Euro-African Champs in Cadiz

Martin's actual surname is Polish (I think) but no one can pronounce it. I have known him for about the last 10 years and have only ever heard him refered to as Trotsky. Yes Pete has retired, but he is still an excellent diver who still takes part at a national level.

Many thanks to the British Team of Dave Thomasson, Kevin Daly, Lee Deighton and Martin Czarkowski, your hard work, superb team sprit and overall conduct as representatives of your country over the last few weeks has made us proud of you.
Full report to follow later when we have had time to draw breath.

Alan Mills & Eric Smith
Managment Team

Well done lads, as always underdogs but never-say-die spirit, congrats to all involved! PS great book Eric.

I found these results but would love to here more details on the British team please.

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THE FINAL STANDINGS ARE

1) D. Gospic CROATIA ---------------- 125,570
2) A. March SPAGNA ------------------ 122,120
3) I. Degaitas GREECE --------------- 113,556
4) S. Lopez SPAIN ---------------------- 112,707
5) A. Silva PORTOGALLO ---------- 110,013
6) D. Marinov CROAZIA --------------- 95,912
7) A. Lagutin UCRAINA ---------------- 92,648
P. Carbonell SPAGNA --------------- 89,647
9) A. Dominguez PORTOGALLO ---- 86,663
10) S. Mancia ITALIA -------------------- 84,419
11) A. Buratovic CROAZIA ------------ 80,554
12) M. Kusnetsov RUSSIA ------------- 78,015
13) L. Deighton UNITED KINGDOM 65,521
14) L. Lossy FRANCE ------------------- 52,884
15) R. Torres PORTUGAL ---------- 48,323
16) E. Enrico FRANCE --- ---------------- 46,937
17) P. Arabadjiev BULGARIA ---------- 42,299
1 D. Petrini ITALIA ---------------------- 42,235
19) M Pikko FINLAND ----------------- 39,015
20) E. AK TURKEY ----------------------- 39,010
21) G Plaganyi S. AFRICA -------------- 39,855
22) R. Praiola ITALIA ---------------------- 35,080
23) V Liutsaknov BULGARIA ---------- 34,202
24) A Peruhov BULGARIA --------------- 31,226
25) I. Karabogias GREECE ------------- 30,241
26) B. Valora FRANCE ------------------- 28,274

Full report later but those lads made their own luck when the vis is only one metre and most of the ground is 16 mts + is takes a lot of bottle to dive it for 5 hours. Lee's bottom times were all timed by my boatman at 2.50 to 3 mins with the last one when he shot a 5 kilo Dentex timed at 3.50 mins. That was 3mins waiting then 50 seconds fighting the fish to the surface.

Well done lads.Lee showed @ last years Portland competition what a top spearo he is and he is always willing to help and advise others even giving a filleting lession at the pairs competition BBQ.What could he and the rest of the British Team acheive if they had the resources and backing of our European neighbours?

Rota Report

British Team
Kevin Daly, Lee Deighton, Martin Trosky, Dave Tomasson

The lads did a shore dive the first day with very negative results. After swimming a mile out they had found two mts viz on the surface and none on the bottom Lee who had been helping the managers to register the boat shot a sargo virgo or zebra bream from a small set of rocks just outside the area, this gave the lads something to talk about and it was promptly cooked for dinner. Our GPS Depth sounder proved invaluable as we started looking for ground the next day but we soon realized there was a serious problem with shore marks. The coast in the northern area out from Rota was very low lying when we started looking at ground more than three miles out it became impossible to see the marks. This will not be a problem in the next championship as CMAS has now changed the rules and both GPS and Sounders will be allowed from now on.

The lads were diving well for the first day to depths of 16 to 19mts and were reporting the odd fish here and there but nothing to write home about. We then hit a shoal of fish on the sounder and sent a diver down to investigate he reported back that the reef was alive, a big predator type fish of 5 kilos had come in on his shoulder and the cracks and caves in the reef were full of a fish the locals called Boca - these some of the lads knew as rubber lips from other parts of the world. This area we marked up as Dentex ledge and was as far as we dared work on shore marks. The next three 10 hr days were spent in this area until we had about 12 marks that we could drop on, on the day.

The next area was 6 miles across the bay to Cadiz, then it stretched down another 6 miles along the sandy beaches. We soon started finding holes full of Boca and the shore marks off the city were a lot easier with the high-rise buildings and docks in the background. On day two as we crossed from one high spot on the GPS to another fish started to show on the sounder we put a diver down who reported that 5 big Amberjacks had come in on his right hand side whilst two big bass 8 lbs + came in on his left at the base of the rock was a ledge full of Boca. We left this mark after one dive punching it into the GPS as Oasis to take shore marks later when no other boats were around. On the way home that day we came across the Italian team fishing flat out just outside the area, they had been doing this for the last two days .We could only think that they were trying to get used to the unusual fish and size limits.

Moving from our chalets to the hotel four days before the comp our divers were able to mix with some of the top spearos in the world and listen to some of the rumors that always circulate before these comps. Apparently the Spanish had been paying the locals 300 Euros for a good mark and the Portuguese had been coming down at weekends and jumping the local divers causing major upsets.

The first day started in a mass of boats about 60 in all rushing across the bay to Cadiz. It did not take long to realize that things had changed dramatically as a big swell of ten feet had set in from the north along with a force five wind and the water temperature had gone down by a full 6 degrees. The viz on the bottom had dropped from ten foot to 3ft on the deeper ground and the main fish the Boca had done a runner wiping out the months of scouting that most of the top teams had done. Our lads did not fair too well. Dave was on good ground a lot of the day with slightly better viz at 5 to 6ft but always seemed to be fishing behind other divers, taking two fish, a good bream of a kilo and one other fish and a moray that despite looking big proved to be below the penalty limit and cost him 2000 points at the weigh in. Kevin dived his heart out all day and never saw a fish big enough to shoot. Lee worked hard in 60ft but had chosen to wear the old worn 5 mm suit he had been wearing for the last two weeks but this proved to be to thin for the change in temperature and he froze. His bottom times were reduce to about 2 mins as he struggled to stop shivering on the bottom, despite this he still managed two fish just under a kilo.
Some of the lesser known teams had done ok with a lad from Finland dropping on a
4.5-kilo guilt head bream on his first dive. The Spanish had come out on top with Alberto Mach taking 15 fish to win the first day, it showed what a strange day it was as the French and Italians were just above our lowly spot on the results sheet.

Day two started the same as the first with a big swell and a lot of top divers estimating that the winner might only have three fish from this area as the viz was worst than the first day. As we drove out to the start, Lee dressed in his thicker suit promised he would catch us ten fish to make up for the disappointment of yesterday. We had a plan, start on the shallower ledge in 15-to 16 mts. which most of the divers seemed to know, take as many fish off it as we could and then move out to the deeper off shore marks. Lee came up from his first dive to tell me that there was no viz on the bottom but thought he could fish it by looking up the boulders and fishing into the light. This proved right as he came up with a good mullet after about twenty mins. Two hours later with three mullet in the bag one of the Spanish team came to fish along side us and as Lee slid his fourth mullet in the boat we learnt that the Spaniard had three fish so far. After being jumped by several other divers we decided to fish one of the outer marks called Crab Ledge. After 20 mins of looking in 17mts Lee found the spot he wanted and we dropped the second marker buoy so the float was right above the ledge. The viz here was a dark 4ft so he found that it was almost impossible to go and look for the fish and had to lay flat on top of the ledge and let the fish come to him. Pulling out bottom times of 3 mins he caught two big wrasse, to take the score to 6 fish, by this time we were getting reports that the Spanish had three four and five fish each. One big zebra bream of 1.5 kilos was followed by two Boca that gave us 9 fish with 15 mins left of the comp. As Lee disappeared under water again the boatman who had been timing him for most of the day soon signaled two mins then three, we both started to look worried 3 mins 10 then 20 30 40 50 just as I feared the worst he broke the surface fighting with a superb Dentex of
5 kilos. As we got him and the fish into the boat he looked totally knackered and asked if he could have a rest, Alan ‘who had just pulled up’ and I told him he had done more than enough and with just ten mins to go we called it a day for him.

Kevin jumped on the ledge for the last 5 mins seeing one big Corb that disappeared into the gloom before the comp ended. He had fished the inshore ledge for most of the day in conditions he had never experience before and in his first international, it is a huge learning curve and I know he learns fast and will take on board all the lessons learnt. He still got a loud applause at the weigh in for his mullet of 505 grs.

Spearo Dave a West Country diver who is used to slightly better viz spent a fair bit of the day searching for the elusive clearer water and tried everything from the inshore lagoons in four foot to the outer marker buoy in seventy. Unfortunately the one Salpe that he caught was a fraction underweight, like Kevin, Dave is on a steep learning curve and has gained valuable experience from this competition for future events. It was a shame that we lost Martin Trosky to sickness on the morning of the comp as we felt that his long bottom times and invaluable experience, in the dirty waters off Sussex would have given him a good chance of pulling out a catch.

We learnt lessons as the management team that we can use in future comps and would like to thank our many sponsors who made the trip possible. Oh, by the way, we won one comp, as we had the most traveling supports with our total party numbering 20.

Full report in the BSA Crystal Clear magazine in the autumn.

Brief Results

1 Daniel Gospic Croatia 125,570
2 Alberto March Spain 122.120
3 Ioannis Degaitas Greece 113.556
4 Santiogo Lopez Spain 112.707
5 Antonio Silva Portugal 110.013
6 Dario Marinov Croatia 95.912
7 Andreia Lagutin Ukraine 92.648
8 Pedro Carbonel Spain 89.648
9 Andra Domingues Portugal 86.663
10 Sandro Mancia Italy 84.419
11 Antonnio Buratovic Croatia 80.554
12 Mikhail Kusnetsov Russia 75.015
13 Lee Deighton GB 65.521
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37 Dave Tomasson GB
39 Kevin Daly GB

46 Divers Entered

Teams

1st Spain 324.47 2nd Croatia 302.036 3rd Portugal 244.999

Thanks Eric.