Total newb!

Hi! My name is Hal, and I"m a total newb.

It's probably hard for most of you to understand where I'm coming from. I grew up in the sticks near St. Louis, Missouri. We have rivers and lakes, but nothing you want to snorkel (heard of the "Mighty Muddy"?). For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to try spearfishing, but it seems like it's never been the right time. Beach trips have been few and far between, and in the past I never would have had the money for a charter anyway. December of 2012 I got to go snorkeling in Costa Rica and something maniacal took me over, an addiction, a yearning, an obsession and I can't quit thinking about diving and spearing. Visited family in Aruba, April 2013 but nobody knew a spearfisher. Even the in-laws who grew up there told me "uh....what? I don't think anybody does that here". So I shore dove and saw some really awesome stuff. December 2013 I hit Pennekamp off Key Largo and got a real eyefull of some local fauna, but still no spearing. Here I am, I been frothing at the freaking mouth since about December 2012 with an itch I can't seem to scratch yet.

Finally, I got my employer to allow me to do my job (tech support) from outside the St. Louis area. July of 2014 (THIS YEAR!!!) is my set move date to the Tampa metro area. Now that I have arranged to move to the Tampa area, I'm really knuckling down on research on everything I can find about this sport, the gear, the spots, the depths, the prey, the hunt, everything I can think of. I'm even coming across a lot of those Cheney "unknown unknowns," the things I didn't know I didn't know.

I look forward to learning from you guys (and gals)!

Thanks for reading.

No boat. I'm going to just take it slow. I have a 7' pole spear w. paralyzer tip and a 15" single flopper tip, just planning on shore diving. I hear that's crap around that area, but easy does it. I want to hook up with a FII course when I get down there, get a little more confidence in the water.

Good things come to those who wait, and to those who don't die from doing anything too stupid. The move is the hardest part, but we will be down there by end of July. Everything else can fall into place after that. I have one buddy in the area, very close family friend, so hopefully he will have contacts. If not, then I'm just jumping on boats with random people from forums like this. Wish me luck!