Underwater Hockey

I forgot to write about this earlier, but I started playing underwater hockey!! I’ve been to two practices now, one last week and one two weeks ago. If you think it sounds like a very odd sport, then you’re right on! It is one of the weirdest sports in the world!!! I went with my friend Kirby, who played ice hockey. I thought that I would be better off because I have the swimming skills and he doesn’t, but I think the sport needs more hockey skills than swimming skills L. The team mostly has men, some college age and some older men from the community. There are a couple girls who play. The coach is female and she is Kirby’s marine biology professor here. She is very aggressive and mean when she plays, so I’m glad she’s not my professor.

This is how you play. Everyone wears a snorkel, mask and flippers. You have a glove on the hand that you hold your stick with. The stick is less than a foot long and it’s not the shape of a normal hockey stick. It is mostly a straight block of wood, with a little curve on the end that the puck can fit in. You are either on the black stick team or the white stick team. The puck is the same size as normal hockey I think, it made of lead and has a pink rubber thing around it so you can see it on the bottom of the pool and so it can glide easier. There are six people playing on a team at a time, you might have more but they would just be subs. This club isn’t very big though so they don’t have any extra people. That’s why they actually let me play, I’m so horrible at playing but they need me! The teams have forwards and a middle and defense but I don’t think they have a goalie. The defense is the hardest position because if the puck is down there, those players need to stay underwater. They don’t get to breathe as much. I play forward, which is the easiest position. Anyway, of the six players, not everyone is underwater at the same time. Probably 3 or 4 people are underwater. The rest of the people are above water, breathing through their snorkel and watching the puck on the bottom. When the puck starts coming their way, or when they know their players will need a breath, they go down and help with the puck. I usually spend most of my playing time on the surface breathing! But I do go down and touch the puck sometimes, a lot of the time when I go down I don’t even get to touch the puck because other players on my team already are playing with it and they can hold their breath longer than me. But one time I almost scored a goal!!! But someone came down from above me and took it away. That’s the hard part, you need to watch for people above, sideways, in front, behind and even under you. I guess this sport originated in Canada and they do play international against other countries that are part of the British circle.

But yeah, its mainly played just like hockey but underwater! So weird! And I’m not aggressive at all, so I suck. It also is hard because I’m playing against boys that are way older and bigger than me so it’s almost impossible for me to get by them or steal the puck from the. Especially since I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t do it yet, but some people can flick the puck “in the air” (so to speak), but I can’t do that yet. It mainly just slides on the bottom of the pool. At the deep end and where the pool starts to get shallow are too metal troughs almost. They have a little ramp that goes up to them so you can slide the puck in for a goal. Ooh and another really hard part of the game is after a goal, you have one minute to get back to your side (the goal you’re defending) and then you start playing again. So really, you NEVER get a chance to breath. I think we play two 15 minutes halves or something like that.

So although I suck, I’m still trying something new. It’s fun to play when I’m not scared of the puck or the other players (like that professor!) And it’s good to meet new people too. They’re all very friendly and always ask Kirby and I out for a beer after practice. We haven’t been able to go yet though because we have always had a paper due the next day. I told Blake and Brady I’d play this game with them this summer, but I think it’d be better for all of us if we just stuck to tag or something like that ;)