Wisconsin Life

If you lived through the 1980s, you might remember cassette tapes, big hair, floppy disks and this. The Rubik's Cube. 54 squares, 1 goal. To turn each side into a solid color. This shape-shifting puzzle has stumped millions of people. Millions of people but not Joshua Feran. This Waunakee teen not only collects these colorful cubes, he solves them faster than most people run the hundred yard dash. It usually takes me about nine to 11 seconds to solve it. But my best is 7.06 seconds. Joshua first picked up a Rubik's Cube when he was six years old. It took a few years to turn the corner. It was like 2009, when I was 11, when I figured out how to solve it finally. Since then I've pretty much been doing it a lot. He soon discovered the sport of speed cubing. Rubik's Cube tournaments across the country where he could compete against others who shared his new hobby. I saw a post on Facebook that there's going to be one in Minnesota so I decided that was a reasonable distance so I went to that. It was a while 'til my next competition. Then as I started getting faster, I started going to more competitions and making more friends. Fast forward to today and the 18-year old now competes in more than a dozen tournaments a year, shaping his skills in up to 18 different events. His fast fingers have almost conquered them all. I have 11 state records which is currently tied for the most. So have his toes. Joshua can use his feet to finish a cube in less than a minute. I was originally doing like, over a hundred feet-solves a day to try and get faster. From these building blocks, Joshua hopes to one day master every speed cubing event.

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The events are 2x2 through 7x7. And there's some other 3x3 events. There's 3x3 one handed, 3x3 with feet, 3x3 blindfolded, 3x3 multiple blindfolded, and then, the fewest moves challenge for 3x3, 4x4 and 5x5 blindfolded. And then there's Square One, Megminx, Scube, Pyraminx and Clock. Joshua's currently one of North America's ten fastest at solving cubes with his feet. And he's ranked second with a puzzle called the Rubik's Clock. Whether it's a triangle, trapezoid or timekeeper, he says the strategy is identical. After the 3x3 everything is pretty much the same. It's about reducing it to, basically, solve it like a 3x3. It takes it just takes longer as the cubes get bigger. There's different algorithms. I probably know well over 100 algorithms for different puzzles. That may sound overwhelming, but Joshua believes anyone can master the art of cubism. It just takes a search function and lots of practice. Looking it up on YouTube is pretty much the best. That's how I learned. That's how a lot of people learn. The best solvers in the world learn on YouTube originally. It eventually inspired him to create his own YouTube channel. I've always been interested in film, even before the Rubik's Cube. So when I started getting into the Rubik's Cube, I naturally wanted to make videos about it and solving it and showing other people my times and the different cubes I could solve. It was all downhill from there. Ohhh! First try. Joshua's YouTube channel has more than one million hits. He's landed endorsement deals from cube companies and traveled from coast to coast competing in tournaments. In 2013, he was a guest on "Good Morning America." Despite his dexterous digits, Joshua says a cubing career isn't in the cards. I make some money doing it, but not enough that it would warrant having this over a well-paying job. For now. I used to never see other people that could solve a cube, but cubing has grown so much in Wisconsin that at least half the time when I pull out a cube in public, I'll meet someone that knows how to solve it. Joshua's plan is to attend film school. Meanwhile, he's happy letting this 80s relic open doors for him, while making plenty of new friends along the way. That's one of the really cool things is knowing all of these people all around the world and seeing them every couple of years at competitions. And sharing a hobby that's a little square.