Long Island has produced many notable athletes. Craig Biggio, Carl Yastrzemski, Tobias Harris, and Boomer Esiason are just a few of the all time greats that have come from Long Island.
However, none of these “Long Island Legends” hold as unbelievable of a World Record as Selden’s very own Eric Booker.
Booker – who is known by his nickname “Badlands” – is a professional eater and chugger who has gained quite a following on social media due to his incredible chugging feats and incredible persona.
Booker now has over 247,000 followers on Instagram where he posts videos of him chugging anything from water, soda, any liquid he can put in “Das Boot”' (which is a glass shaped like a boot), and – of course – Lemonade.
“Badlands” has been a professional eater and chugger since 1997, competing in the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest at Coney Island every year from 1997-2018 before switching over to professional chugging.
Some of Booker's accomplishments include eating 15 Qdoba burritos/ 8 minutes, two Pounds Chocolate Candy Bars in 6 minutes, 16.5 cannoli in six minutes, 4 pounds of corned beef hash in 1 minute 58 seconds, 50 Mini-Cheesecakes in 6 minutes, 49 glazed doughnuts in 8 minutes, 8.5 ounces of Raw Maui Onions in 1 minute, 9.5 one-pound pea bowls in 12 minutes, and 43⁄8 Entenmann's Pumpkin Pies in 12 Minutes.
Booker really started to grab headlines when he began chugging professionally as he won Inaugural Nathan's Famous chug contest at Coney Island on July 4th, 2021 when he chugged a gallon of lemonade in a mind boggling 37 seconds. Booker has yet to lose the event since it began being contested.
In May 2021, he set the Guinness World Record for the fastest time to drink two liters of soda in a whopping 18.45 seconds. A little more than a year later, In June 2022, he set two more Guinness World Records, drinking 1 liter of soda in 6.8 seconds and 1 liter of tomato juice in 1 minute and 18 seconds.
The 54 year old Selden Resident went into the 2023 event going through the same training regime he has been doing for years. He eats large amounts of fruit and vegetables and drinks a gallon of water in a sitting in order to stretch his stomach every day. He also chews over twenty pieces of gum at a time to build jaw strength as well. He maintains that competitive eating is a healthy sport and has surprisingly lost weight since he began competing.
This past Tuesday at Coney Island, Booker lowered his world record in lemonade chugging as he finished one gallon of lemonade in 23.08 seconds, besting his previous time by nearly a full second.
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Badlands Booker with the Nathan's Chug Champion Belt
@Badlandsbooker / Instagram
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