Posts by fuzz

Quote from Dan

Those pics are nice. Something very different and pleasant about the vid. How did you achieve the shot footage if you were by yourself? What diameter shaft are you using?

I have my 2nd gopro on a gorillapod.

When I saw the cabezon, I tried to set up close to it... it let me get close enough, but I thought it was a lot better angle.

It was also surgey there, so camera didn't need much coaxing to be tipped over.
My next thought was to use a small red brick as a base. Brick cam! :crazy:

Shaft is a 6.5mm.
Usually I have a 6.75 for my ONE gun, but was playing with one of my smaller Omers.

Preface:
Embarrassed to post these, since the dive pics are pretty poor quality (screenshots from my gopro)… but figured I'd piece together a report anyways...
(yes, I have a bit of OCD)

Headed out couple weekends ago for a solo mission.

While I love the camaraderie & fun of diving with friends, the occasional solo dive helps keep me grounded & sane.
A solitary escape into the underwater world helps clear away stress, worries, etc... & allows me to truly relax.

Oddly, found a couple clusters of small copper rockfish in shallows (15-20ft):

Despite the relatively flat swell, there was a fair amount of surge and the lings I found were all tucked into holes:

Checking a hole with an awkward ceiling entrance, I flipped upside down & found a decent sized ling playing musical holes, casually swimming between different rooms in this cave system:

As it lifted up to move rooms, I placed a secure shot through its gills & made my way to the surface:

Snooping around the shallows, I found a nice 20"+ cab hiding in plain sight… nestled amongst the coraline algae:

At home, filleted out the fish & packed the fillets away.
(ling, ling, cab)

A couple days later, headed to Nate's place for a small fish fry.
One of our buddies picked up these fish taco fry-discs in Ensenada for us, so we put it to good use:

And to finish up the post, a short clip from the dive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVbn7CBIBZg

Quote from Dan

Have you compared it with the mask mount?

What mask have you found to work best with the mask-mount?

Quote from John Hanson

The size of the cooler is my primary concern as well. I am only wanting a cooler that will keep ice for at least a 24 hour period. I prefer to process my fish as soon as possible.

I just found a 120qt Coleman Extreme for $52.00. It claims it will hold ice for 5 days @ 90 degrees F. I just don't see how as the fit/seal of the lid was not very good. I will test and see how it does as well.

Either way, a cooler that size for $52 is a bargain.:)

If size is a concern & you're gonna be doing short-term icings... you might want to stick with the older style chests that aren't Extreme or 5-day. Those new 5-day coolers just have thicker walls, taking away from internal space. If external size isn't an issue, then thicker insulation is never a bad thing.

Know what you mean about the lid seal... I go through every one until I find one that's difficult to open/close (good seal).

Quote from greekdiver

Nothing beats this! Super comfortable, streamline, and does not move.

http://www.team5150.com/~harry/goprohat/P1040520.JPG

Wow, Dan wasn't kidding... teletubby indeed. :laughing3:

Quote from Dan

The Mantis LV doesn't look like it has enough meat on the frame in that area to support a bolt anyways. It's an expensive mask, I'd sell it for less. I tried buying it but Gull has an exclusive with Riffe.

What's the red lanyard for?

He has a tendency to lose things... it's a leash between his mask & camera so he can lose both at the same time.

Quote from Dan

I didn't realized that the gopro head mount is being used for diving. Truth is it felt so wobbly outside the water I never considered it for underwater. Have you compared it with the mask mount?

Nope, I like my masks now (2 Mantis LV's) & don't want to drill a $100 mask.

This is what I've been using:
http://gopro.com/camera-mounts/head-strap-mount/

Here's a pic of same setup I use, on Carter:

I like that I can put it on & take it off easy. Doesn't get in way. If I'm going fast, I can feel it wobble a bit on descent... but that just tells me to slow down.

Quote from Dan

Are you using the original gopro head mount for diving? What's it like?

Now you may have to mask mount the gopro.

I love the headmount... seems to work well. I just put my hand up to my face & feel to make sure the face of camera lense is on same plane as mask. This, in turn, ensures that the camera is pointing right where I'm looking.

Now... I removed the battery bacpac from my headmount & went back to standard. I have another gopro with a battery bacpac on it... but since it's not as user-friendly, I don't come anywhere near using up the battery. Maybe I'll dust off my tinman mount & use it for that.

Quote from phil herranen

When you come by we can make a nice cf mount that works with the pack
Phil

:thumbsup2:

Love the new Battery Bacpac for the extra filming time it allows... EXCEPT that I can't use it with the standard headmount. The extra back portion forces the camera to be angled down at least 30degrees.

Quote from Slurryseal

I did flip the lams before laminating them, but grain pattern makes it look like that are glued back the same way they were originally cut, (with the exception of one piece that came from a horizontal cut rather than a vertical cut of the original piece of would). I had to double check as well when I was lining the pieces up for glueing because the grain matched so well even though it had been flipped.

-Lance

Alternating lams should be flipped and turned around end-to-end as well.
If you just rotate the laminations 180degrees around the length axis, it'll end up the way you see it.
If you rotate it in both ways, the grain will be opposing and more balanced.

Think of it like a sheet of paper with a diagonal line... going from bottom left to top right. If you rotate it 180 degrees... the grain will still be going in same direction. You need to flip it over in order for the diagonal to switch to bottom right to top left.

Quote from JimCuda

https://lh5.googleusercontent.…eY7a5Rc/s400/IMG_2466.JPG

On the next gun, I think you'll want to orient your laminates to have opposing grain directions. That said, I wouldn't sweat it unless you notice warping, but Padauk is pretty stable from what I've gathered.

**Caveat, I am certainly no woodworking or speargun building expert, but I read a lot and am in the middle of a build now. Maybe Steve Veros can affirm or correct my statement.

What you said is pretty right on. The main point of laminations is to counteract a chunk of wood's natural tendency to move in a particular direction. By flipping the individual laminations around, the forces offset and create a stable blank. Looking at the lams, the grain is going in the same direction... which means any warping forces would still be acting in the same direction.

Too late now & should be fine, more of a FYI thing.

Quote from Sam

Definitely a Brown rockfish. It's a little hard to make out from the photo, but you can see a brown patch on the edge of the operculum, which is a good diagnostic characteristic. I also like to look at the dorsal spines; browns tend to have more deeply incised dorsal spines than grassies or kelp RF's.

Thanks for the verification.

My first instinct was a brown, mainly because the operculum spot, eyes, & mouth... but the pic quality made me second guess myself.

Quote from Stephan

Water looks beautiful, and the fish too. Would a new 5 mill be sufficient up there? I use an old 4 mil in Laguna / PV.

I'm from Hawaii... I get cold very easily, so I wouldn't recommend anything less than a 7mm.
I know a few that use a 5mm, especially for ab diving where they're moving around a lot more.
Nevertheless, 7mm is the standard up here.

Quote from monster slayer

Damn Harold, you have some serious narrative skills. Your english prose leads me to the forests of imagination and the calm waters of thought. I was there no kidding

Thanks... posting on a bunch of cold meds at 1am... I was just lucky it was somewhat coherent.

Quote

Steve, I believe you are referring to Sugar or Jonny bass. I could be mistaken, but that's what we call them and they are tasty. I've just stabbed them a few times instead of shooting cause they are so dumb. They taste as good as they are dumb too:crazy:

Yup... if they just stare at you blankly with those big ole' doe eyes... those are sugar bass (aka kelp rockfish). Up here, we just call em "dumb bass". My buddies and I refer to em simply as "kelpies".

Johnny bass is actually an olive RF, which get a lot bigger & tend to be wary with size.

On a related note, I'm not sure why fishermen have taken to referring to these rockfish as "x bass". :confused1:

Quote from Ryddragyn

Thanks guys.

Two stills from the gun cam:

http://img837.imageshack.us/im…reenshot20110404at925.png

Hey Alex, do you have any other pics of your catch?

Hard to tell in this photo, but this looks like it could be a brown rockfish.
We found a bunch of em at county line scouting for nationals, but none met the 14" minimum.

Quote from LunkerBuster

well done by all...thanks for sharing buddy...how cold was the water? I'm scared to ask

Low 50's... so about average.

Quote from Stephan

Nice Stringer Alex:

I saw a few of those on a recent dive, including a real pig about 15"-16" and fat. I was sure they were rock fish but didn't know what kind or the regs. on them plus I was looking for WSB so I didn't take them. Nice to know they can be taken. The fish I saw were sitting right on the rocks and were reticent to move unless I tickled them with the spear tip. Does that sound like the same fish? Is there a size limit?

No size limit. Kelp rockfish & grass rockfish can look very similar. Grass rockfish never hover, typically sitting on rocks. Grass rockfish have larger pec fins, big head, & grow to a larger size. Kelp rockfish will mostly hover near kelp stalks, but once in a while get lazy & sit on rocks.

After a couple days of Nyquil-induced stupor, I finally got around to typing up this report…

April 01, 2011

With the opening weekend for abalone & lingcod fast approaching, we eagerly watched the forecasts… Unfortunately, as April 1st drew near, the forecasts grew increasingly ominous, predicting HUGE swells and (for sane people) undiveable conditions. As the last week of March drew to a close, a small window of opportunity presented itself. We chatted & agreed that we could possibly sneak down south for a few hours of marginal diving on Friday! :crazy:

Friday arrived and at 8am, we were lined up on the beach in Carmel, suited up and ready to go!!! It was a beautiful day topside, with clear skies and very sunny spring-like weather. Unfortunately, the ocean was quickly turning ugly. The ever-increasing swells, mixing with recent run-off, churned the cove waters to the color & consistency of chocolate poo.

Launching our kayaks, we braved the poo waters and paddled till we found the clarity of green tea; a welcome improvement. Entering the washing machine, we were soon embattled with Poseidon's fury. While being ragdolled back & forth on the bottom by the powerful groundswell, we soon found that the lingcod had wisely retreated to the safety of the deep. Following their lead, we worked out into increasingly deeper ledge systems.

Persistence paid off and in the end, we each were rewarded with nice stringers of fish. :thumbsup2:

Dan…
Dan tested out his new Omer Kanaloa, filling out his stringer with an assortment of fish. A pair of healthy lings, a couple cabs, and several rockfish made their way into his kayak. On the last spot of the day, he came across this beautiful vermillion:

Dave…
Dave worked his butt off, trying to stay one step ahead of us "young'uns". Proving to us yet again that old age & treachery will beat out youthful fervor, Dave pulled out this beautiful 18# ling… only 25yards from where we were diving!

In true "walk-off home run" superstar fashion, Dave basked in his glory, posed for a few pictures, then paddled back to shore to kick back and enjoy his success, while we continued our hunt.

Carter (ApneaAddict)…
Well, Carter shot a Monkeyfaced Eel. While we were determined to find lings, Carter was determined to shoot the ugliest creature he could find and bring it home for dinner. To that end, his trip was a grand success.

Nelson Kwok…
Kwok overslept and showed up several hours later than originally planned. Nevertheless, he dove hard, hustled, and managed to shoot a nice assortment of rockfish to bring home. Since he came in at dusk, he didn't get the gratuitous photo-op.

As for myself…
I scrounged around all day to find a few choice rockfish to bring home, as well as a pair of respectable lings.

10+ hours on/in the water, huge swells, tough diving, and 3days of recovery… it was totally worth it!!!!

That'd be cool to offer that style of mech for home builders. It'd be nice if it was lighter since most would be used for light wooden euros & the combination of a steel handle frame & steel mech quickly weight the backend down.

Don't know of any american notch shafts with holes through back.