I went on a 3-day, 3-night Catalina Island spearfishing charter guided by Al Schneppershoff Jr this June. I was very unsatisfied with my experience. The cost was 4 figures for my portion. Here are the issues I had with Al’s charter:
• Clients are expected to pull and drop anchor by hand the entire trip. The
30’ boat does not have a winch. There was even a diver 60+ years of age
doing this deckhand work. Guide and Captain would not do this work.
This is unacceptable for a professional, high-cost charter.
• Al talked to me disrespectfully and unprofessionally on multiple occasions
during the trip:
o He called me “anchor boy”, and did stop when I made it clear I did not
like that.
o He asked all the clients what race their girlfriend/wife was.
o He told me I need to take spearfishing lessons because I had not shot
any fish by the 3rd day. Keep in mind that 3 other divers also went
home empty handed.
• Did not actively pursue fish. We continually went to the same locations
which had yielded no fish on previous days. Zero attempt was made to
try more productive locations.
• Charter was unlicensed. We were asked to “pretend we were all just
friends” because the boat was not authorized to run charters.
• 2 pieces of gear were badly damaged/destroyed:
o My float line got wrapped up in the propeller, after I had asked the
captain if it was safe to deploy my float. I spent 30 minutes diving
under the boat, trying to unwrap it until I was forced
cut it free, destroying the line. Captain did replace the line, but not the
integrated bungee.
o The butt of my custom wooden speargun was split while bouncing
around haphazardly on deck. The boat did not have a gun rack,
bungee system or a bin to safely store guns. Safe gun
storage is a basic necessity for a professional spearfishing boat.
• Price was changed upon arrival at the harbor, and I ended up overpaying
by $168.
I would not recommend this charter to anybody. It was unprofessional, and certainly was not worth the high price.
• Clients are expected to pull and drop anchor by hand the entire trip. The
30’ boat does not have a winch. There was even a diver 60+ years of age
doing this deckhand work. Guide and Captain would not do this work.
This is unacceptable for a professional, high-cost charter.
• Al talked to me disrespectfully and unprofessionally on multiple occasions
during the trip:
o He called me “anchor boy”, and did stop when I made it clear I did not
like that.
o He asked all the clients what race their girlfriend/wife was.
o He told me I need to take spearfishing lessons because I had not shot
any fish by the 3rd day. Keep in mind that 3 other divers also went
home empty handed.
• Did not actively pursue fish. We continually went to the same locations
which had yielded no fish on previous days. Zero attempt was made to
try more productive locations.
• Charter was unlicensed. We were asked to “pretend we were all just
friends” because the boat was not authorized to run charters.
• 2 pieces of gear were badly damaged/destroyed:
o My float line got wrapped up in the propeller, after I had asked the
captain if it was safe to deploy my float. I spent 30 minutes diving
under the boat, trying to unwrap it until I was forced
cut it free, destroying the line. Captain did replace the line, but not the
integrated bungee.
o The butt of my custom wooden speargun was split while bouncing
around haphazardly on deck. The boat did not have a gun rack,
bungee system or a bin to safely store guns. Safe gun
storage is a basic necessity for a professional spearfishing boat.
• Price was changed upon arrival at the harbor, and I ended up overpaying
by $168.
I would not recommend this charter to anybody. It was unprofessional, and certainly was not worth the high price.
