The best way to iron a shirt...

My OH is an avid diver, and will don a wetsuit with glee at the sight of a small puddle.  So last year, in the spirit of sharing in his passions, I learned to Scuba Dive.

I admit it.  I am an unashamed fair weather diver.  I draw the line at a depth of 36 metres, and preferably only in beautiful areas, say, oh I don't know...The Maldives or somesuch.

 
However!  There are times when I will brave diving in Britain, and last weekend was one of them.  For it was the world record attempt at EXTREME IRONING! 

Underwater Ironing has somewhat of a cult following among the diving community.  The previous record attempt in 2009 was held at the National Diving & Activity Centre in Chepstow, Gloucestershire.  They broke the record, previously held by Australian divers, for the most people ironing simultaneously underwater in a 10 minute period, and also raised over £14,000 for the RNLI.

Now, diving is not a glamourous sport.  I do not believe that I have ever seen a woman look good in a neoprene drysuit.  No.  Instead, one spends an awful lot of time looking like this....


oh, the glamour....

But in the interests of charity and marital harmony, I decided forgo my lippy and don the neoprene.  And so off to NDAC Chepstow...

This year we were raising money for the RNLI, the Scuba Trust, and Families of the Fallen, and hoping to break the world record again. We needed over 130 people ironing simultaneously within a 10 minute period to break the record. 120 had pre-registered with more turning up on the day, so it was looking good!






It was a beautiful day for a dive.



Me with my tools, ready for some extreme ironing!





In order for our dive to qualify for the record, we had to descend to our boards, and await the clang of the underwater 'bell' (a hammer bang on the underwater ladders), then one by one iron our items of clothing.  A clear photograph showing each of us ironing an item of clothing, with our numbers clearly visible, had to be taken, within a 10 minute time period.  Between the four of us we had one camera.  2.5 minutes per person sounds like it should be plenty of time.  But everything takes so much longer underwater!  We knew it would be important to maintain our bouyancy control, for to not do this would be to risk kicking up the debris on the floor of the quarry, meaning poor visibility for the photos.  We planned our dive very carefully, and despite a lot of fumbling managed to take 3 or 4 photos of each of us within the alloted time!  And you can see the proof here:



My Husband, Lee



Me!











Lidia



Rhodri





Once the dive was completed we celebrated with well-deserved Burgers, the other 3 had a 3rd dive, and then we headed home, exhausted.

I'm not yet sure how much money was raised, as it's still be collected by the organisers.  Sadly we didn't break the world record.  The good weather meant that many who had registered didn't turn up on the day, as they went diving at the coast instead.  Let's hope they all send some money in for the charities nevertheless!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable day.  As an added bonus, it looks as if we're going to be featured in our local press this weekend!  (Don't worry, the fame won't change me)

If only someone would come up with some more ladylike clobber I'm sure I could be persuaded to do this more often!