A full day of holding my breath

So after four underwater hockey practices I decided I’ll go compete with our women’s team in an official competition at Sydney. What was I thinking??? Well, I’m not gonna lie, I really wanted one of the cute red “bathers” that you could get if you were on the team. Secondly, I trusted my roommate, Jessie, who said it would be really fun, and we could have a fun weekend in Sydney.

Thus, I was convinced it would be a good fun time and was really looking forward to it! We woke up early Saturday morning and headed for the aquatic center. (The site of the Olympic Water Polo games!) We got there, checked in, got excited when we saw the fun water slides, and then got a schedule to see when we would play our couple games so we could fit them in around our “playing” time in the other “fun” pool! To our shock/amazement we were scheduled for 7 games against not only women’s teams, but men’s teams and even one spearfishing team who had decided to try hockey for the first time! (Yes! Spearfishing – they actually do that! Who knew?) Okay, Okay – we thought – one game at a time. It’ll be a good…learning experience…
Well, we definitely got “schooled” our first game. (Please laugh…if you want.) It was against Canberra who was not only good, but who had fresh subs jumping in after every play. To say the least, we didn’t do so well. The next game was also pretty bad, but we didn’t lose by so much, and we could tell we were getting more comfortable and figuring things out. I was the newest one of the bunch and played right strike. I had some mask difficulties at first, but once that was figured out things started going better.

Throughout the day we had all improved and we beat the “seedy” spearfishermen! I even scored a goal!!! And then in a tough, final game we beat another women’s team! It was great!

It was also a blast to get to know the girls on my team better. During our one long break we all went down the slide, learned a few synchronized swimming moves from our coach (not sure how she knew them…maybe a past synchronized swimming career before she moved onto the similar sport of underwater hockey ;), floated down the lazy river, and had a few handstand contests.

The girls are really sweet! There were six of us on the team. Unfortunately, our strike – Femke who is from Holland – (you might recall she was the tough one I was against at my first practice; I was overjoyed she was on my side during the comp…she’s really good) is actually leaving for home today! But at least I got to know her…rather than not at all. I haven’t heard how she did, but she was planning on running a marathon the next day in Sydney called the “City to Surf”. She’s crazy! But kudos to her – crazy exercise science major. Jessie, my roommate who is basically the one responsible for introducing me to underwater hockey, played left strike and scored quite a few goals! I was impressed! Her friend, Sarah, played half-back. She and Jessie started going to underwater hockey last session together. She’s really fun too! Sally lives in Sutherland, but goes to school at uni and played half-back on my side. Our coach, Lena, is amazing! She played full-back and has been playing for 15 years! (I heard rumors that she even played on a world team or something!) She’s a blast!

So while we didn’t win the “ugly” trophy (provided by Lena, she said there weren’t any pretty ones, so she picked the ugliest won) we did have a blast! I definitely improved a ton throughout the day! Can’t wait to work on my skills some more tonite at practice!

*Note* Pics from the comp are on my website under “Australia – Sports”. Unfortunately, it’s kinda difficult to get pics of the actual game! ;) (My camera isn’t waterproof!)