Post: #51

I just finished my hunt in Hungary and did not close the deal on a Stag unfortunately. I was given the opportunity to pick up a rifle but that would have been too easy for my style (not that I am against rifle hunters) . Beautiful country for hunting and one of the best for bowhunting in Europe. The locals totally do not understand the nuances of Bowhunting . I developed some strategies for next year using calls and "roars" that the animals use durring their rut.

Post: #52

Bump.

So, I started SCUBA, then Freediving, and now I'm just starting to get into Spearfishing. I am fascinated with it. I'll be in a town in Latin America in December and January where I can spearfish about two or three times a week. Heavy currents there so I'll probably be using a boat.

Anyone else active on the board now that is spearfishing?

G

Post: #53

I am an active spearfisher. Today I'm collecting a bunch of spiny lobsters for Thanksgiving.

Aloha!

Post: #54

(11-21-2018 03:07 PM)Kona Wrote:  I am an active spearfisher. Today I'm collecting a bunch of spiny lobsters for Thanksgiving.

Aloha!

Kona, yeah, I read through your posts on this thread. All very inspiring stuff. I'll post when I get my first fish.

Post: #55

(11-21-2018 03:08 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  

(11-21-2018 03:07 PM)Kona Wrote:  I am an active spearfisher. Today I'm collecting a bunch of spiny lobsters for Thanksgiving.

Aloha!

Kona, yeah, I read through your posts on this thread. All very inspiring stuff. I'll post when I get my first fish.

Do that. And good luck.

ive been doing it my whole life. My older posts were probably from my younger years, so my opinions may have been a bit more aggressive than they are now. Or maybe bogged down with equipment and techniques.

Here's how I feel now though: have fun but be safe.

1) Be good in the water. Remember the words of Snoop Dogg. "If the bitch can't swim she's bound to drizzound" Don't go any deeper than you think you can handle even if you're chasing a giant fish made out of gold with diamond eyes. Watch out for rocks and reefs. Things have a way of getting caught on them, and air runs out quick.

2) Don't spear yourself or your friends! Happens a lot. Watch where you shoot. Things are confusing underwater and when you not breathing.

Enjoy yourself and good luck again.

Aloha!

Post: #56

I got a spearfishing planned for December.

I got a secret spot in Thailand.

https://www.lazada.co.th has some good deals for gear.

Post: #57

Anyone been bowhunting lately? What do you hunt, what is your setup? Bow hunting is some kind of special case here and I am not really able to do it, but I like to hear about this stuff.

Post: #58

(11-21-2018 02:53 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  Bump.

So, I started SCUBA, then Freediving, and now I'm just starting to get into Spearfishing. I am fascinated with it. I'll be in a town in Latin America in December and January where I can spearfish about two or three times a week. Heavy currents there so I'll probably be using a boat.

Anyone else active on the board now that is spearfishing?

G

I was in the water really early and spearfishing with and in circles with some of the best divers in the sport. Still, I had a huge amount of time out of the sport, so I'm not an expert by any means and I'm learning again. For what it's worth, there are a ton of spearfishing resources out there but the sport has grown exponentially, so there's a ton of shitty information and poor to middling spearfishermen willing to take you and teach you all kinds of nonsense. I've even seen at least one "datasheet" on this forum as well as information in this very thread that's questionable.

I wouldn't look to this forum or any other forum to learn spearfishing. I'd seek out a very experienced and knowledgeable/respected diver in your area and see if you can befriend them and learn the sport from them. Ingratiate yourself with better divers than you and go out with them. You'll learn far better information and things that you could never learn from the internet or the jokers out there.

Alternately you can take a class from PFI or FII if they are offered in your area. Like franchised gyms you need to learn about the instructor and see what their experience and true knowledge base is. Keep in mind these classes are usually geared towards "line diving" and freedive only competition. That's not to say you can't learn a lot from them, but some of the techniques will only apply to line diving or there are alternate techniques that will work better for spearfishing.

I highly recommend learning freediving or scuba (if that's your preference). It's the closest thing to weightlessness that's affordable on this earth and it truly is like an alien world down below. I enjoy spearfishing but could dive for hours even without a speargun, simply with a camera or just my mind's eye. Like anything related to the ocean, mother nature will not catch you out if you are not highly aware and don't plan things well.

Not as a deterrent to getting into the sport, but a few ways that you can go from having fun to being in danger are below:

Current in some areas can easily pull you out to sea never to be seen again.

Swell and wind chop can make you seasick (even if you don't easily get seasick).

Spending a lot of time diving deep down under a thermocline can chill you significantly and put you in a dangerous situation as your body fights to try to keep you warm leaving you very little energy to get to shore/boat.

Lack of vigilance/line management can get you wrapped up in your own shooting line, trail line float line, kelp/seaweed, etc... Worse so if you have a strong fighting fish on.

Selection and configuration of equipment can be done poorly. You can have too much of a loop or hook on your weight belt and end up hung up on the rock structure or stuck in a hole that otherwise you could get in/out of easily. Poor choice of speargun/equipment can make you miss fish or have fish tear off.

Not extending your surface time as you dive longer or in colder conditions can make you more susceptible to a shallow water blackout.

Hyperventilating can leave you in a state of calm and put off your body's natural insistence on breathing from the build up of CO2 in your bloodstream (it's not from the lack of oxygen like many people assume).

I could go on and on.

I have mutual friends with Kimi Werner. I hope I get a chance to go dive with her some day. Diving with Kona would be great, but he'd probably laugh at me for being used to grabbing bugs by hand (among other things I'm sure).

Finding someone knowledgeable to mentor you is by far the best way to go. Some questions for example really shouldn't be answered with regards to equipment without having context. Wetsuits depends entirely on the conditions you'll be diving in. Spearguns, reels, float lines, and floats will depend on what types of fish you'll be hunting and what areas you'll be diving in.

Post: #59

Thanks for the feedback, very much appreciated. I'm actually doing the PADI freediver certification. I highly prefer freediving over SCUBA at this point.

One thing, that whole feeling that comes over you after you do a breathe-up and dive and then you are underwater, but have lost the desire to breath. Is quite a unique experience, and yes, have found that moment when I realized I was a little too far down and didn't have the urge to breathe yet, but needed to start surfacing as I was reaching my time limit.

So, I'm training with an ex-professional freediver to get the diving part down. Learning one lesson at a time. We are freediving on a reef, in a current with a boat spotting us, without a line, and learning to do smooth entries, good breathe-ups with surface time, etc. I did start with a line back in April when I was first learning to clear my ears.

The spearfishing, I have decided, for now I'm only going to do with an experienced guide and do training with him. He has over 25 years experience and does it almost every day. I'm 49 years old and new to the sport so I'm going to take it one step at a time.

I looked up Kimi Werner, amazing stuff.

It took four tries to find a wetsuit that fit correctly. I'm built like a wrestler, not a swimmer, HAHA, spearing dudes don't bench much I guess. The water is pretty warm but it is 'winter' so it helps when out of the water and there is wind and a cool front comes through.

(11-30-2018 08:56 PM)AneroidOcean Wrote:  

(11-21-2018 02:53 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  Bump.

So, I started SCUBA, then Freediving, and now I'm just starting to get into Spearfishing. I am fascinated with it. I'll be in a town in Latin America in December and January where I can spearfish about two or three times a week. Heavy currents there so I'll probably be using a boat.

Anyone else active on the board now that is spearfishing?

G

I was in the water really early and spearfishing with and in circles with some of the best divers in the sport. Still, I had a huge amount of time out of the sport, so I'm not an expert by any means and I'm learning again. For what it's worth, there are a ton of spearfishing resources out there but the sport has grown exponentially, so there's a ton of shitty information and poor to middling spearfishermen willing to take you and teach you all kinds of nonsense. I've even seen at least one "datasheet" on this forum as well as information in this very thread that's questionable.

I wouldn't look to this forum or any other forum to learn spearfishing. I'd seek out a very experienced and knowledgeable/respected diver in your area and see if you can befriend them and learn the sport from them. Ingratiate yourself with better divers than you and go out with them. You'll learn far better information and things that you could never learn from the internet or the jokers out there.

Alternately you can take a class from PFI or FII if they are offered in your area. Like franchised gyms you need to learn about the instructor and see what their experience and true knowledge base is. Keep in mind these classes are usually geared towards "line diving" and freedive only competition. That's not to say you can't learn a lot from them, but some of the techniques will only apply to line diving or there are alternate techniques that will work better for spearfishing.

I highly recommend learning freediving or scuba (if that's your preference). It's the closest thing to weightlessness that's affordable on this earth and it truly is like an alien world down below. I enjoy spearfishing but could dive for hours even without a speargun, simply with a camera or just my mind's eye. Like anything related to the ocean, mother nature will not catch you out if you are not highly aware and don't plan things well.

Not as a deterrent to getting into the sport, but a few ways that you can go from having fun to being in danger are below:

Current in some areas can easily pull you out to sea never to be seen again.

Swell and wind chop can make you seasick (even if you don't easily get seasick).

Spending a lot of time diving deep down under a thermocline can chill you significantly and put you in a dangerous situation as your body fights to try to keep you warm leaving you very little energy to get to shore/boat.

Lack of vigilance/line management can get you wrapped up in your own shooting line, trail line float line, kelp/seaweed, etc... Worse so if you have a strong fighting fish on.

Selection and configuration of equipment can be done poorly. You can have too much of a loop or hook on your weight belt and end up hung up on the rock structure or stuck in a hole that otherwise you could get in/out of easily. Poor choice of speargun/equipment can make you miss fish or have fish tear off.

Not extending your surface time as you dive longer or in colder conditions can make you more susceptible to a shallow water blackout.

Hyperventilating can leave you in a state of calm and put off your body's natural insistence on breathing from the build up of CO2 in your bloodstream (it's not from the lack of oxygen like many people assume).

I could go on and on.

I have mutual friends with Kimi Werner. I hope I get a chance to go dive with her some day. Diving with Kona would be great, but he'd probably laugh at me for being used to grabbing bugs by hand (among other things I'm sure).

Finding someone knowledgeable to mentor you is by far the best way to go. Some questions for example really shouldn't be answered with regards to equipment without having context. Wetsuits depends entirely on the conditions you'll be diving in. Spearguns, reels, float lines, and floats will depend on what types of fish you'll be hunting and what areas you'll be diving in.

Post: #60

(12-17-2018 01:53 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  Thanks for the feedback, very much appreciated. I'm actually doing the PADI freediver certification. I highly prefer freediving over SCUBA at this point.

One thing, that whole feeling that comes over you after you do a breathe-up and dive and then you are underwater, but have lost the desire to breath. Is quite a unique experience, and yes, have found that moment when I realized I was a little too far down and didn't have the urge to breathe yet, but needed to start surfacing as I was reaching my time limit.

So, I'm training with an ex-professional freediver to get the diving part down. Learning one lesson at a time. We are freediving on a reef, in a current with a boat spotting us, without a line, and learning to do smooth entries, good breathe-ups with surface time, etc. I did start with a line back in April when I was first learning to clear my ears.

The spearfishing, I have decided, for now I'm only going to do with an experienced guide and do training with him. He has over 25 years experience and does it almost every day. I'm 49 years old and new to the sport so I'm going to take it one step at a time.

I looked up Kimi Werner, amazing stuff.

It took four tries to find a wetsuit that fit correctly. I'm built like a wrestler, not a swimmer, HAHA, spearing dudes don't bench much I guess. The water is pretty warm but it is 'winter' so it helps when out of the water and there is wind and a cool front comes through.

Yeah, guys that spearfish definitely don't tend to be big lifters, but honestly, all wetsuits are made to fit the most common sizes so if you're an abnormal shape you're going to have a hard time finding a suit that fits you (a buddy of mine is tall but REALLY skinny so wetsuits rarely come close to fitting him). Thankfully the sport has grown enough that there are a lot of manufacturers/sizes out there now and you can always go the custom route if you really love it.

If you treat your equipment with care it can last a long time.

Let us know what you end up thinking about spearfishing once you get a hang of it.

Post: #61

Hey Kona, have you ever done the polynesian outrigger canoeing? It looks awesome. I do not see any outrigger canoes in the caribbean.

(11-21-2018 03:25 PM)Kona Wrote:  

(11-21-2018 03:08 PM)gmoneysauce Wrote:  

(11-21-2018 03:07 PM)Kona Wrote:  I am an active spearfisher. Today I'm collecting a bunch of spiny lobsters for Thanksgiving.

Aloha!

Kona, yeah, I read through your posts on this thread. All very inspiring stuff. I'll post when I get my first fish.

Do that. And good luck.

ive been doing it my whole life. My older posts were probably from my younger years, so my opinions may have been a bit more aggressive than they are now. Or maybe bogged down with equipment and techniques.

Here's how I feel now though: have fun but be safe.

1) Be good in the water. Remember the words of Snoop Dogg. "If the bitch can't swim she's bound to drizzound" Don't go any deeper than you think you can handle even if you're chasing a giant fish made out of gold with diamond eyes. Watch out for rocks and reefs. Things have a way of getting caught on them, and air runs out quick.

2) Don't spear yourself or your friends! Happens a lot. Watch where you shoot. Things are confusing underwater and when you not breathing.

Enjoy yourself and good luck again.

Aloha!