They lost their space at the YMCA in SeaTac due to COVID-induced lifeguard shortages. With pools limited in Seattle, the Seahammers now practice in Snohomish and Edmonds. The Seahammers practiced in the Seattle University pool for around 25 years until the pool changed its policies and raised its rates. The Seahammers actually play in the seven-foot-deep shallow end.ĭuring my two-hour underwater hockey intensive, I came face-to-face with the limits of my own lungs, met a tight-knit community of competitive weirdos, and fell in love with a one-of-a-kind sport. The two of them, plus the rest of the people who showed up Saturday evening, showed me the ropes after they threw me into the deep end-metaphorically speaking, that is. Byrne has been playing since he moved to Seattle for law school in 2006. Kulsa has been on the Seahammers since the club started 34 years ago. I hightailed it to the pool wall, where the subs were hanging out, dodging fins and snorkels. I dove back down to join the mix, but after moving my body so much, I could only stay underwater for a few seconds before I felt the need to breathe again. The game continued in a blurred rhythm of lithe, slithering bodies jousting for control, then bailing to grab a sip of air above, and returning to the mess below. A walrus of a man hurtled toward her, stopping her progress. A woman broke from the mass and dolphin-kicked her way up one edge of the pool. That felt apt, I thought, considering the action happening beneath me on the bottom of the Olympic-sized Snohomish Aquatic Center pool.Ī tangle of bodies swarmed around the puck, upsetting the soft, suspended tranquility of being underwater. The water sloshed around me in waves, churning so much it looked like a boiling sea, the phenomenon natural historians ascribe to deep-ocean feeding frenzies. I swallowed down desperate gulps of air from my snorkel.
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