Freediver accident in La paz

What terrible and bizarre events.

RIP

Was it out of the water?

RIP

Yes, he was out of the water.
Don of course was in the water,it most
have been really scary.

Loaded spearguns are a real danger, and while doing
blue water hunting, because of the mess of loading so
many bands, or just because we are jumping paddies
we tend to leave the guns loaded, and thinking the spearpoint
is the danger.

Those guns have a big recoil, and also, once the shaft hits the end of the
line it could come back and hit you.

Wow that is tragic, sorry for the loss.

i feel so sad every time a fellow diver pass away...RIP brother..

I find this death to be particularly wasteful because of the manner in which it happened.

I have often restrained myself from portraying an "I told you so" attitude on these kinds of threads, which seem to be becoming more and more common. This time I just have to say it. Notice how all these accidents are directly connected with failure to observe very simple safety rules, which me and my friends have adopted a long time back, and maintain no matter what the circumstances; no loaded guns on the boat, use float lines and floats not reels. Other stuff doesn't come to mind right now but I'm sure soon enough there will be an incident to highlight another safety breach.

Read this to see what it took for a hard headed (no pun intended) fellow, to strictly adhere to no loaded guns on the boat. It could've been much worse.

Quote from Dan

After changing the oil on his boat engine today Pantoja took the boat out for a quick test run with his brother, and of course while out there took the opportunity to do some spearfishing. He got a hog so the gun was fired once and then loaded in the water. The gun was a Riffe C3X and was purchased 3 weeks ago. For a reason unknown to me he got on the boat with the gun loaded, I've never seen him do this before, if I did I would have said something. The gun has 2 standard length 5/8 bands and a single flopper 57" 9/32 shaft. Pantoja sat on the transom and proceeded to unload the gun.

He put the butt on his hip, grabbed the first band to unload it and the gun fired. As we all know due to the length of the C3X the point of the spear is much further than the head of the person loading therefore it's impossible to shoot oneself in the head. Quite different than a pneumatic speargun where if one does not pay attention the point can end up exactly under the jaw as it's reaching loaded position.

The spear hit the end of the mono and ricochet point first to his head. The spear entered at the hairline, was deflected by the cranium, exited under the eye brow passing over the eye and entered again above the cheek. In the shock of the moment Pantoja didn't know what happened but he said that when he opened his eye he could see the shaft directly in front of it. His brother ran over and grabbed the shaft so the weight of it would not tear the skin. Upon inspection the flopper did not completely pass under the skin and Pantoja decided to pull the spear out on the spot.

There was a lot of bleeding and I think he used a rag to put pressure on the wound while his brother drove the boat home. When I spoke to him he was just getting underway to the hospital.

A mobile phone pic of the entry wound after getting it cleaned up.

Display More

woah!

I had just opened this thread, cuase I was out of the city, visiting an Uncle. I don´t know anything about it, but i will figure it out soon enough. Is really important to me to actually make a research about this event. I feel it deeply, cause those are my hunting grounds and that could had happened to anyone. My prayers with him and his family. I will go today to the mass to pray for him.

wow. that is so sad. I have a friend who got whacked in the stomach at about 30ft. by a still hot, 300lb tuna's tail .Knocked the wind out of him but fortunately, he was doing things right and had a buddy there to pull him up. Fish and spearos all good.Be safe guys!

This same thing , Happend to my Freind Dave Plossel on my boat :@,it scared the shit out of me
that was the last day there was ever a loaded gun on my Deck !!

Maybe we should consider changing out are Trigger mechs every 3 -5 years ?

Quote from Joe Acevedo

This same thing , Happend to my Freind Dave Plossel on my boat :@,it scared the shit out of me
that was the last day there was ever a loaded gun on my Deck !!

Maybe we should consider changing out are Trigger mechs every 3 -5 years ?

That´s a thought, I concur. All pieces subject to stress and movement have a relative short life span, why would spearguns be so different. Every 3 or 5 years depending on the use (or abuse) of the gun would be a wise thing to do.

Really sorry to hear this and thanks for posting the lesson. Could a safety have made a difference here? I know that some guys remove their safety switches but stories like this remind me that I would rather miss a thousand shots due to a safety than have an accident like this happen. Same reason I will never have a loaded gun on a boat. Not preaching here, that's just my personal choice. I always have my safety on and check it before loading and put it on safety when unloading. It also goes on any time Im in the water near another diver within shot range.

Again sorry for your friend and family. RIP.

I have a story to tell here:

I bought a brand new long carbon fiber speargun with Stainless steel mechanism and went to a spearfishing trip over a wreck in the blue. The current was so strong that we had to get into the boat every time and drift with the current.

As the gun is one of those "life time warranty" ones with SS sear, I was more than confident in leaving it loaded when remounting the current.

I don't remember how many times we did that, but fortunately, one of the times I hit the water, the gun missfired. Then, when trying to load it, after the second band was cocked, it missfired again. And again, and again.

I got the mechanism replaced at no cost and now the gun is ok, but can you imagine what could have happened?

Someone was looking after me upthere, so nothing happened.

I never carry a loaded gun outside from the water anymore.

This beind said, RIP.

Quote from Marco

I have a story to tell here:

I bought a brand new long carbon fiber speargun with Stainless steel mechanism and went to a spearfishing trip over a wreck in the blue. The current was so strong that we had to get into the boat every time and drift with the current.

As the gun is one of those "life time warranty" ones with SS sear, I was more than confident in leaving it loaded when remounting the current.

I don't remember how many times we did that, but fortunately, one of the times I hit the water, the gun missfired. Then, when trying to load it, after the second band was cocked, it missfired again. And again, and again.

I got the mechanism replaced at no cost and now the gun is ok, but can you imagine what could have happened?

Someone was looking after me upthere, so nothing happened.

I never carry a loaded gun outside from the water anymore.

This beind said, RIP.

Display More

How long ago was this? I know a few people that had similar issues with the same gun.

Last year