Portstewart has just hosted the latest Duck Dive, and it may be the last.
This is an annual event to help raise money for the local RNLI lifeboat and crew based in Portrush.
It has been brilliant weather for that past few days and great to see that it held for the Duck Dive. It started at 1pm at the Herring Pond in Portstewart, I was there early and only a handful of people were about. The conditions looked near perfect, and it did not take long for the place to get crowded. I took a photo and Tweeted it to the BBC Newsline Weather Team, Cecilia Daily kindly re-tweeted informing that the sea temperature was a mere 7C. At this point I recalculated my respect for the brave divers that were about to endure the test of temperature.
There were a few professional photographers, GoPro’s and Causeway Media Solutions on hand to capture the event. I also covered it on Periscope.
Causeway Media Solutions covering the Duck dive.
At the end of this blog, I have links to a few resources that I have used to write this and where you can get further information. I have also links to the Periscope videos on Katch.
The idea of the Duck Dive was conceived 20 years ago and has been held every year since in support for the RNLI. It has raised a lot of money for this good cause over the years, but the organisers are considering bringing it to and end. If this was the last one, St Patrick himself smiled on the event and gave it perfect weather.
About 20 minutes before the Divers took to the water, the water the lifeboat came into sight from the Portrush direction. It passed the event and went round toward Portstewart Prom where it deployed the inshore lifeboat, and the two of them then arrived at the event together. The MC got the crowd geared up and a countdown from 5 to 1, then a long blast from the main lifeboat to mark the start of the event. The crowd were all in great form and clapped and counted down helping make the atmosphere carnival like.
Some of the crowds & the lifeboats.
I was really surprised to see the first wave of Divers were all children, then the second wave was also kids. I was expecting to see more middle aged blokes trying to prove they still had the endurance, or basically any type of bloke doing blokey things like jumping into a near freezing pool of seawater. As we do..
But kids, mostly girls.. I am blown away by the level of courage and stamina that they all showed, and hope that they raised a lot of money as they certainly deserved it.
A few screenshots of the divers, lifeboat and crowd waving to the lifeboat.
All in all it was a great day for a great cause.
By: @BC_Tweeting
References and sources:
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