Underwater Hockey Originally Called 'Octopush'

By Mark Haas

DENVER (CBS4)- Welcome to the submerged world of underwater hockey.

"A lot of people don't believe it is a real thing," says Ianna Debrunner. "I have to tell them to look it up on YouTube."

"The normal reaction is, 'You play what?' Most people have never heard of the sport before," says Tyera Eulberg, tournament director for the 2016 USA Underwater Hockey National Championships held this summer at the Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center in Thornton.

So how does one get into a sport, when it seems very few have ever heard of it?

For Debrunner, it was her parents.

For Orri Jonsson, a member of the Colorado team, a friend at Colorado State University told him about the "whacky" sport.

And for Eulberg, who also plays on the Colorado team, it was for a boy.

"I wanted to impress him, so I gave it a go," Eulberg says. "Fifteen years later I am with the boy and still playing the sport, so good choice."

The love affair with this sport is relatively new. According to Wikipedia, the game was first played in England in the 1950s and was originally called Octopush. The American name is a pretty accurate description: it's hockey with sticks and a puck, played underwater.

The goal is on the bottom of the pool, a metal trough three meters wide, and the puck is like a hockey puck only heavier so it stays near the bottom as well. Like hockey, it is played 6-on-6, and like water polo it starts with a sprint from each end.

"One thing we always think about is cycling," says Eulberg. "Always have a steady and strong presence at the bottom of the pool and at times dedicating most if not all towards a push towards the goal."

Players wear fins, diving masks and snorkels. The sport is non-contact but there are plenty of battles for the puck on the bottom of the pool.

"Basketball is a no contact sport, soccer is a no contact sport so in that sense it is," says Jonsson, who got a bloody nose during a game this tournament when he "ran into someone's hand."

Players say you don't have to hold your breath as long as people think, most dives are 10-15 seconds with a lot of up and downs. And that's where the strategy of this sport really comes into play.

"It has to be a lot of teamwork because you can't have everyone on the bottom at once," says Kendall Banks, a 40-year veteran of the sport. "If you have everybody on bottom then everyone has to come up at the same time."

Players have to decide when they are the most useful underwater, when it's best to cycle out for a teammate, and when it is worth it to kill your lungs staying under. But stay down too long, and you can cost your team.

"There are times when I am sucking air on the surface and I look down and there is the puck" says Jonsson. "That was my spot but there is nothing I can do now because I have already failed."

Mark Haas is a sports anchor/reporter for CBS4. Read his bio or follow him on Twitter @markhaastv or on Facebook.