Human Achievement Records

Oldest Youngest Endurance Skills Strength Journeys Group

Record holders and places are Canadian unless noted.
(GWR - Guinness World Record)

Oldest Badminton Player
As of February 2003, 96-year-old Henry Paynter, who was born in UK on February 27, 1907, and now lives in Canada, plays badminton regularly at the Kelowna Badminton Club, British Columbia. (GWR 2004)

Oldest Person To Ski To The North Pole
At 77, Jack MacKenzie joined a ski expedition to the North Pole as part to mark the International Year of Older Person. He and eight other members of the team skied 62 miles to the pole in five and half days in April 1999. (GWR 2001)

Oldest Skateboarder
80-year-old Wong Yui Hoi, who was born in China in January 1920 and now lives in Canada, snowboards regularly. He took up snowboarding in 1995. (GWR 2001)

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Youngest Recipient of an Official Gallantry Award
Julius Rosenberg was given the Medal of Bravery on March 30, 1994 for foiling a black bear that attacked his three-year-old sister on September 20, 1992. He was five years old at the time of the incident. (GWR 2003)

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Longest Marriage
Joseph Henry Jarvis (b. June 15, 1899) and his wife Annie (b. October 10, 1904) have been married for 79 years as of 2001. They wed on July 15, 1921, at Mooshide, Yukon, and had 12 children. (GWR 2001)

Longest Waterskiing Session
Ralph Hildebrand and Dave Phillips waterskied for 56 hr. 35 min. 3 sec. around Indian Arm, north of Vancouver, from June 10 to 12, 1994. They waterskied 2,152.3 km (1,337.4 miles) at average speed of 48 km/h (30 mph). (GWR 2002)

Most Vertical Feet Skied In 24 Hours
Neil Weisenberg skied 46,920 m (153,944 ft.) from February 27 to 28, 1999, at Kimberly Alpine Resort in British Columbia. He made 102 runs from top to bottom, an equal distance to five times the height of Everest. (GWR 2002)

Longest Drumming Marathon
Steven Darvill drummed 36 hours at Angel Auto Glass in North Vancouver on January 2, 2001, and played 490 songs. (Record was broken in November 2002.)(GWR 2002)

Most Yo-Yo Loops
"Fast" Eddy McDonald of Toronto completed 21,663 loops with a yo-yo in three hours on October 14, 1990 in Boston, Massachusetts. This broke his previous record of 8,437 loops set on July 14, 1990, in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. (GWR 2000)

Most Step-Ups
Terry Heidt completed 3,967 step-ups in an hour at Penticton High School, British Columbia, on April 18, 1997, using a 15-in. high exercise bench (GWR 2000)

Heaviest Weight Pulled By A Dog-Sled Team
On October 22, 2000, 210 dogs pulled a sled attached to a Kenworth tractor and a seven-axle rail trailer with a track mounted drill in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. The 65,910 kg (145,302 lb.) vehicle was pulled a distance of six blocks at a reached speed of 15 km/h (9 mph). (GWR 2003)

Longest Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation
Brent Shelton and John Ash completed a CPR marathon lasting 130 hours from October 28 to November 2, 1991, at Regina. (GWR 2000)

Longest Stretcher-Bearing Distance
Between May 27 and 30, 1996, two teams of four men from 1 Field Ambulance, Canadian Forces Base, Calgary, carried a stretcher bearing 63.5-kg (140-lb) "body" for 300.4 km (186.66 miles) from Edmonton to Calgary. (GWR 2003)

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Most Bras Unhooked In One Minute With One Hand
Jason Dahmer unhooked one-handed 16 bras worn under t-shirts at Columbus, Ohio, on August 17, 2001. (GWR 2004)

Most Chainsaw Juggling Throws
Tom Comet juggled three gas-driven chainsaws for 44 throws (14 complete rotations and two catches) on August 5, 2002, at Princess Street Gardens, Edinburgh, UK. (GWR 2004)

Most Yo-Yo Tricks
"Fast Eddie" McDonald completed 35 yo-yo tricks in one minute at the Paulson Street Parket in Toronto on July 22, 1999. (GWR 2001)

Fastest Recital of Hamlet's Soliloquy
Sean Shannon recited the 260 words from Hamlet's soliloquy "To Be Or Not To Be" in 23.8 sec. at Edinburgh, UK, on August 30, 1995. (GWR 2002)

Fastest CN Tower Climber
Brendan Keenoy climbed the CN Tower in 7 min. 52 sec. on October 29, 1989. (GWR 2000)

Fastest Pogo Stick Up The CN Tower
American Ashrita Furman pogo-sticked up 1,899 steps of the CN Tower in 57 min 51 sec on July 23, 1999. (GWR 2002)

Most Barrels Jumped
Yvon Jolin Junior jumped 18 barrels, a distance of 8.43 m (27 ft. 8 in.) at Terrebonne, Quebec on April 12, 1980. Marie-Jose Houle jumped over 13 barrels at a distance of 6.84 m (22 ft. 5 in.) at Lasalle, Quebec on March 1, 1987. (GWR 2003)

Largest Bubble Wall
Most Concentric Bubbles Blown
Fan-Yang of Mississauga created a 156-ft. bubble wall with an area of about 4,000 ft.² at the Kingdome Pavillon in Seattle on August 11, 1997. The bubble stayed up continuously for between 5 and 10 seconds. He also blew 9 concentric bubbles. (GWR 2000)

Most Soap Bubble Domes
Fan Yang set the record for most bubble domes created inside each other at Guinness World Records in Finland on October 20, 2001. He blew 12 soap bubble domes within each other in the manner of a Russian matriska doll. (GWR 2004)

Fastest 50 KM (31 Miles) Cycling Backward
Matthew Poynter covered 50 km (31 miles) on a bicycle in 2 hr. 52 min. 11 sec. while facing backwards on August 28, 1999. (GWR 2002)

Memorizing Cards
American Dave Farrow memorized, on a single sighting which were then shuffled together, a random sequence of 52 separate pack of cards (2,704 cards) with six errors at the Guinness World of Records Museum in Niagara Falls, Ontario on June 24, 1996. (GWR 1998)

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Greatest Weight Broken on Chest While Lying on a Bed Of Nails
While lying a bed of nails, Lee Graber (USA) had concrete blocks weighing a total of 222.07 kg (489 lb. 9.76 oz.) place on his chest and then broken with a 6.35 kg (14 lb.) sledgehammer on June 23, 2001. The event took place at Ontario Place in Toronto. (GWR 2003)

Most Push-Ups In One Hour
Roy Berge performed 3,416 push-ups in one hour on August 30, 1998, in Ottawa. (GWR 2002)

Most Consecutive One-Arm Chin-Ups
Robert Chisholm completed 22 consecutive one-arm chin-ups at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario on December 3, 1982. (GWR 2003)

Heaviest Truck Pull
Kevin Bast pulled a 24,640 kg (54,321 lb.) truck over 30.48 m (100 ft.) at Cobourg, Ontario on June 30, 2001. (GWR 2003)

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Greatest Amount Raised For A Charity Walk/Run
Terry Fox raised $24.7 million CAN ($21.2 million US) while running with an artificial leg from St. John's, Newfoundland to Thunder Bay, Ontario, from April 12 to September 2, 1980. He had to stop after covering 5,373 km (3,339 miles) after cancer reappeared in his leg and died June 28, 1981. The Terry Fox Run is the largest one-day cancer research fundraising event with more than 1.2 million participants worldwide each year. (GWR 2002)

Greatest Distance Covered in 24 Hours in a Wheelchair
Nik Nikzaban wheeled himself over 124.86 km (77.58 miles) in 24 hours from April 6 to 7, 2000. The endurance event took place on a Handsworth Secondary School track in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Nik completed 301 laps of the track. (GWR 2003)

Longest Journey By Wheelchair
Rick Hansen wheeled his wheelchair for 40,075.16 km (24,901.55 miles) through four continents and 34 countries during his "Man In Motion World Tour" from March 21, 1985 to May 22, 1987. (GWR 2003)

Longest Solar-Powered Journey
Radiance, built by Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, traveled 7,043.5 km (4,376.62 miles) from Halifax to Vancouver from July 1 to 29, 2000. (GWR 2002)

Amphibious Circumnavigation By Car
Australian Ben Carlin arrive in Montreal on May 8, 1958, in amphibious jeep Half-Safe having completed a circumnavigation of 62,765 km (39,000 miles) over land and 15,450 km (9,600 miles) by sea and river. (GWR 2002)

Fastest Trans-Canada Walk
Clyde McRae walked 6,057 km (3,764 miles) from Halifax to Vancouver for 96 days from May 1 to August 4, 1973.

Greatest Distance Covered on Bicycle (All Continents)
John W. Hathaway, of Vancouver, has visited every continent travelling 81,430 km (50,600 miles) from November 10, 1974, to October 6, 1976. (GWR 1998)

Trans-Americas By Car
Garry Sowerby and his co-driver and navigator, American Tim Cahill, drove a 1988 GMC Sierra K3500 23,720 km (14,739 miles) from the tip of South America to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in an elapsed time of 23 days 22 hr. 43 min. from September 29 to October 22, 1987. (GWR 1998)

Greatest Distance By Snowmobile
Andre, Carl and Denis Boucher and John Outzen drove their snowmobiles for 16,499.5 km (10,252 miles) in 56 riding days from January 2 to March 3, 1992, from Anchorage, Alaska, to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. (GWR 1998)

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Most People On A Single Pair Of Skis
80 people skied a distance of 120 m (394 ft) on 76-m (250-ft) pair of skis at the Norway/Keskinada Giant Ski Event in Ottawa on February 2, 2002. (GWR 2004)

Longest Paperclip Chain By A Team
A 32.2-km (20-mile) paperclip chain was made in 24 hours by 60 people as part of an art exhibition at the SKOL Contemporary Art Centre in Montreal on April 1, 2001. (GWR 2004)

Largest Tire-Rolling Group
81 people rolled a tire down a 100-m (328-ft) course in the 'Running of the Tires' in Toronto on October 13, 2001. The event was sponsored by Dunlop Tires and Big Brothers of Toronto. (GWR 2004)

Largest Multiple-Venue Simultaneous Dance
A total of 196,569 people from 681 schools across Canada danced simultaneously for eight minutes during the 'activ8 the Nation's Schools Hokey Pokey Challenge' on April 9, 2002. (GWR 2004)

Largest Easter Egg Hunt
8,200 children aged six to 12 hunted for 254,000 chocolate eggs in Queen Victoria Park, Niagara Falls, Ontario on April 14, 2001. The event was organized by Hershey Canada and Canadian Niagara Hotels, Inc. (GWR 2003)

Most Trees Planted In A Day
34,083 year-old white spruce seedlings were planted in the Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area in Alberta by 293 staff, students and parents of Fultonvale Elementary and Junior High School on May 18, 1999. (GWR 2001)

Biggest Human Conveyor Belt
1,000 University of Guelph students formed a human conveyor belt carrying a surfboard along its entire length on September 7, 1998. (GWR 2001)

Biggest Hug
462 students, teachers, parents and guests of Brock Corydon School in Winnipeg on December 18, 1998. I believe that this record has since been broken. (GWR 2001)

Fastest Bare-Handed House Demolition
15 members of the Aurora Karate Dojo demolished a 10-room house in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan using their bare hands in 3 hr. 6 min. 50 sec. on May 11, 1996. (GWR 2001)

Biggest Scottish Country Dance
512-some reel dance was staged in Toronto by the local branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society on August 17, 1991. (GWR 2001)

Largest Guitar Band
1,322 guitarists played Taking Care Of Business in unison for 68 min. 48 sec. organized by the Music West of Vancouver on May 7, 1994. (GWR 1998)

Largest Nude Photo Shoot
Over 2,500 people took part in a nude photo shoot lying on the streets of Montreal on May 5, 2001 by US photographer Spencer Tunick. This record has been broken. (GWR 2002)

Most Couples Kissing Simultaneously
1,588 couples kissed simultaneously for ten seconds on February 11, 2000 in Sarnia, Ontario. "The Big Kiss" was sponsored by a local radio station. This record was broken in January 2004 in Brazil. (GWR 2003)

Longest Human Centipede
1,665 University of Guelph, Ontario, students moved 98 ft. 5 in. with their ankles tied together on September 2, 1996. (GWR 2000)

Most Participants In A Bike Ride
An estimated 45,000 cyclists took part in the 75-km (46-mile) Tour de L'Ille de Montreal on June 7, 1992. (GWR 1998)

Largest Column Of Coins
A 1.85 m (6 ft. 1 in.) column of coins was built by the British Columbia branch of the Kidney Foundation of Canada in South Surrey on September 8, 1996. The total value of the coins was $85,618 Can. (GWR 1998)

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