Whale Shark Swim
Jan/120
You don’t need to go all the way to the Caribbean to swim with Whale sharks!
http://news.discovery.com/videos/animals-swimming-with-sharks.html
This is in my budget.
Hope they aren’t napping when I am visiting…
http://news.discovery.com/videos/animals-sperm-whales-caught-napping.html
And this is just a great title…sea urchin orgies?!
http://news.discovery.com/videos/animals-preventing-sea-urchin-orgies.html
Children’s Pool Snorkel Day
Jun/110
He was following everyone around the beach.
We went down to La Jolla this weekend to check out the Children’s pool. According to the law, People do have a right to use the beach at Children’s pool, but they need to stay clear of the seals, don’t disturb them if they are hanging out sleeping, and DON”T try to pet them. San Diego Freedivers were down there to share the beach with the seals…we each had opposite sides except for the little elephant seal that was sick. He came very close to us and did not look well. Seaworld was called and he was taken back to get some much needed medical care.
A big fish was caught…7 gill shark…and was eaten right on the beach with the BBQ grill. At first, I was not keen on the idea of cooking up a shark in front of the “Friends of the seals” that are there everyday, but the Freedivers needed to show that they do actually EAT the fish they catch. It does not go to waste.
I felt bad for the “Friends” and hope they didn’t feel uncomfortable watching that, but they tend to get a little radical at times and the freedivers had to do that.
it says "Enjoy the Beach" not "stay away"
The Best Tool to Spear a Halibut
Mar/110
I have priorities when it comes to spearfishing equipment:
1. Safety
2. Necessity
3. Comfort/Looks/Improvements
Along the lines of necessity I recently purchased a trident tip for my Ray Odor Pole Spear (which happens to come with a standard 6mm thread). It’s embarrassing to admit (and unfortunately wasteful) that I recently shot a Halibut that got away. I like to think that it was able to heal and live on but chances are the wounded fish probably didn’t have much chance. This incident provided a learning opportunity and to that end I researched and sought advice on the best way to shoot halibut.
I frequent spearboard.com and came across a great thread regarding halibut spearing. After digesting the information I came away with 3 alterations I am moving forward with:
1. Use a trident tip on the polespear. A trident tip serves 2 purposes which are to immobilize the fish and also to ensure the spear tip remains in the fish.
2. If not using a trident tip ensure the halibut is speared with the head pointing towards the diver. Also spear at a 45 deg angle and hold the polespear firmly after shooting to make sure the halibut swims up the shaft. This will help to land the fish.
3. If using a flopper then consider placing a rubber band under the flopper to make sure it remains engaged after penetrating the fish (like in the photo below).
4. Halibut are strong fish! After shooting do not “fight” the fish. Have a good float line with bungee section so that the fish isn’t pulling at the spear tip to get away but rather swimming against the flexible bungee section. Eventually the fish will tire and rest on the bottom. Have the float line attached to a good float (I just purchased a “Bank’s Board” from John at www.banksboard.com).
I was really excited when the trident tip arrived that I went out in sloppy conditions (windy and choppy) but my excitement paid off. With about 3′ of visibility I searched the same and eel grass for about an hour and finally spotted a halibut. I took aim, fired, and was amazed when the fish barely moved. The trident tip just immobilized it as advertised. Furthermore I had a little trouble dislodging the spear tip from the fish which was good (this bodes well for not losing fish in the future).
All in all it was a rewarding experience and a great lesson learned.
Sharkshield
Feb/110
For all of you who are afraid of sharks while diving….and you have bad Karma because you still eat shark sandwiches …here is a great solution for you- the Sharkshield!
Diving Safely- Proper Reheating of the Body
Dec/100
One of the secret dangers of SCUBA diving (or doing any type of water sport where you are immersed in water for any length of time) is hypothermia. Much attention is given to having the proper equipment for diving safely; computers, mask, wetsuit, dive plan, BCs, but people also need to consider keeping the body safe from hypothermia. Here are some suggestions from PADI on how to protect yourself from the dangers of slow cooling…..
Because water has a specific heat approximately 1000 times greater than that of air and a thermal conductivity 24 times greater than that of air, the body loses heat much faster in water than in air of the same temperature.
Use of apparently adequate thermal protection in prolonged dives, or repeated dives over several days, may produce long slow cooling and undetected hypothermia even in tropical water.
At the end of a dive, a cold diver should be re-warmed. Cold divers should not make a second dive on the same day, because it is difficult to know when body heat has been restored. However, if a second dive is necessary, it is advisable to overdo the re-warming until sweating occurs, which indicates that body heat has been restored. The diver should then change into warm, dry clothing and continue some mild exercise to improve heat production and circulation.
Five Strategies for Preserving Body Heat:
For a more comfortable and ultimately safer dive follow these tips for conserving body heat.
Stay warm before the dive. Heat loss is gradual and can start long before you get to the dive site.
Stay warm between repetitive dives. Standing around in wet gear between dives can add to your body’s deprivation of warmth through evaporative heat loss.
Get warmed up as soon as possible after a dive. You can start on the dive boat by toweling off and getting into dry clothes.
You can develop hypothermia without immediately recognizing it. When choosing your exposure suit, err on the side of thermal protection.
Become an educated consumer. Visit your local dive shop and have them show you the different styles of protective garments and accessories. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
This is a case for the Su
rf-fur!!!
The New and Improved Surf-fur Water Parka!
Oct/100
We just got the production sample in of our new “improved” Surf-fur water parka and it is to DIE for!!! I don’t want to give too much away, but it is warmer, more functional and the best quality stitching and snaps ever!! I think we are ready to roll!
How I became a Waterman
Feb/100
I have to admit that I have done quite a bit of research on the subject of good fishing / lobstering locations and the overwhelming recurring theme is time. It takes time to find, takes time to learn, and it takes persistence to constantly try new locations to see what you will find. Not only try new locations, but try the same locations in different conditions to see what may develop.
My buddy Chris and I have been diving fairly regularly together since the dive class we took. It has been mostly a series of learning dives and getting more comfortable with our equipment. For instance, I bought a new game bag to hold lobster and fish because the old one had a metal handle and clasp and opening/closing the bag was quite a chore. Additionally, the new bag was mostly nylon with little mesh to get snagged on bottom structure. The first dive out with the new bag I must not have secured it properly because I noticed it missing after 15 minutes! It was nowhere to be found and a little frustrating to lose something before you even have a chance to use it.
Using a polespear has been an amazing introduction to spearfishing for me. I have had to learn what fish are legal and in season, how to spot the specific fish, and how to approach the fish. I remember the first fish I speared in Del Mar. I was so happy to get anywhere near something larger than bait fish and I shot at some perch. It wasn’t easy but after about 5 misses, I finally nailed it. I remember not being exactly sure what it was at the time or how it would taste. I learned pretty quickly that perch are not the best eating fish out there. In fact, the only way that they seem to be edible is deep fried!
I continued on like that for about a month before I was able to spear anything of any consequence. In fact once lobster season started I found myself always leaning on lobster fishing. It is very tough to drop your spear and lobster search and that is partially why I researched a dive float. The dive float serves a few purposes:
1. A marker so your dive buddy knows exactly where you are at all times.
2. A marker so that boats can see you in the area.
3. A float to attach a game bag on and a spear to when not in use.
I have about 30 feet of nylon line attached to my weight belt. At the end of this line are 2 lobster floats attached together. Attached to the float is a clip that holds both the game bag and spear. The float is always buoyant enough and follows me around as I swim.
This lobster season has been decent so far. It is more difficult than last season to find keepers which makes everyone you do find that much more rewarding. Right now, it is December 9th and I have caught about 10 thus far. My best was just last week when I found the following lobster poking out of a hole in about 20 feet of water. He was trying to intimidate a girabaldi that was swimming outside his little cave. ’something I have noticed about lobster behavior: the bigger lobsters don’t like to share holes with anything including other lobsters AND the bigger ones try to intimidate anything that comes near their hole.
I have progressed with the polespear. In fact, it feels like the only sporting thing to use to fish reef fish. Using a speargun just seems like it would be far to easy because of the range (15′ or more). With a polespear one needs to get within 5′ of a fish in order to spear it. Very difficult!
On a nice day in Cardiff with my buddy Chas, we were surprised with some great visibility… probably 30 feet or so. This was great because we noticed some great structure that we would otherwise swim right over. In between 10 and 25 feet of water, we came across a wide variety of fish. A group of sheephead in particular caught my attention. I noticed 2 or 3 big sheephead swimming around a rock out crop no more than 10′ in diameter in about 25′ of water. These fish would not let me within 10′ of them, just far enough so my polespear couldn’t reach them. I spent about 20 minutes breathing at the surface and diving down trying to get close enough for a shot. Finally, I figured out the swimming patterns just enough and I hid around the corner of the rock outcropping. Finally, as one of the fish came around the corner- just before he saw me- I let the spear go and landed a perfect shot. The spear penetrated the fish and I quickly secured him and took him to the surface. It turned out to be about an 8 lb fish.
Now that winter is here with the colder weather, I need to consider a new wetsuit. The best one I have for diving now is a 4/3 surfing suit and it just doesn’t cut it for water below the low 60′s. I am dying to try out the Matuse 4/5/3 or the Patagonia wool lined. Both are environmentally “friendlier”, But which is the better performance suit?
How I Became a Waterman Part II
Oct/090
Lobster season came and went, probably in perfect time. Lobsterring had worn me out – too much of a good thing isn’t always that good.
April 2009 set in and the summer was approaching. I met my buddy Brian in Ocean Beach for a morning surf session filled with perfect 3 ft mushy san diego waves. At least the breakfast across from the Pier was good! On the way home we drove past the spear shack in OB (619-226-2406). Cindy urged me to stop and take a look. I am glad we did. For whatever reason I hadn’t considered building on the lobster diving and working on spear fishing / free diving but after talking to Mark, a super cool guy, I committed to taking his free diving class. I also talked to my buddy Chris who agreed to try the class out as well.
Our schedules didn’t match up for a few months but we finally joined Mark for the free diving/spear fishing excursion in early August. We were joined by 2 others on the boat. After meeting at Mark’s in Point Loma we drove to Mission Bay and launched by about 10 a.m. On an early August sunday. Mark provided everything including the spear guns. We just had to bring lunch. It was a great deal for $100!
So we anchored in 35 ft off of boomers beach in La Jolla. Mark says alright, let’s start by swimming to shore and back two times! What?! I think we all said “you’re kidding right?”, but Mark was already half in the water and raring to go. That was the toughest probably 2 mile swim I have ever done (the only one too)!
It set the tone for the day. Mark did not mess around, he highlighted the importance of safety, breathing, and technique. I learned more that afternoon then I did the previous year. I thought I would be the one with the short breathhold while the others were excelling but after using Mark’s techniques I blew myself away with comfortable breathholds of one and a half minutes to 35 ft followed by dives to 55 ft with ease! We finished the day by learning the ins and outs of spearing which was cool. Mark is a patient and experienced waterman and I would recommend his class to anyone short of an expert freediver.
So that did it. I was hooked. Not only with the challenges of free diving but also the excitement of spear fishing. In the following weeks I came across an excellent website: www.spearboard.com . This is a great forum for spear fishers (spearos) and the place where I have excellent my learning curve.
With the tips I learned at spearboard I went out and started to get my gear together. I started with a spetton excell mask ($52 ebay) and a spetton flexa snokel ($21 ebay). Now these were recommended on spearboard and I like them very much. Although I now know that Mark at the spear shack will match any internet pricing and has the best top of the line gear(I also bought from the spearshack a cressi lince mask and hammerhead snorkel, both of which are very much similar to the spetton products – although I slightly prefer the spetton versions)! I also bought freediving fins(cressi 2000, $50) used from ebay and those have worked great. I had to get the neoprene booties from the spearshack to wear with the fins. I already had weight belts from the year before (I use 4 lbs with my 3/2 and 8 lbs with my 4/3). …but the best purchase was the Ray Odor Pole Spear($55) I bought from Ray Odor’s site.
I wanted to start with a spear gun but the good advice I read was to learn with a pole spear because it is much easier to load between shots(just place the band in between thumb and finger and stretch the band!), it teaches one how to approach fish, and generally just helps one to become comfortable in the spear fishing arena. The pole spear has excellent follow through because of it’s weight but the deceleration is so fast that you need to be within 5′ of the fish to spear it! The spear came ready to use from Ray, although I did buy a separate tip($15 approx) to put on the spear.
So I am all geared up and ready to go at this point, but where to go and what to do? That’s when I turned to spearboard to introduce myself. It turns out that spearboard is not only a great place to talk and learn spear fishing, etc, but a great place to team up with like minded people and go diving.
My first few free dives with the spear I did by myself. I went out locally in Leucadia off of Beacon’s beach. I kicked out to the kelp and proceeded to take a look around with my new spear. I quickly realized I had two problems. Problem #1: what happens if I shoot the pole spear and lose sight of it, won’t I potentially lose it?
Problem #2: sharks! Swimming in open water by myself is spooky. Swimming with a spear is just a little comforting and making it out to the kelp is just a little comforting as well. …but it’s constantly in the back of my head! More on sharks later.
So problem #1 I solved really quick when I posted the question on spear board. The answer was “don’t let go of the spear”. What?!? Sure enough I tried it out next time. Naturally when you shoot the spear your hand grabs onto the rubber band. Therefore you never worry about losing it, just pay attention to grabbing the rubber band and all is good. It actually feels natural!
So at this point I feel a little comfortable with the spear and I feel increasingly comfortable in the water. My next step is to start spearing fish. …but where to go and what to do?
Breathing Techniques
Oct/090
I need to start out by saying- don’t ever try these techniques on your own without a dive buddy watching. Breathing techniques not only slow down your heart rate but also oxygenate the blood AND remove CO2 from the bloodstream. Why is this dangerous? Because CO2 is what tells the brain to take a breath. Less CO2 equals less brain signals which equals longer bottom time but also potential to stay down too long! …at least this is my understanding.
So now that we understand the fun aspects of breathing techniques let’s get down to the nuts and bolts 
. There were 4 techniques that we were taught by Mark. the advice was to try all 4 but also never perform hyperventillation as the last technique. Also these techniques can be done during the 4 minutes on the surface between dives.
Technique #1: hyperventillating. This is a series of short inhales and exhales, less then a second a piece, which quickly remove CO2 from the blood. These also cause lightheadedness so be careful. If trying these at all which I advise against, always do these as the first technique and only for approx 30 seconds.
Technique #2: deep breaths
Breath in and out in a slow controlled manner. All the way in till absolutely full, then all the way out pushing every last bit of air out. These take about 3 seconds for every inhales and about 3 seconds for every exhale. No faster then this pace. These are my preferred method.
Technique #3: hook breath
Inhale till lungs full and hold for about 4 seconds. Flex chest muscles by crossing forearms in front of chest then exhale. Repeat for one minute.
Technique #4: deep slow breaths
Similar to technique #2, these should be the final breaths. Take deep, slow, yoga type breaths which act to really slow the heart down and relax you. There is no pushing or over filling like technique #2.
Finally when you are ready to dive, inhale your breath using your stomach (diaphragm) and inhale as much as possible (see diagram below). This will fill your lower lungs. Finally fill your upper lungs by expanding your chest and capture as much air in the lungs as comfortable. DO NOT PACK BREATHS. If you do not know what packing is then don’t worry, there is no need for it and it can be dangerous.
…And the last step to a long breath hold is to kick out your snorkel mouthpiece! This causes the mammalian reflex when your lips are pursed and under water. This technique should help with a longer breath hold.
So that’s it! With these techniques you should be able to really increase your bottom time. Remember, CO2 is your friend, so if diving alone do not perform breath holding techniques.
Diving Saftey
Oct/090
Diving with scuba has it’s dangers. Likewise, diving with just a breath hold has it’s dangers too. The one thing that is most important is never dive alone. …and when I say dive I am referring to free diving where a person uses some type of breathe up exercise (a method of breathing that relaxes the heart rate while removing CO2 from the bloodstream and adding oxygen to the bloodstream) to maximize the time under water (bottom time) and hold for an extended period of time. Performing in this manner should be done with a partner because shallow water blackout is a possibility.
Hospitals in La Jolla…on a calm day
Article about blackout
http://www.divewise.org/articles/pollock_bh_review.pdf
Both divers should be trained in CPR and should dive with a few strategies in mind.
If the dives are not too deep and there is constant up and down then each diver should periodically look over in the other diver’s direction and make sure they have visual confirmation that they are moving. If the dives are deeper and the breath holding techniques are more deliberate then a one up one down system needs to be used where one diver is always watching the other diver dive from the surface (or following them down after 15 – 30 seconds to check on their progress). The time between long breath holds or deep dives must be at least four minutes, preferably and advisably four minutes. If the limits are pushed then shallow water blackout (SWB) is possible. This is where a diver passes out under water. Time is of the essence and the diver needs to be given CPR to revive them asap!
Please watch the following educational video on blackouts, it’s great!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBnEIMTrgFk
Other things to consider for safety are:
- using the proper weight. The weight on the weight belt should be such that a diver is neutrally buoyant at fifteen feet. Theoretically the diver will not sink if they pass out on the way to the surface and would float to the surface if something was to occur.
- ensure weight belt can be easily undone and dropped in the event a quick ascent is necessary.
- research the dive location for hazards. For instance, one dive spot in particular where I look for lobster recently had a shark attach in less then 10′ of water. The shark was small and the damage minimal but one must be prepared to handle all situations. Also be prepared for surge and rocks.
- do not enter confined spaces under water. This is self explanatory, don’t get stuck because you may run out of air.
- be careful of man induced hazards: lobster traps and lines can catch on your equipment. Boats, kayaks, and surfboards can hurt! Consider diving with a dive float and/or flag to notify others that you are in the area.
- use a dive watch. This way you can monitor time below and your surface time. I really recommend the timex helix dive watch for starting out only because this can be found on ebay for $20. …and here is the manual:
http://dl.owneriq.net/b/b35a87eb-9ce7-41a8-80bf-1925543e0c18.pdf
- knife. Use this to scare sharks away, and if nothing else to look cool while strapped on your leg.
- of course to keep warm before and after(and change under) you’ll need a surf-fur:
www.surf-fur.com
Some other good reads about free diving can be found here:
www.Divewise.org