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What is the longest break you have taken from cubing, and Why?

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So over the summer, one of my best friends that actually got me into cubing sort of took a break, and when I ask him why he tells me that he is "burnt out." This has never happened to me, even after competitions where I literally cubed for like 14 hours in a day. I respect his decision to take a break, but I am curious, why do people get burnt out. What is the longest break you have ever taken from cubing? Did you take a break because you got burnt out, or for another reason?
 

efattah

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Feb 14, 2016
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The longest break I took from cubing was (1991->2015), or 24 years.
I stopped in 1991 with a 3x3 PB of 19.8 single and Rubik's Revenge (4x4) PB of 3:56; I couldn't beat them for so long that I sort of lost interest. Since there were no competitions or internet the only person to compete against was myself. Plus I was frustrated with the extremely hard-to-turn 3x3 and 4x4 at the time. If you have ever tried an original Rubik's Revenge, I doubt even Sebastien Weyer could solve it in less than 2 minutes because it is so hard to turn.
 

efattah

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I wouldn't know, like I said I took a long break and after the 2003 World Championships apparently faster cubes started appearing, probably faster 4x4's as well. I'd guess around 2005.
 

MrLunarWolf

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Nov 21, 2018
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The longest break I took from cubes wasn't because of burn out, but I had two surgery's and couldn't sit up and than right when I was about to recover, my brother got hit by a truck and had to have surgery, and than my mum had a baby so I didn't really have time, this lasted from about I wanna say march to July, and than I started school and had to get that situated for a month or so, and now I've been back on it since two days ago.

Edit: I actually thought about it and everything from the baby upward happened the year before, so that's around a total of a year half to two years
 

GAN 356 X

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Depending o you definition of 'cubing', about 2-3 years. I learnt in grade 1, averaging about 1 minute 50 seconds on a Rubiks Brand with LBL. I came back to cubing in 2017 when they were in fashion, then died away again. I have since learnt to solve faster with the CFOP Method and average around 22-25 secs
 

DGCubes

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I don't know if I've ever gone for more than a day or two without touching a cube since I learned back in 2012. I think I went for a week or so without actually sitting down and timing myself at the start of my first year at university; I remember it feeling really weird to have not *seriously* cubed for so long (although I'd still done some casual solves in that time). I definitely practice less when life gets busier, but I pretty much always cube at least a little bit each day.

(The only burnout I've experienced is usually over the summer when I cube so much that my wrists hurt. At that point I generally stop for a few hours/the rest of the day, but I wouldn't consider that an actual break. :p)
 

Purple Squad

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Sep 7, 2019
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The longest and only break i took was from January 2019 through June 2019. That comes up to six months. Then the thought came, What will I do with these cubes? Should I solve them? So I learned. Now my PB single is Sub-35
 

Dylan Swarts

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I started in May 2017 (15th for those of you who are like me and remember these stuff lol) and I kinda stopped in around July or August somewhere. Occasionally I would do a solve or two, but like it wasn't all that anymore. Probably had the assumption that comps weren't a thing in South Africa (which they aren't really, getting better now). I knew full PLL and like 90% oll. I had up till 5x5, excluding 2x2. Megaminx and 2 non-wca. When I heard of a comp with 2x2, 3x3, OH and pyra, I decided to go, I started practicing like heck, only 3x3. At the comp they convinced me to get a 2x2 and compete (did pretty okay, think I got a 8 single or something) and 3x3 broke my pb single with a 18.77. After that I have probably solved a cube every single day. Had a comp in April 2018 where Mats Valk attended here in RSA. Went to a comp with every event excluding 5bld, which was an AWESOME experience, in May 2018. In total today I have been to 6 competitions, broke NR for 4bld (10:45) (i avg 6 tho) and I am a BLD enthusiast.
Mainly I think the reason I stopped was because it got boring and I saw no progression, no point in trying harder when it felt like I was doing it for nothing. Even now, with the ability to get Multi-BLD AfR, but not having comps with that event in, it is kind of hard to stay motivated to keep practicing whilst I'm 2nd last in Africa with a 5/9 mbld. I definitely think if official comps weren't a thing, I would probably not put so much time into multi-bld and learning 3-style, and overall cubing so much. I have made great friends, both in South Africa and 2 from overseas. That's my little story, probably strayed off-topic here (lol, sorry), but hope it was atleast minorly interesting. Have a great day!!
 

Lapse.

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I took a 3 month break, because it was boring to me and i began to develop other interests. I came back because i saw some new speedcubers at my school, which is cool cause now i have people i can relate to on a daily basis :)
 

aerocube

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Feb 19, 2019
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probably 5 days,i never really feel bored of cubing because there's so many events,but sometimes i'm just doing other things
 
C

Cubinwitdapizza

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Me for about 5 days cuz one day I sold my 2x2 and 3x3 to my friend and then with that money and some other money I bought my current main, pyraminx, and skewb. All I had with that period of time was a RUBIKS brand and I did not feel like doing it.
 

mangosteen25

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Oct 29, 2019
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i know this may sound weird but i only like practice actually cubing in june, october, november, december, january, and february. (cos we have a month long holiday in june and i cube after exams which is after october). so the longest break is 4 months
 
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