world championships

Description

UK regains World Underwater Ironing record. Extreme Ironing is the bizarre sport, which takes a very boring household chore to new heights or in this case new depths. First there was a photo competition then in 2002 the first and only World Championships took place in Munich, Germany and then in 2004 there was a US tour by three founding members of the sport. Nowadays fans of the "sport" are practising 'Ironing' all over the world from New Zealand to South Africa, Europe to Australia. Although, despite its apparent global appeal it is unlikely to be made an Olympic event. The "sport" was devised in Leicestershire, England by amateur rock climber Phil Shaw or "Steam" as he was known back in 1997. It combines certain extreme sports like rock climbing, skiing and underwater diving with the everyday mundane chore of ironing. Last year (2008) in Melbourne Australia for reasons best known to themselves 72 divers decided to iron underwater, creating a World record. Not to be out done by its former colony, 128 British scuba divers braved the freezing winter temperatures to break the antipodeans world record for the most number of people ironing underwater at the same time. To break the record, the divers had to be recorded using an ironing board at least a metre long and be seen ironing an item at least the size of a tea towel. The British divers managed to get 86 divers ironing within a 10 minute period which also included 6 free divers (divers with no air tanks). In total 128 divers too part in the unusual World record attempt. They dived to a depth between 15 and 20 metres. The event took place at the National Diving and Activity Centre (NDAC) near Chepstow, Gloucestershire and water temperatures were in the region of 5 degrees Celsius and air temperatures as low as -2 degrees C. It is almost inevitable that this new record will have thrown the gauntlet down to the next set of extreme underwater ironists. There is fierce rivalry between England and Australia in this bizarre sporting arena, which may compare to the national pride of the Ashes, so watch out for an antipodean challenge in the coming months. In addition to breaking the world record, the aim was to raise money for the RNLI, the charity of choice for the extreme ironing divers. So perhaps the irony of this apparently ludicrous sporting record is that it raised crucial funds for a charity whose mission is the very serious business of saving lives at sea.