Scuba diving is more than just enjoying that magical, weightless feeling underwater and seeing aquatic animals in their natural habitat. It’s also one of the most enjoyable sports out there, and playing diving games is one way to make it more fun.
While adults normally organize underwater diving games to help children learning how to dive, adults can also join in to improve their motor skills, swimming, agility, and diving techniques. Let’s take a look at 10 scuba games that are popular with divers and find out how you can play them on your next diving adventure.
10 Fun Underwater Diving Games
- Underwater BINGO/Scavenger Hunt
- Spoon Race
- Underwater Pumpkin Carving
- Underwater Poker
- Underwater Frisbee
- Underwater Hockey
- Underwater Rugby
- Obstacle Course
- Hoop Race
- Push of War
Underwater BINGO/Scavenger Hunt
While your chances of finding a chest full of gold on your next diving trip are pretty slim, playing underwater BINGO or going on a scavenger hunt while diving is the perfect alternative to a real treasure hunt.
This deep-sea diving game’s premise is simple: Divers look for different objects underwater with laminated BINGO cards or waterproof lists. They can play in actual wrecks or dive sites or join a mock treasure hunt where players can search for “treasures” around a particular dive site. You can have them find poker chips inside a wreck or natural objects, which they can take pictures with using their underwater cameras. The possibilities are endless!
Spoon Race
https://www.youtube.com/embed/P54MQ5Z8W9c
The next underwater scuba game on our list has a number of versions. But they all have one basic rule: Players must swim as fast as they can, and try not to lose a specific object while balancing it on or under a spoon.
You can use an egg for this game, but a ping-pong ball is a great substitute so the former doesn’t contaminate the water. Players can use their spoons to catch the ball if it falls and floats to the surface.
You can play spoon races as a straightforward race or a relay race. You can also make them more challenging by adding a few hoops and other obstacles.
Underwater Pumpkin Carving
Every October, lakes, quarries, and oceans all over the United States host this popular underwater game. The Florida Keys, Coeur d’Alene in Idaho, Michigan’s Otter Lake, and more places have made underwater pumpkin carving an annual tradition during the Halloween season.
Divers swim down to less than 30 feet deep and carve the most intricate jack-o-lanterns they can make. But beware: Pumpkins tend to float underwater, so you might have some difficulty bringing them down. You also have to be really good at diving if you’re getting into underwater pumpkin carving since it’s a hard game to play.
Underwater Poker
Waterproof playing cards let divers enjoy plenty of card games underwater—and if you love playing poker, this next water diving game will surely tickle your fancy. Underwater poker runs involve playing cards at different checkpoints. You can win prizes when you get a specific poker hand from the cards you receive.
Underwater Frisbee
With underwater frisbees, you can play hardcore frisbee games while diving. Divers can pass a frisbee around (just like how it’s played on land) or spice things up with a target frisbee. Target frisbee gives you three chances to throw the frisbee through a hoop. If you can’t throw the frisbee after three attempts, you’re out of the game.
Underwater Hockey
Underwater hockey is the same as traditional hockey, with players pushing a puck along the bottom of a swimming pool. Up to 10 players can form teams and six players from those teams can join the game. They play two halves, which can run from 10 to 15 minutes.
Underwater hockey players often use the following equipment during games:
They also use sticks, pucks, hats, gloves, and goalposts. Underwater hockey sticks measure around 30 centimeters, while the puck weighs around 1.3 kilograms. This game uses a heavier puck to help it stay at the bottom of the pool.
Check out the video below to learn more about underwater hockey:
Underwater Rugby
Hockey isn’t the only land-based sport you can play while diving. Meet underwater rugby, a full-contact sport that also takes place in deep pools. Two teams score goals by putting the ball into their opponent’s basket. The basket is at the bottom of the pool, and it’s placed at each end of the playing area.
The two teams in the underwater rugby field have six players, and they can have up to six substitutes. The players in the water must take the ball, score in the opposing team’s basket, and defend their own goal against their opponents. Players can attack other players if they have the ball, but they can only attack the player who holds the ball.
To play underwater rugby, here are a few essential pieces of gear you should have:
- Diving mask
- Snorkel (without a purge valve)
- Plastic, fiberglass, or rubber fins
- Water polo cap and swimwear
- Neoprene socks (optional)
- Fin keepers (optional)
Obstacle Course
Like its land-based counterpart, this underwater diving game lets players go through a course with physical obstacles, stations where they can do specific tasks, or both. Underwater obstacle courses are perfect for testing a diver’s agility and movement control while they’re having fun. The game has endless variations, so you can play it any way you like.
Hoop Race
We’ve already talked about egg and spoon races, but what about a hoop race? This game uses hula hoops on weights with different line lengths, which helps them float at a variety of depths. Players swim through these hoops without any part of their body or gear touching them. They can also do corkscrew spins, fin kicks, and other maneuvers to get past the hoops.
Push of War
Ready to get physical? The last diving game on our list pits two divers against each other on the surface or underwater. You and your opponent must face each other in a horizontal position and link hands. Both divers push each other through kicking and whoever pushes their opponent to the pool’s end or out-of-bounds wins.
You can make Push of War a lot more competitive by involving more players, tournament-style. Divers who win each round can face new opponents and this goes on until you have a final winner. Players can use a particular fin kick for the game, too.
