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Diving Safety, Accidents and Incidents Post here to discuss accidents, incidents, ideas, gear, or anything else to improve spearfishing safety. Memorials and condolences threads should be placed in that separate forum.

View Poll Results: Have you ever speared another diver/spearo?
Yes. More than once 4 2.27%
Yes, and it can happen to anyone. 3 1.70%
No 65 36.93%
No, It is easily avoided. 104 59.09%
Voters: 176. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 10-06-2016, 07:45 PM   #46
Marcus
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

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Originally Posted by gillotine View Post
Not me, but this is a true story. Two guys I usually fished with did a shore dive early one morning in the Northeast. I stayed in bed because it was too early and I am lazy and like to use a boat. Viz was marginal, as usual. One guy hit a striped bass. The normal procedure for us was to specify areas where we would hunt so that we would not be too close to each other. Anyway, they got close to each other which was ok except that the guy who got the bass body strung it. In bad viz, a striped bass shows up much better than a black wetsuit. So the other guy sees the bass and lines up for the shot when he notices funny shapes behind it which he recognizes as swim fins.
After the adrenalin flush was over, he went ashore.
Geez!

Luckily I've never encountered such. I broke my nose once upon shooting a speargun out of the water. My big brother handed me the gun cocked and I concentrated aiming it at a plywood target. I pulled the trigger and quickly found the butt of the speargun breaking my nose. DOH! it was a difficult lesson.
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Old 10-07-2016, 05:18 PM   #47
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

No, no, no. I said "shoot the WRASSE!"
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Old 10-12-2016, 02:18 PM   #48
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

This is as close as ive gotten... scary situation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xY9IBN7G7Y
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Old 10-12-2016, 02:59 PM   #49
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

I choose "no,it is easily avoided".Knowing how to hold a speargun is extremely simple. Throughout the years I have taught many people how to spearfish,but I have noticed some people have no business being in the water with a loaded speargun. These are the types of people I don't invite with me anymore since I have no time to deal with a person who doesn't have enough common sense to be a safe diver.
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Old 10-14-2016, 04:10 PM   #50
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

I'm sorry, but Gerald Perry is right. I've you've ever speared anyone, you are a complete dumbass and you should never carry any sort of weapon again. A spear gun is a gun and if you are not smart enough to point it in a safe direction AT ALL TIMES, then you are not smart enough to use one. That's hunting 101 and I don't give a rat's ass how macho people think they are. I mean, come on... If we were talking about a 30-06, you wouldn't be like, "Oh yeah, I accidentally shot my buddy with one and yeah, it was a mistake and now I learned my lesson"... If you shoot someone with a spear gun it means you weren't following proper safety protocol. It's as black and white as that... Complacency kills...

If a diver points a gun at me during the dive, he get's a stern warning. It's not a joking matter. If they do it a second time, they can find another boat to fish on... Simple as that. I don't care if my opinion is unpopular. I've got a wife and kids to get back home to and if safety hurts grown men's feelings, then tough...
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Old 10-17-2016, 06:00 PM   #51
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

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Originally Posted by skinneej View Post
I'm sorry, but Gerald Perry is right. I've you've ever speared anyone, you are a complete dumbass and you should never carry any sort of weapon again. A spear gun is a gun and if you are not smart enough to point it in a safe direction AT ALL TIMES, then you are not smart enough to use one. That's hunting 101 and I don't give a rat's ass how macho people think they are. I mean, come on... If we were talking about a 30-06, you wouldn't be like, "Oh yeah, I accidentally shot my buddy with one and yeah, it was a mistake and now I learned my lesson"... If you shoot someone with a spear gun it means you weren't following proper safety protocol. It's as black and white as that... Complacency kills...

If a diver points a gun at me during the dive, he get's a stern warning. It's not a joking matter. If they do it a second time, they can find another boat to fish on... Simple as that. I don't care if my opinion is unpopular. I've got a wife and kids to get back home to and if safety hurts grown men's feelings, then tough...
Rogers on that! I have seen some incredibly careless and reckless behavior shown in many of the YouTube videos posted in recent years. I had no idea how common this problem was until I actually saw it taking place in these videos.
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Old 10-18-2016, 03:07 PM   #52
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

No, but I have had a few times (my fault) that I didn't have my spear shaft locked in to the trigger mechanism, and when I pulled my bands back to loop them on to the shark fin they launched the shaft out of the gun - scared the shizz out of me, but luckily I have been trained since childhood to never point a gun at anything I don't intend to destroy. Since then, I ALWAYS check to make sure the shaft is locked in before pulling back the bands.
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Old 01-05-2017, 12:35 PM   #53
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/late...-fish-Facebook
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Old 01-25-2017, 12:30 PM   #54
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

Wait...5% of the people on this board shot someone? Not "shot in the direction of someone", but actually shot someone?
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Old 01-25-2017, 02:46 PM   #55
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

I have two stories

1978- Three of us were diving in the kelp off San Diego. One guy had an speargun. My abalone catch bag was fairly full and I was laying on top of it on the bottom working out another ab when I here a noise a feel a clunk. I look down and there's a spear shaft sticking in my ab bag and I look over and the guy has this strange look on his face. I guess the gun misfired.

2002- Ray Odor and I were diving the "Hot Spot" which is about 30 miles off Hernado Beach in about 45 fsw. We both are free shafting and as we head down Ray is out in front of me. He gets far enough ahead that I can't see him but know which direction he went. I decided to load up my second band and when I did the trigger failed and sent the shaft toward Ray. Holy shit! I just said a prayer. I found my shaft in the sand and fortunately Ray wasn't stuck to it.

Later I explained to Ray what happened and he didn't want to believe that the trigger failed. This was because it was hand made "by him" as well as the rest of the gun. So we get back to his house and standing in his back yard near his machine shop I pointed the gun skyward and loaded the first band. All's good. Then the second band and woosh. That shaft went straight up into his tree. I looked over and Ray has this strange look on his face.
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Old 11-23-2018, 03:45 PM   #56
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

One thing I'll add to this is always hand your spear gun up to the person on the boat butt end first. One, you shouldn't hand someone the pointy end of anything and second if you forgot to powerdown your gun you're pointing a loaded speargun at your buddy. Happened to me once and now I make doubly sure to check out a gun at a safe angle before going to grab it from the diver coming up.
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Old 12-10-2018, 05:03 PM   #57
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

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Originally Posted by Eibwen View Post
One thing I'll add to this is always hand your spear gun up to the person on the boat butt end first. One, you shouldn't hand someone the pointy end of anything and second if you forgot to powerdown your gun you're pointing a loaded speargun at your buddy. Happened to me once and now I make doubly sure to check out a gun at a safe angle before going to grab it from the diver coming up.
That would seem to make sense, but it can cause problems as well. I try to hand the middle of the gun and have it pointed sideways. If you hand the handle or butt of the gun to the person on the boat, they can accidentally insert their finger into the guard and squeeze the trigger when grabbing and then the shaft can fall out of the gun into your face.

Don’t ask how I know this. The real lesson is that when someone hands you the gun, don’t grab anywhere near the handle- even if they give it to you like that. On a pitching boat in rough seas, you can easily mis- grab a gun that is handed to you if you don’t avoid the handle.
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Old 12-10-2018, 05:07 PM   #58
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

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That would seem to make sense, but it can cause problems as well. I try to hand the middle of the gun and have it pointed sideways. If you hand the handle or butt of the gun to the person on the boat, they can accidentally insert their finger into the guard and squeeze the trigger when grabbing and then the shaft can fall out of the gun into your face.

Don’t ask how I know this. The real lesson is that when someone hands you the gun, don’t grab anywhere near the handle- even if they give it to you like that. On a pitching boat in rough seas, you can easily mis- grab a gun that is handed to you if you don’t avoid the handle.
Very good points (no pun intended - LOL) - I'm starting to seriously consider lines off my stern and/or side I have the ladder with carabiners so you can clip your gun, stringer, or BC. Then after you get on the boat you can bring in your gear so that you and only you have control over it and if anything "bad" happens, it is all on you.
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Old 12-10-2018, 08:00 PM   #59
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jfjf View Post
That would seem to make sense, but it can cause problems as well. I try to hand the middle of the gun and have it pointed sideways. If you hand the handle or butt of the gun to the person on the boat, they can accidentally insert their finger into the guard and squeeze the trigger when grabbing and then the shaft can fall out of the gun into your face.

Don’t ask how I know this. The real lesson is that when someone hands you the gun, don’t grab anywhere near the handle- even if they give it to you like that. On a pitching boat in rough seas, you can easily mis- grab a gun that is handed to you if you don’t avoid the handle.
This is a situation that can be greatly diminished or eliminated by simply engaging the safety before handing up the speargun.
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Old 12-10-2018, 08:34 PM   #60
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Re: Have you speared another spearo?

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This is a situation that can be greatly diminished or eliminated by simply engaging the safety before handing up the speargun.
Unfortunately some guns have no safeties. Other guns people forget to engage them.

Of course, a truly catastrophic injury can be avoided by not having bands pulled back.
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