Posts by Dan

To me behaving like a predator is having a certain attitude; looking for prey. When you're doing this you are not projecting yourself as prey. Of course some sharks that are large enough to eat anything they come across this will not impress. But others will definitely pick up on it even if you're not intentionally trying to scare them. This is why when you're actually hunting sharks they can be very hard to get near. Being in possession of a fish IMO may be a clear signal that you're a predator. Of course here in south Florida this is cause for being harassed by sharks. But the sharks Pantoja ran into chose his friend even though he didn't have a fish. Who knows really..

I think that because they saw you had possession of the fish that you were a predator, so they didn't want to mess with you. Your friend was obviously not behaving like a predator so he was the easier target.

I've seen videos of it recently. I can't be bothered to mess with the O ring, it will end up somewhere on the mono and you'll have to work it back onto the spear each time before reloading, more of a PITA with sharkfin tabs. I think there's a good possibility that flopper will not open if it didn't go completely through the fish. Also getting the shaft out the same way it came in would be impossible.

The Spearo's Guide is a locally (South Florida) produced DVD by the president of the West Palm Beach Freedivers club. It's a very good basic to intermediate instructional video covering a wide range of gear and its usage. I'd highly recommend it to a someone starting out in spearfishing. It doesn't have a lot of interesting hunting footage, but then that's not what this video claims to be. Our very own Greekdiver makes a cameo appearance in the pneumatic spearguns segment

Available from www.FreediveStore.com

No I don't have it, lets do it. pm sent.

Nice try, the main problem I see is that the stroller is not stainless steel, whereas all kayak carts are. It will rust pretty fast even if just left in the rain, ask me how I know.. If you take it on the yak with you, you'll get one use out of it before it starts to look terrible. Loading a wet kayak on it will amount to the same result eventually. Also the wheels are too thin to go over sand.

I'd be very interested in that, thanks Marco.

Ahh I get it. This is not a blue water rig LOL It's for reef hunting, the fish can't sound.

I think it depends on whether you're the kind of person that's conscious about your diving technique and willing to experiment. Even now from time to time I alter my kicking and posture to see how it affects my descent and ascent on a given day. There's only so much you can change, legs straight or bent, short fast kicks or long slow ones. The other day diving with Rolo I had fun discovering how much propulsion I can get out of the Pathos footpockets/carbon blade combination by finning with just the the tips of the fins. In the end you can tell the difference on your own when it works. I agree that if you're not inclined to experiment an observer can be helpful. I often see guys taking a ridiculous angle on a descent and I'm pretty sure they're not aware of it, in those cases I try to give them a heads up.

What the hell are you talking about? I'll never lose a 50lb AJ with that rig. I let go of the gun and hold on to the line..

Quote from greekdiver

Finning technique. Davie is a perfect example. He used to have bad finning. Now, he fins really smooth and efficiently. He is diving deeper than I've ever seen him. He is getting to the bottom with less effort.

Maybe his new carbon fins have something to do with that

Yeah, I just went back to mono after a few months with stainless cable. I started to use stainless cable after two strung cudas cut the mono stringer and I had to swim around looking for them. But I didn't like how the cable kinks and rusts despite being stainless. I would go to a different coating than clear which would look nice but I'd be afraid to not see when it's rusted to the point of breaking.

This spool is a little slower to wind and unwind line than the open one but it's still convenient.

The line floats so I guess as long as the spool floats it's fine.

Can you briefly comment on a couple of diving techniques?

Harry, I agree with everything you said except for whether it's worth it. The value of that information depends on the individual receiving it. I like your point about coming down on an angle and to a targeted depth. When we swim down to hunt there is always an element of indecisiveness, scanning the bottom and being ready to change direction if we see a fish, this takes more energy and air. I deleted my previous post, reading it again I didn't feel it added anything to the thread.

I also made this stringer which is easy to clip after stringing the fish, and to get the fish off of.

If anyone knows a more correct name for what I call a line spool please let me know and I'll change the thread title.

This is my float rig, it includes a line spool that I made which I wanted to get your opinions on. The purpose of the line spool is to hold excess line while in the water. I carry enough line to allow me to do my deepest dive, this means the actual depth plus 30ft. The deepest I will go is 90ft so the line is 120ft long. It is an orange RA line but another polypropelene line of similar diameter and weave will have similar properties. The purpose of the spool is to hold unnecessary line; if I'm diving in 30ft I don't want 120ft trailing behind me. This makes stringing a fish faster as the float is closer, and together with coiling the line between dives helps avoid crossing lines with other divers.

I was not satisfied with any of the available line spools, they all look like this with some minor variations.

The problem with this design is that as soon as you cross another diver's line you're almost guaranteed to catch his line with your spool. So I made something that's tangle free. I think it's obvious from the pics how it works but if there's a doubt I can elaborate. Basically with this spool the only way my rig will catch on another diver's line (without a spool) is because of my flag if his line goes over mine. If there was no flag in my float his line would slide over the top of my float. If both divers had my line spool their lines would never get tangled. The spool is made from a teak board and a smaller piece of teak board glued in the front, with the grain in a different direction to add strength. The finish is two layers of penetrating epoxy. The spool floats with all the line wound on.

I also made a modification to the RA float as I don't like their flag holder. I used an automotive fuel line of the right diameter for a conventional flag pole. I plugged one end of it with a small piece of pole, glue, and a crosswise placed SS pin. A hole was drilled into the center of the RA float that was a little bigger than the hose, and I used epoxy to set the hose in the hole. It's very solid and the flag pole is retained in there by friction and suction, it is not coming out on its own.

This design has worked flawlessly for me so far and I would like to mass produce it, or something similar to it. If you guys can see an obvious flaw or an improvement please point it out. It . The only thing better I can envision and would very much like to develop is an integrated float & spool system.

Awesome!

As light as children are I don't know if they need long fins, they shouldn't be going so deep to need them anyways so snorkling fins should be enough. But if you really wanted to it would just be a matter of the right size footpockets.

No, Greek's already moved to a band gun I know some hardcore Cuban divers that stuck to their pneumatics for a long time, but even they switched.

There is a product you can buy at any drug store that's made for swimmers to dry the inside of the ear fast and prevent infection. I think all it has is a little alcohol, I can tell because it gets my ear burning a little and for this reason I don't like to use it. Usually my ears dry fairly well on their own, I just wanted a little help for the rare times when they don't.