Lloyd Watkin of the Yorkshire Divers Group
who led the challenge said: ‘We’ve been raising money for
the RNLI for a number of years.
The lifesaving work the volunteer crews do every
day of the year is just amazing and as scuba divers we will
never know when we might need to call upon them ourselves.’
Gareth Lock was one of the158 divers who
donned Father Christmas costumes and braved sub-zero temperatures
to take part in the event. He said: ‘It was an amazing sight
to see nearly 160 divers dressed in Santa costumes getting
ready to jump into freezing water to raise money for the RNLI.’
The event was specifically raising money for training
RNLI
crews, and has been running for three years.
In 2007 eight Santas, accompanied by a Viking,
a snowman and a fairy dived for the RNLI.
(see video)
Last year, 84 Santas took part in the dive.
The world record attemt for the Most
Scuba Diving Santas had already raised £658 from a
raffle and the group looked set to meet their target of £5,000
for the RNLI
once all the donations were counted. "The current total is
nearly £3,500 and that includes a donation from Phoenix Divers
from Essex who raised £2,000.
If the divers reach their £5,000 target,
Vobster Quay will add a further £1,000.