I am 58 years old and have been diving for 40 years since I went to the Navy Seals Dive School in the Phillipines in 1971.  I was a Marine Recon Special Forces guy and one of the only non-Navy guys to ever get “Honorman” from a seals diving school.

I live in northern California and I dive many times a year on the north coast and made it to Hawaii this year for some of that sweet warm water high visability diving that we don’t have here in North California.  I have made hundreds of open water dives in my day, but I truly enjoy free diving for spear fishing which is mostly what I do these days.  Once in a while I do some spear fishing with buddies with tanks when they have a boat, which I don’t.  I usually dive off the shore in the rocks and it is no less fun or productive than with a boat.  I can stay out a lot longer and hunt till my heart is content.

Buddy diving on the north coast is almost impossible anyway.  The water is so murky usually that when you go down and look away from your partner for a split second, you lose him or her.  You spend all your time going up and down so me and my diving friends usually just dive alone, even if we are with others.  Much of the time, I just overweight and once I am on the bottom, I set chum out, find myself a little nook to sit in , let the air out of my BC and sit down and wait!  Lazy, isn’t it?  Sometimes I hunt under the rocks but when the fis is 8 or ten feet, you have to do what you have to do.

I usually bring a zip lock of abalone guts from a campground cleaning station for chum and dump it there as the ling cod and cabazon really like it and it lasts and it makes the hunting good even the next day.  Breaking sea urchins (uni) open is good for greenling and perch, but it is eaten up in a very short time.

When I am free diving and spearfishing after ab diving, I put the guts on a ledge I can see from the surface at whatever depth that ends up being, and then another spot a ways away and yet another.  Then I swim back and forth between them hunting and picking up rock crab.  It takes at least 10 feet of vis or the only diving is abalone diving which is tough for the new guys.  I like to dive at least 18 plus feet for ab as there isn’t much surge and they aren’t picked over because most divers like shallow water, especially in the heavy kelp beds.  I have taken no less than 200 abalone divers on their first dive and I don’t mind teaching them.  It got kind of old so finally I wrote two in depth articles on everything I could think of with my 40 years experience on the gear, how to weight and what to expect and now I force everyone to read them before I take them!  I print ten copies out every time before I leave for the coast.  If you guys want to read them, they are at http://www.fishnfools.com in the blog section.  One is on spear fishing and one on ab diving and they are as in depth as anything I have ever read, if I must say so myself. 

My biggest fish so far is a 29 pound ling cod and I have speared a lot of them over 15 pounds.  The stupidest thing I ever did diving is spearing a 12 foot octopus while freediving alone.  I have come to learn that if they even have one leg on the ground or around kelp, and they get one or two on you, you are screwed.  I now only take smaller ones or larger ones if I have tanks with plenty of air and a partner is nice.  I also love to dig clams, get mussels, surf fish with a dip net, stream fish, perch fish, striper fish, sturgeon fish, and did I mention fish!  I love to hunt ducks too. 

I have a wife of 32 years (Stacy) and 2 grown daughters, one just out and one in college. Going duck hunting with my nephew, who is a guide in Oregon, this weekend - again!  This work thing sure interferes with my recreation!  Nice to join you folks.  Coop

I’m new to the site and just wanted to say hi. I’ve been scuba diving for over 20 years and freediving for the last 2 years. I run a small freediving social club in Bristol. I also scuba with a couple of clubs here, going to Dorset, Devon and Cornwall in the summer. Interested if there are any other divers on here from the same area

Bex

I live in Sharm el-Sheikh, am manager and owner of a dive center here and love photography.

Best wishes,
Sean

Cheers one and all & dive boldly!

My name is Paul and i am sure i have been here before as i do remember knowing a young(ish) man called Picto and a few ladies by the names of Dawn, Rosemary, Sue and so on. (Sorry if i missed your name).

I have been away for some time and decided that upon my return i would post a thread.

So here i am again.

Hopefully this time i can stay for good without any interuptions.

I look forward to reading the threads posted since my last visit which was some time ago.

Ill text you during the week big man.
Catch up on a few things which i seem to have missed.

Hope to speak and meet you all soon.
Lets arrange another social evening.
The last one was fantastic.

R’s

Paul. C

I’m Joel and I’m from Asia. I look forward to meeting all of you in my future dive trips.
I’m a PADI AOW certified diver. Dived in the following countries:

Philippines
Malaysia
Thailand
Guam

Hope to find a regular buddy.

I’ve posted my plans for the next year on the link below.
http://www.fish4divers.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/635/

Dive safe everyone!

Thats all for now.. I’m a bit grumpy as i was awoken this morning (7am) buy the builders next door.. I did ask the to be quiet.. but they just ignored me can carried on.. the cheek of them… bang bang bang,,, funny thing is, that by 8;15 they finished the banging and started on something else which was quiet… sods law.. or there just sods.. 

These might get more interesting,, but who knows ..

Looking forward to LIDS saturday

I’ll be back as Arney would say