Image source:www.flickr.com
The two main obstacles to every paddler’s advancement is the shortage of boating buddies as well as the lack of skill development. It certainly is more enjoyable to paddle with others but this is not the only impetus propelling one’s search for a paddling companion. Kayaking and canoeing in groups is a simple matter of safety as well as the best way to improve one’s skills. Every whitewater kayaker knows the disappointment of finding out that the local river is at optimal conditions only to remember there is no one to go with. Regardless of the level at which you canoe or kayak, this list of 5 suggestions will help you not only find new paddling friends it will also help you further hone your skills. Go to Canoe and Kayak Festivals & Expos. Join a Local Canoe and Kayak Club. Join the American Canoe Association and the American Whitewater Association. Try Out Other People’s Canoe and Kayak Gear. Take a Canoe or Kayak Paddling Lesson.
Water polo is a team Water Sport in which each team consists of six field players and one goalkeeper. Which kinda like soccer but is done on water. The winner of the game is the team that scores the most goals.
The Basic Skills needed to play Water Polo:
- Swimming – this is a requirement since Water Polo is played in the water. As Field players must swim end to end of a 30-meter pool non-stop many times during a game.
- Ball – Handling Skill – Must have the ability to catch and throw the ball with either your left or right hand and can also catch the ball from any direction.
- Treading Water or “Egg beating” – The most common form of water treading is generally referred to as “egg-beating”, named because the circular movement of the legs resembles the motion of an egg-beater.
- Reflex and Awareness – At higher levels of the sport the pace of play rapidly increases, so that anticipation and mental preparation is important. “Field sense” (i.e. staying aware of the surroundings) is a major advantage in scoring, even if a player lacks the speed of an opponent.
There are a large number of sports that involve water. The following is a List of water sports, divided by category. These categories are based on the relation of the sports to the water. Some of the sports include only one part related to swimming, as for example Triathlon.
In the water
- Swimming includes pool swimming and open water swimming
- Triathlon is usually a combination of swimming, cycling and running
- Modern pentathlon includes epee fencing, pistol shooting, swimming, a show jumping course on horseback, and cross country running
- Rescue swimming is swimming with the goal to rescue other swimmers or the practice thereof
- Surf lifesaving is a competitive sport which evolved from the training activities of lifeguards at surf beaches
- Water basketball is a team sport played in water, similar to water polo.
- Water polo is a team sport played in water.
- Biribol is a team sport played in water similar to volleyball.
- Synchronized swimming is a hybrid of swimming, gymnastics, and ballet.
- Fin swimming is swimming with fins
- Water aerobics is aerobics in the water
- Water gymnastics is gymnastics in the water
- Snorkeling is the practice of swimming at the surface (typically of the sea) being equipped with a mask and a short tube called a snorkel.
- Diving off springboards or off platforms
- Synchronized diving
- A water slide is a slide with water flowing down it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_water_sports
You do any of the following activities listed below and that means you’re participating in a water sport.
- Canoeing
- Rowing
- Sailing
- Surfing
- Skiing
- Swimming
The most common water sport would probably be swimming. Everyone can do it, and it only depends on the one doing it, how good they are in it.
Abundant (some would say excess) information on equipment is found in dive magazines and on the Internet – and most of it is aimed at men. Struck by the inequities of just men evaluating equipment for magazine test reports and the inappropriateness of not much gear designed for women’s bodies, dive instructor Jennifer King decided to do something about the situation.
“I started diving in 1980 in cold water and had to tough out equipment issues – wetsuits and BCs that wouldn’t fit and all that,” she recalls. “When I took my instructor course, I was thrown I with the guys. We took turns being the student and the instructor. They think differently from us.”
King began campaigning for women’s voices to be heard in the dive industry, and in 1993 she spear-headed the Women’s Equipment Test Team (WETT) to evaluate equipment then on the market and to encourage the development of functional gear for women. The dive industry’s first response is what WETT calls the SAP Principle – Small and Pink. Companies would take a piece of low-end equipment, make it “small and pink,” and call it a woman’s model. Thanks to the efforts of King and the WETT, more quality, performance equipment sized for women is now available. “In the mid-1980’s, 20 percent of divers were women,” King says, “and now it’s 40 to 45 percent. We hope that the equipment issue is solved some of this.”
Reference:
(Walter, Claire. Gear Talk. Scuba Diving: Everything you need to know to get started (and keep going). United States: Ragged Mountain Press, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2000.)
Continued from Gear Talk
What is Diving?
Before the development of mechanisms that allowed humans to breathe underwater, people dived into shallow seas to harvest the ocean’s bounty. Sponge divers in the Mediterranean and the female pearl dives of Japan were able to stay underwater on one breath long enough to bring their aquatic harvest from the seafloor. In the years just before World War II, rudimentary recreational skin diving appeared. Divers wore primitive fins, homemade snorkels, and masks, which at that time were called goggles. In fact, these pioneers, who remained close to the surface and relied on their own lung capacity, were called goggle divers.
More things to talk about:
- A sport for (almost) all
- Getting started
- Gears
- Learning to Dive
- Into the Open Water
- Diving Safety
- And other things
Reference:
(Walter, Claire. What is Diving? Scuba Diving: Everything you need to know to get started (and keep going). United States: Ragged Mountain Press, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2000.)
Synchronized swimming is a hybrid of swimming, gymnastics, and dance, consisting of swimmers (either individuals, duets, trios, teams or combos) performing a synchronized routine of elaborate and dramatic moves in the water, accompanied by music.
Synchronized swimming demands first-rate water skills, and requires strength, endurance, flexibility, grace, artistry and precise timing, not to mention exceptional breath control while upside down underwater. Developed in the early 1900s in Canada, it is a sport performed almost exclusively by women, although there is some participation by men. In its early form it was sometimes known as “water ballet”.
It is a Summer Olympic Games sport. First demonstrated in 1952, it has been an official event since 1984.[1] Olympic and World Championship competition is not currently open to men, but other international and national competitions allow male competitors. Both USA Synchro and Synchro Canada allow men to compete with women.
Competitors point to the strength, flexibility, and aerobic endurance required to perform difficult routines. Swimmers perform two routines for the judges, one technical and one free.
Synchronized Swimming is governed internationally by FINA (Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur).
via [WikiPedia]
Great Links about Synchronized Swimming
- Go Synchro! -Further information on synchronized swimming, including pictures.
- Synchronized Swimming BC (British Columbia, Canada
- “Sync or Swim” Documentary film being made about synchronized swimming
- Synchronized Swimming Canada (Canada)
- USA Synchro United States Synchronized Swimming (USSS)
- PLC Synchro Club -Based in Melbourne, AUSTRALIA
- University of Minnesota Synchronized Swimming Team
- University of Richmond Synchronized Swimming Team
- University of Michigan Synchronized Swimming Team
- Pictures of Synchronized Swimming
- Synchro Alberta (Canada)
- Mississauga Synchro (Ontario)
- KW Synchronized Swim Club (Ontario)
- Walnut Creek Aquanuts (California)
Under water
- Scuba diving is swimming under water using a (self contained) breathing apparatus
- Free-diving is the aim to maximize the depth dived using no breathing apparatus
- Underwater rugby is rugby played under water with a ball that has been rendered neutrally buoyant. Breathing is done through a snorkel, and tackling is only allowed if you have the ball or are tackling the one holding it.
- Underwater hockey is hockey played under water with short wooden curved sticks and a heavy puck. Players wear diving masks, snorkels, and fins, and must surface to breathe while team mates continue the game on the pool bottom.
- Underwater photography is photography done under water. Numerous contests worldwide are arranged every year. The digital cameras have revolutionized how many divers participate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_water_sports