A Tauranga kayaker has landed a place in the Guinness Book of World Records after his 24-hour sea kayak effort was confirmed this week.

Kayak fishing guide Tim Taylor took on the endurance record having already secured records for being the youngest and the quickest to kayak around New Zealand in a solo voyage.

New Guinness World Record holder Tim Taylor. Photo: File.

The 24-hour record was secured on April 16 this year after Tim paddled from Salisbury Wharf in Mount Maunganui to Cathedral Cove and back again overnight.

In all the trip covered a distance of 214km – well beyond the previous record of 194.1km set by American Randy Fine in 1986.

Fine also holds the world record for continuous Eskimo rolls, but Tim's now moving in a different direction altogether, seeking new records in K1 paddling.

'I've decided to move over to K1 racing because there's not really any New Zealand males that are doing any good at the moment,” says Tim.

'You've got the girls, such as Lisa Carrington, going to the Olympics, but none of the boys are doing any good, so I thought it might be something I could handle.”

Bay of Plenty kayaker Lisa Carrington won gold at the 2012 Olympics in the K1 200m, and is currently world champion in the K1 200 and 500m.

'It's a completely different style of paddling to go into,” says Tim, 'so I'm having to re-learn everything and start from the bottom again.”

Tim is currently training on the Wairoa, and racing on the blue lake (Lake Tikitapu) near Rotorua.

He had his first race last weekend, in a kayak he's had only three weeks, and came last in the open men's division.

'It's a lot harder to paddle than anything else I have ever done,” admits Tim.

His years of sea kayaking experience, endurance fitness and reading waves, currents and open water conditions doesn't prepare him for any of the 1000m, 500m or 250m K1 disciplines.

'I'm having to change from endurance fitness to explosive fitness and power-based stuff,” says Tim. 'I'm having to re-build the whole body, so it's a lot of time in the gym.

'I've got to put on a lot of muscle mass. If you see the boys they are just massive, pure power.

'I was about 83 kg when I did that world record and my trainer says I have to put on at least 15kg, getting up towards 100kg.”

News that the world record is official was received in an email from Guinness at 6am on Thursday, and Tim is also expecting a certificate later.

Asked if he's going to defend his record, he answer is an emphatic 'no”. 'They are welcome to it,” he says. 'If they are better, then great. I'm sure someone will [beat it].

'You could go a lot bigger if you got the perfect conditions – paddling in those sorts of conditions at night time is really difficult, and that's why I wanted a nice easy ride more than anything.”

Tim's record attempt was accompanied by a group of people on board the 13.2 metre Tauranga-based charter vessel Klingon, which supplied Tim with food and drink during the 24-hour paddle up and down the coast.

There were seven people on the boat because of the strict Guinness requirements for evidence of record attempts, including independent witnesses and timekeepers.