intutively because wanted to see why everyone fails at it.

 

[not_kevin]

I started cubing in summer of 2005, because I had to get a cube for a math camp I was going to in Colorado. By then, they had included the little pamphlet, and I learned how to do it then (for a while, I was really stupid and always used the RYB corner in the 6th step... got so frustrated both before and after I figured out my mistake XP). I averaged around 3 minutes (no fingertricks, no lookahead), and taught some people how to cube.

I got into speedcubing when my friend came back from Mathcamp (the official one) and told me about this person called Macky (I wonder who that is...) who could solve it in 13 consistently. Then my friend, who had started to learn Fridrich, got a lucky 38 (at this time, we were doing around 1:15; still crap look-ahead). I managed to get sub-30 in the following school year.

 

[Ewks]

I saw Anssi in Finnish television solving and thought that "I have to learn that too". So I googled rubik's cube and solved the cube in a weekend. Monday when I went to school I could solve it in 10 minutes with my really crappy cube ( and I'm not talking about normally crappy cube I'm talking about a cube that is far beyond imaging). Since then I've been cubing and now over a year later I average almost sub-20.

 

[rjohnson_8ball]

I was in a puzzle store around 1980 in Cambridge Massachusetts, toward Harvard Square, up Mass Ave from MIT. I walked from puzzle to puzzle in the store, solving them. When I came to the Magic Cube, I figured I could solve it in a couple minutes. Twenty minutes later, I decided it earned the right for me to buy it. It did not seem easy, but I still figured I could still conquer it in a couple hours. It took me 2 days of determination, with most my effort trying to find and record some sequences for the last layer and apply them correctly. I was very surprised at how challenging it was.