Who are those?
Timothy Treadwell/nut went to live with grizzly bears, after a few years of being lucky he eventually got eaten by a bear, so did his girlfriend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLidFrcp5Eo
Erich Ritter is a marine biologist/idiot who stood in waist deep water full of chum and bull sharks giving an interview to a camera exalting the benign nature of sharks, then he got a piece of his leg chomped off on camera.
I read or heard that GW are actually quite sensitive when in that mode. The thing is that if you see them in the water it's because they're undecided in the first place otherwise the first time you'd know the shark was there is when it struck you, they're great ambushers. So when they're undecided like that they can be scared off with just fast aggressive gestures.
I think may have seen your man at Ft. Lauderdale beach. He has a yak and a little sedan that's rusted to shit where he keeps a couple of big round plastic tanks. He's got an aerating pump that's hooked up to his car battery. The whole thing looked pretty shabby but I guess there's no point in using a good truck as it will rust just as fast because of the saltwater.
This video is disturbing. Is the diver one of them nature nuts like Timothy Treadwell, or that fool of a marine biologist Erich Ritter, just waiting to be chomped on? Or does he know something that we don't about those particular sharks?
Interesting. Do you know where he gets the baby cuda? Such small ones I've only seen in channels, they're probably hiding in the mangroves in the intracoastal too.
I saw in a picture that you were securing them in the foot pockets with a zip tie. Have you found this to be the best way?
With older style foot pockets that don't have a recess for the top screw retention plate, and/or don't have a bottom screw support plate, I prefer a zip tie to secure the carbon blade instead of screws. I can get away with two tiny slots, just enough for the zip tie to pass through the blade.
Carbon blades from different manufacturers vary in quality, some are simply prone to failure. Screw holes on most foot pockets are located near the blade toe angle which is a high stress area. Additionally some foot pocket kits come with ridiculously large diameter screws requiring large holes. Consequently you have a recipe for a blade breaking along the screw hole line, so it is a valid concern.
But using screws does not automatically mean a broken carbon blade. First of course choose reputable carbon blades like Speardiver. Foot pocket mounting kits like Speardiver, OMER Stingray, Cressi Gara Modular and Beuchat use smaller diameter screws. The pressure on the blade is dissipated by the screw support plate which has variable thickness, allowing itself to be positioned to make the screw heads lay flat relative to the carbon blade.
Additionally at Speardiver we never "drill" holes in carbon blades. Instead we use a proprietary method to make the screw holes, it disturbs the integrity of the carbon material significantly less than drilling. Provided these factors are addressed, it's been my experience that done properly a screw installation is safe and durable. Which is why Speardiver offers a two year warranty, including fins that are assembled with screws provided it's done correctly.
Here's a pic of what the installation with a zip tie looks like. The slot is made with a milling bit which means it was ground as opposed to cut. This versus drilling a big screw hole and the fact that it runs perpendicular to the stress put on the blade as it flexes, makes it less likely that a crack will develop from that point.
Safe installation using screws in foot pockets that use a bottom screw support plate and small diameter screws.
<img src= " class="smiley" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x" height="23" width="23" loading="eager" data-tooltip="biggrin" aria-label="biggrin"> Maybe this one can incorporate headphones.
New line of diving masks anyone? 
Cuda attack very fast. Their first strike cripples the fish if not tears it in half. The damage is probably done more by speed and the consequent impact of the teeth against the fish than any bite power. Our very own JimCuda chose his screen name because a cuda chomped on his hand, I believe he was cleaning a fish in the water off a boat.
I've seen cudas react almost automatically to flashing object in the water. In Cuba I was told to throw an knife, if the water wasn't too deep, to attract a cuds within shooting range. The cuda always turned and made a brief rush at the knife cutting it short before giving me a shot. As I was reading your post I thought to myself it might have been a flash of light in the mask. It never occurred to me before that this might happen. I was aware however that in tropical waters one shouldn't wear jewelery to beach if planning to swim. A cuda can take possibly take a finger or at least cause severe bleeding.
I don't know if this story will stick in my mind enough to become weary around cudas. I'm pretty sure though that if you were to look at cudas in predatory mode yourself, they wouldn't perceive you as a target. It's a good eating fish and there should be a market for it.
I thought this was well on the way to becoming the quarterly :cherna: repressed feelings purge thread..
So now then Oto, which footpockets do you think have the necessary non stiffness that you so much desire?
And why don't you just trust me, come on over jump in the pool and try a pair footpockets with average stiffness tendons and a soft carbon blade? No strings attached
Shortening the tendons will make the fin softer. Tendons add stiffness to the blade. This is necessary but can be overdone when footpockets have tendons that are too stiff.
Oscar is selling his Riffe C3X for $300. It's a good deal, I doubt that this gun has been in the water more than 10 times, I remember when he bought it.
His email bigo556@aol.com
To me PPD firstly means personal protection dog but PPD (personal protection device) is the name Ray Odor calls his PH. I don't know if he was the first to call it that but now it's a name commonly used to describe similar devices. The distinguishing feature being that it's a simple device which is reusable, you load in a cartridge yourself and it's held in place with a rubber or plastic hose which in turn gets slipped over the shaft. I'm comfortable with people calling Ray Odor style PH a PPD, it helps differentiate it from the slip on PH which is what I have, although in reality the PPD slips on as well. The slip on PH I have go off %100 of the time. I keep them in the pouch on the belt and never take them out, never rinse them. I had a PH like that for 2 years and never used it. Then I wanted to see if it still works so I used it, it went off perfectly.
That's a Riffe stubby. You'd have to ask Oto if he's still selling it. Not a bad little knife.
Aimrite is not a bad choice, not perfect but not bad. I ended up not liking the Merou handle and decided against using it on our guns. It's a well made handle but too small, doesn't provide enough leverage on the gun for my taste, the plastic is slippery and tends to turn in your hand. But it's a good functioning handle, now with an all stainless steel mech. The muzzle is top notch and if everything lines up when you get it you have a good gun. Also the line release does not reset automatically and the little tab that resets it can tend to stick.
Here's what the Merou handle looked like on our gun http://spearfishing.world/spea…-at-our-new-speargun.html
I think there are a few different Riffe handles, make sure which one you have. I'd focus on the handle for the competitor series guns. It's the handle I'm familiar with. Being that I don't recognize the handle in the pic as being specifically a competitor handle I'm hesitant to say what's necessary and what isn't. If you like I can send you the short stock that's in the pic I posted, I have no use for it.
I've yet to see a PPD that works consistently. The percentage of the cartridge not firing has to be zero, the PPD has a very high percentage of not firing.
It doesn't matter how well the cartridge resists water. If it's been exposed to water once it should thrown away. Even if it was sealed with nail polish.
Florida law stipulates that a device that fires a cartridge which incorporates a firing pin must be of a minimum length. This is why you see Beco style PH sold with a rod welded on. Then you cut off the rod and grind down the welding. But if you're stopped with it there's the small possibility that you can be fined if the officer is a prick. I think the chance is small if you're going diving and the PH is with your diving gear. The slip on PH as well as the PPD does not incorporate a firing pin, the spear point acts as the firing pin and as such it's perfectly legal. In your case monster the AK47 round is completely and permanently encased in the aluminum cylinder, I can't see how anyone would could figure out that there's an AK47 round in it.
I've been meaning to make a video of the PH going off. I've fired it before, no big deal like ear pain or whatever you may be thinking. You can feel the concussion wave in your body and it's a bit scary the first time, that's it. How far away do you think this guy was when his PH went off?
http://spearfishing.world/106-post2.html
You're being silly. Of course you won't be able to stop a predatory attack by a great white, you'll know of him once you've been hit. But a shark that's indecisive or a shark that's determined to have your fish will give you a chance to use a PH. Look at what happened to Ryan McInnis and his friends with the tiger shark. I believe they had a chance to use PH in that situation, instead they put a few spears in the shark and killed it. IMO the responsible thing would've been to keep a PH. Had they shot it with a PH the shark might have been deterred and not needed to be killed (although I have no problem with killing it).
It's not psychological peace of mind for me because I don't think about the PH, it's simply part of my belt. I know it's there and I either get a chance to use it or not. If I do get a chance to use it then it was correct for me to keep it.
