Posts by Wishihadgills

    From my understanding of the physics, all of the advantages of a roller gun come from where the top band stops applying force.


    On a classic configuration the bands no longer produce force once they have reached their relaxed size. On a gun with 100 cm from band hole to mech this is somewhere between 20 and 30 cm from the band holes. From this point forward the spear is no longer accelerating.


    On a roller gun the band pulls all the way to the tip of the gun. This provides two advantages. First, if comparable bands are used in both guns then the shaft from the roller gun will leave the speargun at a higher velocity. Assuming the mass of the spears is the same this will give it more kinetic energy/momentum and will lead to better penetration (also assuming the tips of the spears are identical).


    The second advantage of the longer band stretch is the recoil. One way to look at recoil is wight the impulse momentum theorem. F = (Change in Momentum/Change in time). Because the spear is accelerated over a larger period of time the felt force is smaller. This is why guns rigged with 3/4" bands are described as "punchy" or "snappy" The band produces a large amount of force in a very short time. Guns with short thinner bands are often described as having a much smoother recoil.


    Personally I think rollers have their purpose but are not necessarily for everything/everyone. They make sense for blue water where you aren't taking a lot of shots and reloading a bunch and the shorter length is helpful for maneuverability. They are also good for holes as mentioned. Perhaps their best use is in really dirty water shooting big fish. When you can't see more than a few feet having a 120 just isn't practical but you still need the power to penetrate a large fish like a striped bass. For SFL with clear water and constantly hoping in and out of boats I don't want to deal with the reloading process so I don't use them.


    Just my .02

    In my experience, when you can get ahold of him Josh has excellent customer service. Unfortunately, he travels a lot and does not seem to have anyone to run the store when he is not available.


    If there is something he has and you are not in a hurry I have no problem recommending you purchase from him. If you are in a hurry there are a lot of other places that can supply 90% of what he has. There are even a few dive shops that stock his products.


    As for bulk rubber, the stuff sold by Dan is as good as any and better than most.

    I was told the Moanas are very stiff. I don't like stiff blades.


    They are very stiff compared to most other carbon blades. The Hybrids have a decent tip but the overall blade is very stiff. I've worn them and they are painful at the surface but powerful on deeper dives. I know some guys with a short fast kick that like them. I have a longer slow kick and getting the middle of the blades to bend burns my legs.


    Hank and Parker: If you are careful you can remove the pockets without breaking the blades. It requires that you destroy the pockets but it is possible. JD and most other manufacturers that use the pathos probably tell everyone that it is permanent and will break the blades for liability reasons. Basically just covering there @ss if someone tries it and does break a blade.

    It depends on your weight. The heavier you are, the softer you want. Also, if you swim around a lot, you better get soft to mediums. If you only dive from boats and mostly deep or wrecks, medium to stiff.


    I Europe the tendency is to get the softer fins that move you in the water. In the US, the stiffer, the better. I wear mediums... :rolleyes1:


    Xan: Why didn't you liked the Pathos footpocket? There's a lot of people that swears by them.


    The best thing about the pathos was how light they were. This is also the reason I only have one fin right now. Had one fly out of the boat. They also pressed on the top of my foot. Ultimately though I didn't feel like I had control of the blades like I do with the stingray pockets.

    This is usually a pretty individual preference but here are a couple generalities that might be helpful.


    Blades vary a lot from manufacturer to manufacturer and even batch to batch. I recommend trying some if possible.


    Body size - Larger divers need/want stiffer fins.


    Environment - If you are only making a few dives, dive in high current or have to fight large fish you might tend towards a stiffer fin. They will give you more power to fight current and fish but they will burn up your legs and ultimately use more oxygen.


    Softer is supposed to be more efficient and a long blade in "medium" is not the same as a shorter blade


    I generally like something on the softer side of medium. I have worn the Moanas and they are WAY too stiff. They hurt my knees and ankles like no other. I currently have a set of C4 Red Falcons in stiffness 30. They work well and are nice for deeper diving but if I was buying another set I would probably go with something more like the Speardiver C90 medium + to hard or Skorpios in stiffness 30. The Falcons get cumbersome in shallower water or when I'm working structure. I used to have a set of C90's (medium +) with the pathos pocket until one flew out of the boat. I liked the fin but probably wouldn't get those pockets again. (I include this because the pockets will affect the overall feel of a fin)


    A lot comes down to style and preference and fishing conditions.

    Getting parts for pelaj guns will be difficult at best. To my knowledge their US distributer is no longer around (I might be mistaken though). You might be able to find something online if it is available.


    There are a couple other options. One is to modify the muzzle with a dremel or other device. Another would be to measure the inner diameter of the barrel and see if you can find a muzzle from another manufacturer that you like.

    Does the premiss behind the technology work? Yes, a faraday cage will isolate electromagnetic signals. Does the suit reduce the EM signal of a diver? Probably a little. Will that make a difference in how marine life reacts/interacts with a diver? Maybe but not significantly. This is similar to the camo vs non camo debate but with an even smaller factor. While most species can detect some level of EM signal very few actually rely on it. Sharks and some other types of fish have special organs to detect them but most other fish do not. Most fish primarily rely on sight and vibrations. This suit doesn't help either of those.


    However if all other factors are removed, i.e. zero vibration, same size/shape/color, there might be a slight advantage to one of these suits. The other part that is almost comical is that most of the pictures show a diver with some sort of camera or at a minimum scuba gear. The metals and electronics in these systems will produce a much larger current/signal than a human in a neoprene suit (which is already electrically insulative).


    Not likely worth the price. Just a gimmick to sell more suits. Thats my .02

    This might be a discussion that needs to be moved to a new thread.


    I think there are a couple different angles to this. I believe that the Speardiver brand already provides quality products for very reasonable prices. Quality is what is the most important to me and I am willing to pay a little more for a high quality product. If Dan can release a product line that maintains the high quality but is more economical then I believe it would be fine to introduce it under the Speardiver brand name. If in order to reduce the price, some quality is sacrificed then I believe it would be better to release it under a different brand. This is similar to how the auto manufacturers do it. The higher end cars with better materials etc are sold under one brand while the more economical versions are sold under another.


    Either way I think this decision is much different from the mako model. There are multiple mako products that are not only useless but sometimes even dangerous. They also make price their most important feature. If Mako products were sold at the same prices as their competitors they would never sell. Knowing Dan, neither of these will be a problem.

    Thats a good list Dan. :thumbsup2:


    This is only nitpicking but since you qualified the speargun as "without reel" you might want to qualify some of the other gear. For instance "low volume" for the mask or "two piece, unlined" for wetsuit.


    Other than that I have personally grown to have a computer as part of my essential gear but it certainly not necessary for entry into the sport.

    Honestly it happens...


    Could you have gotten closer? Maybe but thats a split second decision and it doesn't make sense to second guess it after.


    Could the shaft have been sharper? Maybe but even the sharpest shafts will have trouble with the skull of big cubera.


    Although it sucks to loose a fish like that if we landed everything we shot at or saw it wouldn't be nearly as fun of a sport and we wouldn't continue to push ourselves to be better. I love those FAD's I wish we could set up something like that here.


    I hope the fish lives. If not it becomes part of the food chain.

    For me it mostly depends on who I am with and what the purpose of the trip is. I have a couple friends who are very competitive and would get mad if I shot their limit.


    However when we take trips to the keys or Bahamas and such the trips can get expensive. gas for boats and trucks adds up and we want to "get our moneys worth" we generally shoot much closer to our limits and if one guy is having a bad day (last time it was me) the others will make up for it.


    I am not familiar with the laws in your area but in Florida the letter of the law says it is illegal to shoot/catch more than your individual limit which includes other peoples limits even if under the boat limit. However it would be very difficult for them to catch/prove who shot what. The limits are supposed to be set so that the number of fish caught by any one diver or group is sustainable. However down here the limits are a mess and we rarely shoot our limits of anything except grouper. And if we limit on grouper it was a good day of fishing.

    This is a long shot but worth a try...


    A friend of mine, Jose Debasa, managed to loose his camera the other day when it fell overboard. He was diving in the Stiltsville area. The camera is a Nikon D200 with a Aquatica 200 housing. Any of you guys that frequent that area please keep an eye out for it!


    He has offered a REWARD for whoever returns it.


    Ill update this with more info when I get it.

    I agree Dan there is a point where it can go too far for my tastes. There are also times when the program is deliberately used to deceive which I don't agree with either.


    But I have seen 3 and 4 water spouts that close before and I have seen sunset/sunrises produce even more dramatic colors than the ones in the picture. In my view I don't see this as "impossible." It might be a little more orange than I would have expected but certainly a possible shot. Hell the white balance might have been off a bit. That being said I do think there was a little retouching but I don't think it was egregious or necessary to point out.


    Creole5 says he say it on a social media sight. By the aspect ratio I'm going to take a guess and say Instagram, which is known for its filters and other "quick and dirty" adjustments. Probably moved the saturation slider just a bit too far.

    It's an awesome shot period.


    Almost all professional photos are processed in photoshop or an equivalent software. It doesn't make them any less impressive. Very rarely will a camera capture an image exactly the way the human eye sees it. Color levels, contrast, brightness, exposure are all small tweaks that can make all the difference. It takes a lot of skill to manipulate a photo properly.


    Besides photography is as much an art as anything. It doesn't have to be a perfect recreation of the scene it is the artists perspective just like a painting.

    It is proven good science that feeding any predator lionfish is not only useless but dangerous for us as the predators associate us with food...duh!! And have attacked us due to this moronic practice. Second, the team trying to teach lionfish predation are tethering them to the reef, and have come under a lot of criticism for this by lionfish and fish behavior experts. Expert's are saying you are not teaching predators to hunt lionfish by immobilizing their prey, but simply triggering their injured fish/strange behavior natural attack mechanism. I would extrapolate based on all the credible research done that the fish you and others found in the stomachs were already dead. Also based on the year's that lionfish have been in the Atlantic and the lack of a predator stepping up, many fish behavior experts believe that the species is so alien that no predators may evolve! Applying our common sense to problems is many times total bullshit as our perceptions are just that, our perceptions and are rarely reality in science or nature [emoji6] But I hold on to hope and wish for it not to be true.


    Only time will tell but I remain hopeful. The best predator that needs to be taught to eat them is humans. We are exceptional at making species disappear. Jamaica has found a commercial value and some estimates show 50-60% reduction in sightings.