A new sport - underwater ice hockey
From
Reuters -- note that the term '
apnea diving' means
free diving. They hold their breath under water:
Under the ice
I�ve been diving for almost 15 years, but due to family matters it has fallen off my list lately. So a new picture assignment at Lake Weissensee in mid-February 2013 just came right to my diver�s heart: The Underwater Ice hockey Championships.
Underwater Ice hockey is not played on top of the ice like ice hockey is usually played but underneath it. That�s where diving comes into the game because the underwater ice hockey players are in fact apnea divers who want to give their sports an additional sportive kick.
My day started early when I met with the men and women from the Vienna rescue divers� squad ASBOe � Moedling. These dive enthusiasts are responsible for safety and security during the whole tournament. If you dive under ice you can�t go straight to the surface to breath if you have an emergency. Thus ice diving is, together with cave diving, considered to be the most dangerous diving discipline. For that reason I listened to the security briefing attentively.
More:
After checking the equipment we jumped into the water and went down. There I could see the field of play. It was underneath the ice approximately 3 x 6 meters square; each side fronted by a goal. The puck was 10 inches wide and made of Styrofoam so it didn�t sink but floated right under the ice.
The teams consisted of two players (men and women) who took turns with the hockey stick trying to score. Each time they succeeded in scoring the apnea divers came back to the surface to breathe. In total, the game lasted three periods with a ten minute break.
More at the site -- talk about an extreme sport! Hat tip to
Neatorama for the link.
Posted by DaveH at February 20, 2013 3:23 PM