A New Yoga World Record: Tree Pose on Earth, Wind and Water

by Alberto G. Güitrón April 14, 2016

The go-to resource for planning your yoga retreats & holidays. Find all you need to know about destinations and take your practice to the next level.
Discover Yoga Retreats now

As the weather gets warmer, outdoor yoga seems more and more enticing and the nature knows this; the sun shines, the flowers blossom and trees start growing on earth, on water and even in the air. You might think that real trees cannot grow in the air, but we’re talking about human trees!

That’s exactly how people in Amsterdam celebrated the beginning of the outdoor yoga season last Saturday. Buiten-Yoga.nl gathered a group of 54 persons in Blijburg beach to try to break the world record for most yogis performing the Tree Pose in three different ways: 37 of them felt the sand in between their toes; 12 did Vriksasana standing on a SUP board in the ocean; and the other 5 held the posture above ground, practicing some Aerial Yoga.

The weather cooperated with a partly sunny sky and a mild temperature, giving one of the best days of the year in Amsterdam so far to practice outdoor yoga. The group honored the rising sun with a series of sun salutations guided by Esther Ekhart, and the seeds in each participant quickly germinated in beautiful human trees supported by the three elements in Blijburg: earth, wind and water. And after the record attempt, some real seeds were planted all over the beach to celebrate spring.

The event was a complete success; the group now owns a new record for orchestrating such a unique yoga session and are now waiting to be included in the Guinness book of world records. The video of this feat is also being included as part of the RecordChallenge.nl collection of Dutch records.

“We’re really happy with the result, it was really amazing to get the first outdoor experience of the season with the M&M Stand Up Paddling and Aerial Yoga Nederland crews” says Jennifer Schregel, project manager and co-founder of Buiten-Yoga.nl. The two organizations provided the participants with the required supplies to break the world record. “It left us longing for many more outdoor yoga classes this year” adds Jennifer, with evident enthusiasm.

And they’re not done with the record! Jennifer is already thinking about expanding the event in 2017 and is planning to expand the event with SUP and Aerial Yoga workshops and one on the beach to attract more people to the world record. She is also planning on making it a yearly tradition to celebrate the beginning of spring in Northern Europe. In the end, no matter how hot or cold it is, people in Amsterdam has proven that, with the right amount of asanas and pranayama, trees can grow anywhere!