"The longest I paddled in a day was 98km and it always annoyed me I didn't make it to 100."
He thought to himself, "If we get back that's the 200, that's the record and anything else is just a bonus.
"And I knew I could hide under the cliffs most of the way, it was really rough during different parts of the night."
The toughest part was venturing further out to sea to paddle around the Bowentown sand bar with the lack of visibility through the night when strong winds picked up the swell.
"Once you get out there, just the wind was insane for a period of an hour and a bit.
"Just the scariest paddling I've ever done.
"I always knew the night time was going to be a challenge but it was insanely difficult and scary."
He celebrated smashing the previous 24-hour record of 194.1km at the mouth of the Tauranga Harbour at 4.30am with more than three hours still to paddle.
But it was the extra few kilometres that sealed the deal for Mr Taylor and his seven-strong support crew.
"At 5am, when we reached 200km, that was the moment we all thought we'd done it, we've got the record, any more is just cream on the cake."
To clock up more kilometres he carried on towards Papamoa before calling it a day at 7am, at about 214km.
"I got to 7 o'clock and my body just locked up. I was frozen stiff and I was pretty much just going in circles."
He said he was "wrecked" and struggling to even dress himself as he crawled into bed at 11am but feeling ecstatic that he had achieved his goal.
"It's part of who I am, pushing the boundaries a bit."
