[Daryl Wong]

Aloha Aloha all,

The hand is much better. I can at least close it today. Yesterday I couldn't grab anything with it. Barely could hold a mirror at work.
Funny you should mention having my buddy load the gun for me. Little David in the picture took his brand new gun out one day and was partnered with me. The boat driver was just outside of us and was to come in after 45 minutes to pick us up. We had just gotten in when he came up to me and said he couldn't load his gun. This was back in the day before my friend Sheri Daye came up with the loading tab idea. So for 45 minutes we dove together and I would load his gun for him. The only problem was he misses a lot! Sometimes before I could go down, he'd take a shot and miss, so I would reload and then while resting, he'd dive again and shoot a fish. So for about every five times I loaded his gun, I would only shoot mine once. I finally got wise and said we would hang up one gun and share mine! It turned out to be a blast! He would make every shot count and we ended up shooting more fish that way. The only problem was he only had that one set of bands and couldn't load any of our spare bands for his gun. So for a whole day trip we paired up and I loaded bands for him. To say I was sore and tired the next day was an understatement. I mentioned the loading bands for me Sunday and he said we should be even since he helped me bring in the big Ulua. He's right, I may have lost the fish so I'll hope my wrist is better by Sunday. I can always use longer bands and add a third one if needed.
Those Ulua are one of the strongest fish I have ever speared compared to many of the fish I have taken on other dive trips. They use their flat broad sides to give resistance and they love to go back into and under ledges to escape. I mostly use 600lb ss wire when I check the Ulua houses. I've had 480 lb cable snap too many times. Same with tips. They can break a barbed shaft like it was glass. The barb and rivet hole at the tip are the main weak points on the shaft.


Aloha,Daryl