MOST people don't look forward to tackling the pile of unironed clothes in their laundry basket.And for John Lynch the decision to pick up an iron on Saturday ended up with him in deep water.
MOST people don't look forward to tackling the pile of unironed clothes in their laundry basket.
And for John Lynch the decision to pick up an iron on Saturday ended up with him in deep water.
For as the 38-year-old from Sheringham laboured over an ironing board, he was 12m underwater and wearing scuba gear.
Mr Lynch was joined by 130 other divers in a former quarry in Chepstow, Gloucestershire, as he tried to break a world record in the sport of extreme ironing underwater.
The record for most people ironing under the waves or surface is held by 72 Australians. And now in another sporting clash between Britain and its former colony, it is thought Mr Lynch and his colleagues smashed the antipodean record.
The Guinness Book of Records is studying underwater footage of Saturday's attempt in the quarry at the National Diving and Activity Centre. It is believed more than 80 scuba-clad ironers were caught on film at the same time.
To break the record the divers had to be recorded using an ironing board at least 1m long and be seen ironing an item at least the size of a tea towel.
The chilly waters of the water-filled quarry were in stark contrast to Mr Lynch's other dives in the warmer and more exotic climes of Mexico, Venezuela and the Great Barrier Reef.
My Lynch, who runs the boating lake on Cromer seafront, said: 'It was the first time I have ever ironed underwater and it is a very whacky idea.
'I don't do the ironing at home and when I told the wife what I was doing she asked me to take half a basket of clothes with me. The hardest part was taking the ironing board underwater - it was like dragging a dead weight.'
Saturday's event was organised by the Yorkshire Dive Club in aid of the RNLI. Mr Lynch raised about �350 in sponsorship and the event has so far raised �7,000.
The National Diving and Activity Centre described the attempt as 'an outdoor activity that combines the danger and excitement of an extreme sport with the satisfaction of a well pressed shirt.'
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