Johnny Cruz Buckingham, AKA MrWorldRecords, reached a top speed of 69 mph while being towed behind a car across a parking lot on skis, claiming the Guinness World Record for fastest towed asphalt skiing last August. The run clocked 111.04 km/h, as certified by a witness using a radar gun on a pre-measured, flat track.
Dressed in a yellow riding suit, he completed multiple practice runs, releasing the tow rope at the end of each pass and skidding safely to the side, before committing to his record-setting attempt.
At the center of Buckingham’s record-breaking efforts is a nonprofit, the World Record Breakers Club, which he founded and funds through his attempts, donating all money raised to children’s programs. “The records are cool,” Buckingham told Guinness World Records. “They’re fun. They keep me in shape because a lot of these you’ve got to train for.”
Buckingham, an Air Force major and KC-135 Stratotanker veteran who recorded more than 120 combat missions over five deployments in the Middle East, currently holds 17 Guinness World Records and has five other recent attempts under review. Since his August asphalt skiing run, he has added five more titles to his name: the most fire knife spins on a balance board in one minute (104), the most catches of a medicine ball wearing boxing gloves by a pair in one minute (32), the fastest time to burst 100 balloons with the feet (19.78 seconds), the fastest time to travel to all New York City Ferry stops (6:59:20), and a returning mark for fire knife spins.
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Asphalt skiing is not the only terrain that record-chasers have conquered on two planks. Last year, French skier Mahé Freydier set the record for fastest sand skiing after flying down the dunes of Toro Mata in Acarí, Peru, at 75 mph (121 km/h). In 2024, UK skier Joshua Bregman completed the highest altitude ski-BASE jump in Nepal, launching from a mountainside and landing a leap from 18,753 feet (5,716 meters).
Buckingham’s next challenge may involve more sand. He has been planning a new world record attempt for sand skiing, targeting a speed of 76 mph down a dune in Peru. “I’ll be in shorts and a T-shirt and just skiing down a big old sand dune,” he said.
