St Kitts Ironing at Black Rocks in June

At the faculty auction, a group of students actually bid EC 550 for this. Clearly they had no idea what they were letting themselves in for...

Blissfully unaware, at the start of their day of ironing. They'd brought their ironing gear, laundry, and Carly and Becky even brought their hoops, bless them :)

The rough volcanic terrain provided the first clue our ironing might become a little more difficult than they'd previously been used to...

Needless to say this tower rising from the sea proved irresistible. We wondered how high we could climb and iron.

The good thing about being in a supervisory role is you get to watch others work :) I know this from studying our gym instructors who are experts at this. I found it was quite fun.

Until the time came that someone had to climb up to retrieve our safety rope. We had hoped to throw it across the top of the tower, attached to a small rock, so it could be used to belay a climber. Needless to say it got stuck in a crack and I had to climb up to retrieve it. Below me is a 20 foot fall to rocks and crashing surf, and the crumbly rock underfoot and underhand was itching to break off at any moment, and I was unprotected. This was the scariest ironing I'd ever done - I was physically shaking with fear. But the rescue rope had to be rescued... I couldn't even use it to support my weight in case it, too, broke off!

Needless to say on top there was no flat platform, just a series of vertical ridges, looking ready to crumble under too much force.

But since I'd gotten up there anyway, maybe I'd be able to do a spot of ironing in the sky :)

In fact with all 3 boards we were able to achieve some vertical formation ironing on this amazing sea tower :)

I didn't know how long I had until a wind gust threw me off balance so it was time to get some serious ironing done. It was about 40 foot to the rocks below and everything was pure balance - even the board was balanced on an edge. It would have fallen had I let go.

Next, Jared discovered this really cool rock pool, and decided to iron Carly's red dress. This was apparently the first time he'd ironed! He started off hard. He clearly has major ironing potential...

Time for another group photo :)

Next it was through the secret underwater way to the famous Castle formation - the secret Kittitian ironing mecca.

Getting the gear through these flooded underwater tunnels was the first challenge

One by one the team came through

Or two by two...

Or even hanging onto Steve's back with their eyes firmly shut, for those wise enough to follow the advice of Zaphod Beeblebrox from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: close your eyes at the first hint of danger, thus avoiding seeing anything which may otherwise alarm you (actually, he really used peril-sensitive sunglasses, which turned black as needed, avoiding the need to exert the effort to close one's eyes). Way to go Carly - smart move! It's clear who is the smarter of the two... :)

Finally however we all made it safely through

Finally, it was onto the Castle

Steve tried to swim out but was turned back by the treacherous conditions in this extremely dangerous location

In the end we all chose the safer approach

Safe up on the castle, the girls decide to warm up with some extreme hooping

Even I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately I was decidedly less coordinated than the girls..!

Next, it was time to get some ironing done!

The essence of extreme ironing: triumphing over adversity, getting the ironing done no matter what nature or life may throw at you!

After the stress of constantly dodging death to get the ironing done it was time to let off a little steam. Or maybe it was madness. Whatever the reason, Carly decided to throw herself off the edge...!

Becky soon followed...

As did Steve

And Jared!

It was a loooong way down!

And the most interesting bit was trying not to get sucked into the infamous 'suckhole' to the right, which apparently sucks you down and spits you out about 50 m out to sea, by which time you are no longer a member of the living.

Unfortunately, the ironing was not quite done. One more bit remained. And so I struggled to get the gear set up once again...

It felt so good to finally get that last bit of ironing done! Momento moro - sic carpe ferrum! :) Stay tuned for the next adventures of the Kittitian Ironing Club! Until then, so long folks... :)