The wackiest game you'll never see

'I've heard it so many times from Mum and dad – it's all flippers and bums.”

An uncharitable but not inappropriate perspective of Jack Tortoiseshell's first love, his chosen sport.


Underwater hockey player Jack Tortoiseshell. Photo: Chris Callinan.

'And my mates all take the mickey. Lots!” They won't call underwater hockey a sport – rather ‘a cultural activity' or ‘an underwater hobby'.

Jack, who by all accounts is a special talent two metres below the surface of a swimming pool, takes all the ribbing in good spirit. 'Different people have different perceptions of underwater hockey, and they are all wrong in my eyes.”

He reminds them it hurts to get your head kicked into the wall of the pool by big burly opponents. 'And it certainly hurts getting 2kg of lead puck flicked into your face.”

Jack often emerges from a game of underwater hockey with scrapes, grazes and bruises. And it's supposed to be a limited contact sport.

This is a young man, a 14-year-old Tauranga Boys' College Year 10 student, with big heart and even bigger lung capacity. 'I hold my breath for one-minute-and-a-half minutes. Pop up for a breath and then go back down for another minute-and-a-half.”

So, at a rough calculation, he could breathe as few as 15 or so times during a 20-minute game of physical underwater hockey while you and I would breathe an average 320 times watching him. And that's resting. 'They will stay under until you hit them on the head to come up,” says Tauranga Boys' College teacher in charge of underwater hockey Simon Carter.

So why has The Weekend Sun suddenly become a cheerleader for underwater hockey, and ‘Tortoise' as some call him? Because Jack Tortoiseshell – no, we don't know the origins of the name – it may even hark back to the Tateshalls of the 13th Century – and his Tauranga Boys' College underwater hockey mates cleaned up in the junior open grade at the nationals, for the under 15s. And Tortoiseshell was selected for the wider New Zealand training squad for the worlds next year.

'Jack's a lot better than what Jack says,” according to Simon.

For the record, Jack says he's a strong player who can flick the two kg puck so it soars 60cm off the bottom like a torpedo three or four metres down the pool.

Perhaps you have to be an aficionado to appreciate that. 'And he has the ability to break up the opposition so he's critical to the success of a team,” says Simon, who is an underwater hockey player himself.

No, it's not a spectator sport – just a blur of bodies, sticks and flippers flapping around on the bottom of the pool. And no, they wouldn't recommend the uninitiated pop in to watch a game. But it's a serious game played by seriously committed young men. 'I train six days a week, long 80-minute pool sessions Tuesday and Thursday, games Wednesday and Sunday, and the gym,” says Jack.

Underwater hockey was born of necessity in the 1950s – an English dive club was looking to keep its members interested and active during winter. They invented a game called Octopush, the name is self-explanatory.

Today underwater hockey is played by rosters of 10 players with six in the water at one time. The hockey stick is the shape of a machete, 350mm long and 100 mm wide and is used to manoeuvre the puck into a three-metre-wide goal. The players are kitted out in water polo-type helmets, snorkels, gloves and fins.

Some players tear around the surface while others disappear into the depths. It's a three-dimensional playing field and players can attack from above, the side and even underneath.

It's a game of speed, agility, strength and strategy – with the real action submerged and the players out of their element.

There was an immediate fascination for Jack when he went to a Tauranga Underwater Hockey Club ‘have a go' promotion. 'I was a strong confident swimmer who didn't like running. Anything involving running I avoided.” So that ruled out field hockey and opened the door for underwater hockey.

It's a minority sport, just 150-200 members in the Tauranga club. 'Which is a nice thing really – we are a very close-knit family. And when you go to nationals, you know everyone.”

And the young man is already giving back. 'He's already developed some other players, who are outstanding because of his input,” says Simon. 'Underwater hockey is thriving community, which feeds back into the sport.”

And for The Weekend Sun it's enormously satisfying reporting on a young athlete flourishing outside mainstream sports and who is wonderful ambassador for that sport and his school.

'We will be seeing a lot more of Jack Tortoiseshell, I can assure you,” says Simon.

‘Tortoise' they call him, and down in the depths on the end of a hockey stick he's just as much at home as his namesake.

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1 comment

Great game

Posted on 30-09-2016 19:49 | By porky

Loved playing underwater hockey 21 years ago (ish) at the Greerton pools. Even got a bronze medal from the North Island Champs. Back in the day of the gloves being kiwifruit gloves with glue across the front for protection!!


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