A Montreal software engineer has set a Guinness World Record for longest flight by a hoverboard.

Alexandru Duru, 30, flew 275.9 meters - five times the old record - above Lake Ouareau in Western Quebec.

He hovered at heights of up to five metres in the flight last August. The Guinness authorities verified the video and certified as a record Friday.

It takes eight propellers and eight motors to fly.

“It's very relaxing somehow,” said Duru. “Once you get to fly, you're just thinking (about which way to go).”

Duru and his business partner in All Terrain Hoverboards hope to build a prototype of their device for sale to the public by year’s end.

“The goal would be to get this thing in the hands of others,” he said.

Duru received some funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Giving up his full-time job as a software consultant, Duru now works on his hoverboard full time, making it better and faster.

“We measured the speed and we're going about 30 kilometers per hour. That's pretty good, but we could go faster,” he said.

Watch the hoverboard in action here: