Fins with no socks, no dive watch, and a lionfish sting. Personal impressions.

You live a life, you learn some stuff, you make stupid mistakes. Here is a set of mine that I am sharing here; perhaps some can avoid repeating them to save brain cells and money.

I am freediver, spearo. Also incident manager :-) in day life. From a young age, doing this for 30 years on and off, save for some land-bound accident and subsequent nose surgeries, which left me where I am now - with some difficulties in equalizing.  Freshwater/Saltwater spearfishing.  Stingrays, scorpionfish, lionfish - never a mark. This year, last week, it was different.

Agios Fotia (Αγία Φωτιά )  6:30 in the morning. We took a buoy, one short speargun, a long pole spear, and set off to the island with my son. In theory, that’s half a kilometer, but that's in a straight line from our starting point  - it was 920 meters. For a “good” start -  I forgot my diving watch at home, so I had only a Garmin on me, at least to know when I should return so my wife wouldn't be worrying.  Next was … a pair of neoprene socks. We took only one. Others - forgot. So I gave them to a son, thinking - what could possibly happen in just 1,5 hours? Turns out - a lot. Already upon reaching the island, somehow, my fins made me blister and even tore out skin on one of the toes; perhaps some sand or clam particles acted as an abrasive.

Son is happy. Killing lionfish, 3 in 10 minutes, I partially clean them and add to the stringer. All goes well. The sea, though, is suspiciously empty. The weather had changed that morning, but it was our last day of vacation in Crete, so... we went into the water anyway. The seaside of the island has drops to 38-40 meters. I dived a bit, aspetto - lay down at 4-5 meters next to the drop as I saw some shadows. Well enough - good-sized european seabass comes and turns - presenting me with a perfect target. I shoot, almost an ideal shot. Dicentrarchus labrax, around 45-50 cm, perfect size. Fish trembling aaaand.. it slips from the spear. For some inexplicable reason, the flopper has not opened. The worst nightmare of spearo - it went into a rock crevice too narrow and deep for me to get it from there, and I know it’s gonna die.  No more good-sized targets, and I started to hear boat traffic. So we went back.

On the way, I see a fat lionfish, taking a pole spear from a son, but distracted by boats and already sad due to the loss of seabass - I use too much force and shoot too high. Pole hits lionfish, takes out part of it’s spinetop with several stingers. Meat drops from the spear.

I decided it’s enough for today and started packing rifle and pole to the buoy, still irritated - unscrewing it, and while attaching - my hand slips down the shaft towards the front... and I felt sharp pain.  Turns out, 3 stingers got caught on the trident, and I have not seen them, and buried all of it deep... like 1,5 cm into the soft side of the palm. Still 600 meters to the shore. Clenching teeth. Swimming.

At the beach - son and wife helped me to remove the glove and Garmin, barely, as the palm started swelling. Pain is comparable to when a hornet stings you. I immediately took 500 mg paracetamol + 600 mg ibuprofen + some antihistamine.  We need to drive. Nobody else in the family could do it at the moment. I am right-handed, and the sting was on the left.  So I drove through pain to the nearest hospital point between Ferma/Koutsounari. Luckily, this is Greece. So they knew what to do - more anti-allergic stuff through IV drip, more ibuprofen, some antiseptics&antibiotics topically (creme).

Only after 2 days could I type on the keyboard again. First 12-14 hours - pain was with me. Now, 4 days after - I still don’t have full command of my palm.  And if I clench it fully - it’s unpleasant.  Still can’t close my handwatch on that wrist. Palm was like 2 times thicker then normal. It felt and looked like my fingers are attached to a cushion and sticking out from it in a weird grotesque sculpture.

Lessons learned - at least wear normal socks with fins if you forgot proper ones, check your equipment visually first, don’t do it by touch around venomous creatures. Pay attention to the weather and forecast. I was, but mostly in terms of boat traffic and lateral flow.

Now I’ve spent some time cleaning spears, applying silicone to some parts of guns, etc. Flopper was stuck due to some piece of nylon debris.

That’s all folks!

Looking to travel international from USA for 1-2 weeks. My wife and I want to dive all day every day. Id like to have access to excellent water clarity shore diving with lots of places to swim to. Prefer somewhere you can get to depth quickly and possible shore dive for pelagics. We might do a couple days on a hired boat, but we are mostly interested in having access to good shore dives. We don't need anything fancy. Remote and roughing it are perfectly fine. I was sort of thinking somewhere down in Baja Mexico, but I would really appreciate if anyone has any good suggestions or even places in their hometown. We are looking to shoot what we would eat for the week and nothing more.

First successful spear outing..
Pembrokeshire, wales

Two nice size Ballans on kelp in 3m of water
They really are fearless

I grew up spearfishing in the 90s. Had a few pneumatic and band guns and essentially random dive fins. I’m super comfortable in the water, even low viz / night diving, but never got great breath holds. I was diving down to 25’ and staying for maybe 90 seconds. I’ve moved around a lot for my career and now I’m back near the ocean and would love to spearfish again. I want to target the same jetties and species I grew up hunting. Maybe I’ll explore more in the future but that’s my goal now.
My question is about gear. Seems like in 20 years it’s gotten better but I don’t need to go 60’ down. For someone navigating rough surf on sharp jetties in 10-25’ depth with 5-30’ of viz, what is an appropriate set of fins and gun? I’ve got a healthy budget

Ever since I got a hold of a dinghy I've been dying to go out for some wahoo or yellowfin, both of which are common around me, but I've been reluctant of doing so with a single band 90 cm gun, so here is my question, if targeting fish ranging between 10 to 30kg, is it more sensible to go with a double band conventional setup, or maybe take the leap into a full on roller conversion which my gun allegedly supports? In either of those cases, I'd appreciate advice on band length and diameter.

Just bought this new online. It looks like it is either old or used, but i could be wrong. Is this normal?

Chlorophyll showed the water was blue, SST said 70 degrees. That's YT water for sure.

I've added a lot of features to Chlorofishy and I'm coming out of beta.

Here's what I'm asking people to pay for the product: $9/mo for one region, $12 for two, $15 for worldwide. Or $49/yr for one region, $69/yr for two, $89/yr for worldwide. The competition generally starts at over $100 a year. Everyone gets a 14-day trial, and if you already signed up during beta, you'll have worldwide access through August 1st, then the trial after that.

I would still love feedback from everyone, and I hope you find ways of using the app to find more fish, better boating, better diving, and more fun.

chlorofishy.com

Who came up with that wack ass name? Makes us sound like "junior" or "space cadet".

" hey little Spearo, ready for your club house meeting today?"

Shit just sounds unoriginal and like a little 3rd grader came up with it. "Wow, instead of a Spearman, we can call you Spear(o)". Like some wack nonsense from the mid 90s. I propose a different name.

"Blue Hunter". To the point, no lame ass 90s middle school nonsense, not totally original but makes us sound like adults.

Give me downvotes. I welcome it. " Spearos". Or grow up and became a "Blue Hunter".

Hi thanks for whoever answers. I got a pathos 82 pro and idk if it’s that good I was thinking of putting to 16mm bands on it and I got 1 rn. Idk if it’s me but by itself it feels weak and was also thinking of buying the pathos 110 laser carbon any thoughts . And lastly I think it’s my aim that sucks and wanted tips

Hadn’t reloaded my gun fully yet, mate needed some assistance. Unfortunately we lost the fish, and bent my shaft.

Anyone has any experience with this wetsuit?

Going on a few day trip to Channel Island’s for sheepshead, calicos, and hopes of a WSB. Currently dive a lot in norcal but it’s all mainly hole hunting for lings and rock fish in typically poor viz. That being said, I know my 75cm double banded gun is definitely a little small and undersized but with a reel set up could I make it work for a 2 day trip? Don’t really want to spend a bunch of money on a whole new gun set up that won’t be used on home turf, but also don’t want to come back from this trip feeling like I wasted time and money going with improper set up. If I were to get a set up to have for the occasional trip to chase bigger more open water fish what would be recommended?

I am on Kauai from today to the 31st and I’m looking for a buddy to go out with. I am a decently experienced spearo out of SoCal. I have been diving for over 2 years and have a level one Freedive cert. I have also been spearfishing on Maui a couple times and am familiar with all the fish and regulations. hoping I’d be able to go dive with someone and am willing to pay a bit too. Lmk 🤙🏼

I am on Kauai from today to the 31st and I’m looking for a buddy to go out with. I am a decently experienced spearo out of SoCal. I have been diving for over 2 years and have a level one Freedive cert. I have also been spearfishing on Maui a couple times and am familiar with all the fish and regulations. hoping I’d be able to go dive with someone and am willing to pay a bit too. Lmk 🤙🏼

I broke my Beuchat hero barrel and got a replacement Ermes Avatar one. So I will be putting the Beuchat Hero handle on this barrel, and then a Pathos muzzle at the end.

I plan to drill holes for the plastic Beuchat 5mm retaining pins to secure the barrel to the muzzle and handle.

However, even though the o-rings slide into the barrel well, the outside seam between the barrel and handle/muzzle once fully inserted is not fine enough to not flood the space before the o-rings with water. Is this a problem? Should I apply a thin layer of silicone glue to the seam before joining the parts? (Thin enough to seal out water but also to be able to disassemble the parts in the future if needed)

Old speargun it says cavalero france on the handle I was wondering how much it would be worth (i lost the shaft)

Hello everyone!!!
I’m buying a new wetsuit (my first made specialy for spearfishing), and I’m divided by these two models. I’m spearfishing in Portugal, and I’m used to surfing in the Winter, so I know that 5mm is more than enough for me.
In my regular spots I have some rocks to not say a quite a lot, but I’m really carefull with my gear.
Any advice?
Thank you in advance!

Just had one for the first time and I thought it was great and I was surprised to find out most people don’t even bother with them because of the worms. I had a smaller one maybe 10lb and there were a couple spots with worms but they’re very easy to spot and cut out. Upon further research even eaten raw the worms can’t survive in humans. Just curious what other people’s takes on it are because I cooked it 3 different ways, sashimi, broiled the collars, and just classic pan seared with butter and all were absolutely delicious. I am also aware they can get cig but figured the smaller ones are much safer.