What the Puck? Underwater Hockey Is All the Rage Among University of Florida Students
A wacky water sport thought to have developed in Britain now has 50 U.S. teams.
GAINESVILLE, Fla., April 29, 2009 -- Breathing is not important right now. Only two things matter: the puck and my teammates.
Bubbles peacefully float up to the surface among a frenzy of fighting bodies and fins as my teammate flips toward the underwater metal goal. He's got it under control. Now I can breathe.
Though I've never played the water sport before, I find myself fighting for the puck and the need to breathe along with the other players.
It's Monday night in the pool at the University of Florida's underwater hockey team practice. Wait. Underwater what?
That's what the players of the little-known sport usually hear when they tell other people about what they love to do, said University of Florida junior and one-year player Rafael Seminario.
Underwater hockey is played like this: Each co-ed team has 10 players, but only six can be in the water at once. Players carry a foot-long miniature hockey stick used to hit the three-pound puck on the pool floor into a metal goal at each end.
The sport is believed to have developed in the 1950s in Great Britain, said Tom Redig, the development director of USA Underwater Hockey. The national organization has 50 registered teams, 10 of which are on college campuses. Though no collegiate division or official campus tournaments exist, the league hopes to grow the sport at the college level.
Someone standing on the side of the pool wouldn't understand the sport, said Jayne Raponi, a freshman player who started playing last fall. It takes a dive underwater to see what's really happening, so it isn't much of a spectator sport.
A mask allows the players to see underwater. The water fins increase mobility. Most importantly, the snorkel allows players to breath while still watching the action on the pool floor.
The snorkel often presents the most problems for new players.
"At first, it was a lot of swallowing water," said David Lopez, who joined the team in November. The fight to keep under water leaves little air to blow the water out of the snorkel after surfacing.
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