Strange sports in the townships: underwater hockey
There’s no way that anyone in Canada could get away with calling hockey a strange sport. But what if it is being played underwater?
Jean-sébastien Savard, who manages the underwater hockey club at the Université de Sherbrooke, explained that even if it is far less well-known than its icy cousin, his sport is not new in this area or in the world.
Research reveals some disagreement about the origin of underwater hockey, with The World Underwater Federation claiming that it was an invention of the British Navy as a way of keeping sailors fit, while the British Octopush association attributes it to Alan Blake of the Southsea British Sub Aqua Club, who says it was a way of keeping newly formed skindiving clubs engaged while confined to swimming pools during the winter. Either way, the sport originally known by the name “octopush” ( and still referred to as such in some places) dates back to the 1950s.
Savard said that he has been playing locally since 2009, but that the Sherbrooke club has existed since at least the 1990s.
“It’s simple enough if you are familiar with ice hockey,” he said. “We have a goal on each end, and the objective is to get the puck in the net.”
Although there is some variation from place to place, Savard said that the Sherbrooke club typically plays in a swimming pool that is 15 metres wide by 20 metres long, with a depth of two to three metres. Aside from the differences in location, the equipment is also not quite the same.
“We don’t wear skates,” Savard said, explaining that players have a diving mask and snorkel, flippers, and gloves. “The puck weighs two pounds, and it sits on the bottom of the pool. Our sticks are about 12 inches long.”
Calling the game “hockey” naturally brings up the image of a team sport, but the club manager said that the team dimension is even more important in the underwater version for one simple reason.
“We all have that natural need to breathe,” he said, pointing out that although players build up stamina, they all have limits on how long they can stay under before needing to come up for air. As a result, the puck needs to be passed off to teammates in order to succeed. “It gives the game a threedimensional element that we don’t encounter in most land sports.”
Savard said that when they are not shut down by global pandemics, the local club usually plays games of six on six, and this year it had somewhere in the area of 16 to 20 members.
“We’ve had better years,” he reflected, sharing that since the player base is linked to the student body, players come and go as they start and finish their academic careers. Under normal circumstances the group is open to dropins looking to give it a try, and Savard said that the group has also given lessons to local high school students.
There are also different takes on underwater hockey around the world. Savard said the sport is popular enough in Colombia that there are multiple different leagues, but there is also a movement out of Austria to play with a floating puck, upsidedown, on the underside of frozen ponds. Anyone looking to see a game in action can find hours of footage from local, national and international level competitions on Youtube, through the World Underwater Federation at https://www.cmas.org/, or on the Sherbrooke underwater hockey club facebook page at https://www.facebook. com/hsmsherbrooke.
“There is a whole global network,” Savard said.