Posts by Cunamara

Made a vid too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOuR54fm0vw

Sharing the stoke!
So I haven't had much time to dive lately. I've been incredibly busy, getting ready for a move to Alabama for medical school as well as trying to get back in the Army for the health professions scholarship program, plus traveling back and forth between LA and Berkeley to visit my gf. BUT! Luckily I found some time yesterday to do a quick shore dive which turned out to be rewarding. I started out the dive at about 2 pm after checking several spots that had crap vis, I went to a spot where I could see the vis was pretty good. About 15' water was warm at the top but there was a thermocline about 10 or 15 feet down. It was a pretty fun dive to say the least. I started out close to some rocks and some seals showed up to play around. Once I saw those I thought I was screwed. After about an hour and some sheepheads, I saw a little school of barracuda, which I took to be a VERY good sign. A few minutes later, I was resting at the surface and I see a smaller sized WSB swim right by me. It was on the smaller side, might've been just legal, but I didn't go for it. About ten minutes later, this 32" WSB swims within six feet of me and pauses 2 feet from the tip of my gun. I line up the shot and let loose. That bugger took off! I started following it until I couldn't feel it taking out any line. Swimming around I found my empty spear and had the most disappointing feeling in the world! I couldn't believe I shot the fish point blank and I lost it. BUT! it turns out I didn't lose it after all. The spear had traveled all the way through and gotten jammed in some rocks. I followed my line to where I was tangled up and I saw the fish jerking and wrapped in some kelp. After about 20 minutes of struggling I finally got it free and on the stringer. After that I collected my spear and headed straight in. Just pure stoke! My family and I only ever gotten a few fish in all the years we've been fishing California, going back to my dad, that's over 50 years. I got home, chopped up the fish, including the collars and the otoliths. The collars were so onolicious! Never had those before, but the meat was so succulent! Here's some pics of the action. I'll put up a video later on.

Oh ya, saw one of these guys too. Just don't eat the heads!

Went out diving this past Sunday to film my bro surfing a little and check out the fishies. The water was great...clear and warm. There was plenty of life out including palani, moano's, a fat pufferfish, and a nice sized uhu right on the inside...made me wish I had my gun on me.
EDIT: hard to see the pufferfish....that's why I don't like having the camera on my mask.

Thanks man. Hopefully, I'll have some bluewater fish to post up!

One last question all: I've got a 7mm top and bottom freedive suit and a 3/2 surf suit. Which one should I bring? I'm leaning towards the surf suit since the 7mm would probably be too hot in Hawaii.

Looking forward to the trip. I think I'll be getting the sporttube to bring my stuff. Just hope it arrives in time.

Quote from montereyspearo

This is in the Hawaii section, but I see you're in Palos Verdes. I don't know about the tropical, warm water urchins, but the Californian sea urchins are one of my favorite foods when the quality is good. take one, crack it open and give it a taste. If it is bitter with a slight iodine aftertaste you might have to go deeper, or if the gonads are small find an area with more kelp. The best quality urchins will be an iridescent gold color.

If you are talking about Hawaiian urchins then I have no idea.

Ya I'm from Hawaii, but I'd never heard of anyone harvesting them, so I was curious if anyone did. They're pretty popular here in Cali, but they have a much better diet of kelp over here than in Hawaii. I'd never seen larger ones in Hawaii either.

Does anyone take urchin's for consumption? I'd never heard of it before and all the urchin's I'd seen while surfing were smaller and eating the reef, so I don't know if they'd taste good or not.

Dang it! Now I WANT to bring them. lol

Thanks all, I'm definitely not putting gun or saying gun anywhere at all. lol That's a good way to waste a 700 dollar airplane ticket. I probably won't chance bringing the gear. Just stick to rod and reel fishing.

Hey all, I'm coming back to Oahu this summer and wanted to bring my dive gear. Does anyone have any experience traveling with dive gear on Hawaiian? Any tips to help or to avoid trouble? I've got fiberglass fins and would be kinda worried about them breaking if I checked them, not to mention the potential speargun issues.

Thanks all! I'll second the GI bill stuff. It's helped out a ton, even during graduate school.

Hey all, I'm Sean. Originally born in Santa Barbara, but moved over to the Big Island when I was twelve. Went to UH Manoa for a degree in Biology, which I paid for with service as a medic in the 100-442. Been on two deployments to Iraq/Kuwait and finished my Army contract in 2010. Now, I've moved back to Southern California, Claremont specifically. My family and I go camping every year in the summer at Refugio/El Capitan and we weren't catching as much fish as we used to twenty years ago, so I decided to take up diving since I like the idea of being able to see what fish I'm going after, not to mention the great workout that is freediving. I'm on the career path to becoming a doctor so I'm trying to get as much diving in as I can while I have the time. Take care and dive safe!