22 October 2009

It has been utterly dismal. The sea has been atrocious and the weather just seems to stack the odds against getting back into the ocean ever again. There has been so little diving since the Classic was held, I think I can honestly count the number of dive days on one hand. Great days? Maybe 1 this year! My patience is being sorely tested and I don't know how long I will remain sane at this rate. I really need to start diving again or accept that diving in mud will be my lot in life.

17 October:


I apologise to those readers following the spearfishing column. Unfortunately I have to put in some time at work and with the sudden increase in ticks; I have been kept very busy saving pets’ lives and the column suffered as a result. Things have quietened down just a little to allow me writing this article. The past few weeks have been dismal on the spearfishing front. The last club competition was rescheduled because of poor conditions then cancelled because conditions stayed bad. I don’t know of any divers who have taken fish recently.
At the recent club meeting, we were reflecting on the number of really good days we have seen this season and unanimously agreed that we have only seen one great day. The fisho’s seem to be cracking it with some good catches of pearlies, jew and snapper coming in over the grapevine. The good news is that divers out wide have seen some big dolphinfish and the clear water is lying just off the shelf.
The death of Jacob Lollback, a fit competent spearo came as a shock to all spearos. It has heightened awareness of the danger associated with this sport. In an effort to promote safe diving, the club will be running some safety programs in the near future. These promise to be extremely informative and useful. At this stage Mike Wells the diver who swam through the cave at Fish Rock is touted as presenting this course. There will be some training sessions scheduled to take place in the pool at Woolgoolga. John Featherstone is on top of this initiative and there should be some information made available shortly. We are also looking at holding a freediving course presented by the world-renowned freediver, Erez Beatus. Members are encouraged to forward their email addresses to the committee to be included on our mailings with regard to these important events.
Underwater hockey is doing well on Monday evenings 6pm-7pm at the Memorial Pool. This is great training for spearfishing and anyone is welcome to come along to see what all the fuss is about. Scuba divers would benefit greatly from the training as your dive times will improve significantly.
The next club meeting will be at the Woolgoolga RSL on Wednesday 21 October at 7:30pm with the next club competition scheduled for Sunday 25 October.

24 October:


The freedive course has been scheduled for the first weekend in December, unfortunately all the places were filled within an hour of the details being finalised. As a result of the high level of interest, I am sure we will be able to present another course early in the new year. John Featherstone has arranged a session at the Woolgoolga pool for any interested spearos who want to test their guns at submerged targets. It also gives you the ability of making sure your gun is still in adequate working order after all the time it has been neglected this season. Wednesday 11 November is the scheduled date for this pool session and there will be some Riffe spearguns available to test too. Rob Mutton is busy with the safety course and the dates will be forwarded as soon as they become available.
Unfortunately there is little to report on the spearfishing front. Some fish have been landed for the plate but there have been no particularly noteworthy catches made. Very few crayfish have been seen, let alone landed. The odd painted crayfish have been collected and, interestingly enough, some purple crayfish, which are unusal visitors to our area. The weather conditions this Spring have been exceptionally poor and we are all keen for some good conditions. Divers who have been rock-hopping, when conditions allow, also report few jewfish around. Anyone who still believes that spearfishing is an easy sport is massively ill-informed.
Patience is a virtue and at this stage the best advice I can offer is to look after your fitness, in the hope that we get some better conditions in the future. Research is being conducted on wahoo and an appeal has been made for spearos or fishos to send wahoo frames to the researcher. Last season 100 frames were used in the study and the hopes are for 300 specimens to be examined this season. Anyone wishing to make a frame available should contact Mitchell.Zischke@csiro.au.
The next club competition is scheduled for this Sunday 15 October, from Arrawarra. Please contact Flange on Saturday evening to confirm participation in the event. If you are not keen to compete, you are welcome to come along for a social dive as there are usually spaces available on the boats for additional divers.