Underwater ironing

By Amy Taylor
October 07, 2011

WEEKENDS spent ironing are not usually anyone’s idea of fun, but one Surrey couple found a way to liven things up with a team of underwater divers.
An underwater ironing record attempt saw Lee-Stuart Evans and his wife Stephanie join up to 70 divers to plunge the depths of a quarry with an ironing board.
Sadly it was a rare occasion of good weather spoiling play, as the record temperatures meant that many of the 150 registered divers chose to spend their Saturday at the beach, rather than 15 metres underwater in a Chepstow quarry.
The existing underwater ironing world record is 130 divers, and hopes had been high that it would be broken.
Despite the world record disappointment, Lee and Stephanie, from Godalming, and friends Rhodri Lewis and Lidia Martinez, managed to comply with the strict rules of the event, which state that each diver must be photographed standing at the ironing board, iron in hand, within a 10-minute period.

“The whole point of underwater ironing is the frivolity of it,” said Lee. “It'’s about the sheer pointlessness of it, but when I saw the posters advertising the event, part of my typical bloke mind just thought ‘I have to have a go at that’.”

He added that he had been diving at the National Diving Activity Centre in Chepstow for several years, but that he had not done anything like the ironing attempt before.

“We had a practice dive before the day, which was just as well because we tried to take a wooden ironing board with us and it wouldn’t sink. There are things you just don't think about.”

Extreme ironing comes in a number of guises, and is not limited to underwater activities. Ironers have been pictured at the top of Everest and the bottom of the Red Sea, but the common link is the extreme sport involved.

“It started as a hobby and became a kind of stupid sport,” said Lee. “For us it was just a very funny day out, and we looked absolutely ridiculous as we lined up with all our gear.

“I really think it was the hot weather which stopped the record attempt,” he added. “If it had been hammering it down with rain or very windy I think more people would have come and we would have been able to achieve it.”

The record attempt raised money for three charities, splitting proceeds between Families of the Fallen, the RNLI and SCUBA Trust. More than £2,000 was raised on the day, but donations are still coming in.
The quarry is the UK’s deepest inland dive site, descending to almost 80 metres

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Garrobo:

Hmmmmm. Didn't know anyone ironed clothing any more since the introduction of polyester/cotton clothing.

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