Posts by Dan

  • Do marine mammals experience shallow water blackout?

    I thought it was an interesting topic. The original post:

    Quote

    1) Does SWB exist among mammals that primarily live in water?
    2) If yes, why is it less rare? (This is an assumption based off the simple fact that they are truly water adapted)
    3) If no, and given that we still share somewhat similar adaptations to our water dwelling counterparts, why are we prone to SWB and they are not? Is it simply that we are more likely to push our limits and less in-tune with our physiology?
    4) Are there practices that mammals such as seals, dolphins, whales, and so on, perform that have been translated to human freediving performance increases?

    A good response:

    Quote from growingupninja

    In short, to answer your first question, aquatic mammals do not experience SWB, at least not the same as people. They suffocate and die from lack of O2, unlike people who BO, stop breathing, and then (terminal breath) inhale water and drown. I don't have links to the studies but we know this because human drowning victims always have microbes in their blood stream that comes from water in the lungs--heart was pumping at the time of terminal breath. Aquatic mammals who have been discovered dead from lack of O2 do not have these microbes--their hearts just stopped pumping at some point from lack of O2, although I imagine as they near critically O2 levels their motor control and consciousness would become impaired.

  • Interesting and funny stuff

    <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">

  • Question to roller gun users and other smart people

    If the track lines up, your biggest challenge will be making anchoring points for the bands on the bottom of the gun. The ideal number is 3, but you can get away with 2 depending on where you position them. The problem with the anchoring points is that they're weight bearing and as such should be screwed into something solid, your pipe is hollow. So not only is there the thin pipe wall which is not enough to support the screws, you'll also compromise the water tightness of the tube.


    One way to get around all this to just get a feel for what a roller speargun is like, is to tie the bands to the trigger guard as a substitute for the forward most anchoring point, and to hook the bands over the reel base/mount as your maximum power anchoring point. You'll get a good enough idea of what it's like to load and shoot the roller gun. With well made anchoring points the loading process will be a little smoother, but the gun will shoot the same.


    Again, with a pipe gun a big waste of time. With a wood gun less so.

  • Gloves: Kevlar palm / Amara fingers vs Amara palm / Kevlar fingers?

    I've never tried Kevlar gloves so I don't know if Kevlar offers any advantage. In my experience Amara over neoprene does the job for gloves up to 3mm. Beyond that I think more flexibility is required. Amara is pretty tough and will protect your hands and the neoprene. It will eventually deteriorate if you grab enough rocks etc. but up to that point works well. So I consider gloves to be the piece of gear that most often needs to be replaced. And I'm OK with that, gloves are not expensive, that's why I never seriously looked at other options like Kevlar.

  • MAKO Spearguns - Poor quality made in China

    The latest from Mako and appended to every piece of crap gear is the slogan "MAKO direct price". What is a "MAKO direct price"? The wording implies that there is a higher price for the same item when buying it elsewhere. And that can only mean that Mako products are sold somewhere else other than on the Mako website.


    It is conventional and ethical in almost all industries, that the manufacturer or source of the product never sells the product at a lower price than his customers do, which in this case would be a dive shop. A manufacturer that sells the same product directly to the end consumer, at a lower price than his customer the dive shop, is guaranteed to lose his customers and business partners; the dive shops.


    It follows then that the "MAKO direct price" campaign is misleading on two fronts:
    1. Mako products are not sold anywhere else other than on the Mako website. So the price is not the "direct price", because there is no other non-direct price.
    2. Implying that Mako products are sold elsewhere to give them validity, when in fact no retailer will touch Mako products precisely because of Mako's unethical marketing strategy (products being crap on its own doesn't stop most people from selling them).


    And before there's more smoke and mirrors about the "MAKO direct price" simply being words to describe Mako Spearguns business model (being a direct seller), here's a screen capture that clearly shows two prices on the mask product page, with the "Retail" price which is presumably the non-direct price available elsewhere being significantly higher.

  • OMER Zero mask & Slalom snorkel review

    I prefer the Sporasub Piranha mask over the omer Zero. The Sporasub Piranha and OMER Zero 3 masks fit similar, and both fall in the new ultra low volume freediving masks category. I found that between the two the Sporasub Piranah offers better peripheral field of vision, and seals a little better under the nose.

  • Speardiver frameless two window mask

    Any mask can be treated to not fog with a lighter. Past that spit or fish slime will take care of it. To my knowledge there are no special properties that make some tempered glass fog less than others.

  • Esclapez Exium Speargun

    Like Don I'd rather not disrespect someone's work. But when I look at this gun, and since you asked, all I see is how weird it will be to carry in the water. If you're one of those new age super spearos who always hold the gun by the handle like on descent, then this gun may not bother you. Me, I want to have a stick in my hand that I can grab any which way, as I anticipate will happen when you mess around with enough fish. I'd even sacrifice some maneuverability to be able to do that, but in this case I really don't think a nice carbon pipe gun will track with perceptibly more difficulty. A long gun is a long gun.