Hank: If you are willing to change your motor, I would get the Enduro's. Those things never let you down.
It's a done deal Marco. I got two brand new 40 Enduros yesterday. Now I can sleep better.....:)
Posts by hank
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Thanks LB. Dude, when are you coming down here?
The guy is supposed to deliver the motors and mount them today or tomorrow. Today would be nice. It's my birthday.
Can't wait for the next full moon. ya man. -
Had another slight problem Sunday. My shifter cable broke off at the connection inside the cowling. That's it. Two times in a week. I'm off to Belize City to get twin 40 hp Yamaha Enduros.
I love those engines. Simple and reliable.
Not sure about a few things though. No electric start but I can hook them to a battery so i can keep it charged for my bilge pump?
Do the 40s come with tachometers?
Separate fuel supply or single?
Anyway, I feel a lot better. If I had broke down outside the reef on Sunday I would have been in deep shit. The wind had unexpectedly switched to a west wind and was strong. If my motor had quit I'd be typing this thread from Cuba or Jamaica.
ya man. <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x"> -
Hank: If you are willing to change your motor, I would get the Enduro's. Those things never let you down.
I was tempted to buy them on Monday. I had carbureted two stroke 60 Enduro and a 150 Yamaha V6. Both were great.
And looking back, yes, they suck more gas but the ETEC sucks up the money in parts. I just spend US$2350.00 to get my motor back running today. New EMM was $1950. That's probably about what I saved in gas over the last few years.
The damn spark plugs (3) for the ETEC are $45 here.
But the good news is, I got a new impeller, plugs, computer check out and all is fine. The motor is running good again. I'm out there tomorrow. I thought I'd be down for 10 days or so. -
I don't know the number of deaths. But I know there's a large number of blackouts and samba associated with the pursuit of increasing breath hold time, which is fundamentally what's promoted by these courses. I don't know if it's just the psychology of people drawn to this, breath up techniques taught or whatever. In my book blackout and samba = you're dead. Just because someone was there to rescue you doesn't mean it can be overlooked.
I've read accounts of blackouts by guys on these boards. Many never had a clue it was coming and said the dive didn't feel stressful.
PFI didn't tell us to push ourselves or our limits. They taught us tools to use that COULD increase our times. Exercises to do at home like tables or diaphragm stretches and packing.
They strongly advocate to NEVER DIVE ALONE. Don't even train in a shallow pool alone. Safety is the message they really stress.
And as far as blackout meaning death, well, it shouldn't be that way. I came away realizing how little effort it really takes to be a much safer buddy. Be there when your buddy surfaces. That will be the difference between having a beer that night and talking about it, or seeing his lifeless body recovered.
Jake and I now stay together and don't descend without letting the other one know. Luckily, the fish we hunt also allow for this type of diving to be effective. We watch each other during our dives and for 20-30 seconds after surfacing. Is it necessary on every dive? Probably not. But, it's very little effort to go that extra yard and be safe. It was very evident when Jake blacked out in the shallow water static that if no one had been there, he would have likely died. But by being there holding him, he recovered in less than 5 seconds and wondered what happened. That's the way a blackout should end up.
And, we've been doing pretty well scoring a lot of fish too. -
Well put Roberto. It's great having my son as a buddy having both done the course together. Very much more in tune and that adds up to more safety.
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Same thing happened to my friends etec 90 last year the second day of miniseason luckily it was at the ramp. his boat hasn't run since... he's coming out on my boat this year.
If you don't mind me asking, why hasn't his boat run since? He just didn't bother paying for that expensive ECU? Or no one could get it running again?
I've been tossing and turning in bed at night trying to decide whether to just shell out the bucks and get twin 40s or 50s, or just fix this motor. I was pretty tempted to get Enduro 40 Yamahas yesterday. Only $8000 for a pair but they suck a lot of gas. Twice what my ETEC would burn. Twin 4 stokes would cost twice that and they aren't flawless. Seems a lot of people have problems with them here because of dirty gas. ??
Well, I have to get it running at least so I can sell it. We'll see. -
Had an interesting day yesterday. We were a mile from our spot, 24 miles out and my ETEC 90 died. It seems the ECU burned or something. No spark. Lucky for us there was an east wind blowing so we tied the bimini top in a vertical position and "sailed" back to the barrier reef. About 5 miles outside the reef we got cell phone coverage and texted for a friend to come and get us.
Just as we got to the cut, also one of our favorite spots, we thought we might get to jump and and get a fish or two, but the boat showed up 5 minutes later.
I found the part I need is US$2000....holy shit !!
It took us 3 hours to sail my skiff about 8.7 miles. hah. What a day.... -
Since taking the PFI course I'm not diving deeper at all. But I'm getting down faster due to streamlining better and hiding on the bottom for more of my total bottom time, which hasn't increased by more than 10 seconds or so. (1:10 now vs 1 min before ave)
My son, however, is diving deeper and longer and I watch him much more closely than I used to. I've even met him at 20-30 feet on his way up after longer dives, which is what they teach in the class.
Awareness of buddy and technique is what I really got out of it. Seeing Jake blackout in the static breath hold was an eye opener. It can and will happen. -
A few more from yesterday. My buddy is learning fast how to free dive. We scored with muttons (5), cuberas (5) and one dog. I watched Jake lay and wait as this nice cubera came in to where he was hiding behind a coral head. Nice.
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you're good. Unreal
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My good buddy from the Philippines came to town. He got me into spearfishing about 20 years ago while I lived there and used to sell him prawn fry for his farm near Iloilo.
He's pretty stoked to be here because we have a LOT more fish then he gets in the Philippines. I have to run him out of town though before he gets all our grouper. hah.
He and Jake both have new Wong 55 hybrids. Jake sleeps with his.
We're out to my double secret spot tomorrow. I'm going to blindfold him on the way. Should be a lot of snappers hanging around.
Below, Jake and his yellow fin grouper
Boy and his black
I got a couple dogs and a small cubera.
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Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Free divers not liking scuba. Short board surfers complaining about longboards. Free divers dissing free divers who take free diving courses....(heh....heh....heh)
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What's your address, Dan? I'll send you my Performance Free Diving T shirt. It's so cool. This dude is doing this perfect dive. Chin tucked in, vertical descent. Dude, you'll love it. <img src= " height="23" srcset="https://spearfishing.world/forum/images/smilies/emojione/1f606@2x.png 2x">
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$695 for the PFI Intermediate
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Dan, based on what you just posted, I honestly feel you would benefit from the course.
You're right, the art of performance free diving to set record depths, which is what Kirk clearly states that he will be teaching in the course, is not the same as spearfishing. Daryl Wong pointed that out to me when he was strongly recommending the course last Aug. He''d been free diving and spearing for 40 years and said he learned a lot in the course.
The breathing up and relaxing techniques that they teach are proven and will increase your breath hold time. Kirk has trained 7 world record holders. Mandy personally holds 7 world records.
I don't know anything about your diving skills Dan, but I would bet that you don't come close to what Kirk can do. I watched him set an anchor at 128 feet with 2 min 28 sec total down time. For him, that's nothing.
They don't teach any single "magic bullet". It's a package of a lot of things that leads to better dive technique, and I don't think you can argue that they certainly have technique mastered since they do this for record depth and time.
We talked about the difference in spearfish diving. I went out right after the course with the same weights that I used in the course. I felt I could hardly get down to 40 feet holding the gun and looking for the fish as I went down. So, add a little weight. Adjust. No big deal.
We did practice simulated rescues numerous times over three days. It was all good.
The only reference to spearfishing in the course was that we may increase our bottom times about our normal hunting depths and that there is a very high mortality rate, making it the single most dangerous sport there is. And mostly because divers aren't aware of what can happen and have lousy buddy skills. -
I have had life saving training and it has helped me save lives. Looking forward to taking a Freediving course to possibility save myself, not looking to dive any deeper then what I chose to hunt or shoot film at.
Cheers, Don
That's exactly why I took the course too, Don.
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Well you're an advocate and I'm not, at least until I see something coming out of it rather blackouts, or some of that safety knowledge outlined. You must be aware that this is open for discussion right? The thread is in the diving section not the "I had a wonderful experience that I want to share" section.
Take the course Dan. Maybe you'll surprise yourself. Most times, in any skill or profession, when someone thinks they know it all already, they're going to get their butt handed to them soon.
Have you ever blacked out? Have you seen someone black out? Do you know the rescue procedure for a blackout? Maybe you can say yes to all of the above. Others cannot.
Do you know the recommended surface intervals for various depth dives in order to safely recover?
Where do blackouts actually happen. Under water? On the surface? What are the signs if your buddy is about to black out?
OK, maybe you know all these answers. I didn't. It helped me a lot. It helped my son. He is incredibly stoked right now and can't wait to get back in the water and try out all we learned about breathing up, relaxing and steamlining for more efficient dives.
Maybe you know all that too. Great. Many divers don't.
And Don is correct. Someday on charters, a cert for free diving may be required. -
The other beneficial information often mentioned is safety. But how much instruction time is really necessary to understand some basic safety issues. Watch your buddy if that's what you agreed on doing, don't hyperventilate. Can someone for once list the safety points covered by the course?No, because you'll find another argument as to why it's a waste of time.
Can you list any reason for taking a scuba course beyond telling someone to never hold their breath, and go up slowly? I'm sure you can.
Can you list any reasons that someone should get driving instruction before taking off in a car? I mean, there's the gas pedal and there's the brake. What else does one need to know. We never had this license BS back in the old days when cars were first invented. I'm sure you can.
Come on Dan. Any knowledge gained in this is good. If you feel that it's over priced or whatever it is that bugs you about it, fine. But don't downplay the whole course as if there is nothing anyone can learn. -
oh that was not directed at you, I was just speaking out. And It's not the first time, most here know where I stand on this. But it's good to say it again so someone who doesn't know be aware of the other side of the coin, and I'm glad you get my idea. Nowadays a freediving course under one's belt is like bling for a beginning spearfisher. The best guys I know never took a course and I'd trust them to do the right thing. You don't acquire deep diving sense over a weekend, it happens over years of experience. What I see people acquiring consistently from these courses is the idea that they can go deeper than they really should. Thankfully preservation sense kicks in when they're in real conditions.
The same could be said for not taking a cave diving course, Dan. I mean, the best old time cave divers never did.
And I certainly haven't come away thinking that I can now go deeper than I did last week. I DO know that I have tools to possibly extend my normal hunting depth bottom time by 15 to 20 seconds if I continue to work at it. But that will take months or a year or more.
I think PFI or FII can fast track a lot of divers past the mistakes that many will make. They know the state of the art now as far as physiology and physics. Twenty years ago no one thought a man could dive beyond....50 meters I believe. They physiologists have to clear their throat and make up a new number pretty often as new records are broken.
But again, the best thing that most spearfishermen, or future spearfishermen will get from the class is the safety aspect and how to be a good buddy. Too many want to just charge down and get the big fish. That's good and fun, but it also makes this the most dangerous sport there is. Too many of us die.
