Posts by Dan

Well monster, I don't disagree with some of the things you're saying but it seems to me you're applying them a little too generally here. For one there's the discrepancy of saying that the skills learned in the martial arts are not applicable in real life and should be taken only as fun and games. I remember in another discussion you were talking about a friend of yours who works in a special unit or something along those lines and how karate never failed him in numerous real life situations he faced.

Without a doubt the skills acquired grappling, combined with a common sense approach will serve you very well in all situations. Knowing when you're out gunned and running away to live to fight another day is another matter. But I do agree as I too am way past the tough guy stage and now know that the worst situations are ones you don't even ask for. Living a safe and healthy life is a balance of skills including emotional stability, a clear head when making a decision to do something, as well as the physical skills to deal with confrontations. I can't say I've perfected it for myself but at least I don't look for trouble.

About getting elbowed; I don't know Ray's way of training but I've had it happen in grappling unintentionally just by turning hard/twisting my torso to escape a clinch. I'm sure it can happen during a flurry of movement in many other situations. Hell I kneed a guy slightly trying to get top mount position today, didn't mean to do it but apparently hurt him a little. I apologized immediately.

In grappling today I experienced something relevant to what I mentioned before about becoming complacent. I let myself slip as I had north south position on a kneeling opponent. He put his arm around my elbow from the bottom. I thought he was preparing to sit out which I'm ready to counter and so didn't pay it much thought. Instead he grabbed my wrist with his other hand and did an elbow lock. It was surprisingly strong and affected my elbow and my shoulder at the same time. I was very close to injury, closer than in a long time. Fortunately he's a good guy who's aware of the effect of the lock and he applied it gradually. I asked him to show me the move. It's a good move that I will incorporate into my game because even if you don't get the lock from the bottom you can escape the position.

Is the bald guy on the right flexing his quads for the pic? LOL

I'm glad you got the riddle Ray, now I know you weren't bullshitting <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x"> You never know with these internet things.. Look at me, I just started diving a month ago but you'd never know it <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">

At this time I have 3 levels of protection wear that I use. Rash guards (lycra) in the summer, 1mm for the fall and spring, and 3mm in the winter. Only the 3mm will hold a pocket or a sheath directly.

Monster, I agree those elastic straps are good. Did you ever get your similar material Jeff? I also agree that two knives at the locations you described are the best solution.

But you enjoy getting hit? LOL

Some of the wetsuit material is too thin to hold the sheath in place even with just drag and weight as the acting force, never mind pulling out and sheathing the knife.

Thanks Davie, we decided to go pending what we see at sunrise tomorrow.

No disadvantages that I can see. I agree that it would be a great place for it. However short of gluing a pocket on each wetsuit I don't know of another way to do it. Some of the wetsuits we wear here in the summer are very thin, too thin to glue a pocket to, and we also use rash guards. A gun holster type of mount is not reasonable.

Quote from Toledo970

I had a similar thing happen to me Dan, with one of the JKD instructorsin Cali. I had him in a position for a RNC and didn't want to be a penis and force it in, we kept rolling and ended up each in a leg lock he cranked it I didn't.

This just reminded me of the first time I learned the hard way not to cross my legs in front of the guy when I have his back. Can you guess what I'm talking about?

I discounted the small of the back position immediately. Apart from having to remove too many weights before removing the knife every time weight adjustment is necessary, the position is completely blind. The knife can be reached with either hand but it's a difficult stretch and you have to go completely by feel. There is no way I'm counting on that position in a moment of emergency. I can't believe that Pipin advocates this position in an instructional video on basic spearfishing gear and techniques.

Therefore I dove a couple of days with the knife on my hip. My conclusion is that I don't like the position. While the knife is visible and easier to reach the movement is still not fluid and requires more dexterity than I would want to count on in an emergency situation. It also pokes my side when I dive and when I turn right underwater. The Wenoka knife being small did not diminish this effect. Placing the knife back in the sheath was a bit of guess work, more time consuming than pulling it out. I didn't like the function of the knife's locking mechanism either. It required more dexterity than I would want to use. No matter how many times I gripped it there was always a necessity to readjust after the first grip to squeeze the locking plastic tabs correctly. I realize that this might not be such an issue if the knife is in a very visible and easy to reach place. I also found it too short for my liking.

In conclusion I've discounted the belt as a place to keep the knife. If I find myself using borrowed gear I can deal with it but ideally don't want to. Also I don't want to lose one more thing if I need to drop the belt. The next placement I will try is on the forearm or bicep. The only disadvantage I see with that is that I can only reach it with one hand.

I did a couple of days of diving experimenting with a new to me knife position and knife. The knife I used is the Wenoka Squeeze lock which is identical to the omer laser.

I've always worn a knife on my inner calf. What prompted me to experiment is that I figured since I'm always moving my legs it would be good to have them as streamlined as possible. Placing the knife on the inner calf greatly limits the possibility of entanglement so that wasn't an issue.

The first place other than the leg that the knife could go with little modification was the belt. All I had to do was reposition the weights. I had in mind two possible positions; one that I've seen Pipin Ferreras demonstrate which is at the small of the back, the other was directly on the side. In front positions are precluded because it interferes with doubling over when starting the dive unless the knife is placed horizontally. In my case there's no room for that because I have the powerhead pouch directly to the left of the buckle and I load the speargun on the hip to the right of the buckle. The Wenoka squeeze lock being small lend itself well to this experiment.

My considerations included ease of access and deployment, comfort, and streamlining as far as the possibility of the knife getting caught on anything. Particularly important is ease of access and deployment because I consider the knife an emergency tool. Braining and gutting fish can wait, being entangled with fishing line on the bottom at the end of your breath hold can't.

Pantoja is taking the boat out tomorrow morning. Whoever wants to come let either of us know.

I still think grappling is safe. Once you get past the growing pains and know where everything can lead you can just tap. I don't practice with a gi and I no longer let anyone grab my feet or legs. I just start kicking like hell. I no longer do leg locks except for the knee bar that doesn't put me in the same position to do a leg lock on me. If we do end up like that I change the position quick as I don't want to get into the race of who puts it on first. That's a classic point of injury as both guys feel threatened and accelerate. Besides the straight ankle stretch doesn't work on many guys with strong ligaments and the ankle bar in the corner of the arm is relatively easy to escape if you don't have it snapped on perfect.

Talking about a no return point in grappling makes me think of the same in striking. Check these out.

Boxing, serious knockout. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wNrB_V3PFc&feature=related

Kickboxing, leg break. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcCMqvdFJYo&feature=related

MMA, leg break. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBE5FQR5cW8&feature=related

Jim, I never had the Riffe fins in my hands but I'll wager since they're plastic that under the tendons the blades have a built in ridge or lip around which the tendon snaps. It's easy to take apart and put back together so if you have them you can confirm what I said.

Some Brazilian guys are very aggressive, like I said I think he did it on purpose to cause the effect that it did. I don't think it happened while he was trying to do something else. There are some moves that you just can't practice, you can only execute them under full commitment.

I'll give an example of what happened to me one time. When you do an ankle twist you try to do it gradually to give the opponent a chance to give up before damage is done. When you train enough this way you become complacent about some very inferior positions in the sense that you allow them to go further than they ever should. This would never happen if you were more tense or had more nervous energy going into the fight. Anyways this noob took hold of my foot while I was on my back and he was standing up. I was complacent about it because I thought I knew how long it would take him to set up for something. Instead of doing any of the traditional ankle locks he just pinned my foot across his chest with both arms and threw himself on the floor to the outside direction while keeping my foot tight. He fucked up my knee ligaments real bad and I couldn't walk for a couple of weeks. For a couple of months after I wore a knee brace.

Specifically about the back break; the bottom guy's mistake was that he let loose the opponents whole right side by uselessly putting both arms around the left leg. This allowed the opponent to pivot around his own left leg by side stepping with the right. I have no idea what he was trying to do grabbing the leg like that, looks like a dead end to me.

I would try it at the end of the blade too. Just grip it hard and see if you can shake it off. It depends how old the rubber is. Acetone will do nothing to the blade nor the rubber rail. That fiberglass is very tough.

I can't say if it will hold, but it looks like the best that can be done given what you're working with without permanently altering the blade. I think a zip tie is more secure but there's the matter of the hole.

One other thing you can do is try to remove the whole rail and see if it will come off without falling apart. You can then reglue it the opposite way so the ridges that haven't been altered are where you need them at the back of the blade instead of in the front. Gluing is done with a crazy glue type adhesive. Maybe you know of a solvent that will loosen it up or you can try wedging a razor blade in between the rail and the blade. I really dislike that rail system and think the one on my blades is superior so if you damage it and it needs to be changed completely no great loss.

Yes, I refer to the strips as tendons.

Not sure what you mean.

The only other thing I can think of is drill a hole in the glass blade near the tendon and secure them together with a zip tie.

Thanks Julio.

This is what it's looking like today. Another perfect day for a beach dive. I opted out of beach diving to go on a boat trip instead tomorrow. Forecast is calling for 2-4 I just hope they're wrong.