Posts by Dan

Whenever I think of diving from the Malecon/near Havana harbor I remember the story of Sir Brook Watson.

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It was whilst swimming alone in Havana harbour, Cuba in 1749 that Watson was attacked by a shark. He was fourteen at the time. The shark attacked twice before he was rescued. The first time, the shark removed flesh from below the calf of Watson’s right leg; the second time, it bit off his right foot at the ankle. Watson was finally rescued by his fellow shipmates, but his leg could not be saved and it was amputated below the knee. Watson recuperated in a Cuban hospital and recovered within three months

I remember reading he used the shark attack to his advantage later in life, because of the publicity he received he eventually became lord mayor of London, and on his coat of arms was a drawing of a wooden leg. This is the famous painting depicting the attack. Interesting how the artist didn't know exactly what a shark looks like.

Watson and The Shark

A common sight in Havana Cuba, fishing off the Malecon (sea wall).

The Malecon as a entry point is easier to get to for Havana residents, but normally it's slim pickings.

A wood speargun is very unusual to see in Cuba. Band spearguns are rare in general. Cuba is the land of the pneumatic speargun, usually homemade.

The following pic is typical of parts of the northern coastline. High cliffs with deep water close by. My favorite place to dive and we had to climb down those cliffs and lower the gear with a rope. At other spots you had to throw the gear in the water and jump in from a height of approx 30'. I used to have pics of my water entry from just such a place and pics from the top of the cliff of the speargun floats disappearing in the distance.

Since I stayed near the coast it wasn't uncommon to see a pescador submarino walking down the street with a gun and a stringer, standing on the coastal highway trying to catch a ride, or on a crowded bus holding a burlap sack with a fish tail sticking out.

In a neighborhood from time to time you would see a big fish like a shark hung on a tree being filleted, or someone under a shed working on fish.

I was worn out with lack of sleep over the last couple of days work having the new puppy to deal with. The other guys must've thought the viz wasn't going to make it worthwhile.

Viz can change from good to bad in an hour. I can't see why it shouldn't be true the other way around too.

I was at the beach today and based on what I saw close in I'd say the viz is very bad further out. The water was also cooler than a week ago. Tasted more saline if that's possible. On the other hand I saw a small barracuda in 4' of water which is a first and a few jacks that passed zipping by. It's entirely possible that there are a lot of fish out there now.

I can see the rack retailing for between $200 and $250. What was the dive shop selling it for? If you take some proper pics of it on the beach with gear hanging I think you can get that on ebay.

I always get nostalgic when I see spearfishing pics from Cuba because that's where I started spearfishing. I could've taken a lot of spearfishing pictures in Cuba. But digital photography was just starting back then and I didn't have time to develop conventional photos. The photos you'll see here are not mine, but the memory might as well be, the scene and the feeling is the same. Although Cuba has an oppressive regime, when it came to spearfishing it was total freedom. Note the ever present homemade pneumatic spearguns.

Very nice work and I recognized the tubes immediately. Now I understand why you had the different size ones and how they fit so nicely inside one another. I'd say this is a beautiful example of gear made for a very specific application for lack of having a tree close by <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">

Where did you find the end pieces with the rounded point? Where did you find the clamp fittings and how do they work? What did the whole project cost you in materials? Damn this looks like something that you can market and would sell nicely.

The rails help noticeably. They will fit something up to 2mm thick.

Great report Larry. How about that, I didn't imagine Mahi are cannibalistic. Thanks for the heads up on the viz and congrats on the nice cow. I've yet to shoot my first Mahi.

I've seen them, kayaks are too much hassle, you know that cause you never use yours. I meant something that will pull you with it's own power, like that mini jetski but different. I envisioned it as somehting you can pull your upper body onto.

Nice find. I think it will create more problems than it will solve for a spearfishing application. It will either rip the mask right off or if you keep your head over the water you can't see what you're passing over. I've wanted to design something like this before that goes slower and doesn't submerge and has a window for the diver to see the bottom.

Quote from monster slayer

I wish i was there

One day.

Does anyone have viz reports for Miami?

That was interesting. Matos lost a lot more than the match. Athletes of this caliber get special treatment in Cuba, now it's all over for him and his coach. They might as well defect but China is communist too :dumb:

I'm in. Lets see what the storm brought in except for bad viz.

The Wenoka squeeze lock has a pretty good locking system that I've come to believe can be deployed well in an emergency situation. It can be taken out with one hand. It is good for braining up to 40lb fish and emergency cutting such as when entangled with mono. It's a good candidate as a knife to go on the arm or upper arm. I still need a longer strong knife for when I have to chip rocks if my shaft gets stuck in the bottom. I'm considering attaching this knife to the gun.

My idea is to free the lower body from any encumbrance for smooth kicking.

I've thought about this too so I have the counter argument already prepared. To the left of the buckle I have the power head pouch with two PH, I'm not giving that up. To the right of the buckle I use the area for hip loading. This rules out the horizontal placement for me personally. I don't see why not to the right of the buckle (away from the tag end of the belt) for someone who has the area available because they chest load. I don't think you can have much of a belly though

I tried a knife on the belt on my last dive. Few are the places where it doesn't interfere with doubling over to dive. Really there's only one place, directly on the side of the hip. I will not put it on the back of the belt because I can barely see it on the hip, also it's not easy to reach there. I also don't like that it makes adding or taking off weight more difficult. Being properly ballasted is very important and I find myself too lazy to adjust weight if there's too much involved. The weight belt is a tool in itself and I don't want to interfere with its functioning.

I'm leaning towards your first idea of an arm band. I may make one up soon.

Blob sculpin, an unhappy looking creature even under the best of circumstances.

Exact same stuff Scubas world and FF is selling. Don't know the specs.

See if you like the gun in the first place, then look for a 135. You can always sell it for the price you paid and more with shaft and all the rest. Make sure you're able to get a pump for it.

In case someone doesn't know what which weights we're talking about.