“40 seconds! They prepare to dive. Butt in hand, ballast on the neck, fins on the feet. In Viry-Châtillon, in the south of Paris, Mathieu, an apnea instructor, begins his session with a game of underwater hockey. “It’s played like ice hockey, except it’s underwater,” he says. We use a small stick and a puck of about one kilo. We have two teams, here of four players, and the goal is to score at the opponent. »
Do not imagine that the players remain in apnea under water all the game. “It’s apnea in the effort, so the sequences are short and repeated,” adds the coach. The parties are therefore very intense, suitable only for those already initiated to apnea.
Arrived in France in the 1960s, underwater hockey, the only team sport that is played under water, has become popular in recent years at the same time as apnea. Today, it is practiced by a few thousand French people across the country, but no professional player makes a living from it.