Spearfishing 101

[gonetobaja]

We have finished a video to teach people the basics on freediving and spearfishing. The video is shot on location in Baja CA Mex. with actuall customers learning the basics of the sport. It also includes interviews with Jay and Julie Riffe. It comes in a DVD form and is 50min long with 18 chapters. It is being distributed by Riffe Spearguns and will be available in stores where Riffe products are sold. It has great underwater footage of Julie Riffe shooting a Wahoo from about 20ft away, as well as great instructional underwater footage.

This is a great DVD for people who want to know how to get started and get their first fish.

No humans were harmed in the making of this video...

If your dive shop does not carry it than you can contact Riffe International 1-800-SPEARGUN or have your local dive shop contact them.

It took 6 months to make this video, I had no idea what it would take. Im very pleased with the results and am already planning another video.

Im taking suggestions on topics

for now though you guys know what Im doing!

GTB

[LaJollaFreedvr]

congratulations - you just helped contribute to the massive growth of spearfishing by making it THAT much easier for people to go out and shoot something. spearfishing and freediving is kept to a select group of motivated and intelligent individuals that teach themselves about the ocean, fish, and their personal limits. now any yahoo can buy a polespear and your great self-help video and go decimate populations of fish...but i guess you dont care cause you can just go down to baja and be by yourself. what happened to spearfishing as a personal sport? seems like you just care about making a buck or two off of this - the environments already going down the drain, and youre not helping the situation by fostering sustainable fishing and preaching conservation. save the self-help videos for other sports, please.

[rigdvr]

LaJolla...dude you are a tool. Would you spew that same mess to Terry Mass about his books and videos? Im sorry others have copied you....oh, wait a second, did you invent spearfishing? I dont think so, you too were inspired from something, somewhere.

Instead of caring that new divers might learn things to help prevent more injuries and deaths you care about you and hide it in a disguise of caring about the enviornment. If you think spearos are really doing damage then why dont you quit and stay home and hug a tree or two?

STFU

[mjacobs]

Yup. Pile on.

[gonetobaja]

Mr.lajolla freediver,

I would like to respectfully disagree with your opinion. I dont think that freedive spearfishing should be kept to only a few people. I think that spearfishing is the best way to get fish. I also think that motivating people to interact with their envionment fosters actual learning from experience. There are people out there that may have grown up in a different enviornment than me or you. I was left to play on the beach as a child and thats how I learned to freedive, surf and spearfish. Other people may not have had the bennefit of that. That does not mean that they are any less qualified to enjoy freediving and spearfishing. If a person wants fish than they will get one. Either by going to a store(nets and long lines) or by getting a pole and line(Monofliment entangled sea guls and sea lions). To me spearfishing is the most enviornmentaly friendly way to harvest fish from the ocean. The only way to harvest a fish from the ocean in a selective manner that does not harm or injure other organisms is with a speargun. You can choose the species and size of the fish you want to harvest and make a decision before you pull the trigger(provided you get the shot..). I would like to see a surge in spearfish freediving because to me it would mean a surge towards a more knowedgeble generation who could learn from the sea and not fear it. And then pass it on to their children. I feel that there are alot of missconceptions about the difficulty of freediving spearfishing that keep people at a distance from the sport that I love. It is my hope to show people a different opinion regarding these missconceptions.

Thank you for offering your opinion on my project.

Mr. Rigdvr also offers another opinion that I feel much more inclined to lean towards...

Dale Pearson
Gone to Baja Expeditions

[rigdvr]

Dale,
you are much better with words than I am. Cant wait to see the video.

Lajolla,
Freedive spearfishing is not for eletist types. It should be openly shared to anyone interested. It is a lifechanging experience for many which in turn becomes a way of life for some. Your only concern is how crowded your favorite spots are becoming. Dont kid yourself and try to say otherwise, we all remember the last time you brought this up. Someone shared this beautiful sport with you and it is your job to continue that by sharing it with another. I just gave the first gun I ever owned to a friend that wanted to learn to use it, the only catch was that he had to pass it on to someone once he outgrows it.

[gonetobaja]

Thanks for your support Rig,

Although I might have busted a vessel in my brain trying to word that correctly It came out good. The bottom line is that spearfishing is a "GOOD" thing. There is nothing bad in my opinion that can come showing someone the wonder of the ocean.

Lajolla, I must say that I somewhat understand your side. I have lived my whole life in San Diego and started to go to Baja at a very young age (15) to avoid crowds and get better conditions for surfing and spearing. I have also been frustrated by crowds and lack of respect for the ocean and its inhabitants. However even though I love the sea, she is not mine alone and I must share here with others.

So do you want a person out there taking chances and quessing at the sport while small and uneatable fish get slaughtered by a very motivated yet uneducated first timer? Take a drive south to the mission bay jetty and you can sit and watch as sling weilding first timers nail undersize lobster and opaleye. I once watched a person walk up out of "THE COVE" with a garibaldi on the end of a hawian sling. He was nailed with a quickness by the lifeguard and I dont know what happened after that. Maybe if there had been something out there to teach a person just the basics than things like that wouldnt happen and our shared frustration would not be so great.

As far as going down to Baja and being by my self...your right.
You should head down sometime. I think you would like it.

GTB
"All Im tryin to do is make a fish taco..."

[aguafina]

GTB,

DO NOT! I repeat DO NOT invite this lajolla fool to anywhere at any amount of profit!! lajolla carries a disease that, if not irraticated, will destroy our passion. This small minded, self absorbed, TURD needs to stay in the childrens pool with the seals where he belongs. I've dove the places that you offer to your clientele for many years. From Puertecitos to Punta Final and points between as well as beyond. This is a place where we go to get AWAY from society sick people not run into them.

Love your home page, by the way! Keep up the good work/play!!

Agua Fina

lajolla, Let's see how long you can hold your breath! I'll say when!

[Iyadiver]

I agree that a book or a video for beginners is a good idea. It will reduce the mistakes, either which can create physical harm to the hunter or other hunter/s or taking the environment for granted.

If GTB can make profit out of it, so be it. What can be more rewarding than earning small bucks doing what you really enjoy and at the same time it helps others ( begginners ).

I have not seen the 101 video but books like Terry Maas's, does contribute a great deal to the discipline I am adhering to when it comes to spearing. This in return I convey to my beginners friends. Having access to internet only in 2001 ( yep, a Fred Flintstone I am ) and only then learning such great books like Terry Maas exist and joining DB in 2002, I can say that any information which improves one's SKILL and ATTITUDE in a proper guided manner is GOOD !!

Yes, I am a bubble blower category but all these informations have done much good for me and my beginners friends. Thanks to Terry, DB boss & boys and Riffe I am now a blue water scuba hunter with so little yield per trip or no yield at all. But it is worth it, I only aim for very selected size and species and they are abundant in my waters if the current and season is right.

I have shaped the mentality of my beginners friends to do the same. Now in less than 2 years, they share the same thoughts & discipline about spearing which took me 10 years to shape. My first 7 years was a slow up hill climb due to lacking of information, equipment know how & hunting grounds.

One final word is that, if one does not like spearing or have no "DNA" of it, no books or videos can turn him to be a spearo. So no worry LJ, the spearing world will not be over crowded by such books or video. They are just a mean of exchanging information easier and better in this modern time.

IYA

[gonetobaja]

Aguafina,
Not to worry. I doubt that LJfreediver would lower himself to go on an expedition with me.

It was not an invatation but rather an suggestion.

Iya you seem to get it as well. I have spent hours teaching friends and customers how to freedive/spearfish. The problem that came to mind was just as you say. You either have good info and some money and you can hire a private guide or get in a class to learn or you jump in the ocean and learn the sport over years of trial and error.

It seemed to me that there needed to be some low cost way to at least give people the info on how to get started. How to load your gun, what is a low volume mask, where to aim, what is a float line, etc. I have answered these questions so many times to my clients and never thought anything of it. One day I had a fishing client(rod and reel) that wasnt catching anything. Knowing that we were about 2 hrs from any type of eating place I ended the day by hopping over the side and nailing a nice 6-7lb lepoard grouper for dinner. The customer was blown away by seeing freediving/spearfishing in person for the first time. He asked me to teach him the next day. 1 hr later back at Puertecitos I was showing him the hot springs when he stepped between some rocks and lacerated his ankle wide open on an oyster shell.

"Well trips over, I gotta get you to the states for stiches and such.."

On the way back the person was dissapointed as he had looked forward to learning the next day. Then came the question that started this whole thing.

"So where can I get a video that teaches me how to spearfish?"

And away I go.

As far as profit....Uh....whats that?

GTB

[smellsfishy]

Let's get a copy to somebody at deeperblue for a review !

[gonetobaja]

Im trying to get a copy to Stephen but so far all of the copys have been picked up by Riffe. After the holidays I will try for a push. I am still learning about the business end of making a DVD. Spearfishing is much easier than working out a deal with a duplication company.

I know that Riffe has a bunch of them.

GTB

[Amphibious]

let me know when you have one for sale, shoot me a pm with an addy to send the cheque and I'll buy one. Review to follow

[rigdvr]

I volunteer to write up a review...everyone knows I can be brutally honest

[LaJollaFreedvr]

id like to apologize for my innappropriate response to dale's post - in retrospect it was a misguided post which i feel does not adequately represent me, my personality, or my opinions regarding spearfishing. my sincerest apologies to dale and anyone else that i offended with my severely misaligned words...i don't know what got into me