Water sports or aquatic sports are sport activities conducted on waterbodies, and can be categorized according to the degree of immersion by the participants.

On the water

• Boat racing, the use of powerboats to participate in races
• Boating, the use of boats for personal recreation
• Cable skiing, similar to wake boarding but with cables for artificial maneuvering
• Canoe polo combines boating and ball handling skills with a contact team game, where tactics and positional play are as important as the speed and fitness of the individual athletes.
• Canoeing is an activity which involves paddling a canoe with a single-bladed paddle. Most present-day canoeing is done as or as a part of a sport or recreational activity.
• Dragon boat racing, teams of 20 paddlers racing the ancient dragon boat
• Fishing, the recreation and sport of catching fish
• Flyboard, a brand of hydroflighting device which supplies propulsion to drive the Flyboard into the air to perform a sport known as hydroflying.
• Jet Skiing, performed with a recreational watercraft that the rider sits or stands on, rather than sits inside of, as in a boat.
• Kayaking, the use of a kayak for moving across water
• Kiteboating, the act of using a kite rig as a power source to propel a boat
• Kneeboarding, an aquatic sport where the participant is towed on a buoyant, convex, and hydrodynamically shaped board at a planing speed, most often behind a motorboat.
• Paddleboarding, where a person uses a large surfboard and paddle to surf on flat water or waves
• Parasailing, where a person is towed behind a vehicle (usually a boat) while attached to a parachute
• Picigin, a traditional Croatian ball game that is played on the beach. It is an amateur sport played in shallow water, consisting of players keeping a small ball from touching the water.
• Rafting, recreational outdoor activities which use an inflatable raft to navigate a river or other body of water
• River trekking, a combination of trekking and climbing and sometimes swimming along the river
• Rowing, a sport that involves propelling a boat (racing shell) on water, using oars
• Sailing, the practice of navigating a sail-powered craft on water, ice, or land
• Sit-down hydrofoiling is riding on the water with a hydrofoil attached to a ski.
• Skimboarding, a sport where people use a wooden board to slide fast on water.
• Stone skipping, a sport where people compete for number of times and length that they can skip a stone on the water's surface.
• Surfing, a sport where an individual uses a board to stand up and ride on the face of a wave.
• Wakeboarding, a sport where an individual is attached to a board via bindings and then holds a handle to be towed across the water while riding sideways.
• Wakeskating, a sport where the rider stands on a board and is towed across the water performing maneuvers similar to those seen in skateboarding.
• Wakesurfing, a sport where the individual surfs on the wake created by a boat without holding onto the handle.
• Water skiing, a sport where an individual holds onto a rope and handle while being towed across the water while riding one or two water skis.
• White water rafting, rafting on various classes of river rapids
• Windsurfing, a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing.
• Windfoiling, the hydrofoiling variant of windsurfing. It uses a hydrofoil that lifts the board above the water.
• Wing foiling, a sport where an individual holds a lightweight wing on a surf board with a hydrofoil.
• Yachting, the use of recreational boats and ships called yachts, for racing or cruising

In the water

• Aquajogging, is a cross-training and rehabilitation method using low-impact resistance training. It is a way to train without impacting joints. Participants wear a flotation device and move in a running motion in the deep end of a pool. Aside from a pool, the equipment can include a flotation belt and weights.
• Artistic or synchronized swimming consists of swimmers performing a synchronized routine of elaborate moves in the water, accompanied by music.
• Diving, the sport of jumping off springboards or platforms into water
• Finswimming is a sport similar to traditional swimming using fins, monofin, snorkel, and other specific devices
• Modern pentathlon includes épée fencing, pistol shooting, swimming, a show jumping course on horseback, and cross country running
• Rescue swimming is swimming to rescue other swimmers
• Swimming, including pool swimming and open water swimming
• Synchronized diving, Two divers form a team and perform dives simultaneously. The dives are identical.
• Triathlon, a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events, usually a combination of swimming, cycling, and running
• Water aerobics is aerobics in the water.
• Water basketball, mixes the rules of basketball and water polo, played in a swimming pool. Teams of five players must shoot at the goal with a ball within a specific time after gaining possession.
• Water polo is a sport of two teams played in the water with a ball.
• Water volleyball

Under water

Recreational diving

• Cave diving
• Deep diving
• Freediving
• Ice diving
• Mermaiding
• Spearfishing
• Underwater archaeology, particularly activity involving wreck diving
• Underwater photography, including underwater videography, is photography done under water. Numerous contests worldwide are arranged every year. Digital cameras have revolutionized how many divers participate.
• Underwater videography

Underwater sports

• Aquathlon (underwater wrestling)
• Finswimming, some events are practiced completely underwater
• Freediving
• Snorkeling is the practice of swimming at the surface (typically of the sea) being equipped with a mask, fins, and a short tube called a snorkel.
• Spearfishing
• Sport diving (sport)
• Underwater football
• Underwater hockey is a game played underwater which has some similarities to hockey. Two teams of players use short wooden curved sticks to move a heavy puck across the pool bottom to the opponents' goal.
• Underwater ice hockey
• Underwater orienteering
• Underwater photography (sport)
• Underwater rugby is a game played underwater which has some similarities to rugby football. Two teams try to score goals by sending a slightly negatively buoyant ball into the opponents' goal placed on the bottom of the pool.
• Underwater target shooting