Simon’s first official success in solving a 3×3 cube blindfolded happened during a multiblind attempt lol.
By the way, the person judging Simon in the above video is Rowe Hessler, number 3 in the world in Multiblind. At the same competition, Rowe solved 49 out of 51 cubes! If you don’t know how multiblind works and just how staggering of an achievement this is, let me explain: he examined 51 cubes one by one, then put his blindfold on and solved them all in under one hour, without taking his blindfold off.
Simon has tried learning a new method for blindfolded solves and even wrote a p5.js sketch to help him memorize it:
Some more impressions from Cambridge Winter Challenge 2023, that also included a fewest moves event (looking for the most efficient solve and writing the moves down):
It’s amazing how at every competition we go to, Simon has been able to meet a world star. Here are a couple of memories from Mega Minds in Central Square 2023, Simon practicing together with Tommy Cherry (world champion in 3×3 blindfolded). Tommy is 25 times faster than Simon but just as down-to-earth:
At this event, Simon nearly made the Square1 cutoff, he says he is still sad about having missed it by 1 second:
Mega Minds was held at a gorgeous church in Cambridge. I think all churches should only be used as cubing competition venues.
This weekend, Simon set a personal record in the snowy beach state of Maine, where even pizza is served with blueberries. Next to Luke Garrett who is at least 10 seconds faster, but come on, Luke is ranking number 4 in the world! Maybe he has this aura around him that made Simon solve his cube faster as well?
A couple more snapshots from Maine Spring 2023:
Simon has also finally got a 4×4 average on record, because the cutoff at this competition was more generous:
Also solving non-WCA cubes. Can you tell these are actually versions of the same puzzle:
Geeks out of the box 