Posts by Reefchief

The engineering and craftsmanship in this thing is phenomenal. Really nice work. Excited to see the completed project.

Did the last important thing to really be complete with this gun. The palm swell with putty epoxy and Rhino Liner coating.

Rhino Liner is an adventure to say the least. But we managed to do a pretty fantastic job in the end. Its amazing how much a tiny bit of epoxy filled out the handle and made it custom fit my hand. The rhino liner looks and feels amazing.

Forgot to mention. When we went out on Monday we noticed Fort Lauderdale beach was totally wrecked from that storm surge + winds + super high tide that washed everything onshore and gave us bad viz. The beach was very short and had a deep channel just inside the water that then went back to a shallow sandbar. It seems like this erosion is now causing the beach to wash onto a1a regularly. This was taken today not at high tide. Wonder if they are going to start doing some "Coastal Management" and screw up the reefs and viz?

The puke turned into soup at the front of the second reef. Much better but still crap. Swimming back in I kept going in circles. Saw lots of activity, but not a lot of potential dinner.

I really like the bright orange line I got from you dan. I think it looks cool with the carbon too. I like high viz but im not a fan of yellow pretty much as a rule. So orange or white it is for me. Lime green would be cool too.

Its as if Jackson Pollock was into spearfishing.

Nice splatter job. Ive done a few and its definitely an art. Those paint jobs look awesome.

Between an lcd interface that contains more then 3 digits. The new 120fps mode, and the pictures during video. I know what I want for xmas.

Holy crap. What kind of boat was it? Any idea why you didn't hear it? Did you hear it steven? Or just see it? Boats scare me the most about beach diving, but I kind of took comfort in always hearing boats from far away...

Quote from Hardline

Damn guys! Glad you made it out alright. I feel the same way about the boats as I am sure everyone does here. If you have the boat, you don't need to be hauling ass like a maniac less than 1500 yards from shore. Move out to the deeper water and fish or drift.

When boats get close to me I try and get their numbers so I can report them. I had a boat get within feet of me as well, luckily he was not going fast but he crept in slow and got within 20 feet of me. I yelled at him and told him about he needed to be well within a 100 feet of my dive flag and reported his boating number...not sure if it did anything but the people out there in boats can be as dense as rocks.

I wanted to go out today as well but the current looked like it was kicking hard south so I stayed on land.

Technically, the law allows for someone to approach a dive flag at an idle speed. Not that it isnt a super dick move to do especially to a freediver in open water, but its allowed.

(6) Any vessel other than a law enforcement or rescue vessel that approaches within 100 feet of a divers-down flag on a river, inlet, or navigation channel, or within 300 feet of a divers-down flag on waters other than a river, inlet, or navigation channel, must proceed no faster than is necessary to maintain headway and steerageway.

Ive used this thing 3 times now and couldn't be more pleased. Its the magic missing piece in my dive gear for so many days when a full open cell cooks you and a rashguard leaves you freezing. It keeps my core warm and comfortable in the water, and doesn't let a bit of water in while diving despite being closed cell, its basically like the chest portion of my open cell suit. And when it gets a bit colder but still not cold I can add my open cell pants into the mix.

Saturday there was a thermocline that I could feel with my arms and legs but it didn't effect me at all because my core stayed the same. Usually in those situations my breathold and comfort is severely effected.

Fit and comfort wise it doesn't ride up or chafe at all for me. Fits and feels like a glove.

I cant see something with lycra sides doing the same thing for me. To me the vital essence of this vest is that it encapsulates and warms my core, and insulates me from the shock of temperature changes.

Thanks guys, Im really happy with how it turned out aswell. <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x"> I got to try it out saturday and it performed awesomely. Shot a nice sized mac from a good distance with it too.

Went out fishing and spearing with my Dad. Had a pretty nice day and ended up with 2 Mahi, a Cero, and a few snappers.

The first thing we caught was this epic sunrise. I guess getting up at 5:30 has some perks.

Hooked up on a school out of the blue early. Ended up catching 2 mahi and spearing 1. Hooked up on a monster bull on the smallest tackle we have for schoolies. Thought I had a chance for a few minutes until he decided to run. It spooled the little spinner in about 10 seconds. He jumped as he ran and looked around 30lbs. I never had half a chance

My dad has mastered the schoolie flip. That way the boat only needs to look like an episode of dexter for the big ones.

Mahi light up in crazy ways. A moment before this it had verticle stripes I was trying to photo.

Hit the reef to find not so great viz. Tried out my new gun and had a blast anyways.

Got chased by a horse of an eel. He popped out of a hole I was laying near had to swim backwards a bit because he was being so aggressive.

Couple of fish from the day.

Was off hollywood yesterday. Viz wasnt too hot Maybe 20-30 getting worse as the day went on. Still very sandy and green from the rain runoff. Could barely make out the second reef from the surface.

Well, after a bit of a delay in progress due to life getting in the way of spearfishing I am finally pretty much done with my gun. It still needs to get a rhino liner treatment on the handle but other then that Its ready to rock n roll.

A couple of coats of penetrating epoxy and some light scotch briteing resulted in an absolutely beautiful finish. Then I tied up some short 13 inch bands with Speardiver band twine, dyneema, and rubber. And rigged a double wrap 300lb shooting line.

I learned so much from the forums and received a ton of help from Dan along the way. It was an awesome learning experience.

I have a mirrored amber bandit and I don't really notice any reduction in viz. I've switched between it and a spare clear lens mask a few times with bad viz but went back to the bandit because I didn't see any reduction in vision and it fit better then my spare. The mirroring and darkening seems to help most face out of the water keeping the brightness of the sun down. Seems to make very little dif in the water to me.

You can see the blurring of the spotted background and the smudges and blurring on the dorsal fin from the major photoshopping. Petrosk, if your camera took this photo I would investigate the insides for tiny photoshopping creatures <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">.

Omer Bandit here. Ive tried a few others but always go back to the bandit.

Haaha, I think red chief is a little more fitting.

It was awesome meeting and diving with you guys.

Current was definitely ripping hard enough that staying over a spot was difficult. Viz was surprisingly not too bad though. Could see the bottom over the second reef which is definitely an improvement from last week. Didnt see too much fish action. Only shot my gun once to kill a lion fish on a coral head coming in.

But considering we sat though a rainstorm when we arrived and didn't know if we were gonna get to dive, it turned out to be a really nice day. Now I can go back to work with my diving itch scratched.

First time doing a beach dive with the banks board and it was awesome. Learned a few things and had a few tangles, but for the most part it worked great. Definitely switching to a rope for easier coiling.

Beautiful Mutton. Nice report.

Quote from Macdyver

I've actually had all three within the past few years. I startedwith the 3000's, found them way too stiff, cramped up like crazy, and the store exchanged them for 2000's which were much better. A few months later I scored used Razors for $40, found them much better than the 2000's and sold the 2000's. Since the Razors have removable blades, I can always move up to carbon fiber which is a huge plus. My girlfreind also bought a used set of the Mares and loves them as well. I'm 5'10", 205 for comparison. Welcome to the forum!

I think you have that backwards, 2000's are boards, 3000's are softer.

Stevens, fin blade characteristics are important. But dont ignore footpocket fit. I know people who love gara 3000's however my first pair were 3000's and the footpockets caused me severe pain. The size, width, and shape of your foot will determine which foot pockets feel good. If its possible I would try to find somewhere local that allows you to try some fins on.

Quote from Dan

I dislike boat ladders for diving. They're rarely stable and there always seems to be potential for hurting yourself. I don't like taking off the fins in the water either, especially in current.

Same here, I can see why a rib is so great. I like to stay geared up fins and mask on all day so I actually climb in backwards with my fins on when we motor between spots. Surprisingly I didn't injure myself that way as I don't grab the ladder getting up. I squished it jumping off. Tonight I'm gonna keep some cold liquids in cans on the injury to try and prevent swelling <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">

The vest really kept me warm. I could feel any time I let some water in just how warm it was keeping me. Two loading pads also made it comfy to load lol.

Quote from Dan

Beautiful pics. Sorry about your finger. It's a strange looking injury. The only way I can think of that happening is getting it smashed between two objects. If that was the case why is it only on one side? You'll know if you need it to be checked out.

Exactly, I had my finger in a bad place on the dive ladder between some moulding and the ladder and put my weight on it. 1/4 of my nail on the other side is also purple. But more then enough of is fine that it won't fall off.