With a frosty start to the morning, we all knew this was a perfect day for a bit of true extreme ironing and an attempt on the world record!

With a large amount of divers descending on Chepstow quarry, we decided to have an earlier than usual start. On our arrival there was only a short queue – true credit to the guys at the NDAC for processing everybody so quickly. The same can be said for Yorkshire Divers and all the other volunteers – as we got processed / photos taken (as part of the proof for the Guinness World Record auditors).

There seemed to be a bit of a party atmosphere as we all kitted up and did the final fine tuning to our irons and ironing boards. I was lucky enough to be given a board from a mate – very kind donation (or so I thought!).

The first dive was to set up all the equipment; this meant for us to descend down nearly 25m on the BAe 146 aircraft fuselage with our boards – needless to say there was no hanging around on the surface by anyone this time, with what seemed like an anvil now attached to us. With allocated spaces inside the aircraft, we started to set it all up – that's where my friends generosity became clear! As I set the board, put the iron, got the t-shirt out ready to be ironed) , suddenly it all collapsed. Strange I thought so I lifted it up and set it all up again, only for it to keep collapsing at will. Well with a world record in the balance, I persevered and after many attempts, it stayed up (I was beginning to think I was losing it mentally with depth and task loading taking its toll:o)

Dive two, it was great to see so many people on the pontoon at once, all with the world record "of the most number of divers in the water whilst ironing" firmly fixed in their mind. This is true extreme ironing at 8c, not the tropical waters of Australia. Once everyone was in and next to their ironing boards, off went the underwater signal for 10mins of extreme ironing! Much to my surprise it was a lot harder to iron underwater (not that I'd given it much consideration before!). Still I was happy that the board was staying up. Then come along the photographer to take a picture (as proof for the guys at Guinness). All too soon, the ten minutes was up and we were signalled to ascend. I'd actually worked on the BAe 146 aircraft during my apprenticeship and never though that I'd be diving it, let alone inside it with my mates and all of us ironing at the same time – very surreal.

It was confirmed on the day that 86 divers qualified as world record holders! (we're just waiting for Guinness World Record auditors to confirm this) and my mate's wife confirmed that the reason they got rid of the board (that they gave me) was because it collapsed of its own accord, onto her feet, she really hated that board!  Though they did laugh when they heard of my experience, a personal thank you for making it that little bit more extreme than everyone else!

With the sponsorship still coming in…. it was great to hear that an estimated £10000 being raised for the RNLI. Well done to everyone!