Posts by Dan

  • Whatcha' gonna do when they decide to feed on you

    Here's the Santa Lucia Cuba shark "accident". I don't know what these guys were thinking but I'll wager they won't be doing that again. It looked to me like a young Cuban man judging by the fact that he was diving without a wetsuit. That and the fact that he stayed really composed after the bite evokes some sympathy in me where otherwise I'd just think he got what he deserved. It's good that he was able to wiggle the fingers of the bitten arm after. The shark only thrashed once. What's unforgivable is conditioning the shark to associate food with divers.


    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbdTROt14G8&feature=related

  • Tovarich means friend

    Where can I buy a Tovarich kit? Is there one that fits a Mares Cyrano?


    I understand the concept of the system and I'm wondering about one particular aspect or it. By necessity the mono must be attached towards the front of the spear. I've thought of doing this before on a conventional pneumatic without a kit. One thing that stopped me is that the slide ring to some degree centers the spear in the muzzle. Without this slide ring the shaft would wobble inside somewhat and it may affect accuracy. The solution would be to secure a sliding ring into the front of the muzzle independently of the spear. The more important factor is; when shooting into a deep hole would the attachment point of the mono not create a severe toggle effect which could make extracting the spear from the hole very difficult?


  • Pros and cons of a kayak as a spearfishing platform

    Here in Ft. Lauderdale I see kayaks everywhere I go. In stores displayed in the main window, on top of cars parked and passing by, by the lifeguard towers on the beach, and of course on the water intracoastal and open ocean. Every time I see one I think it's pretty neat and reconsider owning one. Just think of all the fun tweaking :)Then I try to keep in mind why I sold my ocean kayak scupper pro and decided not to go that route for spearfishing. I don't like a kayak for a spearfishing platform and that will come across as I reason it out here. But I realize that others do like them and I'm curious to hear about your way of offsetting the disadvantages as I see them.


    Disadvantages of a kayak:
    1. Difficult to transport. Kayak is difficult to get on and off a car by oneself and requires some kind of stowing system for the top of the car. This includes time consuming strapping and tighteing. Carrying it to the water is another difficulty. If using a cart it's yet another item to buy and to find a place to stash on the yak. Barring that you have to make another trip to the car to leave the cart there. This process becomes all the more tedious at the end of the spearfishing day when you're really tired.
    2. A small light kayak would seem to be the solution to some of the above problems. But once the kayak is small you're running into storage space problems. Long fins, speargun, and eventually fish. The smaller ones don't even have enough room to install an adequate hatch that will allow storing fish inside the yak.
    3. Making forward progress in any kind of chop is difficult and we almost always have some wave action here. Buying a super duper paddle doesn't seem to help this issue. With wind and wave action it is sometimes easier to make way swimming. It seems kayaks were designed for flat waters.
    4. The problem of what to do with a yak once you get to your spot. The alternatives are to either use it as a float or anchor. If using as a float it's a lot of drag and reduces your maneouverability stalking fish. If anchoring you always have to swim back to it which can be a PITA in current. The reef systems here in Ft. Lauderdale are such that there are no paticular spots, they're more suitable for drift diving.
    5. Considering the layout of the reefs here; Overall in terms of producing fish from Miami Beach to Ft. Lauderdale on a beach dive I feel the kayak holds no advantage over the swimming spearfisher as far as distance covered. If larger distances are covered they are offset by the fact that you miss everything along the way in a kayak.
    6. For a large part of the year a wetsuit is required for diving here. Paddling in a wetsuit top is very difficult due to the resistance of the thick material. One solution is to take the wetsuit top off for paddling and put it back on just before getting in the water. However the kayak is tippy and wetsuits are not easy to get into under the best conditions.
    7. Finding a place where launching a yak off the beach is allowed is always tricky. It seems there are very few such places and some of them allow kayaks but no spearguns. You can get around that by hiding the gun in the yak if it's big enough to store it.
    8. At the end of the day you must paddle back to your entry point now matter how far you are because that's where your car is.
    9. Cleaning up the yak from sand and fish stink at the end of the day is time consuming.
    10. Additional price of the kayak and all accessories although for me that's not really a prohibitive fator. I see it as a one time investment that should pay for itself if it works well.


    Advantages of a kayak.
    1. In terms of mobility for me the kayak has only one advantage for our diving here. I tend to push myself on beach dives, go for as long and far as I can. I always try to gauge how much energy I have left to make it back. If a kayak were to perform as I imagine it should in terms of mobility in the water, I could go longer and further knowing that I can always get back even if I'm tired. However the limited mobility of the yak in wind and waves showed me that this is not the case.
    2. Psychological comfort as a place of safety if harassed by sharks or in case of an accident. This is really far fetched, I've never needed it. There is no substitute for planning ahead and being careful.
    3. Increased visibility to boaters but IMO a boogie board with a flag is enough.

  • Mako spearguns revolution.

    Quote from av001

    I guess you can say they chose a cost leadership vs prouduct differentiation strategy^^


    Kudos to them for being able to so.:thumbup:

    Quote from monster slayer

    Man i am slow, please brake it up a bit for me... (it sounds interesting) what do you mean?

    This is how I understand what Alan is saying. When marketing a product it is necessary to make a point why the consumer should buy your product because there are usually already similar products on the market. One often used strategy is confusing the consumer with small differences in the product that really don't amount to much but allow the manufacturer/reseller to make claims about their product being superior. At the same time making a direct comparison to other products difficult for the consumer who's trying to establish the value of the product for themselves.


    The alternate strategy is to offer a similar, to the point of being almost the identical product, for cheaper. And going with the obvious strategy of why pay more for the same thing. At the same time making the original seller look bad to the consumer for having inflated prices. The down side of this for the reseller is that it creates price wars with other resellers which reduces the winnings for all. This is good however for the consumer who ends up paying less for the same thing. Free market, like Rolo said "Gotta love it".

  • Broward Beach Conditions

    Nice king hau.


    BTW you've been single a long time haven't you <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">


  • Fish name translation English Spanish

    I thought the rooster fish was a pacific fish. I added it.





    Thanks Marco and Monster, I've made the additions. Thanks for writing the names is a format that's easy for me to copy and paste, this work is a PITA.


    Monster, I couldn't add your snappers because I don't which ones they correspond to.


    Further referencing can be done with the sites provided by Straight shaft and Fuzz. If anyone would like to do this for the missing names and/or add new ones post and I will add it to the top.