Allan Rayson and Martin Fiedziukignicz will have the support of others in the Saxon Divers group
Members of the Saxon Divers group, from left: Matt McNally, John Charton, Allan Rayson, Sarah Weber, Tracey Athorn, Keith Stannard, Dave Cook(behind) Aaron Weber and Dave Scott on the lifeboat.(Image: Saxon Divers)
Two divers are preparing to make an extraordinary plunge next week in aid of a lifeboat charity. Allan Rayson and Martin Fiedziukignicz are both members of scuba diving group Saxon Divers.
The pair will enter the water at Eight Acres Lake in North Cave at 9am on Saturday, June 20. They will attempt to stay submerged for eight hours with the support of others in the group – only surfacing if they need to use the toilet.
The unusual fundraising activity promises to push the divers’ endurance and has already received £150 backing towards a £500 target, with proceeds due to support RNLI Cleethorpes’ vital life-saving operations.
Dave Cook, treasurer at Immingham-based Saxon Divers, explained: “Between them, they’ll be doing different scenarios to keep themselves occupied. They’ll be playing games such as noughts and crosses.
“When you’re underwater you need to keep moving to keep yourself warm, so they’ll get themselves orientated and then do a little dive before they return to an underwater platform. Then they’ll through what we call open water training, which uses slates to teach students how to clear their mask, the regulators and how to do buoyancy control.”
Allan and Martin, both British Sub-Aqua Club dive leaders, will have team members stationed on the surface, and underwater. They will help replenish the pair’s oxygen supplies – with a tank lasting about two hours. Hand signals will be used to communicate the need for a new cylinder.
Dave explained: “For any reason they might want to abandon the dive, they can come to the surface themselves, under their own steam. If it could be life threatening we want to get them out of the water as soon as possible.
“We want to make sure people are there all the time monitoring them underwater. If they do want to come out of the water for any reason – for instance a call of nature – a diver would go down, stop in that person’s place while they go to the toilet and until they go back down.”
An underwater platform, six metres below the surface and normally used for training new divers will provide the scene for the fundraising feat. With about 22 people in the club, and 15 active diving members, the Saxon group travels all over the country from its Immingham base.
In addition to the Eight Acre Lake training, the group are often found at locations such as Stoney Cove near Leicestershire, Capernwray in the North West and off the southern Scottish coast near St Abbs and Eyemouth – with the group hiring boats to reach the best diving spots.
Dave added: “Everyone in the club has taken sponsor forms to work, and places like that, so we’ve got plenty of backing from the general public.”
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