Posts by Dan

  • My Blue Wild spearfishing exhibit experience

    Like I said the good thing about the Blue Wild is that it's 15 minutes from my shop. The Broward convention center is easy to get to, other than the minor irritation of getting carded to get into the port. Parking was also easy and close to the building. I didn't expect the number of escalators I had to take to get there.


    The lobby was used for the art exhibits; photos, prints and some original paintings. There were some that caught my eye, beautiful fish colors always do, but overall nothing I'd throw money at. The themes were divided about %95 ocean environment/sea creatures and maybe %5 spearfishing specific. There was one particularly silly booth with surrealistic shark theme paintings, underwater babe with a shark on a leash, a matador like diver holding a red cape in front of what I suppose was a bull shark. I think for those of us who closely observe and try to understand the ocean environment and the creatures that live in it, that kind of fantasy appears well out of place.


    I stopped to talk to Sheri Daye, introduced myself and asked about the layout of the booths. I learned that the larger ones were multiples of the single booth, x 2, x3 etc. I decided that if I go, one booth will suffice for my needs. Some vendors made more of an effort than others to stand out. The Sea Sniper booth was noteable with it's "metal tech" decor. Another one that stood out had two girls in scant bikinis. While I admit I had to stop and gawk at one of the girls ass, I felt it was inappropriate. It's nice to have a pretty friendly girl at a booth. But to flaunt skin in that environment like it was a porn convention, was overkill/poor taste and IMO reflects badly on the exhibitor. Like they're desperate and have nothing else to hold our attention with. From a practical stand point I didn't even notice the name of the booth the girls were standing in front of.


    I was surprised to see the Sea Shepherds at the show. Talk about hypocrisy! Remember this campaign http://spearfishing.world/gene…ng-campaign-ive-seen.html I don't think the Sea Shepherds should have been allowed to exhibit in the Blue Wild. I asked them what they're doing there "Aren't you against spearfishing?" They started to answer "Well there are limits to what spearfishing is ok and.. " I just cut them off, reminded them of this campaign, booed them and walked away.



    Not much else to tell, I only stayed about half an hour. After stopping by Tito's booth (Tito Spearguns) and saying hi, I headed for the exit. Passing by the Spearboard booth I saw the grogan talking a couple of girls into having their photo taken, called his name, snapped a photo and went home. Is it my imagination or did he have one facelift too many?


  • My Blue Wild spearfishing exhibit experience

    Yesterday (Sunday) around 3pm I was talking to a friend who had just returned from the Blue Wild. He asked me, and I get asked this often, if I'm going to exhibit Speardiver there. I answered him that over the course of next year the Speardiver line will become much more complete and at that point it will be worthwhile to pay for a booth, so probably yes at next year's Blue Wild. At that moment it occurred to me, that if Blue Wild acquired the reputation of being the premier event to promote and check out spearfishing gear, I just bought into the hype. I really have no idea what it's like because I never been there. The smart thing to do would be to go and see before committing to exhibit. Good thing the Broward convention center is 15 minutes drive from my shop, so I headed over.


    Another friend of mine recently told me, that he doesn't like the Blue Wild because it commercializes spearfishing, changing it from being private and special to something that caters to the masses, putting more people in the water and more pressure on our already pressured hunting grounds. I have to wholeheartedly agree. But as someone who gets a lot of satisfaction from providing myself and my fellow divers with the best equipment to enhance our enjoyment of the sea and chances of putting fish on the table, I can't ignore the possibility of giving exposure to the Speardiver brand. Also as a business man I can't stand by idly and allow my competitors, especially those of whom I believe to have inferior product, to have the stage without opposition. Those would be my reasons to attend the Blue Wild.


  • SCUBA spearfishing

    :plusone:everything Xan said.


    Chase, whatever my personal feelings are about spearfishing on scuba, I must disagree with you. I'm not involved with fighting anti spearfishing legislation, other than providing a forum where information can be shared and divers can be made aware of and organize to fight the proposed legislation. But I understand the it's the scuba spearfishermen who spearhead the resistance, and have been doing so for years. Additionally any ground gained against spearfishing in any form, ultimately weakens our position and brings freedive spearfishing closer to being banned, so we have to stick together with the scuba speardivers.


    I think this is a good topic. I also think that freedive spearfishermen stating publicly that scuba spearfishing should be banned for whatever reasons, is damaging to all of us. I'm inclined to ask you to pull this thread. But I'll wait to see if others agree with me.

  • I wont go past 65 ft.

    Advice that's likely not be taken at all is probably poor advice. Better is advice that's easier to implement. The best advice here was from Xan, and it basically amounts to making pullboy realize that he has the wrong attitude in the first place which is the pursuit of depth, which is promoted precisely by freediving courses. The best way to avoid BO is to stay well within your limits until there is a good reason to push further, and you've slowly and naturally reached the point where you can do it safely. Then there will be no blackout. Setting a predetermined depth goes against this principle, that's why there are so many deaths as a result of freediving courses and their promotion.

  • I wont go past 65 ft.

    hau, lets get real.. you don't do any of those 3 things, and you'd buy another pair of $200 Ice blades before you put this money towards a freediving course or the vest, so why give that advice?


    I like what Wishihadgills said. But on the practical side, anything deeper than 50' is a cue for me to be on high alert. Simply because the safety margin becomes very small if something were to not go as planned. So if a fish appears towards the end of my breath hold, my trained response is first to make a quick assessment of the situation and how long I've been down. At 45' I don't have these concerns, I'm much more relaxed.

  • Sniper gun design for Wahoo/Tuna/Ulua?

    The Speardiver carbon speargun handle feels very different to the Merou/Aimrite handle. The only other person I've seen recognize this fault with the Merou handle is z1taz, he's an experienced diver. From Aimrite Venom vs. Sea Assassins 1 Shot 1 Kill Spearguns - Spearboard bubble blowers drama forum

    I experimented with the Merou handle and my carbon tube 5 years ago. Looks great but like I said you don't get good leverage on the gun. hau will remember this gun.




  • Sniper gun design for Wahoo/Tuna/Ulua?

    Quote from sdeisen

    if you want to stick to pipe-style guns look at the aimrite king venom.

    The Aimrite venom uses the same Merou copy handle as the rest of the Aimrite guns. It is an outdated handle with poor ergonomics. It does not allow a solid grip for good leverage on the gun when tracking. This will be especially noticeable with long guns that have a lot of water resistance to push through, the handle will want to turn in your hand instead of the gun moving. By contrast the Speardiver teak Euro handle provides an excellent grip which will allow you to track a big 130 or 140 gun with ease.

  • Split Fins Work?

    Split fins are a gimmick. A split fin is comparable to buying a sports car, then deflating the tires so it will not go too fast.

  • Aeris F10 v2 question

    I just checked 3 watches and all 3 look the same as yours. It's not that the back of the case is not screwed down properly, just that little tab for your finger to turn/open the back is sticking up like that. So no need to worry.

  • Fins/socks question

    If fin keepers are required, then the wrong size or type of foot pockets are being used. Foot pocket fit is where I wouldn't cut any corners. Even if I had to have two sets, one for winter and one for summer diving. What's another $100, against all that energy lost in the transfer from leg to blade from improperly fitted foot pockets? No one wears shoes that are the wrong size for them! Shoes can easily cost more than foot pockets and everyone has several pairs. Fortunately here in Florida this is not an issue, for foot pockets and shoes, I wear flip flops year round :)

  • Aeris F10 v2 question

    You don't need a special tool to open it, even though the watch does come with such a tool. Anything pointy will open it, and it can be closed by hand.