Article on Spearfishing/Nationals

[sturgeon]

I don't know how Spearfishing.com found this article on me because I didn't tell anybody about it including my friends. But somehow they found it and posted it on their website. It discusses the 2003 Nationals, personal aspects of my life, and my family. I thought some of you might be interested in reading it so here's the link (http://www.spearfishing.com/). Scroll to the bottom of the page and look under 'News'. The reporter's not a diver and I didn't get a chance to proof it, so there are a few misstatements in it relating to the physiology of freediving.

Also, notice the beautiful 60 lb cubera snapper that DB Forum member Angelos (A.K.A. - frogman) shot. He took that fish diving with me on my boat the weekend before I left for the Nationals.

Scott T.

 

[donmoore]

Nice article Scott. Thanks for sharing it with us. I would like to take you up on your offer to come dive with you. Is the spearing any good in the winter there?
don

 

[ivan]

hi

Yeah nice article scott, was suprised to see that you were a body bulider

cheers

 

[Pezman]

Scott,

Have you ever fiddled around with doing dynamics? My (anecdotal) observation is that buff guys tend to have dynamics that are disproportionately good compared to their statics. I was wondering if you could add another data point.

 

[freedvr1]

Shameless Plug!:hmm

 

[bobbybuttr]

Scott,
Nice article. I learned some things about spearfishing and about you. Never mind the previous poster. There is always one in every crowd.

 

[thud]

There is always one in every crowd.

Yea, it was his very first post too. I guess he didn't read the part of the agreement for membership about being respectful. I guess I'm not being very respectful either. Sorry.

Nice article Scott.
Drew

 

[Skindiver]

Doubt It.

I doubt it was his first post. Its likely someone that is fairly active on the forum and wanted to say his say in anonymity. So he created another user.

I can say in my experience that sometimes the only people that genuinely have good wishes for a 'winner' are those not competing.
As for shamelessly plugging himself, i speak from experience when i say that one can be so enthused and excited about having achieved something that you fall into the trap of thinking that everyone else will be equally happy for you.

I for example did a very stupid thing when i broke the SA Constant weight record at Cyprus. In my total stupid excitement I posted it on our South African freediving yahoogroups list. The silence was totally embarrassing. I will take heed never to make this assumption again.

Cringe.

Go Scott.

Skin.

 

[donmoore]

Good observation Skin. I totally agree, and unfortunately from experience. We shouldn’t give up sharing our achievements with others though. Its only human nature to get several positive responses and one negative and dwell on the negative one. The sharing of accomplishments is a powerful motivator to both the achiever and the well-wishers.

I was pretty serious with a young lady whose family had a totally different perspective than mine about this issue. Both the mother and the father were overweight and suffered health problems from it. The father, through hard work, lost 30 lbs and was proudly sharing his accomplishment to us. I was so happy for him until his wife kicked him and told him to shut up.

If anyone wants to share their achievements with a fellow freediver and are afraid to do it on the board, you are free to PM or e-mail me. I would love to hear them. And if you do post them to the board, I will congratulate you and defend against any jealous comments, regardless of any negative karma thrown at me.

By the way, I think the karma idea was good, except for the negative karma. It’s just all to easy for people to lop negative karma in anonymity. It’s like the old saying; if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say it! Karma ought to represent the number of approvals by people. Allowing negative karma only encourages those who suffer from negativism and perpetual criticism. Encouragement and the sharing of accomplishments will go a lot further in promoting our sport.
don

 

[fijifreediver]

Bula

Went diving with Scott and Angelos while in Florida. Great guys,
Great Day with a Great catch in difficult conditions (strong current,poor vis.,and heavy boat traffic)!
Thanks for the hospitality!

Jim

FEEL FREE

 

[sturgeon]

I've been out of town for a few days for work so sorry to take so long in responding to everybody. Thanks for everyone's positive comments!

Because I seem to have taken the brunt of a lot of negativity from several of my past posts on DB, I didn't know what to expect from posting an article about myself on the Forum. But I sincerely did not post the article as a way of bragging. I thought because of all the past controversy I've been associated with that the article might give those who were interested a chance to get to know me a little better. To tell the truth, I was more proud of what was written in the article about my family than myself. I have wonderful parents and grandparents and sitting in their front yard in MA sipping home brewed iced tea while being interviewed by that reporter with all my family present trying to contribute stories about our lives together will be a memory I will never forget. It was also the day my 80+ year old grandparents met their only great grandchild (my son).

So anyway, enough of the mushy stuff and back to freediving!!!

Pezman,

Your statement about people with muscle having disproportionately better dynamics than statics is very interesting and might explain why my statics suck so bad (not that any of my freediving skills are much above average except maybe finding and shooting fish). Once I started freediving seriously I quit lifting weights because I heard muscle tissue burns oxygen so I'm not near as big as I used to be but I still have a little left. Here are my stats: dynamic 75 yards (3 lengths of 25 yd pool), wet static 3 min. Would you consider these disproportionate or do they both just suck equally? BTW, I'm planning on taking the Performance Freediving course this November in Miami so I’m hoping Kirk and Bret will be able to do something to improve my embarrassingly poor statistics.

Scott T.

 

[Pezman]

Not sure I'd say that it sucks and a 75yd dynamic is pretty good (I'd say that should warrant about a 5:00 static in a more conventional apneist). If you can do the 75yd no fins, I'd take that as a data point in my favor (I can go farther no-fins than w/ fins, so you might be surprised how far you can go).

At any rate, thanks for the reply and don't let the peanut gallery bum you out.

 

[sturgeon]

Pezman,

I can do the 75 yd dynamic pretty much anytime I try, so it's not any great personal feat but the 3 min static is a different story. That I have only done once, not that I try it very often but it was hard the 1 time I did it. So, maybe your theory has some validly or else I just don't have the patience to lay there doing nothing but holding my breath. Hopefully, I'll find out for sure in November and get back to you. Maybe I'll try a no-fins dynamic while I'm at it.

Take care.

Scott T.

 

[Pezman]

If the clinic teaches current breathing techniques, you'll sail past 4:00 in no time. I was stuck at a painful PB of 3:30 until someone showed me some breathing tricks. Now I can hit 3:00 reliably with about 10 breaths and 4:00 reliably on the 2nd or third attempt (the body gets used to the hypoxic state and you go longer and longer). I'm sure I can go longer than 4:00, but I'm not all that interested since I got into this for fun, not suffering.

Unfortunately, the improved statics do not always translate into longer dives. On a good day I can get a bunch of 2:00+ and a 3:00+ or two, but 1:00 to 1:30 is more typical. Oddly enough, I can often go longer when exerting.

I think it's cool that spearing is more a mental game.

 

[Erik]

Re: Doubt It.

Originally posted by Skindiver
I can say in my experience that sometimes the only people that genuinely have good wishes for a 'winner' are those not competing.

Go Scott.

Skin.

I see what you're saying, and it's too bad that your SA people aren't more supportive
If you ever come to a Canadian freediving competition, you will see support and camraderie that is amazing. I'm not sure why...maybe cultural, maybe the people that run them.
Congrats on your performance Skin, and good stuff Scott.
It's not like our comps are on TSN or anything....we need to share them in our small community, and I believe it's ok to be proud of our achievements.
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[sturgeon]

Pezman,

I see you're in the good ol' eastern USA. If you ever want to dive in some deep, clear, warm water and/or find out what spearfishing's all about, you're welcome on my boat anytime down here in sunny S. FL.

Scott T.

 

[cdavis]

Scott,

Great article and you will love the PF clinic. Their breathup technique was the best thing I learned. It immediately increased both my dynamics and statics by more than 25 % You should have no problem sailing past 4 minutes wet static.

Connor

 

[Skindiver]

I just dont buy it.

I'm 242 Pounds or 110 KG. I go to Gym every day and train hard especially legs.
My dynamic is 118m. 5.09 static and 57m easy constant and i have more in reserve. Not the greatest stats i know but certainly enough to give doubt to anti - muscle proponents.

Aside from the air used to keep my tissues alive ( negligible) , so long as i keep them quiet they use next to nothing. Even a V8 uses little fuel when tickling it down the highway.

Taking into account that they are conditioned tissues when under load they use O2 efficiently. How much more fuel does the V8 use towing a load up a hill compared to a light motor towing the same load up a hill ? and how does it feel once on top ?

Taking into account that there are far more serious variables, forget the freediving / muscle conflict. The benefits of going to gym would outweigh the argument regardless of my contention that its a figment of logic anyway.

Skin.