Yofavo

A little known sport, underwaterhockey is what some divers like to do during the winter months when the outside water is too cold for diving. The sport was invented in Great Britain during the 1950’s when some British divers were looking for ways to stay fit during the winter. The result: An intensive and beatiful sport practised around the world leaving us with some striking images.

The game is played using nothing more than snorkling equipment - and ofcouse the stick, protective gear and gloves - which adds breathing as an important game factor meaning players have to manage the oxygen in ther body. As seen on the picture above, the game is played at the bottom of the pool using a puck weighing over one kilogram which players have to shoot into eachothers goals. The sport is tough and tireing though it is not as bad for experienced divers capable of holding their breath for extensive periods of time. Next to that team members take turns for breathing.

The sport is becomming increasingly popular around the world and some countires have formed national teams which take part in world championships! Although underwaterhockey is a beatiful game a few drawbacks might prevent it from ever becomming a mainstream game. For instance, if you’re not a diver you might find it expensive to acquire the material, and not to forget a pool… But not to fear, there are many opportunities to take part in underwaterhockey training in any moderately sized city. For now I’ll leave you with some pictures.

Here is a movie showing some freestyle underwaterhockey:

And here’s one showing Chinese underwaterhockeyers at extreme depth

(officially a pool must be 2 metres deep for underwaterhockey)

Picture sources: 1 2 3