Underwater Hockey - History

History

Underwater Hockey was started in the United Kingdom by Alan Blake in 1954 where it was originally called Octopush. Blake of the newly formed Southsea Sub-Aqua Club and other divers including John Ventham, Jack Willis, and Frank Lilleker first played in Eastney Swimming Pool, Portsmouth, England. Originally called "Octopush" (and still known primarily by that name in the United Kingdom today) the original rules called for teams of eight players (hence "octo-"), a bat reminiscent of a tiny shuffleboard stick, called a "pusher" (hence the "-push"), an uncoated lead puck called a "squid", and a goal known at first as a "cuttle" but soon thereafter a "gully".

The first rules were tested in a 1954 two-on-two game, and an announcement was made in the November 1954 issue of Neptune, the official news sheet of the British Sub-Aqua Club. The purpose behind the game was to keep members of Southsea Sub-Aqua Club #9 from abandoning the new club during the winter months when it was too cold to dive in the sea. The first octopush competition between clubs was a three-way tournament between teams from Southsea, Bournemouth and Brighton in early 1955. Southsea won then, and they are still highly ranked at national level today.

British Pathe footage of an early game at Aldershot Lido in 1967 is evidence of the evolution of the sport in terms of equipment and playing style. It can be seen that the game was much slower and the puck was not flicked at all, in contrast to the modern sport. The substantial changes in equipment, team size, and other factors have helped make the game the international sport it is today, with 44 teams from 17 countries competing at the 14th World Championship in 2006 at Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

The sport spread to Durban, South Africa in the mid 50s by the spearfishermen of the Durban Undersea Club (DUC), when dirty summer seas prevented the young bloods from getting their weekly exercise and excitement. The first games were played in the pool of club member Max Doveton. However it soon became so popular that weekly contests were held in a Municipal pool. The UK's Octopush used a small paddle to push the puck whilst South Africans used a mini hockey stick. The UK's version prevailed.

Underwater hockey enjoys great popularity in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the USA, the Netherlands and France, as well as to a lesser extent in other countries such as Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Zimbabwe, and can be found in numerous additional countries (but not Moldova apparently).

The game first came to Canada in 1962 via Norm Liebeck, an unconventional Australian scuba diving instructor and dive shop owner, who introduced the sport to a Vancouver dive club. Ten years later, the Underwater Hockey Association of British Columbia (UHABC) was formed and received support from the BC government.

In Asia, the game first came to the Philippines in the late 1970s through the scuba diving community that became aware of octopush.

Underwater Hockey has been played in Australia since the 1960s and attracts players from a wide range of backgrounds. The first Australian Underwater Hockey Championships were held in Margaret River, Western Australia in 1975. A Women’s division was added to the championships in 1981 and a Junior division commenced in 1990.

Historically, World Championships have been held every two years. At the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS) 14th World Underwater Hockey Championship held in August 2006 in Sheffield, England, 44 teams competed in six age and gender categories, including teams from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Hungary, France, Jersey C.I., Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the United States. At the subsequent, though less well-attended, World Championship held in 2008 in Durban, South Africa, the winners of the Elite divisions (and therefore current World Champions) were Australia in the Women's division, and France in the Men's (Open) division.