Puff Cigar Discussion Forums

HVACMAN · 11-19-2006, 01:15 PM

Yesterday I had the privilege of witnessing the creation of the worlds longest cigar! It happened in Ybor city, which is a part of Tampa Bay. My friend Jim and I spent the day checking out vendors cigars and accessories. We watched with delight as the former record of 66 feet was surpassed to a whopping 70 feet, a new world record, and then later they extended the cigar to 100 feet to top it off. I watched as they took sections, and coupled them with wrappers in a way that was real team work. About a dozen or so helpers who along with the rollers, worked in unison to turn the cigar and wrap it at the same time, section by section. Present was the Fuente family, and a bunch of older women who had spent all their lives rolling cigars. One woman was 92 years old! There is a magazine called Cigar City that informs us of these great ladies feats. I was fortunate enough to receive a poster of this event signed by the 3 marque rollers. What a day, and what an event. Just wanted to share this tidbit...

Mr.Maduro · 11-19-2006, 01:17 PM

Wow!! Great experience!!

n2advnture · 11-19-2006, 02:15 PM

Man, only beat Jose Cueto's record by 3 feet?! I know if I was going to break a record like that, I'd go for something REALLY impressive like a football field - LOL!

None the less, must have been pretty cool!

~Mark

Viper139 · 11-19-2006, 03:51 PM

Would have loved to been there to see that. I am amazed at the skills it takes to roll a normal cigar much less one of that length.

boonedoggle · 11-19-2006, 04:37 PM

Dang! Any pics of this sucker yet?

magicsmoke · 11-19-2006, 05:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n2advnture

Man, only beat Jose Cueto's record by 3 feet?

I know Mark is one of the elder statesmen on CS, highly revered, with a phenomenal ring gauge and all the other accoutrements that bring authority to members of this forum. Having read and appreciated his contributions, I also know that he is enough of a gentleman to forgive an impudent junior member (I carefully avoided claiming to be younger) second guessing his assertions.

So, as I have often been told to do in the USA, I did the math (or at least the arithmetic) and discovered that 70-66=4 not 3, and 100-66=34, a more than 50% increase. If replicated in the long jump, a similar percentage increase will take the world record from Mike Powell's long standing (or at least jumping) 1991 achievement of 8.95 metres to an unbelievable 13.56 metres (over 44.488 feet). Reporter Chris Echegaray, from the Tampa Tribune, even seems undecided whether the cigar was 100 feet or 101 feet, but that's the way it is with statistics and records (pictures at this link, at least until they update the front page):

http://www.tampatrib.com/

A previous record claimant, Frank Ruiz of Otoao Cigars, was very bitter that his record was never acknowledged in some quarters, despite wide publicity and judges of standing:

Quote:

11. I read an article in Cigar Aficionado web site that Cuba established in Nov 2002 a new Guinness World Record for the longest cigar of 45 feet? That is just false information given by some writers from Cigar Aficionado. I hold the record at 58 feet 4 inches. I did is in June 15, 2002 at the Five Seasons Brewery Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia. We had about 300 witnesses. We made the local news: FOX channel 5. The official person who measure the cigar is a former Secret Service Agent. We had 15 people move the cigar from the bar site to a display area in the patio of the restaurant. We made a VHS tape that shows the event. The writers at Cigar Aficionado are again giving misinformation. Just the way they rate Cuban Cigars better than any other cigars they rate. I think they are doing a disservice to great cigars and great cigar makers. They feel like Cuban cigars are the standard and they always rate Cuban cigars better than any other cigars and that also false. Cuban cigars used to be great in the past but, now they are just plain junk. They are poorly constructed with not properly aged tobacco and poor quality wrappers. Most torcedores in Cuba just do crap work and steal as much tobacco leaves as they can to do their own counterfeits. Castro is from time to time mixing Dominican tobacco with Cuban tobacco...I can go on... To add, Tobacco Times (one of my sponsors) sent Cigar Aficionado a copy of the article showing my June 15 record attempt and Cigar Aficionado did not published it. I sent two e-mails to Cigar Aficionado telling them to make things right and give credit who credit deserves and they did not even acknowledge my e-mails. If they have some backbone as a company they should tell the truth to their readers. The Cubans did broke their older 36 feet 4 inches April 2001 record in November 2002, but they had no idea that an American had already destroy that record. They did 45 feet. I did 58 feet 4 inches. That is 13 feet 4 inches longer. I encourage you to sent an e-mail to Cigar Aficionado and tell them to be a responsible magazine and tell the truth.

http://www.otoaocigars.com/facts.htm

Noting that the Guinness judge never made it to the event, one hopes that Wallace & Margarita Reyes, co-owners of Gonzalez Habano Cigar Co., do not have the same problems as Ruiz. Anyone prepared to tell stand-in judge Arturo Fuentes Jr., president of Tampa Sweethearts Cigar Co., that his credibility is questioned? At least [HVACMAN] will be able to tell his grandchildren, "I was there. I know what I saw!"

rockyr · 11-19-2006, 05:13 PM

That is amazing! I wonder how the draw is?

Blaylock · 11-19-2006, 05:22 PM

Looks like you had a great day.

70 feet...Sounds like something this guy might smoke:

A classic movie from my youth. Anyone remember seeing "The Amazing Colossal Man"?

n2advnture · 11-19-2006, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by magicsmoke

I know Mark is ...

My fault. 1.) I was going off the top of my head on the 67 feet since I converted it from 20.41 meters in my head (think it's 3.2808 per foot). 2.) I didn't read the "extended to 100 feet" part.

Well written though

~M