23/12/2025
Here's the full editorial for this year's Scuba Santas at The LAKE at South West Maritime Academy. Enjoy.
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Festive Fun.
What better way for scuba divers to kick off the festive season than to get dressed up as Santa Clause and throw themselves in a cold, 9 degrees, quarry in the middle of December! Why? You may well ask. Well, why not? It’s fun, it’s for charity and it’s all in the spirit of Christmas!
A Brief History...
Scuba Santas was originally founded by Lloyd Watkin back in 2007 with 8 participating Santas, a Viking, a snowman, and a fairy! They raised a couple of hundred pounds for the RNLI and had some fun whilst doing so.
From these humble beginnings was spawned an annual event that grew year upon year until in 2009 Scuba Santas set the World Record for ‘Most Scuba Diving Santas’ with 158 Santas taking part in the dive that year!
From 2011 Scuba Santas moved from Vobster Quay to NDAC - the National Diving & Activity Centre, in Chepstow. By the 2012 event Scuba Santas had passed an amazing milestone, having raised a colossal £20,000 for charity. Additionally, the event had motivated people all around the world to copy Scuba Santas and start similar events.
In 2013 ‘Scuba Santas Little Helpers’ came on board in the guise of the diving & hyperbaric medicine charity DDRC Healthcare and Lloyd continued to organise and run the event until he decided to hand over the ‘reigns’ to Scuba Santas in 2013 to the team at NDAC.
The NDAC team organised the next couple of years, but without Lloyd at the helm spending days, even weeks organising everything it soon became apparent that the event would benefit from having additional resources.
It was towards the end of 2016 that NDAC approached James Neal and asked him if he’d be interested in helping organise the event. James was a regular ‘Friday Diver’ and well known, he was also an avid fan of Scuba Santas and was only all too keen to help in any way he could. The 2017 and 2018 events took place at NDAC as normal and proved to be a learning curve for James as he grappled with the event and rather than try and copy what had been done in the past he set about taking the event back to its roots, he wanted to return Scuba Santas to its original formula, ‘Festive Fun & Good Will’ rather than chasing World Records and trying to be the biggest or the best. His view was that Scuba Santas had nothing to prove, it is the original, from which all others stemmed, and nothing can change that fact! So he took it back to basics and began the task of turning it back into a bit of Christmas fun to help raise some much needed funds for two great charities, and despite the chilly temperatures also help to get some grumpy people smiling & feeling festive! And then along came Covid...
The Covid pandemic essentially put paid to any large scale gatherings of any sort throughout 2020 & 2021 and it was during this period that NDAC was approached by DEEP Research to acquire the site. This ultimately resulted in what was Dayhouse Quarry being sold and the site was sadly closed, and with that it was generally assumed that that would be the end of Scuba Santas. And, for the most part, it was, until November 2024 when a member of InDepth Dive Club, founded by James during the pandemic, piped up and said to him “Why don’t we do a Santa dive at The Lake?” [Cromhall]
That person was Heidi Coope, at the time she had fairly recently started her PADI Divemaster course and was keen to get stuck-in and involved with anything and everything!
James’s reaction was skeptical, he had just had eye surgery and couldn’t dive for at least a month and was struggling to do much of anything for that matter, and knowing just how much work was involved was fairly confident there wasn’t enough time to do a proper event, so it was agreed to do a ‘club event’ and see if there was any outside interest in taking part.
Heidi got in touch with several companies and gained support for the event with various donations for the raffle and James did the same. The generosity that the event received was surprising, but the event itself wasn’t that well attended. As suspected, it had been too late in the year to really get the word out that Scuba Santas was back!
But they had opened Pandora’s Box... those that had attended enjoyed themselves so much that they couldn’t contain their enthusiasm for another event, and so it was agreed to bring it back properly in 2025, and that’s exactly what they did...
The 13th December 2025 date was set at the end of 2024, it was cast in stone, entered into the diary and committed to, there was no going back now! But nothing could really be done for several months, other than wait, go diving and enjoy what the summer had to offer. It wasn’t until the autumn of 2025 that plans started to take shape, companies were approached and the finer details started to take shape. Once again the support was overwhelming!
Behind the Scenes
The real work starts in earnest around September, you would not believe the amount of effort that goes into organising such a daft event. And that is exactly what it is, daft! And that’s the magic of it, and likely why it is so well supported and loved.
The event relies on the hard work of the volunteers who work tirelessly behind the scenes and on the good will of the many companies that support it. The likes of Nautilus, Kent Tooling Diving Products, O'Three Ltd, Pandora-Lab UK, Fourth Element, Andark Diving and Watersports, PADI, Hollis, Nammu Tech, Gordano and many others, some of which have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the dive industry and yet still support the event and its charities.
The Charities
Scuba Santas has historically supported the RNLI and the DDRC Healthcare. As other Santa dives came on the scene and they too supported the RNLI it seemed appropriate to focus on the DDRC. The Diving Diseases & Research Centre is a charity that is at the heart of diving, especially on the South Coast, and given our geographic location makes for an obvious choice to support.
DDRC Healthcare
DDRC Healthcare delivers a 24/7 diving and hyperbaric medical emergency service. 24/7 on call teams consisting of a Diving Physician, a Chamber Operator and Chamber Attendant. This service runs across 365 days and is capable of treating intensive care patients.
Headway Gloucestershire
Headway Gloucestershire is the local branch of the Headway charity that supports individuals that have suffered any form of TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury from unfortunate events like car accidents, assaults, falls and such like or ABI - Acquired Brain Injury from medical events such as strokes, haemorrhages and tumors.
The link to Scuba Santas stems from the fact that James Neal suffered a grade IV bleed on the brain on the 22nd of December 2013, known as a Subarachnoid Haemorrhage and he has been supported by Headway and the Gloucestershire Brain Injury Unit ever since. He would not be diving today had it not been for their support.
Scuba Santas 2025
It takes many hours of graft sat staring at a computer screen to bring Scuba Santas to life every year. But those hours are quickly forgotten about as the parcels start to arrive packed full of all manner of goodies for the raffle, then the tickets start to sell and the Santa registrations gradually increase over the days and weeks that run up to the event. As those days pass the excitement starts to build, along with the inevitable nerves, the clock ticks down and, just like Christmas, before they know it they’re on the eve of the event and sleep is about the last thing the organisers will get!
A frosty early morning start is met with frozen breath and the stamping of feet, everything has been loaded and is ready to go. It takes an hour to drive to The Lake at Cromhall, another hour, at least, to get everything set-up. A glance at the time shows it’s 6am and time to leave. It was a 5am wake-up, it’s still dark outside and eerily silent.
An early morning accident on the main road resulted in a road closure and a 40 minute detour through the country lanes, a little ironically, past the old NDAC site, stirring many fond memories.
Arriving at The Lake’s main gas room, some 30 minutes behind the planned time, it was a case of grab gas and go! Whiz through check-in and drive around to what is known as the ‘beach end’ of the quarry. The car park is already rammed and it’s only been open about 15 minutes. Surely all these cars aren’t for Scuba Santas. As it turns out, they were!
Like a well oiled machine, the majority of things had already been set-up by Heidi and the team, we just needed the get the shelter up, the raffle prizes out and on display, distribute the schedule around the site and make sure everyone knew where they had to be and when. It would be fair to liken it to ‘herding cats’!
It was at this point, early in the day, that the atmosphere on site shifted towards the jovial. It was light-hearted, laughter rang out across the crisp air, there was a palpable sense of anticipation.
Various Santas and elves started to appear from all corners, and an orderly queue formed to buy raffle tickets, the sun broke cover, the sky went from grey to pale blue and the day turned glorious!
Christmas music thrummed out across the still air, all around was a hive of activity as divers busied themselves with their kit, a sea of red, mottled with a splash of green, the mood electric, people were here to have fun! Heidi appears, dressed as a Christmas tree, complete with presents for feet! A chap called Tim, unable to source a Santa suit, opted for a pair of pyjamas instead, he looked brilliant. Various sacks adorned cylinders, reindeer antlers on DPVs and tinsel around twinsets!
As 10pm approached they all started to gather together at the water’s edge, readying themselves for the group photo, some perched against rocks, others sat on stacks of breeze blocks to take the weight off their backs as they waited for the stragglers and late-comers (there’s always one!)
Eventually everyone was ready, the group photos taken and all the Santas took to the water at once and the viz.. was great!
Santas went off in their respective buddy pairs and groups in search of the various atractions hidden within, some ventured as far as the far side of the quarry, others to the large catamaran in the middle. James, who had the job of trying to get a few shots of the Santas underwater, was left hovering over the cars by the first shipping container with his camera, taking snaps as Santas, elves and Christmas trees swam by!
The dive itself lasted about an hour and the sight of soggy Santas exiting the water was certainly a comical one! As they emerged in their pairs and groups the hum of chatter and laughter gradually increased, the smell of sizzling bacon wafted across the air, salivating Santas started to congregate around the frying pans, the many packets of mince pies and tins of chocolates temporarily satiating appetites while the bacon sizzled its way to readiness. Cups of hot chocolate warmed hearts and hands and the mood was indeed merry.
There was about an hour of chatter, eating, drinking and making merry before it was time to draw the raffle. There were in excess of 90 raffle prizes to work our way through, thanks to the generosity of so many in the UK dive community. The likes of Kent Tooling had donated one of their reels, Nautilus had given multiple items including a dive watch, Pandora Lab had supplied one of their new K1 Rescue Torches. Other top brands such as Fourth Element and O’Three had also given very generously, Narked@90 had shipped a large box full of multiple items, as had Max Show the company that takes care of all things KUBI and Miflex, amongst others.
Then there were all of the non dive related companies that had backed the event, Gordano, Wye Valley Brewery, Circular & Co to name but a few. We simply can’t name everyone in this editorial, but the generosity was amazing!
The raffle itself took just over an hour to complete! Some participants had bought multiple tickets and consequently won multiple times! The items won were well received, with beanie hats going straight on heads and beer being bagged with festive cheer. There were some amazing diving related items, some quality books and handy, never seen before, gadgets.
By the time the raffle was done, the proceeds counted, the event itself had raised a whopping £542.00 for the charities! The funds will be passed on to them directly within days.
A handful of divers ventured back into the frigid waters for a second dive, they retrieved a few errant Santa hats whilst making the most of the excellent viz. The majority, however, had had their fill of mince pies and mulled wine and instead packed away their scuba kit, for some it would be for the rest of winter, others just for a matter of days. The ardent UK divers will always continue to dive throughout the winter months, making the most of the improved viz and quieter dive sites. As for Scuba Santas, well that will indeed return in 2026, on Saturday 12th!
The team behind the event very much hope that everyone that took part enjoyed themselves and they hope to see you again in the New Year. They would also like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
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Scuba Santas is run by InDepth Dive Club SAA & PADI, with the permission of Darren Bryce, of the National Diving & Activity Centre (NDAC), whose ongoing support makes this event possible every year. All proceeds go to the designated charities, any costs associated with the event are covered by InDepth Dive Club.
