A family affair: Fundraising for a worthy cause, as Islander sets world record for chin-ups

“You are 1% of the way there!”

“On fire!”

“Lookin’ ripped, woo hoo!”

“This guy is shredding.”

Those were voices in a Shelter Island living room overlooking West Neck Bay on Sunday, Aug. 21, cheering David Brush, 20, on his way to setting a new world record for the most chin-ups in 24 hours. When he started hoisting himself at noon on Saturday in his family’s home, he was hoping to beat the record of 5,340 in 24 hours.

By noon the next day, he had kept his chin up 6,757 times, and raised over $8,000 to fight Parkinson’s Disease.

David, who grew up spending summers on Shelter Island, was a distance runner at Xavier High School when he discovered something about himself. “I started to realize that I was pretty good at chin-ups because I don’t weigh a whole lot,” he said.

In college at Holy Cross, he continued to develop as a runner, once completing an impromptu marathon on the college track, armed with a timer and a bottle of water. When he called his mom, Diane Brush to tell her what he had just done, she responded by calling her sister who lived nearby, to take him to see a doctor.

An attraction to endurance sports seems to run in the family. His father Charles ran the New York marathon five times, and his mother Diane ran the Chicago Marathon with him in 2000. About six months ago, David started researching and training for the world record in chin-ups after his grandfather Donald Hess passed away. “I was devastated,” David remembered. “I coped through exercising.” 

He decided to follow the example of his cousin Henry Hvidsten, an endurance athlete who was doing events to raise money for Parkinson’s, the disease that took their grandfather. David thought he might have an advantage in a 24-hour event. “I have experience doing longer exercises,” he said. “I knew if I wanted to raise a lot of money, I had to do something big.”

From the clanging of a cowbell that marked Saturday’s noontime start, it was clear David was going big. He started with a pace of five reps per minute, a pace he would continue until he slowed to four a minute at 1:23 a.m. 

Spread out in front of David and the chin-up bar was a team of friends and family, neighbors, passers-by and expert witnesses, lying on the couch, sitting on the edge of their chairs, and checking the nutrition supplies on the dining room table.

Expert witnesses Cindy Belt, Billy Hawthorne, and Julia Romanchuk moved in and out of the room on four-hour shifts, as required by the Guinness Book of World Records.  

The gallant attempt at the record was live-streamed on YouTube with audio. As David continued to pile up reps through the wee hours, the cheers and comments from friends and supporters on social media buoyed him. His brothers Andrew and Alexander were there to keep records of each repetition and cheer him on.

Karl Basile-Baehr, a friend since childhood, was there to administer food, water and to tape up fingers as needed.

David’s cousin Anna, sporting outrageous bubble-lensed sunglasses (purchased on Saturday at a Shelter Island yard sale) fed Instagram with posts, reels, and a live-stream.

At the end of each set of five repetitions, things got loud. Anna on top of social media, fielded suggestions, “Mr. Berner is requesting the ‘down the bar’ perspective on the camera.” And yelled out messages of support as they came in.

David’s grandmother, Carole Hess, got a little misty as she remembered the last years of her husband, Donald’s life as he battled Parkinson’s, but still took the family (including 10 grandchildren) to Israel on a trip he had been dreaming of for years.

David’s aunt, Karen Brush, who lives on the other side of West Neck Bay, provided the merch required for such events; T-shirts with “Go David! 5500.”  At 6:43 p.m., David pulled past his own personal record of 2,000.

David said it was during the wee hours that he shifted his goal from just breaking the record to something greater. Another incentive to go for the max was the news that another athlete was attempting the record two hours behind him.

He upped his repetitions, “I was doing six for a couple of hours after I heard the guy was trying to beat the record, too.”

As morning came, his elbow hurt, but his form was still fine. “The rest of me felt awful, but I just kept going on. I knew the elbow wouldn’t get much worse than it was.”

After a long, sleepless night, he powered past 5,340 at 7:13 a.m. His team staged a balloon drop with confetti and noise makers to mark the beginning of a new world record. He just kept going.

From the first round of five chin-ups at noon on Saturday, to the final three before the buzzer on Sunday, David’s physical form was balanced and consistent.

There was talk of blisters, and an unfortunate incident with a salted potato — meant for David, his brother Andrew ate it, thinking it was a donut hole — but David was unflappable, calm, and even cheerful throughout the 24 hours he labored to meet, exceed, and blow out the previous world record.

The final reps put him at 6,757 at noon on Sunday and the roar from the house on Hilo Drive could easily have violated the neighborhood noise ordinance. As his team surrounded him, David was emotional and somewhat in awe of his own accomplishment.

And then there was his brother, standing before him with a Klondike bar, their grandfather’s favorite.