U. of Texas Underwater Activities Team

Results from the 3rd round of the Colombian Underwater Rugby tournament held in Bogota

2011-10-23T16:29:00.001-07:00

The 3rd round of the Colombian Underwater Rugby tournament held in Bogota concluded on Monday last week showing the prevalence that teams from Medellin, Antioquia currently have in that Andean country.

Bogota presented unique constraints to the participant teams. They were mainly related to the geophysical conditions of the city. Bogota is placed at 2,600 meters above mean sea level (AMSL) [about 8,500 ft]. As a consequence, players experienced reduced oxygen levels compared to any other place where underwater rugby is currently played around the world.

Women

1. Orcas (Medellin, Antioquia)

2. Quelonios (Cali, Valle del Cauca)

3. Castores (Bogota, DC)

Men - 1st Division

1. Orcas A (Medellin, Antioquia)

2. Castores A (Bogota, DC)

3. Ecomares A (Medellin, Antioquia)

Men – 2nd Division

1. Cachalotes A (Pereira, Risaralda)

2. PiraNas A (Villavicencio, Meta)

3. Dolphins (Cali, Valle del Cauca)

U21 - “Semillero”

1. PiraNas B (Villavicencio, Meta)

2. Orcas C (Medellin, Antioquia)

3. Ecomares C (Medellin, Antioquia)

Colombian Underwater Rugby tournament - 3rd round

2011-10-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

The 3rd round of the Colombian Underwater Rugby tournament is currently taking place in one of the biggest Latin-Americanmetropolis, Bogota. There are few things that have to be highlighted about theevent. First of all, it honors the memory of one of the most charismaticColombian underwater rugby players, the late Lucas Botero. It also, for thefirst time, has the participation of 28 teams.

The tournament adds a new promising category,"Semilleros". Itpromotes and encourages U-21 players to join the ranks of the new generation ofUWR stars.

The tournament is taking place at the Simon Bolivar aquatic complex located at the heart of the city. The host club, Castores Club, is in chargeof the organizational details and the games schedule.

Underwater Rugby: a fast growing sport around the world!

2011-04-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

News about underwater rugby from every corner of the globe don't stop to arrive to our inbox. New teams from Mexico, Iceland, South Africa and New Zealand have been added to the long list that already exists.

Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Colombia and Turkey have already well organized leagues. Venezuela, Italy, Russia and Spain are the upcoming powerhouses.

This is an exciting time, specially whenever one has an upcoming world cup. 14 countries have already signed up for the event. Helsinki is going to be the place where the UWR's cream of the crop will meet between August 15-21 this year. The world cup tournament will have, for the first time ever, teams from Canada and South Africa.

Finland's men team will not only be the host but will as well have to re-validate the title they won in 2007 at the 8th UWR world cup hosted in Bari, Italy. Germany will be defending its title in the women's side of the equation.

USA men's team has only being twice to the global meet (1999 and 2003), while USA women's just once (2003). We hope to have some Texas Longhorn bleeding orange tone as part of the USA national squad's flag for this year's tournament. (^_-)

WikiFin

2011-02-01T21:34:00.000-08:00

A very interesting project to promote the underwater activities has been started as fan page in Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/WikiFin/189502137742888

It was born as a part of the finswimming community need to keep in touch and learn about tournaments and other events. It's pet name was Fin City but its initial web host was closed in 2010.

2nd CMAS Games: cancelled!

2011-02-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, the 2nd CMAS Games have been cancelled. Several administrative problems took place at the host country forcing the CMAS (World Underwater Federation) governing body to cancel the event.

The visibility and development of the underwater sports greatly depends on the transition from being a set of a selective elite activities towards something everybody have access to. The CMAS games were a great opportunity to showcase in a single place finswimming, underwater rugby, underwater hockey, aquatlon, orienteering, and other underwater events for their promotion and spreading.

The opportunity is now gone and at the end the bigger losers were the underwater

sportswomen/sportsmen who wanted to represent their countries. They dedicated a great deal of effort to be ready for the event and now will have to be content with whatever their national federations can, at the last minute, arrange.

Finswimming runs in their veins!

2011-01-25T21:54:00.000-08:00

In the Americas, Colombia is the finswimming powerhouse to look up to. The Colombian Underwater Federation (FEDECAS) hosts continuous finswimming meets at the most important cities of the country (Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Pereira and Neiva). Most of the open water events are set for big lakes close to the above mentioned cities or in the beautiful islands of San Andres & Providence in the Caribbean.

Among the many competitors that take part in such events, there is a very special group: the Castillo family. Mauicio Sr., the dad, and Nayibe, the mom, started the tradition. Mauricio, the son, who is now 24, holds the record for 50 meters surface for the Americas with a time of 16”28. Her sister, Grace, who is only 16, holds the record for 50 meters surface with a time of 18”54. They all practice with the Tiburones del Valle club, in the city of Santiago de Cali.

Mauricio recently was interviewed by a world-known finswimming magazine about his outstanding performance at the 2010 CMAS Finswimming World Cup, where he took 2^nd place in the 50m surface event. One of the most important newspapers of his country, El Pais, published an outline of his achievements back in 2009. Mauricio lives and goes to school in Paris, France, nowadays.

However, it looks like the person that is going to take the spotlight in the near future is her his sister, Grace. She is only 16 and has already being nominated for one of the most important awards in her state, the Terraco de Oro, thanks to the 4 gold medals she won at the 2010 11^th World Junior tournament and the 3 gold medals she took at the 5^th Finswimming World cup hosted in Bogota, Colombia, last year.

Watch out for those Tiburones (Spanish for Sharks) at the next upcoming CMAS games in July this year!

Lunocet: Improved gear for finswimming?

2011-01-15T00:41:00.000-08:00

We recently found a video about the latest gear in terms of underwater propulsion. Its name: Lunocet. Which is under the umbrella of its Sub-Human project, which includes a vehicle to cross the Atlantic ocean. Some on-line forums have already started the discussion about its acceptance by both CMAS and AIDA.

Twitter account

2011-01-13T00:49:00.001-08:00

UT Underwater now in Twitter! :)

http://twitter.com/@UT_underwater

Underwater Rugby clinic in CT

2011-01-12T23:32:00.001-08:00

The East Haven Underwater Rugby club is organizing the first UWR clinic of the year. It will take place on Saturday February the 19th at the East Haven Town Pool, East Haven, Connecticut.

For more info visit UWR in North America blog

Finswimming in the US

2011-01-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

The development of finswimming in the US seems to be lagging with respect to other countries such as China, Korea, and many European nations. It may be a hasty conclusion but we couldn't find a representative from US in the World's Ranking (shown in the previous post). We found a reference to the list of US records for finswimming and there is a huge difference between the world's and US' record holders.

Just to illustrate the situation let's compare the times for the 50 apnea men event (for a 50 meters swimming pool). The world's record holder has a time of 14"28 while US' best mark is 18"85.

Worrisome scenario? Maybe! However, there is people working to get us up to speed. Hope 2011 will be US finswimming's year!

Finswimming world rankings 2010

2011-01-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

David Manca from Finswimmer Magazine posted back in July 2010 a link to the finswimming world ranking which was created by Cyril Kergadallan. Thank you guys for keeping us informed about the finswimming scene around the globe!

2nd CMAS games dates - August 15-28, 2011

2010-12-16T10:52:00.000-08:00

The World Underwater Federation has confirmed that the 2nd CMAS games will be held in Neiva and San Andres (Colombia) starting on August the 15th up to the 28th. See you there folks!

2nd CMAS World Games - 2011

2010-10-24T15:58:00.000-07:00

The World Underwater Federation has just confirmed that Colombia will be organizing the 2nd CMAS World Games in the cities of Neiva and San Andres. The following sports will be part of the event: UW Rugby, UW Hockey, finswimming, underwater orienteering, apnea, and Jump Blue (a.k.a The Cube).

College Tournament @ GMU - Nov. 6

2010-10-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

The George Mason UWH club is organizing a tournament for players at the high-school/college level. For more info, contact Phil. Teams from all over US will be coming. High school teams such as Roger Bacon's are invited. Start packing your bags and get ready for some real excitement underwater.

Underwater Hockey clinic in Aggieland

2010-09-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

Dallas and Houston's UWH teams, with the help of Aggieland's SCUBA club, will be hosting a clinic on September the 25th in College Station. There is no need for previous knowledge about the game. Just bring your SCUBA equipment (mask, fins and snorkel, if you don't have any of these items, don't worry, we will find some for you) and enjoy the day.

Our new FaceBook group

2010-05-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

You can as well follow us in FaceBook. We would love to be made one of your most visited links. :)

TAMU's UWH team

2010-05-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

Texas A&M University has its own UWH team. Gig'Em Aggies! Way to go. I hope our teams can soon make it to the Lone Star Showdown. :)

Austin Underwater Hockey

2010-05-06T10:19:00.001-07:00

I just found out that there is a FaceBook's fan page for Underwater Hockey in Austin. Thanks David for letting us know.

UW Rugby clinic in Connecticut

2010-05-06T02:01:00.000-07:00

Where? Connecticut
When? May 15th
More info: Joe Gomes

2010 UW Hockey USA Nationals

2010-05-05T23:27:00.000-07:00

Where? Gainesville, FL
When? June 25, 26 and 27
What about the swimming pool? Dwight H. Hunter Municipal Pool
Be ready for it!! ;)

Finswimming in USA

2008-09-24T00:53:00.000-07:00

In the USA, the development of finswimming as a competitive sport activity has been done mainly by the Texas Finswimming Association which is constantly blogging.

UW Hockey in USA

2008-09-24T00:21:00.000-07:00

Underwater Hockey is a well known discipline in USA. We even hosted a world cup in 1998 in San Jose, CA. The sport is quite popular in Canada, Australia, and South Africa. The NY Times recently posted a good article about it.

UW Rugby, are you nuts?

2008-09-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

Guest what? This is our first post! And just to make sure we are in the same page, this is what "potentially" you will be facing UNDERWATER!!

Once I was asked, how do you scrum? Don't worry, there is no need for it! Everything goes underwater. ;)

Welcome and hope to have you as a constant reader/contributor/critic of our blog.