For the first time ever last weekend, the Hook Sub Aqua Club banded together with Naas Sub Aqua Club to raise vital funds for charity by holding the first 24 hour Divathon in the south east. A Divathon is a scuba diving relay. It involves

a team of divers, diving in pairs for 30 minutes every 6 hours. It started enthusiastically at the dive site Tower Hole, just under the Hook Lighthouse at 7pm on Friday evening and finished at 7pm on Saturday evening.

The primary purpose of the event was to provide an opportunity for neighbouring Dive Clubs to get together, dive, have fun and raise some funds for their clubs and more importantly for charity. There were three key beneficiaries. The first is the RNLI who have saved 139,000 lives over the years. There are 44 life boat stations around the country but we would like to donate funds to the Fethard on Sea station. The second charity is, “Talk to Tom” or the Tom O’ Flatherty Memorial Trust. This is small organisation involved in suicide prevention. Talk to Tom is based in the South East and supports a 24 hours help line and drop-in centre in Gorey. The final beneficiary in “The Bolger Brother Fund”, set up in after the tragic loss of the three Bolger Brothers off our coast earlier this year.

Luck and the weather were with the divers as the first pairing, David Berney and Pauline Whelan of Naas Sub Aqua club took to the water to begin a gruelling 24 hours of diving. Dives continued throughout the night with sea life such as lobsters, seals and an octopus making an appearance, much to the delight of the divers. Between dives people managed to catch a few hours sleep in tents pitched around the lighthouse and barbeques were kept going in the early hours. Saturday’s weather proved fantastic for diving, with calm seas and high temperatures. At 7pm on Saturday evening the final two divers, Wayne Cummins and Dearbhla Walsh surfaced to a rapturous cheer for the spectators. It was a fantastic 24 hours and hopefully plenty of money was raised for charity.

We would like to thanks all those involved with the event. We would particularly like to thank David Berney and the entire Naas Sub Aqua Club for being the driving force behind the Divathon. We would also like to thank those who sponsored the divers.