Hi Guys

I have been messing around in the gullies with a cheap gun and gear for years, but have never seen / speared anything worth mentioning.
My question, what dephts do one have to dive to, what is the average time spent underwater and most importantly,the most important peice of equipment to begin with (I have a cheap gun, expensive SCUBA fins, wetsuit, weightbelt etc.) - basically most bang for buck. Need some beginner tips.
I stay in PE.

Hi I & J,

I’m going to answer your question with a couple of questions…

What depth are you comfortable at?
What apnea period are you comfortable with presently and how many diaphragm contractions do you have before surfacing for air?
What is your breathe up routine?

One word of advice, please be careful going to quick too soon. Allow adequate time for adaptation and be extremely careful if you are diving alone … The much dreaded Black Out has a nasty habit of nipping people on their backsides, if that happens and you are on your own, its tickets my friend.
Go into the “SHALLOW WATER BLACKOUT” thread and view Stan’s video clip “ vimeo.com/2060317” an excellent video clip on SWB & DWB, half hour well spent on diver education.

Most important piece of equipment … they all equally important but if I have to choose one, I think I’ll would start with a good fitting mask.

Later.

Ok
Sorry,I did buy a mask for spearfishing - Apnea, dont know if you know it.
Most of your questions I have no answer to, except that out of the water, I take a couple of deep breaths, relax and can then hold my breath for approximtely 2 - 2:30min - no excercises, as I am sitting here.
I just want to get a base to start from without swimming endlessly shooting / seeing nothing and not knowing where the lack of "fish" come from.

The quick answer to that is join the Gully jumpers spearing club and dive with some of the more experienced guys, they will put you into fish by defalut as good expereinced guys know how to find the fish (most of the time). I know that PE has some spots where newbies can shoot good fish (not to heavy dives).

www.gullyjumpers.co.za/

Do this, dive with some of the guys and you will shoot better fish and you will progress as you go along.

I shot a 4kg Bronze bream, Rock Salmon, 7kg Queen Mackerel and an 11kg Ignobilis on the surface. But I shot a lot of really nice fish in less than 10m. Never ever hold my breath close to the point of diaphragm contractions because I'm spearfishing and not breaking a freediving record. You will need to learn to ambush most fish i.e. make yourself as "small" as possible while ambushing fish, most fish will approach you before a minute have gone pass. Now the real answer to all your questions is timing and location and for that you will waist a lot of time to learn by trial and error. Get involved with experienced guys and they will teach you more in a single dive than what you could have learned in a year thru trial and error.

Your gear is sufficient until you start to progress.

Hey I and J

Come join us at Gully Jumpers - www.gullyjumpers.co.za

We are planning a year-end comp, this will introduce you to some of the club members. Send me your mail address and I will add you to our database.