and if you've ever dove the channel islands, which i'm assuming you have,
Yes, I have. I think the first time was in 1963.
and billy-boy......terry maas doesn't go into much detail about compensating past 20 meters in any of his books...
Well no oflowy boy, he doesn't, but I made the mistake of thinking we were discussing techniques useful in the Channel Islands. You may get off on diving past 20 meters, but the great majority of the white sea bass are in the top 20 feet. If it makes you feel good to lay around down below 20 meters because you know that they have to do that in the Med, then that's just fine, but its not CA spearfishing. You'll be seeing your fish on the way up.
and because of practice and a study of Umberto Pelizzari's Manual of Freediving, I have just pulled a personal best with my breath hold....4 mins 4 seconds....
Whoopeee! That just frigging wonderful. I stand in awe of you, but I'm a simple spearfisherman. Last Monday when I got the fish pictured below, I was averaging around 50 to 55 seconds with occasional dives over a minute, and I was at 20 feet (not 20 meters) when I pulled the trigger.
And Bill, did you have anyone to show you the basics of spearfishing or freediving when you were just starting?
Well no, I don't think so. I got into shooting big fish at age 13 or 14 back in 1952 or 1953, and there just wasn't anyone to teach me. My dive buddy and I just sort of felt our way along and learned by trial and error.
Cuz I haven't had anyone experienced teach me or show me..
I can understand that. It sounds like you might threaten them when you dropped your breath hold and depth abilities on them, and besides that they might feel that their command of Italian was inadequate.
I tend to take a lot of young guys out because I really enjoy seeing their joy when they get that first white sea bass or yellowtail, and their enthusiasm is contagious. In fact a large number of guys have taken that first game fish from my boat. A few weeks ago I took out a guy who's previous single fish speared was a sheephead, and he got a 43 pound white sea bass. A couple of weeks later, I took a guy who had speared some calicos and sand bass and one 12 pound white sea bass, and he got a 60 pound white sea bass from my boat. Since I'm an old fart, many of my new buddies soon surpass me in physical ability, if not experience, and that's fine with me as long as they don't call my billy-boy.
None of us can speak Italian, none of us can hold our breaths for over 4 minutes, and none of us can dive over 20 meters, but we sure have fun.