page_title: Underwater hockey
section_title: Fins
hierarchical_section_title: Underwater hockey / Equipment / Fins
caption_attribution_description: English: This image displays a yellow South African Zero Diving fin grip worn over the arch, the heel and the instep to secure a Technisub Ala full-foot swimming fin on the foot. Historically, Technisub Ala full-foot swimming fins have enjoyed an almost iconic international status as underwater hockey fins. Used to retain full-foot fins on the feet in choppy waters, yellow and red South African fin grips have become equally coveted underwater hockey accessories because of the visual contrast they make against the colour of the fins. Neither Technisub Ala fins nor Zero Diving coloured fin grips are in current production.
context_page_description: Underwater hockey, also known as Octopush is a globally played limited-contact sport in which two teams compete to manoeuvre a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into the opposing team's goal by propelling it with a hockey stick. A key challenge of the game is that players are not able to use breathing devices such as scuba gear whilst playing, they must hold their breath. The game originated in England in 1954 when Alan Blake, a founder of the newly formed Southsea Sub-Aqua Club, invented the game he called Octopush as a means of keeping the club's members interested and active over the cold winter months when open-water diving lost its appeal. Underwater hockey is now played worldwide, with the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques, abbreviated CMAS, as the world governing body. The first Underwater Hockey World Championship was held in Canada in 1980 after a false start in 1979 brought about by international politics and apartheid.
context_section_description: Fins allow the player to swim faster through the water. A wide variety of fins are used in the sport, but large plastic/rubber composite fins or smaller, stiffer fibreglass or carbon fibre fins are commonplace at competitions. As with any of the equipment, the published rules mandate fins without sharp edges or corners. All sharp edges must be covered up by a protective film to prevent injury. Players are also normally required to use closed-heel fins (without buckles) as a further injury prevention measure.
  Even well-fitting full-foot fins can occasionally be pulled off during play, either because of physical contact with something in the playing area or as a result of the power the wearer is transmitting through them into the water. When this occurs, stopping to refit a lost fin takes time and reduces a team to only 5 players. Fin grips, also known as fin retainers or fin keepers, are triple-strap devices enabling a closed-heel fin to be held more securely on a player's foot. They are worn around the arch, the heel and the instep to try and prevent the wearer's foot from slipping out of the foot-pocket of the fin.
caption: A fin grip positioned to secure a full-foot fin on the foot
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