Divers hope Guinness record set

Close to 200 divers from London took the plunge Saturday to be part of what they hope will be a world record.

A submission will be made to Guinness World Records in the category of most divers submerged in fresh water at the same time.

In all, 794 divers entered Gilboa Quarry in Putnam County, Ohio, about 100 kilometres southwest of Toledo, Saturday, hoping to break the record for most divers submerged in any body of water.

That record, of 979 divers, was set in salt water in February 2006 off the Maldives. Though the divers came up short of that record, the fresh-water record is at stake.

"It is very upbeat and everyone is excited," said quarry caretaker Mike Williams, noting the freshwater record is about 725.




"We'll send all the evidence to Guinness and hopefully they'll give us credit for it."

He's also considering submitting the event as both a cold-water and quarry record.

London diver Corrine Laporte saw the event as a fun opportunity and she was pleased to be a part of it. She was glad the event, which took four years to plan, went off without a hitch.

"We had divers from all over the country. There are people here from 20-some States," plus the Canadian contingent. "We love the Canadians."

Divers started going into the water at 2:30 p.m. and everyone was out by 4 p.m. The record requires divers to stay under at least six metres of water for 20 minutes.

"Underwater it was calm. People had some fun doing flips and standing on their heads for the 20 minutes," Laporte said.

Another Londoner, photographer Craig Glover, said he was expecting it to be close underwater, but it wasn't.

"You actually had to go a little ways to find other people," he said.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2009/07/20/10190766-sun.html