Mourning the loss of a Spearfishing Friend

It was with great sadness that I learnt of the untimely death of a good Spearfishing buddy Helgaard Hartman on 28 November 2007. I was fortunate to meet him at the Nationals held at Port Elizabeth 2006 and we became firm friends. He lived a long way from the rest of the team but we made every effort to get together for Spearfishing as often as we could. This year we were lucky enough to have spent some time diving at Sedgefield before the Nationals and again during the Nationals. Our last trip together was to hunt Yellowfin Tuna off Cape Point and then diving for crayfish the following day.

My fondest memory of him will be his laugh as we sat around a fire at his home in Malmesbury enjoying fresh tuna steaks and olives he and his wife had prepared at home. His passing has left an enormous void in our midsts.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this immensely sad time.

Do the rules only apply to some of us?

I have just returned from a great weekend of spearfishing off Scottburgh. I would like to thank the dive skippers who launch from the Umkomaas river for their assistance and help with regard to the launch. I do have a gripe though. All boats are required to conform with the safety regulations laid down by SADSAA. What regulations govern launch facilities? The amount of money I have paid to an entity called the Umkomaas Skiboat Club is probably equivalent to the cost of a really good VHF or 29MEG radio. What responsibilities does a launch site have when you pay and fill in the official launch book? Is this just a front for collecting money from the skippers for using their river to launch out of?

This has bothered me for some time now. It would probably never have occurred to me unless I had not been alerted to it during a previous trip. While preparing the boat for the launch, I was approached by the so-called launch official with the SADSAA launch book and told that I needed to pay to launch. All official and I was happy to comply. I am a law-abiding person after all and I accepted that everything was kosher. When I returned later that afternoon, the site was closed and said official gone. Who knows what could have happened during the day. The following morning when preparing to launch again, said official approached again. I refused to pay and suggested he contact some-one to come down to the beach to talk to me. He seemed confused that I was demanding that he be present when I returned from sea to complete the book on my return. He could not understand that by collecting money from me and making it official, he carried a responsibility toward me. To this day, no-one has ever contacted me with regard to this.

This weekend, I inquired whether a radio was available at the launch site. I was told that a cellphone could be contacted. Unacceptable. I am required to have an operational radio, the launch site in collecting money should have the same at least. I challenge anyone from the Umkomaas Skiboat Club to comment on my rantings. Is Umkomaas just using this as a way of gleaning funds out of ignorant skippers? I intend contacting SADSAA with respect to this to get some feedback.