Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS; known in English as the World Underwater Federation) is an international federation that represents underwater activities in underwater sport and underwater sciences, and oversees an international system of recreational snorkel and scuba diver training and recognition. Its foundation in Monaco during January 1959 makes it one of the world's oldest underwater diving organisations.
Underwater Rugby is an underwater team sport in which two teams compete to deliver a negatively buoyant ball into the opponents' goal at the bottom of a swimming pool. It originated from physical fitness training programs in German diving clubs during the early 1960s. It was recognized by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS) in 1978 and was first played in a world championship in 1980. The sport has little in common with rugby football, except for its name.
CMAS one-star scuba diver (also known as CMAS * diver, or just CMAS *) is the entry-level diving certification for recreational scuba diving issued by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS).
The training programme enables divers to undertake accompanied no-decompression dives to a maximum depth of 20 meters in open water. Other countries affiliated to CMAS may allow higher limits (for example, the Irish Underwater Council certifies a CMAS * diver to dive to 25m or 30m depending on the dive buddy, both at home and abroad).
Underwater hockey (UWH), also known as Octopush in the United Kingdom, is a 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 (or pusher).
A key challenge of the game is that breathing devices such as scuba gear cannot be used during play. Participants must hold their breath when completely submerged. The game originated in Portsmouth, 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.