Hello to all fellow Gulf Spearos..... New Spearfisherman here

[hydroid]

Welcome and Rooooll Tide!

[A-Train]

Roll Tide indeed my friend..... I was born and raised in Tuscaloosa and things are crazy around town right now.

[hydroid]

Gulf Shores here.

[A-Train]

Hell yeah that's awesome.... you live there currently?

[hydroid]

I work here in the Marshall Islands,

[A-Train]

Ahh... I see that now lol. Too bad I was going to hook up for a trip sometime. Our place is in GS on west beach blvd. I'll be back next around November 10th..... hoping for some nice dives with great visibility

[CuzzA]

Originally Posted by A-Train

Still been at it in the gulf. I have expanded my species count quite a bit since joining up here and expanded my gear along the way as well. slowly but surely getting there. the Jacket BC was a real pain in the butt while spearing to me so I picked up a used OMS wing and a dive rite harness system with a stainless back plate and that has proven to be the way to go. I found a video with a fella melting lead into the grove of the backplate and did that as well. once the 11 lbs of lead was in place I added longer mounting bolts and a back pad and no more pockets getting tangled in my other gear or line.


made a nice purchase today of a pair of the New Pro fiberglass fins and cannot wait to get them in. the regular plastic fins just were not getting it done as far as keeping up with the guys I go with and expending too much energy in fish battles.

anyhow happy spearing to all.

Stainless plate (5 lbs?) 11 lbs of lead. 16 lbs. plus stringer, gun, lights, etc... Seems heavy assuming no wet suit here in the Gulf.

[jfjf]

Yeah sounds like a bad idea, even with aluminum tanks. A rubber Freedive belt is probably a much better choice.

[CuzzA]

Originally Posted by jfjf

Yeah sounds like a bad idea, even with aluminum tanks. A rubber Freedive belt is probably a much better choice.

I'll raise you one and say, "It IS a better choice."

With that stainless plate and no neoprene I'd bet he wouldn't need much, if any ballast at all.

[A-Train]

I believe bot of you are totally right. Remember the rookie part.

I made the weight before I ever dove with it.when I had the AL 80s rocking the scuba pro classic jacket a huge safety sausage safety kit I was using 13lb of weight and was about right for me.

So I tried to make a setup to mimic that and when I dove with the rig it was def too much weight.

I plan on keeping the weight I made for the plate but I'm going to go in with my milling machine at work and open up sections in it to trim weight until I get it right. Thanks for the replies and feed back. I'll report back later with progress

[CuzzA]

I will offer this advice because we, myself included, have all been there. In fact I thought about getting creative with my ballast at one point too. Setting the amount of weight aside, the reason Jim suggested a rubber free diving belt is because you do not have any ditchable ballast. There's a million and one things that can happen on the water and having the ability to become buoyant at a moment's notice is one option you always want.

Not to mention your rig will be heavy as hell for the days the weather kicks up and you'd rather hand your kit up than ride the roller coaster ladder with 60 lbs. on your back. Your buddies will be cursing you.

I'm glad you're enjoying spearfishing. It's a way of life, wouldn't have it any other way.

[RaginCajun]

I think your rig is evolving in the right direction. I use either a Transpac or BP+wing, steel tanks and no additional weight. My LP 95's boosted to 3000 psi, a speargun, stringer and whatever else I'm carrying is plenty to get down. Sometimes it helps to suck my wing dry so I'm not floundering on the surface on a hot drop trying to get down before the current carries me away. I'm also a fan of larger capacity tanks, for the safety factor alone if nothing else and I don't care if I end the day with 1000-1500 psi in a tank, air is cheap, my life isn't.

Always dive with some kind of SMB and or lift bag to send fish up. Either could come in handy in the event of wing failure and provide additional lift. Case in point. I was spearfishing in ~120' once when upon ascent I had a hard time maintaining positive buoyancy. I'd hit the power inflate over and over but wasn't getting enough lift. As it turns out, I lost/forgot to re-install the o-ring gasket between my corrugated bc inflator hose and wing. It was just enough to leak out slowly. It was a bear kicking up the steel tank. If I'd had +10 # of non-ditchable weight I'd be dead now.

Also like your choice of long blades. When spearfishing we're mainly interested in propelling fast in one direction and can sacrifice some of the finer control gained with regular fins. I'd argue that long blades might help you swim up a heavy steel tank more easily.

I'm in the P'cola area and always looking to meet new spearos. Getting the new boat rigged out and ready. Holler next time your'e down.

Cheers

[A-Train]

Thanks for the advice... I really am taking all of this into consideration.... thanks for taking the time to comment...

[A-Train]

Ragin I will def hit you up in the future. I agree 100 percent on the steel. I have only used a steel 120 once when a buddy landed me one and it was with the scuba pro jacket style and i need 0 weight. Hope fully the funds for larger steel tanks will be around soon and i can def ditch weights all together. I do have a few weight pockets i bought separately... I'm thinking i may need to drop the back plate weight and just use the pockets for an added safety factor until I get the steel tanks.

[A-Train]

Ok the plate of death is out and the weight pockets added to harness. They will each hold 4 lb so I really hope 8 plus gear is enough I dont want to add anything else. One thing I can already see I wont like is the pockets can slide on the belt straps and make it to the belly instead of out of the way on hips. But It looks like i can add a few D rings and move them back to retain the pockets where i want them.

Thanks for the help again guys.