[Bill McIntyre]

Jim,

I'm not sure whether your goal is pure freediving or eventually getting into spearfishing. Just in case its the latter, I'd like to offer a bit of heresy.

In Southern California spearfishing for white sea bass in a kelp bed I'm typically only diving to a neutral depth of 20 feet, and I see a lot of fish by looking ahead of me on the way down. In fact, I usually don't even try to go straight down, but angle a bit forward to make it easier to get my head back enough to see. If I were not looking where I was going, I'd spook a lot of fish that I never saw.

But on the other hand, just yesterday I was diving a spot at Catalina where the fish seem to be out on bare sand with no kelp, and the object is to go straight to the bottom at 40 to 50 feet and just sit there waiting for them to come by. In that case, I do keep my head in line with the body so that I can get to the bottom as quickly as possible.

There is no doubt that the best way to go deep is with the head straight, but I just wanted to point out that in spearfishing in the area where you live, it isn't always the best way to spear fish.