This is the true and tragic story of an underwater phenomenon!
Once upon a time in a bar in Cyprus, 2 PADI divers were discussing ways to liven up their dive life. They could either find some new sites to dive around Coral Bay and Paphos, or find a way to make an existing one more interesting. One of the divers had read an article about underwater sculptures in Mexico, so they put their thinking caps on …
They considered a life-size mermaid, then remembered a 2 metre tall fiberglass Santa Claus, discarded at the back of a local shop. He was looking very tatty and unloved but the shop owner said they could have him! They decided to re-paint him (with marine friendly paint,) to bring him back to his former glory and then fix him to the sea bed. A stand was built to give him stability and they added a mask, some tanks and made him a regulator. The divers named him “Scuba Santa”.
They decided to place Scuba Santa at 12m, in a natural underwater rock amphitheatre off the coast of Coral Bay. They found a new entry point just a 2 minute swim from there and named it “The Clausway”. They drilled small holes in Santa to let air out slowly, and a bigger hole in his head with a bung to control the air for his descent. They filled his boots with concrete so that he would sink feet first and land upright.
The stand was placed first and secured with rocks, then early one
morning the divers transported Santa to the Clausway, hiding him under covers in the back of a truck. The coast was clear, so Santa went in and they swam him out on the surface until they were above the stand. The bung was removed and Santa started his descent. On the first attempt he missed the stand completely and it was hard work to wrestle him back, but finally they succeeded and he was bolted in place, more rocks were placed under his foot and signs were added telling people to email their photos to scubasanta@hotmail.com so Santa could put them on his facebook page.
Excited, the 2 divers left and waited to see what the response would be. Soon after, they heard that he’d been found and word spread very quickly among the diving community. Divers of all ages and skill levels started to visit him, all trying to guess how he had got there. The facebook page was getting lots of hits, he had 150 friends and was even talked about on local radio. Plans were being made to advertise a Christmas day dive to see Santa and International media were going to be invited, which would have been great publicity for the area and for local diving. Scuba Santa is a member of Project AWARE and there were plans to support the Dive Against Debris campaign and to raise funds for the charity by selling gnomes and elves to be added by divers, to create a Santa’s Grotto around him.
Then Scuba Santa was STOLEN!
Lots of divers got involved in searches to find him and a couple of weeks ago he was located, but his head has been cut off and the Santa thieves had also tried to remove his leg. Santa’s body has been rescued and brought to safety, however his head is still missing! If you find it (or know where it is) please email scubasanta@hotmail.com as soon as possible, and hopefully Scuba Santa will have his head back in time for Christmas!