Jurgy Family

The Jurgy family rests in two of the 300 custom made hammocks made for the chance to break the world record for most people lying in hammocks at the same time on July 18.

Want to break the easiest world record? Next Saturday, July 18, that opportunity arrives.

Bryce Jurgy and his wife, Nellie Jurgy, will attempt to break the world record for most people lying in hammocks at the same time July 18 at their campground, The Park at Swan Valley, located near the Grand Tetons in Swan Valley, Idaho.

The current record was set 10 years ago. The record attempt will cap participation at around 300 people, with about 100 tickets left for purchase. Tickets for the event are $10 and must be purchased in advance at HammockWorldRecords.com.

“The whole idea is just to come out and have fun,” Bryce said. “It’s the easiest world record to break: all you have to do is chill in a hammock for a few minutes.”

Outdoor gear company Grand Trunk is supplying all of the hammocks and hammock stands for the attempt, including custom hammocks designed specifically for the event.

The record attempt will take place on the event’s final day, a festival featuring food trucks, a carnival, bounce houses, a mechanical bull, a rock climbing wall, face painting and live music.

The Jurgys have lived for adventure. After living a fairly standard life, a health scare for Nellie made them rethink everything.

From that, they created a YouTube channel, The Jurgys, which follows the couple through their adventures while encouraging others to get outside and enjoy nature.

“We hope that when people come across our content or come to our campground, it inspires them to do that more,” Bryce said.

After about a year of filming, their small channel was gaining popularity, and after one video hit a million views, success felt within reach.

However, success wasn’t why they started their channel.

“I turned to my wife, and I was like, this is becoming a thing, like this actually didn’t pay our bills,” he said. “She said, ‘That’s really cool that it got a million views, but what did that do for people? What actually did it do for them?’”

That shift in attitude moved their content from small local adventures to bigger ones. The couple bought an RV and set out on a new kind of journey.

Through the RV, they traveled to all 50 states, visiting local spots people could explore on their own and hiding geocache-style treasure boxes along the way for people to find. After a slow start with no one finding the treasures, interest eventually took off, and the project grew alongside their larger goal: removing people’s excuses not to explore.

“We saw a lot of comments like, ‘That’d be awesome, I wish I could do something like that,’” he said. “We thought, let’s adventure everywhere in the 50 states, so that no one has an excuse, and we can show, hey, this is literally two hours from your house, come out here.”

Their excursions eventually led them to their property in Swan Valley, where they’ve built new adventures for families.

“We decided to get this campground to create a place for families to come out and adventure with their loved ones,” he said.

It started as a way for them to adventure on their own terms. Now, the Jurgys have shown others that adventure is possible anywhere, and the hammock world record is just their latest one.

“You don’t create relationships by accident, and usually when you do outings outside in nature, you become closer with the people you’re with,” he said. “So that’s in a nutshell, our whole goal is to get people out more with their loved ones, so that they bond more and get more value out of life.”

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