21 Guinness World Records Broken By Californians In 2021

CALIFORNIA — Call them weird or wonderful, 2021 Guinness World Record breakers came out of the woodwork in California.

After Californians' 2020 Guinness World Record-breaking year during the pandemic, these Californians still made their mark in the Guinness record book in 2021. Some hopefuls worked to attain records they already held, and others were determined to make their mark against the gold standard for measuring feats of strength, endurance and out-of-this-world oddities.

Using The Force With This Award-Winning Collection

A Petaluma man has amassed the largest collection of "Star Wars" memorabilia. Steve Sansweet maintains the record, originally won on May 4 in 2015.

All of his collection has been audited and cataloged, and he expects the process to take years to complete as his collection continues to grow. At last count, he has almost 500,000 unique items in his award-winning collection, according to Guinness World Records.

Pulling His Weight With Pull Up Award In Northern California

Novato resident Philip Grauss tried his hand at the most switch grip pull-ups in one minute.

In January, Grauss worked to achieve 27 switch grip pull-ups in one minute.

"If you work hard, you can achieve your goals, no matter how daunting," Grauss said after completing the feat.

Domino Robot Dominates Record In Mountain View

A robot designed by Mark Rober, Josh Kelly, Alex Baucom, Alex Nagy, Jon Marcu, John Luke Miller and Chris Bozak managed to set up and topple 6,141 dominoes in one hour, according to the Guinness World Records.

In July, the Mountain View-based robot placed palettes of 300 dominoes at a time to complete the task.

Later this year, Rober and his colleagues went on to use his robot known as The Dominator to win another world record, with a mural based upon 100,000 dominoes built within 24 hours.

"I suck at dominoes, but I'm good at engineering," Rober says.

This Brewery Is Going Farther

Chico-based Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. tried its hand at an unlikely Guinness World Record in March.

The brewery wanted up to see if its trebuchet would fling a projectile farther than any other. In March, they proved that, yes, it could.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. earned its record by flinging an object 133.75 or 438.81 feet, and the projectile was airborne for approximately 5.53 seconds.

A World Record Of A Different Type

Leave this one to the brainiacs at Stanford University's Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The Guinness World Record for the fastest typing speed, using a brain-computer interface, was achieved in May. The work aims to help those suffering from paralysis, according to a report from hhmi.org.

"As the participant imagined writing a letter or symbol, sensors implanted in his brain picked up on patterns of electrical activity, which an algorithm interpreted to trace the path of his imaginary pen," according to the journal Nature.

The subject, a 65-year-old participant in the research study, achieved typing 90 characters per minute with 94 percent accuracy, the study shows.

The results were published in Nature.

Celebrity Awards In 2021

Columbian singer Shakira now holds the Guinness World Record for the Most Likes for a woman on her Facebook page.

As of April, Shakira has earned 111,705,557 likes, as compared with Rihanna (97,458,331) and most liked person, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who at that time had 124,726,150 likes.

Los Angeles Area

Los Angeles area record-holders made their mark in 2021, from record egg-breaking to the farthest distance in an electric car without refueling.

Teen Angst Wins Out For Murrieta Singer Olivia Rodrigo

Inland Empire 17-year-old Olivia Rodrigo earned her Guinness World Record in early 2021. In January, her hit song "Drivers License" reached 100 million streams on Spotify just 10 days after the song was released, according to Spotify's Global Top 200 charts.

The tune, filled with teenage drama, racked up 91,697,378 streams and went over the 100 million threshold with another 10,936,609 plays on Jan. 17. That amount of streams more than doubled by the next month. She also won for the most streamed track in the first week of release, with 65,873,080 seven days from release, and 6.14 million streams in the first 48 hours, according to Guinness World Records.

Tarzana Man Breaks Record... And Eggs

What's the saying? In order to make an omelet, you've got to break a lot of eggs? Ronald Sarchian of Tarzana did just that, with the most eggs crushed with a punch in one minute in February.

He punched his way through 334 eggs to earn his third Guinness World Record, on Feb. 27.

This year, Sarchian also stacked the most cornhole bags in 30 seconds (26), beating his personal best of 24.

He also broke through 110 clay sporting targets in one minute in May.

A serial record-breaker, Sarchian has also broken the record for the most hits of a tire with a sledgehammer in one minute, the fastest time to break open five piñatas, and crushing the most eggs with a kick in one minute.

Solving Speedcube Puzzles On The Go In Altadena

Altadena resident Samuel Smookler, 13, tried his hand at a Guinness World Record in March. The teen worked toward his goal of the fastest time to solve a rotating puzzle cube while riding on a hoverboard.

Also known as "speedcubing," he has been a speedcuber for five years, he says. He combined his passions of hoverboarding and speedcubing to break the record, solving the puzzle in 15.86 seconds.

Wind 'Em Up With This World Record Toy Collection

Marla Mogul has collected wind-up toys since she was 27. After a failed attempt at the record in 2012, she kept collecting and finally won her award in March 2021.

The YouTube maven shares her love of wind-ups with other aficionados online. She has amassed 1,258 toys, making her the wind-up toy mogul.

Could You Eat Over 1 Pound Of Sushi?

A Simi Valley man has earned the right to call himself the Guinness World Record Sushi Eating Champion this year.

Michael Takla indulged in 1.063 pounds (471.5 grams) of sushi in just one minute in August to win the feat.

"Michael likes to visit sushi bars for his YouTube channel," according to a Guinness spokesperson. He made the attempt eating Alaska Rolls, a type of sliced maki roll made with salmon, avocado and cream cheese rolled in capelin roe, according to FoodPanda.com

It's Sweater Weather In Los Angeles

Theodore Kinsella, 12, donned 30 sweaters at once in February, earning the Guinness World Record for the most sweaters worn at once. Each sweater had to go below his waist, and most of them came from The Gap.

While this may not sound impressive, the sight of it will likely take your breath away. Watch as Theodore decided to attempt this record for personal achievement.

Running On Empty: Longest Trip In Electric Car

Los Angeles area Toyota workers Wayne Gerdes and Bob Winger took the longest trip without refueling in a hydrogen fuel cell electric car from Aug. 23-24.

The pair drove from the Toyota Research Center in Gardena, up to Santa Barbara, and back down to San Diego. They repeated the same trip, without refueling, the following day, driving a total of 1,360.378 kilometers, or 845.3 miles, according to Guinness reports.

Gerdes is a prior Guinness World Records title holder for lowest fuel consumption driving to the 48 contiguous U.S. States and lowest fuel consumption driving across the U.S. from coast to coast.

JPL Sends Biggest Rover To Mars

Pasadena-based JPL and NASA have sent the largest planetary exploration rover into space. Perseverance, built for NASA by JPL engineers, touched down in the Jezero crater on Mars and is still working to improve our understanding of the red planet.

"Perseverance [has] the best possible chance of finding fossil evidence of microbial life — a long-term goal of NASA's Mars exploration program," according to the JPL Guinness World Record winners.

Who Wants To Be In Pictures!

Los Angeles-based Netflix broke the online casting call record in August, with a total of 4,139 submissions to the Aug. 10 event, according to Guinness.

For 24 hours, the submissions streamed into the Netflix casting department, earning it the new world record.

The online casting call took place to promote the launch of Netflix Reality, it said.

Farther south in San Diego, some top dogs showed some record-breaking skills.

Playing Catch With Hot Dogs?

These two Santa Clarita friends spent many a day playing football and baseball. Still, they always dreamed of winning their own Guinness World Record.

In April, Branden Roelofson and Anthony Balta used their sports know-how to earn the record for the Longest Throw And Catch Of A Hot Dog Sausage Into A Bun. Knowing their sports background, the pair decided this was a record they could break.

The sausage was thrown a total of 47.628 meters (or 156.26 feet) and caught with the bun.

The previous record was beaten by over 12 feet.

Soccer Ball Tricks And Records Abound

A Westlake Village soccer player has broken two records this year. Tasha-Nicole Terani earned her Guinness World Record for the Most Between The Leg Figure 8s.

In one minute, she managed to maneuver the soccer ball 18 times in a complete through the legs of an opposing player in figure-eight formations, according to Guinness World Records.

She broke another record for the Most Between The Leg Figure Eights in 30 seconds.

"I hope to inspire women and children to reach their full potential," she said.

San Diego Dogs - Wish & Halo - Win 'Ulti-Mutt' Trick World Record

An El Cajon dog trainer guided her pups through 28 tricks in under 1 minute in 2021.

She marks correct behavior with positive reinforcement, she says.

Emily Larlham earned her world record in January for guiding her dogs, Wish and Halo, to completing the most tricks in one minute.

The pair of pups completed 28 tricks to win the record.

Vice President Kamala Harris Makes History, And World Record

Starting in January, Kamala Harris set three Guinness World records at once as she began her role as the 49th vice president of the United States on Jan. 20.

• The first South Asian American vice president of the U.S.
• The first Black vice president of the U.S.
• The first female vice president of the U.S.

Have you ever set your sights on winning a Guinness World Record? Register at www.guinnessworldrecords.com to learn more and let us know when you do for a chance to be featured on Patch California.