Posts by Ryddragyn

Quote from Dan

The rashguard is OK. Both HH and Mako buy it from the same Chinese company. The float I haven't seen but it looks comparable, although there could be major differences in basic construction. The Riffe float costs more but it has a zippered pocket for a removable ballast, this is important, Mako doesn't their ballast is permanent. I would only use an inflatable float when traveling, and I may not want to bring ballast. Also the Mako float doesn't have a dump valve for quick deflation, the Riffe float has or used to have it. The add on strap thingies for the Mako float are BS, just creates more drag and if you put anything in it the float will no longer sit upright. The other Mako floats/lifeguard cans and the flag support/ballast strap are made in China. I don't like this system otherwise I'd already added it to the Speardiver line.

I have both the Riffe inflatable float and the lifeguard can with the Mako/chinese flag support system.

Older Riffe floats didn't have the dump valve,mine thankfully does, and I think it's invaluable. If the Makos don't have it that's a major negative in my opinion. Same for the ballast.

The hard float's flag system is way more secure ( in terms of keeping it on and upright) versus the inflatable system, IMO, but the flag itself is easily lost by sliding off unless you rig it with some glue.

Fuzz-

If you read carefully, you'll note that I started my "diatribe", as you call it, in the form of a question, NOT a direction assertion. Just saying that Mako's re-explanation of the situation involving Hu sounds extremely fishy, and that Rabitech's story about being screwed over by a far eastern factory rings with a bit more truth to it. No party seems willing to share the whole truth, but the fact that Mako is the LEAST willing to discuss it at length doesn't help their case. There's a sardonic paraphrase of the Miranda rights warning out there that goes along the lines of "You have the right to remain silent, but doing so may be construed as a sign of guilt".

I don't use either Rabitech or Mako spearguns, so I don't have a horse in this race other than a desire to find and share the truth. I wouldn't call it an "anti-mako bandwagon", I'll leave that to Dan. In all honesty, I have bought non-speargun items from them before. The hard float was what it is, and the band protector was absolute crap.

Quote from Dan

Mako spearguns and most of the other gear is cheap Chinese crap. %75 of their products including; wetsuits, rashguards, socks, gloves, masks, snorkels, knives, floats, come from the Chinese distributor who will sell the same stuff to anybody. The fact that Mako is deep in bed with spearboard and the grogan just tops it all off.

This is unrelated to my concerns of unethical business, but I find it rather amusing that Mako went out of their way to defend their gear as not being Chinese, pointing out that it was Taiwanese-manufactured.

Well, depending on who you ask, Taiwan IS part of China The Chinese, for example. But that's a political issue.

Since everything in this situation deals with transactions across international, ASIAN borders, I doubt there was any chance of resolving this legally. There was a situation several years ago where a Taiwanese company made some knockoff iPod shuffles for the Asian market. That's a BIG DEAL with much larger companies involved, and even Apple couldn't stop them. Even the Rabitech and Sumora guys shrugged this whole thing off as an unfortunate case of "wild wild east" economics that they could do nothing about.

I have no doubt that the Mako mafia does its best to provide good customer service and constantly brag about it online, but what happens behind the scenes seems to be a bit more ruthless and murky. Most of the time we, as customers,generally tend not to care though because this sort of Machiavellian capitalism tends to bring us lower prices. But many spearfishing companies are pretty small, and rely on close friendships, and man-to-man business deals to get things done, so when a bigger company with money throws its weight around its inevitable that somebody's allies and buddies will get stepped on and become casualties of progress. Best example of this is the US Rabitech distributor, who were a few really, really nice guys operating out of a warehouse in Orange County, who themselves had good customer service and a wide range of good products (the apex 3000 handles, which are now marketed as Oceanic Pro by mako, carbon fiber barrels, composite fins, etc). They are now SOL and trying to reorganize their business. Another example would be a friend of mine who tried to work with Mako as a supplier, and got very rudely lowballed on the prices (to the point that it was insulting of his merchandise), all so that Dano could just turn around and sell the stuff at a markup.

Nobody try to construe this as me being a communist or socialist. Business is business...but respect is also respect.

I hate to dig up an old thread, but it's something that has bugged me since Mako came on the scene.

Did the manufacturer (Hu) actually have the right to issue the licenses that he did? I find it difficult to believe that a company in Taiwan (which as far as I know has no spearfishing due to heavily polluted water) designed the grips. It seems more likely that they got their hands on the mold through manufacturing contracts with Rabitech, and then got creative when looking for further sources of income. The basic handle shape has been around for a long time (Sporasub viper, etc), unclear as to whether Rabitech had the actual patent rights, if they even apply at all when the economy is so globalized. Rabitech did make substantial changes to it, though, and the mako handles are obviously off the same mold.

Since then, of course, they've branched out and enlisted help from fine folks like Griswold, Tin Man, etc, in developing some new ideas, such as the enclosed track pipe gun. But I still find it unlikely that the Rabitech folks would get upset over nothing. As such, I still have ethical reservations in ordering from Mako.

Not bringing this up on SB, obviously, with all the money that Mako brings to that site I don't think the post would last very long.

The case is positively buoyant by itself, so the challenge is getting the aluminum bracket light enough but still strong.

I made some custom length fasteners with plastic washers (to avoid contact, and thus corrosion between the stainless steel and aluminum). However, I probably will only use one of them so that the camera can be rotated for shots without the gun in frame (for example, when filming buddies underwater). To that end my original bracket included a thin piece of innner tube rubber for friction. But a thinner bracket will have less surface area to hold the camera steady...

All my videos so far with the camera have just been handheld.

Nice mount for the Flip Ikelite case. I have one fabricated using a beefier aluminum bracket, and a Tin Man delrin clamp. It's too heavy though (on top of the heft of the case) so I'm in the process of making another one similar to yours.

Shore diving or boat diving?

I'm grew up in that area but learned to spearfish in California. Would be interesting for me to get some fish "back home".

Daniel is nothing if not proud of himself

:overkill:

http://www.vimeo.com/13626015

I've had many close sea lion encounters, but I got this one on camera. For those in other parts of the country that have never swum with them, this video is to show how aggressive they can be, and how they can sneak up on you very quickly. For the rest of the California tribe - note the noises the sea lion was making underwater, almost like stifled barks. I didn't notice them at the time, but they showed up in the video very loudly. Something any of you have ever noticed before?
(note: it actually blitzed me twice, I only got the second time within the frame.)

I have it on my fins, but I suppose it's more because of style rather than anything else. Band strumming and finger movements with white cotton gloves are supposedly very effective with yellowtail.

Quote from Dan

Is 35ft vis the best possible for that area or can it rarely be better to say 60ft?

In my experience, the "average best possible" viz for a lot of spots in SoCal (including Catalina frontside, which is regularly awesome) is generally 30-40, but 99% of the time that we dive the coast it's 10-15 or less. Light penetration is a problem under the kelp canopy, as opposed to wide open areas. That makes deeper dives rather creepy.

The best viz I have EVER seen was 100+ on the outer edge of La Jolla, and that was a really rare and exceptional day.

I dove the Coronados today with Daniel (spearstuff) and our friend John. As the title implies, nada. Viz was mixed - great in some places, really dirty in others. Dan saw some decent YT at the first spot but couldn't get a shot off. The second had very dirty water and no fish. The last place we stopped before the wind and waves started to pick up had good viz and a lot of bait on top of a pinnacle, but despite repeated aspettos ranging from 30,40, and 60 feet, most of the yellowtail I saw would have fit in a goldfish bowl.

I managed to snipe a decent sized calico, and Daniel shot a PB ocean whitefish. Then we headed back to check out the jetties for halibut and cabezon. No dice, but some spotted bay bass were on sale.

A few pictures and some footage coming soon.

Below.

I have always used hydrogen peroxide for its disinfecting properties.

Oh, right.

By null at 2010-07-23

That's a 7.3# sheephead it's next to.

Quote from tinu

the qustion was if you eating the fish.
the answer was :they could be eaten,but i shoot them for fun.
this answer is not good enough, and can offend people in their diving-ethics.
good that you find the time to add this post . you cant expect that everyone here have the particular knowledge of environmental problems that occur in these places you dive.

Everyone is entitled to their own sense of ethics and conduct. Keep in mind that "Shoot what you and eat what you shoot" originated in the ocean where life is in a "natural" state, and the existing balances and species need to be kept intact for our benefit as well as their own. Just like ANY moral code, it is there for a highly logical, biological reason, and not because of some unwavering, divine proclamation that blindly decrees "because I say so". The fragile ocean and its reefs are where I learned to spearfish, so that philosophy resonates strongly with me as well.

Freshwater, however, is a completely different ballgame - we're dealing with the legacy of past generations of humans building dams, diverting rivers, introducing different species for food and for catch and release fisheries. The damage has been done, unfortunately. The native species which the Mojave indian tribes depended on for food (example: Colorado pikeminnow) are nearly extinct, so the ethical implications are very different.

Perhaps Daniel should have answered "I shoot them for fun AND to help control their numbers, and to refine my shooting skills so that when I shoot more sensitive species in the ocean I have a higher chance of landing them".

My own sense of ethics views life as a continuum, not as scattered individual dots that are isolated from one another. Hence, nothing ever truly goes to waste. The carp get recycled within the lake, or their biomass just gets plain removed from the system and becomes part of another when a coyote eats them.

As far as their eating quality goes, I've tried it and personally find it to be really foul even when cooked right. Another issue that is often encountered is that their lateral line runs very high on their bodies, so anything other than a perfect head shot either hits the gut, hits the meat, or hits the kidneys, or all three. So the meat often gets spoiled as a result of getting speared.

Edit: maybe Dan should move this to another thread so it doesn't distract too much from the records discussion.

Quote from attan

what is the purpose of that? just askin...population control?

They are an invasive species in a lake that is itself artificial. They serve no purpose in the lake's food chain other than eating the eggs of other fish, as well as vegetation. Nothing preys upon them. Keeping their numbers under control helps maintain stocks of more desirable game fish, as well as recovery efforts for endangered species. A lot of the other game fish (large and smallmouth bass, stripers) prey on the young of the endangered species as well, though.

Riffe frameless. It's high volume, but I have a really odd face that doesn't fit anything with a frame.

I enjoyed the video, though I didn't watch it more than once. Personally, I don't have a problem with using fun, goofy stuff like this on the web to promote freediving training. Maybe some will go to PFI, some will go to FII, but having more people out there with the experience under their belt certainly won't do themselves - or the dive community - any harm. In terms of promotion, this is nothing like the aggressive, incessant spamming on SB by Mako and the numerous Mako trolls.

Just my thoughts.