Northland divers crack underwater ironing record

23rd May 2006

By Peter de Graaf

A team of fearless Northland divers has smashed the world record in a gruelling underwater sport: Extreme Ironing.

Many a grown man has been known to run screaming from an ironing board even under ordinary circumstances, but last Friday a record 55 athletes braved creases, synthetic shirts and shonky boards - under 30m of water.

The record bid, by Dive Tutukaka on the seafloor near the wreck of the Waikato, has been lodged with the Guinness Book of Records and Underwater Extreme Ironing's governing body in the United Kingdom.

An Australian team is also claiming the record after 70 divers ironed their laundry in an indoor swimming pool. However, as the ironing was conducted indoors, it is unlikely to be accepted as "extreme".

Organisers were last night keeping mum on how the divers found a power point several kilometres off the coast and whether they got every last crease out.

Speculation in diving circles is rife that the next record bid will involve extreme underwater dusting or extreme underwater pikelet flipping.