In at the deep end: Hong Kong’s underwater hockey players head for new waters

It’s been described as something between squash and quidditch, the sport from the Harry Potter series where wizards fly broomsticks, and the fastest three-dimensional game in the world.

It’s hockey, but with a twist – it is played underwater – and its passionate following has developed to the stage that Hong Kong will field its first team in the China Cup underwater hockey tournament in Chengdu at the end of the month.

Invented by the British Navy in the 1950s as a winter game to keep scuba divers fit, the sport requires players to wear diving masks, fins, snorkels, and thick gloves while skilfully moving a lead puck with short bats across the bottom of a two- to four-metre-deep swimming pool and hitting it into the opposing goal. The game, consisting of two teams of six players, usually has two halves of 15 minutes and a half-time interval of three minutes.

The three-dimensional element comes as players move their bodies up and down, left and right, forwards and backwards in the water. They can flick and slide the puck with bats while taking turns for breath. Sometimes one player can flick the puck over a pool for another player to fetch it at the bottom.

While there have been informal groups playing in Hong Kong over the years, it is local fan Henry Chan who has formalised the sport somewhat through setting up the Hong Kong Underwater Hockey Association.

Chan, a geologist who works for the government, grew up in Hong Kong as a competitive swimmer.