Underwater Display

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 7

Underwater Display

Knitting, and putting one’s hair in rollers when immersed in several feet of water may not be the easiest of tasks, but Methven show patrons will be able to see these performed during a novel display by members of the Ashburton Underwater Club. The club, which was formed last October, after being a branch of the Tirnaru club, has grown rapidly and the enthusiasm of its members is unbounded. Their displays have already attracted considerable spectator interest at shows in the Ashburton county, providing a close-up look at a sport usually carried out in isolated bays and offshore, away from the general public and conventional swimmers. The club’s demonstration will be carried out in a special tank 6ft high and 4ft in diameter, and with a perspex front for visibility.

The main feature of the display will involve safety training taught to underwater divers. This will include face mask clearing, showing the method to clear water from a “flooded" mask, and “buddy” breathing in which one diver discards his mouthpiece and shares the mouthpiece of a companion diver, each of them breathing in turn from the same equipment. Novelty items in the club’s display, for the amusement of patrons, will include blowing up balloons, consuming orange drinks, eating bananas if they are available, knitting, and putting hair in rollers. The latter two displays will be

given by Mrs W. L. McLaren, who is one of two active women divers in the club and is also its secretary. These simple acts in the normal world of humans present some difficulty, and humorpus effects, under several feet of water and the greater pressures involved. in addition to the live demonstrations, the club will have a display of equipment used in its activities, including air tanks and regulators, snorkels and masks, diving knives, and safety harnesses which inflate with carbon dioxide in an emergency under the water. The Ashburton club, which was formed as a separate body last October after being a branch of the Timaru Underwater Club, has 26 members at present. Training sessions are held each week in the Ashburton Borough School swimming pool and trips have been made to Kaikoura, Lake Coleridge, Dunedin, and

Moeraki. A night dive and barbecue has also been held at the groynes on the Waimakariri River at Belfast. Three visits have been made to Kaikoura for spearfishing and diving, as this area is regarded as the most suitable sea coast region in Canterbury for their sport. The club is at present awaiting the result of its application for membership of the New Zealand Underwater Association. If this is granted in the next few weeks it will be able to enter in the South Island spear-fishing competitions to be held at Kaikoura during Easter week-end. Other club activities include photography, salvage work, and also training for search and rescue operations. The accompanying photograph shows a man holding a mirror while a woman places curlers in her hair—all under water.