brand new diver -still gearing up and reading up

[trianglelaguna]

Hey Folks,
My name is Craig
I am in the Monterey bay area and am a first year kayak fisherman.
I have decided to start dive/spearfishing and am starting from ground 0 knowledge wise ,but am super excited to begin soon and am spending a lot of time watching clips- reading on internet sites, reading scuba instruction books and researching spearfish-free dive-scuba gear.
I have signed up for my first scuba class in monterey and am reading the work book now,while waiting for my suit which is getting made to fit my large frame .
My suit should be done by the first week of March and at that time I will be ready to take the water part of my my scuba lessons and begin to explore free diving-spearfishing spots at the entry level as well.
I think free dive will be the route I take, but wanted to take the scuba course to learn water safety and underwater theory etc .
When I start to free dive spear fish it may require me to find or have made another suit made ,from what I'm seeing so far ,but, since
I know nothing really right now, I will wait and see and figure this out as I get time in the water.
Right now I'm trying not buy anything other than my first suit until I get my scuba cert and meet more folks who can help explain and steer me towards the right stuff for what I'm doing etc.
I just wanted to say Hi and give a quick background info.
I am a big time old street bike resto guy and Motogp/ road race fan/ Gardening are some of my interests...oh and kayak fishing which has for time being taken over the other interests $$$$ allowance quiet well.
I hope to learn from this site and welcome any information/advicee and hope to get a chance to meet folks and learn first hand
Thanks for the great site
Craig

 

[Bill McIntyre]

Welcome Craig.

I have mixed feelings about scuba training before learning to free dive or vice versa. When I started in the early 50s, there was no scuba training available. I spearfished while free diving for a couple of years before I bought my scuba gear at age 15, and then it was an easy transition since I was already comfortable in the water. I just put on the tank, dropped to the bottom, marveled at being able to breath, and then took off after a fish.

Since there was no training available then, it was probably good that I was totally comfortable and had been shooting big fish before I put on the scuba gear. But now that good supervised training is available, doing the scuba first may be the way to go.

A lot of my spearfishing buddies are very competent freedivers (far better than I am), but not scuba certified. That has caused a problem at the end of the day when we've taken hot showers, put on warm clothes, and then discovered that the anchor was hung in the rocks at a depth too deep for safe recovery by a free diver. I'll ask "are any of you guys scuba certified?" When the answer is "no" that means I'm the one who has to put back on that clammy wet suit, take the pony bottle, and jump back into the cold water to retrieve the anchor.

After you get certified, you would be the one to retrieve my anchor.

 

[BatRay]

Hi Craig, welcome to Deeperblue. I did my scuba cert before I began to freedive, and while I'm glad I did the scuba, I found that some of the scuba gear is quite pricey and doesn't always translate well to freediving. The fins tend to be shorter and the suits tend to be made of a thicker type of neoprene than freediving suits. Those are the main differences I can immediately recall. Both hobbies are a lot of fun.

Do you go to the races at Laguna Seca? I tried to make it over there a few years ago for the races, but it didn't work out. Which bikes do you prefer for your restoration projects?

 

[trianglelaguna]

Hi Craig, welcome to Deeperblue. I did my scuba cert before I began to freedive, and while I'm glad I did the scuba, I found that some of the scuba gear is quite pricey and doesn't always translate well to freediving. The fins tend to be shorter and the suits tend to be made of a thicker type of neoprene than freediving suits. Those are the main differences I can immediately recall. Both hobbies are a lot of fun.

Do you go to the races at Laguna Seca? I tried to make it over there a few years ago for the races, but it didn't work out. Which bikes do you prefer for your restoration projects?

trying to learn to navigate this site.I will post some fish and cycle and big sur pics when I figure out how to post pics..love the replies and thanks for the advice...good sound feedback
Yes Laguna Seca is my dream track and I am blessed to live right near it and can attend car/bike events..
My major bike is a 1976KZ900 and i have had a dozen or so over the years Z1-GPZ-Z1R-MKII...love the old kawasaki four cyl air cooled
thanks for the warm welcome
Craig

 

[BatRay]

Ah, I know those bikes. My husband had a KZ650 with a Kerker exhaust. That was a hell of a bike. The air cooling could be somewhat of a liability, as we learned when we were riding it up a mountain in 100+ degree heat. It started knocking and we decided to turn around to spare the bike. I can't blame the bike for that, though. It was an excellent machine, and very advanced for its day.