Taradale teen who broke swinging world record is still 'feeling the burn'

Taradale teen Patrick Cooper has beaten the world record for swinging continuously for 36 hours. Photo / Ian Cooper

Taradale's Patrick Cooper battled stinging sunburn, blustery wind and rain, fatigue and a small bout of nausea over the weekend to set a new world record for continuous swinging.

It's been several days since he completed the successful world record attempt and Cooper said he is still feeling the burn.

"I'm not too sore after the attempt last weekend, but I am still pretty sunburnt and tired," he said.

At 10.30pm on Sunday night Cooper calmly hopped off the swing to the sound of 'Hooked on a Feeling' and cheers ringing out around Taradale Park.

It was 36 hours after the 17-year-old started swinging on Saturday morning which, confirmation pending, will break the current record of 32 hours set by Tuakau woman Aimee Pivott in 2013.

The teenager is still gathering money from sponsors but is on track to donate $2300 to Starship Hospital.

Cooper said swinging during the daylight was definitely a lot easier than when the day turned to night.

"There was a point at about 4am where I thought about giving up, but I managed to get past it," he said.

"Every minute felt like hours."

Cooper was able to take five-minute breaks every hour, but had been stacking them up to take half-hour breaks every six hours instead.

He had also swapped out his shorts for long pants after getting a "stinging sunburn" during the first day.

It was also a challenge mentally, proving to be "a bit boring" at times, he said.

Battling rain and wind, he'd also run into technical difficulties with the generator powering the lights and video stream set up to record his attempt.

It was technical difficulties such as these which saw the previous attempt by fellow Taradale teen Charlie O'Brien discounted despite having swung for 33 hours and 11 minutes.

Luckily Cooper and his support crew were prepared with back-up systems.