Underwater ice hockey

Underwater Ice Hockey (also called Sub-aqua Ice Hockey) is a minor extreme sport that is a variant of Ice Hockey. It is played upside-down underneath frozen pools or ponds. Participants wear diving masks, fins and wetsuits and use the underside of the frozen surface as the playing area for a floating puck. Competitors do not use any breathing apparatuses, but instead surface for air every 30 seconds or so.

It is not to be confused with Underwater Hockey, in which the floor of a swimming pool and a sinking puck are used.

The idea for the sport is attributed to Christian Redl, an Austrian freediver who is notable for various world free-diving depth records under ice.

The first Underwater Ice Hockey World Cup was held at Weissensee, Austria in February 2007.Finland finished first, followed by Austria and Slovakia. The other playing nations were Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Slovenia. The second Underwater Ice Hockey World Cup was held in February 2013 at Weissensee, Austria with Austria winning the championship.

The first match took place in 2005 and consisted of 2 teams. The first team was Austria: founders Christian Redl and Jaromir Foukal and the German team of Philipp Von Heydebreck and Knut Stender. This match resulted in an 8-8 tie.

The second match took place in 2006 and also consisted of 2 teams. The first team was again the Austrian team consisting of Christian Redl and Jaromir Foukal and the Slovakian team of Erik Tocek and Juraj Karpis. The game ended in a 9:8 victory for Austria.

The next match took place in 2007 and was the first world Championship. This game consisted of 8 teams: Austria, Germany, Finland, Holland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. The winner of the watch was Finland and the runner-up was Austria.

...
Wikipedia