When he plays his favourite sport, he barely keeps his head above water.
But that’s the point because University of Northern B.C. professor Stephen Rader, 59, coaches, mentors and plays for the university’s underwater hockey team, the Timberwhales, where all the other players are less than half his age.
Rader’s fascination with the underwater world started with Jacques Cousteau’s TV show.
Cousteau was an oceanographer who offered a glimpse into underwater adventure with his series The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau that aired from 1966 to 1976.
“So I wanted to be a marine biologist, I wanted to go scuba diving and I had a couple of friends in high school who were licenced for scuba,” Rader said.
So he signed up for classes.
Then his friends told him about the underwater sport they played.
“I said ‘Underwater hockey? That sounds really nerdy, I’m not interested,’ I was one of these cool track kids,” Rader joked. “They kept telling me I should try it and I finally did and I never looked back.”
Underwater hockey sees six players per team playing at once for control of a weighted puck using short sticks. The aim is to get the puck into the opponents’ trough. There is no goalie – nobody can hold their breath that long – and there are 10 players per team.
Captain Naomi Cole offered some insight into the game.
“People are ready to sub in, which as you can imagine, happens very fast,” Cole said.
Assistant captain Ella Stratton offered some perspective.
“So we’re just working on our skills, passing the puck on the bottom of the pool and working on strong kicking to get it to the other side,” Stratton said about what goes on during weekly practice at the Aquatic Centre.
Rader can hold his breath for up to a minute on land but he’s looked at some research, he said, and people are only underwater for an average of about 11 seconds when they’re playing underwater hockey. There’s a lot of physical exertion that takes place during the game and that takes up a lot of energy, which requires more oxygen.
The team does a lot of drills surrounding the skill of breath holding, he said.
For the future of the sport, Rader would like to see a community team develop to play the university team.
UNBC had a club team back in 2007 and it was super popular, he added. There were about 40 players on the team back then. Currently, there are only 20 people who have stuck around to develop their skills but the team has seen about 40 people try it and welcome others to give it a go, as well.
“We’re hoping that enough of the alumni team will come back to play the current team,” Rader said.
Lofty goals for the Timberwhales team includes competing at the Nationals in May that is held under the Canada Underwater Games Association guidelines.
To see the team in action and to hear more about the sport, visit
