Category: Articles

2013 Australian Spearfishing Team T-shirts, Fundraiser update

The boys have come up with a great T-Shirt design for the team heading to South Africa. These shirts are for sale and are only going for $30, so anyone who would like to purchase a shirt contact Derrick or Evan and let them know. If your going to be at the Alliman tomorrow the boys can bring them along for you to purchase, but contact them asap to let them know how many to bring.

We have some collectors tshirts made up for our last effort bid towards South Africa, it features a ‘Garrick’, also called Leerfish which is an iconic fish of South Africa.  They are $30 each, sizes available in M, L, XL”

Tee_image

 

Derrick Cruz 0405 334 386
[email protected]

Evan Leeson
[email protected]

Fundraiser update

At the last club meeting we held a fundraiser event for members of the Dolphins heading to Durban for the South African Underwater Spearfishing Championship. It was a great success.

“The BBQ’s are off the planet” – Daniel Galea

“Parry & Ali did an exceptional job with organising and donating the amazing food!!!” – Wade Koolis

Wade

There are some more pics of the event posted on SpearOZ: http://www.spearoz.org/index.php/topic,3720.0.html

2012 Frog Dive Coral Sea trip catches an Australian Black Marlin record

A 230kg ‘pending’ Australian spearfishing record Black Marlin was speared by Andrew (Amod) Moderer on the latest Frog Dive Coral Sea spearfishing trip.

The previous Australian spearfishing record was held by our own Ian ‘Pucko’ Puckeridge coming in at 150kgs caught at Long Reef back in 2007.

The fish was speared with a 1.4m Rob Allen speargun with a Riffe 7.5mm shaft and Riffe slip tip onboard the Eastern Voyager.

Congratulations Amod!
Continue reading 2012 Frog Dive Coral Sea trip catches an Australian Black Marlin record

GoPro Hero3 announced

Allot of divers now use GoPro cameras to capture footage of the fun we have in the water. The smallest GoPro camera yet has just been released. The GoPro Hero3. The Black edition sells for $399 US. It’s certainly more pricy compared to the previous models and I’m not sure if a free diver will really benefit too much. There is a Silver & White edition for $299 and $199 US respectively that miss out on a few features like ultra high resolution and framerate. I really do like the new size and that they have learnt to make a decent underwater housing, for free! A good review can be found at CNET.

For $199 the entry level camera is so cheap, I can see divers heading out with head & gun mount on the same dive. I hope to see some Dolphins sending in footage for all to see 🙂 Be a Hero! Continue reading GoPro Hero3 announced

Roller Spearguns

Emanuel Bova, a Dolphin member, explains the benefits of a roller spear gun and how to modify an existing speargun with a rollergun kit. Benefits include:

  1. Little to no recoil make the gun easier to fire accurately.
  2. A smaller gun length enables you to access caves and swing the gun around more easily/faster in water.
  3.  A large increase of power gives more penetration on the target, faster speed of the shaft and more range of your shot.

Emanuel works for Down Under Spearfishing Charters and more info on Roller Guns can be found on their site.

Ikijime – How to care for your catch

iki jime (ike jime) Humane killing of fish
Ikejime (活け締め) or Ikijime (活き締め) is a method of paralyzing and bleeding fish to maintain its quality. The technique originated in Japan, but is now in widespread use. It involves the insertion of a spike quickly and directly into the hind brain, thereby causing immediate brain death. A fish brain is usually located slightly behind and above the eye. When spiked correctly, the fish fins flare and the fish relaxes, immediately ceasing all motion. The blood contained in the fish flesh retracts to the gut cavity, which produces a better coloured and flavoured fillet. This method seems to minimize the pain.


http://www.ikijime.com/

Samba and Shallow Water Blackouts

Erez Beatus – Free diving coach and former world record holder explaining the risk of Samba & (Shallow Water) Blackout while free diving. Thanks to NSUC & USFA

Samba is a loss of motor control. It is a partial loss of physical or mental integrity and generally occurs up to 15 seconds after reaching the surface, normally during your first breath after a dive. It happens due to not having enough oxygen in your brain.

A Blackout in freediving is often called Shallow Water Blackout (SWB) as it most often occurs while ascending the last few metres of water. It happens due to lack of oxygen due to rapid changes in pressure.

Very briefly, it is thought that Hyperventilation is the leading cause of blackout as it lowers the amount of CO2 in your body which lessens the urge to breathe. The Shallow Water Blackout Wiki explains this all in much more detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shallow_water_blackout

SpearOZ – Divers Beware!!!

This week another boat incident was mentioned in a post on SpearOZ.org called Divers Beware!!!. The incident was at Malabar and luckily the boat only managed to catch the float line and rip the gun out of the divers hand. See more from the link above.

This rekindled the discussion on changing the Dive Flag we spear fishermen currently use on our floats. We are generally in agreement that the international diver down flag (red with white diagonal line) is better due to its increased visibility on the water. Efforts are being made by various people to make this change for our safety.

Special note: The blue and white Alpha flag is required to be flown on a boat when you have a diver in the water. This is required by the International Rules for Prevention of Collisions at Sea (IRPCS) Rule 27 (e).

For your own safety, always dive with a float and flag. Probably the most dangerous part of our sport is boat traffic so making an effort to be seen is in everyone’s best interest.

Continue reading SpearOZ – Divers Beware!!!

Boating Accident concerning spearo Steve Wayne 3rd April 2011

There has been a mention in the Clareville Alliman thread about popular Mosman Whaler spearo Steve Wayne being hit by a vessel so I thought I would put out a brief run down, basically to further enforce to you all out there just how careful you must be in the water. People ask me about shark shields all the time, my reply these days is, “forget the shark shield spend the money on as big as float and flag as is practical, you have far more chance of being struck by a vessel as you do being hit by a shark. Especially along the East Coasts temperate waters.

Continue reading Boating Accident concerning spearo Steve Wayne 3rd April 2011

The difference between Crayfish and Lobsters

Since we are at the start of Rock Lobster season here this might come in handy.

I found this PDF from Museum Victoria that explains the difference between Australian decapod Crustacea (lobster, rock (spiny) lobster, crayfish, bugs and scampi).

The difference between Crayfish and Lobsters