POOLS AND PUCKS 

AQUATICS: Underwater hockey sounds crazy enough, but players claim it might be healthier and safer than its on-ice version. 

September 10, 1998

 By DAVE STREGE
The Orange County Register
From Glendora 

Welcome to the Undersea World of Wayne Gretzky Wannabes, where the hockey is wet and wild, and games are played — where else? — underwater. 

That's right, underwater hockey, and it might be coming to a swimming pool near you.

 Go ahead and laugh, everybody else does. If you do, consider yourself normal, Carol Rose says.

 "We've been called an off-the-wall sport and we've been put into groups of sports you've never heard of," says Rose, president of the sport's national governing body (yes, it has one) the Underwater Society of America. 

"As far as we're concerned, there is no such thing as bad publicity, even when we get funny stories written about us, and we do get the funny ones."

 Little wonder why, considering that underwater hockey conjures the image of players in scuba gear trying to swing an ice hockey stick underwater.

 But it's much different.

 The players wear only fins, snorkel, mask, protective hand glove and bathing suit. With a 12-inch "stick," they push a three-pound, lead-filled plastic puck across the bottom of the pool while holding their breaths.

 With six players to a side, sans goalies, they trade off surfacing for air. It is said about 60 percent of a 30-minute game is spent underwater and 40 percent is sprinting on the surface and/or recovering from holding your breath.

 The quickest way to advance the puck toward the 9-foot long, 1-foot high goal is by pushing it. A slap shot travels less than 3 feet. But watch out, a player can swim over the top of you and flick the puck away. 

"It's nothing like ice hockey," explains Mark Nakamura, 41, a San Diegan who started the sport in Glendora in March. "The game is not brutal. There are no fights. We don't tolerate fighting. It's more like a finesse game of basketball.

 "It's puck handling, teamwork and timing because you can't talk to your teammates. You have to signal them by clicking on the bottom (with the stick)."

 Unbelievable, you say?

 No, here is what's unbelievable: The sport originated in 1954 in England, at least 17 countries play it and the world championships have been held every other year for the past 20 years. 

The latest world championships were in June at San Jose State where France beat South Africa, 2-1, for the championship before a swimming-room only crowd. 

To watch, members of eliminated teams donned snorkel, fins and mask and submerged themselves along the sidelines. Spectators outside the pool watched a live feed from an underwater camera.

 Who would have thought underwater hockey was a spectator sport, if thinking it was a sport in the first place?

 Mostly, it is a participant sport that offers a wonderful physical and cardiovascular workout.

 While England has the largest contingent of players at an estimated 4,000, the most popular areas in the U.S., with an estimated 1,000 players, are the Bay area, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Palm Beach, San Diego and Denver.

 New areas pop up when players relocate to a city without underwater hockey and start it there. They make sure to take a puck with them when they move because they can't be found in sporting goods stores.

 In the '60s, someone brought a puck from England to Florida and players from Canada did the same in Seattle and Chicago. In turn, players moving from Chicago started clubs in Dallas and Denver, and so on.

 Which brings us to Nakamura, who brought the sport here from San Diego. 

Currently, some 20 men and women, some from Orange County, play pickup games at Citrus College in Glendora every Thursday night. They play in the pool's middle section while scuba lessons are conducted in the deep end.

 Nakamura, active in underwater hockey in San Diego, introduced underwater hockey here because he lived in this area while on business and wanted something to do at night.

 In February, he went to a Brea dive club meeting and by happenstance met a scuba instructor who was using underwater hockey as an exercise to help beginners become more comfortable in the water and develop scuba skills. Steve Andersen, the instructor, offered to share the venue at Citrus College.

 Next, a message posted on the Internet attracted former players from Cape Cod, Chicago and San Francisco, and soon after, underwater hockey officially began in the Los Angeles area. 

Nakamura hopes to start a club more centrally located, such as Cerritos, or even somewhere in Orange County. A flat-bottomed pool at least 6-feet deep is required. That's the hard part. Finding players should be easy. Anybody can play.

 "I'm not that much in shape, but it doesn't seem to matter," says Steve Herbert, 35, of Norwalk. He admits to being 50 pounds overweight. 

"You need to be comfortable in the water and be able to have a snorkel in your mouth without swallowing water.

 "I came to watch four weeks ago and they were a man short so they asked me to play. I said I'd never seen the game. They said, 'That's all right.' By the end of the night, I was hooked.

 "You can be aggressive for short increments without getting hurt. In football, people land on you and you get hurt. Here you just float back to the surface."

 Andersen, 44, of Claremont says it is great for conditioning without stress on the body.

 "You're not going to break a bone or pull muscles," he says. "It's just a great sport."

 Underwater hockey, of all things.

 What next, you ask, underwater rugby?

 No, sorry. That's already been invented, too.