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AK: Under Water (Part 2)

Sat, March 22, 2008 
Posted in AK

This week our underwater adventure continues. We’ll splash around with some synchronized swimming champs, and submerge ourselves in a mean game of underwater hockey. Plus, taking a trip to Naknek’s pool and Anchorage’s Safe Harbor, and exploring the rising tide of waterbirth. All that and more this week on AK, heard statewide on local APRN stations statewide.

Underwater Hockey
With help from pros Tyera Euland and Philip Hickey, AK’s Bonnie Sue Hitchcock investigates a new kind of hockey where you don’t need skates — you need fins.

Check out underwater hockey on YouTube:

• Music Button: “ESPN National Hockey League Theme” by Bob Christianson

Sync or Swim
Bede Trantina is public radio station KSKA’s program director and Morning Edition host. But before diving into broadcasting in 1980, she spent a portion of the 60s and 70s diving into a pool, as an internationally acclaimed synchronized swimmer on the San Francisco Merionettes. But as she tells AK’s Rebecca Sheir, she wasn’t exactly a natural in the water.

• Calendar of Events (”Up a Lazy River” performed by Dixieland Jazz Band - US Coast Guard Band from South)

• Break: “School of Rock” performed by Karaoke All Stars from Karaoke Hits: Pure Pop Vol. 5

Lights, Camera, Action!
The ancient village of Unalakleet is home to some pretty amazing technical wonders, thanks to the Bering Strait School District’s student-produced web-stream broadcasts — which bring village life and the Iditarod into schools across the US. AK’s Ellen Lockyer visits with the broadcast-savvy students, and speaks with BSSD coordinator of educational technology John Concilus and BSSD distance learning facilitator Damon Hargraves.

Check out the Bering Strait School District’s student broadcasts here:

• mushing.bssd.org
• sbt.bssd.org
• mushing.bssd.org/forum/

300 Villages
Tanacross
Oscarville

Swimming in Naknek
Located at the northeastern end of Bristol Bay, Naknek is similar to other rural towns. But it has one rather unusual feature attraction: a swimming pool, run by Teri Storrs and Karen Lopez Johnson. Anne Hillman checks it out.

• Music Button: “Swimming in the Swimming Pool” by Karl Williams from Big Fish Little Fish

Clean Water Act
The Trustees for Alaska are challenging the state’s refusal to consider a petition to the Department of Natural Resources to designate lands within the Chuitna River watershed as unsuitable for strip coal mining. The appeal could halt progress on the project’s development, which relies on permits from federal agencies which enforce the Clean Water Act. After speaking with members of the Trustees, the US Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska Community Action on Toxics and Citizens NO COALition, AK’s Ellen Lockyer reports that there’s more than one definition of “clean.”

• Break: “Open Sea Theme” by Sven Libaek from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Soundtrack

Underwater Birth
Women have used the relaxing qualities of water to ease labor for thousands of years. According to Waterbirth International founder Barbara Harper, since the mid-1980s, women in 92 countries have used it to ease birth, too. AK’s Rebecca Sheir explores the world of waterbirth, with Alaska Regional Hospital nurse Martha Olson, One Family Birth Center midwives Kirsten Gerrish and Shine Herfindahl, and a brand new baby who, if you listen carefully, you’ll actually hear come into the world… with a splash.

For articles, statistics and research on waterbirth, visit Waterbirth International

Safe Harbor Inn
Ann Kaiser visits an Anchorage establishment for people having trouble staying financially afloat: the Safe Harbor Inn, founded by Lynn Ballew.

• Music Button: “Live Your Life” by Otis Taylor from Recapturing the Banjo

Swimming to Victory
This May, Juneau synchronized swimmers Koko Urata and Sarah Felix will compete in the U.S. Synchronized Swimming Nationals. After a decade of competitions, this one will be their biggest yet. AK’s Scott Burton dropped in on a training session.

• Closing: “Float On” performed by Modest Mouse Tribute Band from Guitar Tribute to Modest Mouse

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