I started out playing as a forward and the position felt very natural to me right from the start. My hunger for the goal, my eagerness to push the puck forward, my ease in the water and with holding my breath enabled me to play with the more experienced players even though I was rather new. However, I soon realized that speed and breath-hold can only account for so much. In order to improve my game, I started to concentrate on the other aspects of play: puck-handling skills, strength-training, game strategy and teamwork. I knew I had to master the basics if I wanted to play better because I needed a solid foundation on which I could build the rest of my skills. Without the benefit of a formal programme with which to hone our skills and game play, the members of our club had to take responsibility for our own development and training and though it was tough at times, the satisfaction one gets from sticking it out – even when it felt at times like the blind was leading the blind – is very rewarding.

In these 6 years, I have played in several competitive and invitational games. Having played the position of a forward (centre forward) since I started, my current challenge is to learn to play as a back. The learning experience has been very enriching so far and that excites and motivates me greatly. It amazed me then and still continues to amaze me now just how much there is to discover about the sport. The learning never stops and new situations present themselves to me each time I play, offering me yet another opportunity to learn about another aspect or facet of the sport I had not considered before or had missed previously. This excites me.

As Captain of the ladies team, I lead and guide with extensive and invaluable help from our Aussie coach, Lena Plambeck, who has been my source of inspiration and is, in my eyes, a legend in her own right. Although we are a very young team (the average number of playing years of the ladies team is less than 3 years), the luxury of having a women’s team motivates all of us to work extremely hard in our bid to move the team forward. Because we could not form a full women’s team until 2010 due to the lack of female players in Singapore previously, all of us really cherish this privilege and see this as a precursor to greater and better things to come in the development of the sport in Singapore. For now, our next goal is to win the Asian Underwater Hockey Championship, 2011 that will be held in Singapore this December. 

Underwater Hockey has become, for me, a passion and addiction and I am very proud to label myself a ‘hockey addict’. After a long and tiring day from work, a session of UWH never fails to rejuvenate; leaving me recharged and looking forward to the next session in a few days time. I believe this passion for and devotion towards UWH will continue as I long as I can still hold my breath and manoeuvre the puck, embodying my personal hockey motto ’Breathing can wait’.

Underwater Hockey In Singapore

In 2004, our three founders, Greg Bush, Joey Carpio and Christine Alindada and 4 local swimmers played their first underwater hockey game with a few sticks and a puck in the Queenstown Swimming Pool, Singapore. To date, our club, presently the only one in Singapore has about 50 registered members, comprising of 15 women and 35 men, age ranging from 17-52. We gather to play regularly on every Tuesday and Friday from 7 to 9pm at Queenstown Swimming Pool. The regular turnout is 20-30 for every session, with occasional visits from overseas players, who love underwater hockey like we do. Having been around for almost 7 years, the club has played in several competitive and invitational games in Perth in Australia, Manila in Philippines, Jakarta in Indonesia.

Underwater Hockey in the Asia is still a relatively new sport, let alone Singapore. In all effort to improve our skill level, our club frequently hold introductory sessions for people who wants to try out this game, to find out for themselves, what makes us ‘addicts’ to underwater hockey.

Hi. I’m Isacc. I organise, coach and play uwh in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. I have been playing uwh for about 3 years. We play 2 times a week but now there is uncertainty.

The thing I enjoy most about uwh is that it is ’A uncontact  team game in water, thus more enthustic than single exercises and less  violent than other  team game in water.’

UWH in China is Very beginning, and difficault to organize. For chinese peoples are cautious to a new project and unstable to a group games. China mainland has only one club in Chengdu right now. we teach tens of player, but most of them have been lost. The number of men and the number of women are near, but men have longer average play time. The ages of the people who play uwh in China are  from 24 to 55.

 The beginning

I was not really able to swim before I started playing UWH. Before that, I learned to swim from video and watching people. Beginning of 2008, I started looking for a sport, a team sport, that involve swimming, to improve my swimming skill. Well, exercising alone in a pool was not really a choice for me… you know, that weird feeling felt by a swimming newbie whenever he surrounded by men with triangle-shaped body using Speedo swimming trunk I found Singapore Underwater Hockey club through internet, so I decided to give it a try. I showed up, learned the basic, played, and ended up swallowing a lot of pool water. The first few sessions were always hard for me even though gradually my water confident level up, and I was thinking to quit, until one day… I managed to do a swerve and bypassing a forward player. I found it amazing doing swerve underwater and it kept me playing. So unforgettable and I just felt that I wanted to repeat that action again. I knew since that time I like this game because of the challenge. The skills like swerve, tackle, and flick, are not easy to master. Not to mention you have to do it while estimating your remaining air, and pass the puck before pushing yourself to the limit, in order to be able to recover faster on the surface. Opponents come not only from left, right, forward, back, but also from above your head. I played until 2009, then I stopped playing because I always came late from work. 2010, I came back to my hometown, Jakarta, Indonesia, to start my own business.

Jakarta Underwater Hockey formed

Back in Jakarta, I was looking for local club that played UWH. Surprisingly, I didn’t find any. So I joined few diving forums and started inviting everybody to try this game. The first game was on August 2010, and only 4 people showed up. For the next few months, not so many people really hooked up with this game. Even sometimes I ended up alone. This condition changed with arrival of new enthusiast players, Katarina Aquino, Eri Wibisono, Paula Florina, and Arif Junus. Since then, participants grew, and currently we have about 15-20 regulars, with 40% women and 60% men, age between 16 to 40 years old. We play twice a week, Monday and Thursday, 2 hours per session. We came up with a name : Jakarta Underwater Hockey Club ( JUHC ). We have organized 2 events so far, underwater hockey exhibition to Semarang ( another city in Indonesia, about 500 km from Jakarta ) on March 2011 with 40 registered participants, and Jakarta Spat n Splash on May 2011, with 45 registered participants.

The first event was to encourage a new uwh club to be formed, and the second event was friendship games between Singapore and Jakarta UWH club. Second event was quite big, luckily we were supported by Banyu Biru Explorer and DoyanJalan.org. As of now, there are about 3 representatives from 3 provinces have tried this game, so we expect another 3 uwh clubs in the coming months. In Indonesia, we use to have dinner together after the game, sometimes birthday party, karaoke, even some members have arranged for diving trip. We expect to have more get-together event, to be more emotionally bonded…

 Who knows, love will blossom between members… :p

I started to play hockey with my dad and a bunch of his old uni friends after swimming training, back in the days when I lived in South Africa. We started off playing in a dramatically sloping 33m long concrete bottomed pool with the tiles for the lanes stuck on top of the concrete and I remember coming out with bleeding hips, knees, hands and elbows. We played with lead pucks that my dad and I made from old sinkers that he picked up when out diving and enormous sticks reminiscent of the days when they still played hockey two handed. Luckily things have changed a lot since then! I only really started playing proper hockey when I moved to wellington, NZ, in 2001. I was lucky enough to have played 2 southern hemisphere championships for NZ in 2003 and 2005 in Hobart and Durban respectively. Definitely the best place in the world to play hockey in – good pools, lots of pool time, good coaches, good players, good leagues, and good organisation. I really miss coaching the schools team – something which, as a student, I had the luxury to do.

After that, I spent a couple of lazy years playing hockey socially in and around sunny Brisbane with legends such as Kelly Geddes and john bridle, who, if is was lucky, would give me a lift to Surfers or Palm Beach in his lotus. What a luxury. and what a great bunch of hockey players. The Palm Beach post playing hockey in thunderstorms BBQ’s are sorely missed.

I’m currently living in a very cold, grey and rainy London and playing with west London (second best team in the UK) a couple of times a week, even though the team I play for is the North West Ladies, who are based up somewhere in Sheffield/Manchester/Leeds area (not really too sure about the exact location). We managed to win the National club title a couple of years ago, and will be attempting to beat our arch rivals – South West Ladies – to it this year. I also manage play Euroclubs every year with more or less the same women’s team, and we’ve managed to win it a couple of times in the last 4 years – this year in a very tight 1-0 game against the Dutch women, which we were very pleased with. I was also finally allowed to play with the mighty Amazons in Breda last year, and hopefully they will let me play again this year. Europe is great for providing lots of little local club tournaments to go to, and the hospitality of the hosting clubs is always fantastic. Special mention going to Parma, Argonauta, Seville and Barcelona. I generally play forward on national teams, back in club teams, and have recently been training as a centre with all of the girls hoping to make the GB Women’s Team. I played for them at the 2008 Europeans in Istanbul, the 2009 Worlds in Slovenia – both of which we won – and hope to play for them again in Portugal in August. It would be great to be able to test our skills against the greats of the UWH world – NZ, Australia, Canada, the US, Columbia, and all of the European teams. I really hope that as many hockey playing countries as possible can send their women so we can get things back on track again and have a good, tough competition. After all, what keeps us coming back as much as the game, is the friendships we make along the way with all of the other great athletes we have the opportunity to meet, and the amazing teammates we’d give our left arm for.

Player profile: Melanie Johnson

I started playing underwater hockey in 1991 when I was attending at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada.  At that time, there were no women playing regularly at this location.  Vancouver had previously had many female players but by the time I was introduced to the sport, most had retired.  My first practice in our 4 meter (13 foot) deep pool was a bit daunting, particularly as I didn’t know how to use a snorkel and my ears would squeal every time I tried to get to the bottom.   I currently play defence and primarily centre-back (i.e. ‘goalie’ or ‘6’).  I am also not one of those versatile players who can play forward or back as I am not very reliable in the forward-line and am more likely to get hit in the head with a pass from a back than to pick it up on my stick.

I played my first tournament after having attended about 4 practices in our deep university pool.  I had to borrow all the equipment from a friendly US player.  I was hooked, though I think my experienced teammates were a bit worried after our big ‘team talk’ that I had to ask whether a ‘forward’ was the same thing as a ‘winger’.

My 20-year hockey career has taken me to multiple World Championships (every 2 years from 1996-2008 when these events were, for the most part, still called World Championships) and in the past 6 years to multiple other international competitions.  In Canada, we consider ourselves very fortunate if we can field more than 2 complete women’s teams at any tournament, including our Nationals.  In my hockey life-time we have never had more than 3 women’s teams any Canadian tournament.  Travelling to international events is generally the best way to play against other strong women’s teams, though in the past few years a women’s tournament has been run in the US which has been a nice.  I was amazed when I attended South African Interclubs a few years ago in Durban and there were 11 women’s teams.  I wish Marcin good luck in his recruiting efforts to get women playing hockey in Poland!

The Vancouver group plays 3 times per week at 2 different pools.  Currently we get about 10-16 players out to each practice.  In the last 2 years, we have switched back to playing with a brass puck as the tiles in both our pools make for a really slow game if we play with the plastic pucks currently available.  Fortunately, one of our players developed a brass/lead ‘Retro Puck’ that performs exceptionally well in both our pools and has significantly improved the speed and quality of our local games.  Very recently, our inventive hockey puck developers created a ‘Borg’ version of the RetroPuck to use in our poor visibility pool.

Check out the debut of the ‘Borg’ puck in Vancouver here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQSSSGSzQ6g

Underwater hockey in Canada

At this time, the number of underwater hockey players in Canada is unknown.  On average, there are approximately 150 players who join CUGA (our National hockey body) each year and these are generally players who attend larger tournaments where CUGA memberships are required.   There are many other people playing underwater hockey in Canada, though exactly how many is unknown.  The age range of players playing in Canada is quite broad, from our youngest junior players at around age 6 to our master’s age players up to age 74.  There are approximately 21 clubs in Canada with the most active participants being in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec (the cities where hockey is played in Canada are listed below).

One of the questions I was asked answer was to compare UWH in Canada to other countries.  However, I haven’t attended underwater hockey practices regularly in many countries, so it is hard to provide a comparison.  One of the nicest things about going to practices in other countries is that all the players seem excited to have someone from out of town come to their practice.  I know that we feel that way in Vancouver when anyone comes to practice from another city or country.  In any UWH city I have been to, players have always been more than happy to loan gear, provide transportation to a practice or help sort out a place to sleep.  One other thing that I think might be different in Vancouver compared to some clubs is that we don’t have referees for any of our regular games.   I know some countries are fortunate to have refereed practices.

Canadian underwater hockey clubs (in 22 cities):

British Columbia: Port Coquitlam, Prince George, Vancouver and Victoria
Alberta: Calgary and Edmonton
Saskatchewan: Saskatoon
Ontario: Brampton, Cornwall, Guelph, Hamilton, Kincardine, London, Ottawa, Peterborough, Sault Ste. Marie
Quebec: Montreal (more than 1 club), Quebec City, Rimouski and Sherbrooke
Nova Scotia: Halifax
Yukon: Whitehorse

These are memorable moments of my playing UWH.

2005 – Learn to play UWH

2006 – First competition with Philippines Pesta Sukan 2006, played for Singapore

2007 – Australian Nationals in Perth, played for Singapore

2007 – 1^st Asian Underwater Hockey Championship in Singapore, played for Singapore

2008 – 2^nd Asian Underwater Hockey Championship in Manila, played for Singapore

How long have you been playing uwh for?

I started playing under water hockey last September 2005, I enjoy being in the water and swimming, but I have this innate fear of swimming with waters 2 meter deep, so when I met this friend who plays underwater hockey, I got curious, and I wanted to try it. My first attempt was a disaster, I couldn’t go down to the bottom, I couldn’t fin properly, I was not comfortable with the snorkel, and the fear that I would drown was just there.  I was such a baby.  But I knew then that if I overcame this fear, I can enjoy snorkeling more in the sea, as simple as it may sound that was my motivation back then, to snorkel comfortably out in the sea, because although I did it several times I wasn’t that confident, and I guess that if underwater hockey uses a snorkel, I can get skilled with it, and be really confident when I’m out in the sea!

I played once a week for about 3 months, dabbling with the sports,  I was such a nuisance, nobody was really paying attention to my lack of skills and/or talents, so I work hard, swam a lot, trained a lot,  and talk to a lot of experienced players, listen to their tips.  When I get more comfortable with it, I started playing twice a week, and got hooked!

Looking back, I think it was perfect that the Singapore Underwater Hockey Club was such a new club, and it helped players with similar background and handicap like me to learn the sports and be adept with it, in one way or another.  It took about six months, before I can play the sports like a novice, and I’m really glad I learned how to play underwater hockey!

Where are you from?

I am from the Philippines.  I grew up in the central area of Metropolitan Manila.  But I didn’t learn underwater hockey there, I learned it in Singapore, when I was living and working there.  I was a SUHCer (Singapore Underwater Hockey Club) not a PUHCer (Philippine Underwater Hockey Club).

What club/team are you currently playing for?

I am playing with the Posties (Going Postal Underwater Hockey Club) in Wellington, New Zealand!

What position do you play?

I usually play forward,  in Singapore they sometimes push me in the center, but outside Singapore, I usually end up in the wing, in slow games I can play a back position, but I haven’t really played it that much to learn the tricks, I end up really useless in that position.

How often do you play?

I play once a week or once every other week. I wish to play more, but last year I was doing more free-dive training than UWH.

What do you enjoy most about uwh?

I enjoy underwater hockey, because it’s a great sports, whenever I play, it gives me an idea of my current fitness level, so its my fitness “thermometer!” It’s also very challenging mentally, and a lot of team work and skills are involved.  After a game, I always feel hyper and exhilarated, and the people who play underwater hockey are also inherently cool and friendly!  But basically Underwater Hockey is just so much FUN, second to Underwater Rugby!

What are the differences between uwh in NZ and uwh in Asia?

Underwater hockey in every country is different, the amazing thing here in NZ is that the skill levels of everyone here is high, especially the stick work. I would guess because a lot of them learn to play the sports in a more structured way like schools. Most of the players here are also very fit, and fast as well! It’s just awesome.  I think that’s why the game quality is high.  Game strategy is also different, when Sophie was here, she was always telling me to push the puck forward, and gain more ground, it was quite different with how I was used to playing when I was in Singapore, as the strategy there was more defensive than offensive.  But I guess it’s also different in every player combination, as when I’m with players with the same speed and skills back there, we can play a different kind of game.

In Singapore we have a slow and fast game, and the difference is quite huge, B grade here is as fast as our fast game, but I guess A grade game here should be wicked as sometimes when A grade players are playing Monday night Posties game, it’s really fast! I also noticed that there is less talk between plays here during a game, like for example on what one did wrong, or when one is not in position or stuff like that. Everybody seems to just enjoy playing the game, so I think it’s really chill and relax around here.  But in Asia, the chillaxin happens after the games in “makan”, in various eating places around town!

How would I describe uwh in Czech Republic? – very bad situation, only one club, no national league, so for all tournaments we have to travel abroad (Slovenia, Germany, Hungary), which is expensive and doesn’t give us so much in the playing. We can attend only 3-4 tournaments a year. And the biggest problem for our uwh is, that we do not have any uwh history. Without history we cannot have any experienced players that could coach us. We are coaching ourselves without a proper coach – not very good situation. At each tournament that we attend, we are last or second from the last and cannot change it.

There is only one club in Czech Republic which is Ceske Budejovice. Our club has 30 players (14 women/girls, 16 men/boys), ages 15-58, mainly university students 20-30

WE NEED A COACH!

I would like to announce that Czech uwh team is searching for a coach. Coach for us could be anybody who is experienced playing uwhockey and would know how to structure the training session. We cannot pay to anyone. Ideal would be if the “coach” would be a student and would be interested in getting to know the life in the Czech republic, or study here for a while. We could help by organising a student exchange program with our University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice, he/she could study here one two semesters. We would also help with finding an accomodation, activities, traveling, friends,…The only thing that we need is that the person would go to every hockey training session and would lead us. We are terribly chaotic and cannot find the right way. We love hockey, but need some help.We used to have an English coach (very good one, indeed), but he could not attend every our training session and came few times a year. Coaching per internet does not suit us so well. However we appreciate his help very much, he got us from the bottom to were we are now.
If you could help me with this, would be wonderful.

BUD PIG CUP TOURNAMENT

Now on 7^th May 2011 we are organizing an UWH tournament BUD PIG CUP. Anybody is cordially welcome. Just write an email and register: http://www.uwh.wz.cz/bud_pick_cup_en.htm

This is has got to be my favorite hockey mask by far!

I’ve always gone for the low volume masks and have owned several Spheras and Falcos (like the Sphera but with glass lenses) over the years. I stumbled on the Micro by accident in an Auckland Dive shop and being the only low volume mask they had and the last one in the store the day before a tournament I took a punt on it and have never looked back.

The best thing about this mask, apart from being nice and compact and having a great field of vision, is that it is unbelievably strong! I used to have a box full of Falco parts in my hockey bag from all the leftover parts of the Falcos’ that I’ve broken. Not so with the Micro, I’ve owned it for coming on two years using it at least twice a week, played several national and international hockey tournaments with it and I also use it when spearfishing.

The individual glass lenses have been tempered for strength making them safe and legal for hockey. The only modification I’ve made to it has been the addition of nylon webbing to replace the silicone head strap to make sure it stays on my noggin in even the roughest goalmouth scrambles. The one down side to this mask is that the frame sits very close to my forehead, maybe I have an odd shaped head or maybe the Micro was designed for people with massive eyebrows to cushion any impact but either way when you take a knock you feel it on your forehead first!

I have the clear silicone version and I thought it was great till someone pointed out that clear silicone lets light in the side that creates reflections on the lens that can distract you, well I’ve used clear silicone masks for the 13+ years I’ve played and never had a problem with the reflections but now it’s been pointed out to me I see them all the time…!

Can’t wait to get my hands on the black silicone one!

Nick from Auckland

Congratulations to everyone working hard to get international UWH back on track!

I didnt know UWH could look so cool in slow motion!