Hi guys, my name's Max.
I didn't even know this sport existed until I was on R&R in Jamaica about 2 years ago and I saw a local come out of the water with a stringer of fish and a gun. I immediately decided I had to try it, so I asked the activity guy at the hotel I was staying at. The next day he brought a home made gun that he borrowed from someone(it was made out of a 2x4 and what appeared to be bicycle tire intertube, haha). Went and shot some massive(haha) reef fish. Ended up going three times while I was down there. Deepest was probably in 15 feet of water, but at the time I didn't know how to equalize my ears so that was a challenge. In retrospect I really didn't appreciate the visibility as much as I would now that I've been diving off Vero for a year! One day I hope to return to Jamaica and really have some fun.
When I left the Army last spring I moved to Florida to join my wife who was going to school down here. The first order of business was getting some spearfishing gear! My buddy ended up moving down too, one of his primary motivations was to spearfish(and he'd never even done it before, as he put it, "it just sounds badass". Both of us are junkies now and start to really get the itch if we are out of the water for more than a couple of weeks. I live in Orlando for the time being but plan on moving to the north Tampa area in the fall.
My buddy and I have been doing shoredives for the past year or so, mainly in the Vero area although we've tried Venice a few times(2.5 hour drive for 5' vis = no thx). We went on our first boat hunt a couple weeks ago. Went out of Hudson to 35' of water. We had an amazing time and shot some nice fish.
Anyways, this is turning into a novel so I'm going to shut up now. If anyone needs some cool guys to split gas with my buddy and I are always down. We are good dudes and definitely willing to learn.