Official Waterman Group A tribe for surfers,divers,kiteboarders,windsurfers,wakeboarders,& watersportsmen

How I Became a Waterman Part II

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?