Players from the Ottawa Underwater Hockey Club practise their moves to stay ahead of the competition in a sport that has gained in popularity. At the Plant Recreational Facility, speedo-wearing swimmers fight for the three-pound puck.
With a diving mask and snorkel fit tightly, and fins flapping wildly, Daniel Careau sweeps his underwater hockey paddle along the bottom of the Plant Bath pool.
He corrals the three-pound puck and looks up to see both his teammates and the opposition coming at him.
Almost everyone under the water is their mid-30s age or older, and that’s a big problem for the Ottawa Underwater Hockey Club, says Careau.
“We’re all getting old and we need new blood here,” he says. “Usually university students are the ones who discover the sport, but we want to get younger starters to build some roots to the game here in Ottawa.”
Careau is one of those parents trying to turn their kids into underwater hockey fanatics.
He and six others were fed up with their kids’ swimming lessons and thought underwater hockey would be a better way to teach them swimming.
So these parents created the Ottawa Nemos program, which teaches swimming strokes in a fun way to kids from ages five to 10.
“My kids were being taught the backstroke and sidestroke, which are for menopausal women,” says Careau. “Here we teach them flip turns and butterfly. They’re more athletic.”
The Nemos program lacks funding, says Mark Game, the club’s communications manager.
So parents rallied together to build small wooden paddles and make small gloves for the kids.
Travis Ferguson is one of the club’s few young players. He was never a member of the Nemos, but started playing with adults at age 12.
In only three years, he made it to the 2008 Underwater Hockey Junior World Championships in South Africa.
Ferguson, now 16, is the youngest player in the water, and a second-generation participant.
Like most underwater hockey athletes, Ferguson doesn’t play ice hockey.
“I play rugby, and this sport is a lot like rugby,” says Ferguson. “The opposition is always coming at you and you have to watch where everybody is. You also have to be aware where you are because you can get lost underwater.”
Game has a scuba-diving background. He says underwater hockey, which features co-ed teams, is a great workout for all.
“It’s great cardio. You have to be very flexible and those players are like piranhas under the water,” says Game. “It’s a great way to improve your swimming too.”
Game says since many young players are offspring of older underwater hockey players, the club wants to start a junior program for youth over age 10, which would be even larger than the Nemos.
Any older, he says, and children would grow out of the sport.
“When teenagers get to 17 and 18 they have other things to do and they’re busy,” he says. “All we can do is give the kids a positive experience in the water and they’ll love the game.”
Careau says the best attraction to the sport is its laid back teaching style.
“I want the kids to discover that swimming is more than just laps in a serious, controlled environment,” he says. “I want to teach stroke correction but I also want the kids to feel relaxed and have fun.”
The Nemos use the small pool for swimming lessons, and the big pool for underwater hockey. Careau and Game say the youth will soon be able to compete nationally.
For now, the two, along with Ferguson, are getting ready for the national championships that take place in Edmonton this May.