[SASpearo]

This is my float system .... took liberties from a lot of other people's ideas, especially Terry Maas - he started it all .....

First of all, excuse the graphics - I'm a programmer not an artist.

This is my main float system for deep water / big fish. It's a little complicated, but easy to operate, store, clean etc etc.

I use an old bodyboard / boogieboard to make the float itself. It's two pieces of about 50cm long by 30cm wide that I fibreglass over. I cut it using a heated wire (just a piece of wire chucked in the fire) and also make the hole for the bolt and hinges with the same wire. It gives a fairly straight cut, and is fairly neat as well. It just smells like crap.

Once it's cut to size and shaped, I just run one layer of fibreglass over it. This isn't really nessecary, but I prefer to do it this way - I can paint on it etc etc. If you don't want to fibreglass it, you'll have to use two BIG washers on either side of the board for the ring bolt.

The line itself is made up of 12mm Latex tubing and parachute cord / braided dacron line. This is the interesting part of the excersise ...

You're gonna need 2 times more line than tubing - and everything's gotta go inside. I have a couple of these lines made up, 10m, 20m 30m etc, and as I've made up snap clips on both sides they're easy to swap out for different dives. Wat you do, is find a vacuum cleaner with about a 2 - 3 Monica suction power (that's quite strong), some cotton wool and some fishing line. You tie a small ball of cotton wool to the end of the fishing line and push it into one side of the tubing. Apply the vacuum cleaner to the other end and Viola ! string goes through. Of course the tubing's gotta be straight, etc etc. Took me some time to get this right the first time, let me tell you !

Once the fishing line is in the tube, just tie the cord to one end and pull it through. When it gets to the other side, tie a knot in the tubing and the line, making sure that the line cannot slip back into the tube. Then, tie the knotted end to a tree / car / ex girlfriend whatever really, and streeeeetch the tube until all the line is inside. Now tie a knot on that side as well and all the chord should be safely tucked in. Unstretch the tubing and stopper the ends. I've tried several things to do that, but the best seems to be two washers and some fibreglass resin .... see picture. You'll have to tie a stopper line around the resin to get it to shape and to stop the plug from slipping out. Make sure you've got a good loop of line outside the tube to attach clips to.

The hinges are simple as well. Drill two holes in each board where the hinges should be, and loop a piece of the Latex tubing through them. Secure with a knot / crimp whatever, and a nice Voila ! once again, a nice rubbery hinge.

OK. So this is how it's supposed to work .... The line gets attached to your spear. Wether or not you do this with a three way setup to your gun as well is up to you. Personall, I've got my gun on a surfing leash and my float line directly to my spear. No connection between gun and spear. The line goes through the ring bolt (it's outside diameter is bigger than the ring, so that it'll take some pressure to get pulled through) and the terminates in a knot on one of the floats. The excess line gets put in the bag on the back float, and as it's needed (to play a fish or dive deeper) it gets pulled through the ringbolt - as the line stretches so it gets thinner, and gets pulled through.

Whew. What an explanation. Now, the reason why I use this system is quite simple. Besides making me money (I make these up for other people) It serves a lot of purposes.
1.) The line does not get tight quickly as with a normal static line. This means less spear rip - outs.
2.) The line feeds itself when diving / playing a fish. No need to attend it when it's going out.
3.) When playing a fish, you can lie on the back half of the float and pull the line through the ring bolt and into the bag.
4.) The line itself floats - because it's sealed on both sides. This means no more tangled lines in Kelp. It's also quite easy to see where it's tangled if it does get tangled
5.) The float is large enough to carry spares - flashers, water, etc etc.
6.) You can fold it up (with the rubber hinges) and put it in a small car's boot.
7.) You can make the float as big as you want. Or as small. The line can be changed easily. If you want to extend the line, add monofilament to the spear side.
8.) The line on the inside stops the tubing from stretching too much, and also servers as a backup in case the tubing goes.

Oh the flag. It's a screw in car antenna - one of those thingies with the "spring" in the middle. And any type of flag really - Alpha, red , white, plague, pirate .... whatever.

Happy huntin all ....