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Found a spearo shop - what to buy?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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island_sands

Erection Supervisor ;)
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Jan 19, 2001
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hey there

found a great dive shop up the road from me... sells Riffe, Omer, you name it!!

ok... a newbie and an absolute heathen when it comes to spearfishing but would like to give it a go...

what equipment would you recommend to start off with for an ignoramus like me who has never pointed a gun in her life?
 
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Well, assuming you have all the swimming related gear, eg fins, knife and wetsuit..

Gun: A eurogun (like the Omers) will make a good beginners gun. My recommendation for a cheap entry level gun is the Esclapez Challenger.
Floatline: Get some 4-5mm rope that floats, at least 5m more than your planned hunting depth.
Float: Must have, with flag if possible.

The hop in, and practice shooting the gun, and reloading. Then try it with fish. :)
 
Ok island sands,
Shadowkiller is right,a euro gun will do the job for you.
Especially an Omer Excalibur 80-90 cm with its refined and delicate handle or an Sporasub Aspic 80-90 will fit to your hands. :cool:
You can choose an 16 mm rubbers.There can be some difficulty at the beginning ,but you will overcome it esp. with a little bit longer rubber for the beginning :) .
I think Nesim can guide you at these steps.
We want to see the first fish...Take care..
Aydın
 
hmmm thanks S/K and Aydin.. going back to the shop to take my scuba tanks for a service (noooooooo i wont be using them for spearfishing ;) ) so will check those guns out.

Alison told me that she couldn't visualise me with a gun so perhaps you will all get some laughs out of this rofl
 
aahh yes, the all important issue of length... rofl

What kind of viz will you be diving in? If its over 7-8m (average) the minimum I would pick is a 1m gun, preferably a 1.1 or 1.2m. Better vis = more distant fish, in general, so increase the length as conditions dictate. Viz over 15m means I take my 1.3 RobAllen with doble rubbers. I doubt if UAE conditions resemble Euro conditions, so a 80-90cm would seem a little small.
 
actuall more than visbility, the technique and the kind of fish you are going to target determines the length of the gun. In summer time we have 30+ meter visibility sometimes and we still shoot the groupers in the cave with 80-90cm gun.

Anyway, best thing to buy from local shop is spearing spot advise, but there is great chance that they will either lie about it or remain silence rofl
 
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Maybe you should wait for Alison to give you some advice, I think they are back next week(The university reopens Monday anyway). She should know your local water as well as anyone and know better than us men what you should be able to use with some comfort.

Murat, thats a good point!
 
Pastor said:
Maybe you should wait for Alison to give you some advice, I think they are back next week(The university reopens Monday anyway). She should know your local water as well as anyone and know better than us men what you should be able to use with some comfort.

Murat, thats a good point!


you're right... although when i tell her i am thinking of spearing she'll need help to get up off the floor... rofl rofl
 
Well, if the image of Sara with a gun in her hands seems comical, then don't think of the Euro as a gun, think of it as a modern-day bow. Then Sara becomes Artemis (Diana to you Latinists) reincarnated and newly a devotee' of Poseidon. Of course I don't recommend the original's hunting togs except with fiancee' on a moonless night . . .
 
Hello Sara!

With all due respect to the guys here, I believe you should ask people such as Nesim or Anton that spearfish in your area about the equipment needed for the water in the UAE!
Equipment that is excellent in one area could be useless for a different area!


Said
 
With all due respect to the girls in here! I think you will find that there are problems associated more with women spearo's that are not even a slight concern to men! For example: Where do you place the butt of the gun when you load? On your chest? Now lets change that to fit the male point of view - Do you ever see a man loading a gun against his testicles? :hmm
Maybe after 30 years of diving, 24 years of living and diving almost daily in the Gulf and 20 years of spearfishing, I might be considered qualified at least to offer a suggestion to Sara, if it doesn't cause to much offence!

Sara, Go for it!! :D I see from this post that you did find "Al Samak", Ali is very good and will give you good advice, I bought my Riffe there (I'll PM you lata).

Shadow, am I really that notorious? I must change my ways rofl
 
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Alison said:
Shadow, am I really that notorious? I must change my ways rofl

Yes, you are. No, dont change, we love you the way you are.

Now I'm off to drink down a few bourbons and try that testicle loading method... :hmm
 
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Hiya

Whats really scary is that nobody's worried about letting Sara lose with a dangerous weapon!!!

Seriously though, your biggest problem is going to be loading the gun. I can highly recommend the Rabitech's or Rob Allan railguns. They're very accurate but more importantly, they have bulk muzzle rubbers which allow you to customize the rubber length. The easiest way to learn is to have a loading notch put on your spear. Loading a speargun is 80% tecnique and 20% strength. But, until you learn how to load the gun properly, the loading notch makes life so much easier. The great part is that you can shoot as many shots as you want to, thereby getting used to the gun and getting your aim right. I remember when i started, i BATTLED to load a 90cm gun and was too scared to shoot at any fish because then i'd have to battle to reload my gun again!! :vangry :vangry

Another gun i can VERY highly recommend is one from Daryl Wong. I know Sheri Daye does EXTREMELY well with one of his guns and she has e special loading tab mounted on the side of her gun. You could then also start off with 2x14mm rubbers as opposed to a single 16 or 20mm. My wife loads her 1.1m Rabitech with a single 16mm and her 57" Woodie with 4x14mm's VERY easily. Drop Daryl Wong a PM and i'm sure he'd also be able to assist and give advice.

Happy Hunting and Happy shopping!!!!

Regards
miles
 
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yeah Gavin has the same fear.. Sara with a big gun and his testicles at risk... rofl

I think he is more worried about me attracting sharks which is why i am not allowed to spearfish when we go to Cape Town.. ever! (Miles i think your wife can understand me... )

I have spoken to Nesim... we are going to meet up sometime soon, I might take Ali's advise and buy the Esclapez to start off with, they sell them in the shop.

I keep wondering whether I'll spear something and end up waterskiing... albeit submerged... rofl

better take a huge ice chest with me, not for the catch, but for the beer...
 
Well if you are going for the Esclapez, then spend that bit extra and get the concept pro, it has a couple of useful features, that I like anyways; an adjustable handle, an adjustable spear guide at the front of the gun so you can tune the shot to suit your aim, all very easy and it comes with a reel as standard too. Not to say its any better than any other euro gun (or worse), it also has a muzzle that can hold bulk rubber, so you could double up with 2 longer bands if you struggle to load with one.
 
Freediver81 said:
Hello Sara!

With all due respect to the guys here, I believe you should ask people such as Nesim or Anton that spearfish in your area about the equipment needed for the water in the UAE!
Equipment that is excellent in one area could be useless for a different area!


Said

errmmm Said i think that Nesim will not be able to give me advice on a gun from a woman's perspective. :) unless he is hiding something in his wetsuit that we don't know about rofl rofl
 
But then again Sara, I'm sure there are one or two on DB who have bigger boobs than us both put together ;) Maybe we should start offering advice on bra fitting instead rofl
 
Alison said:
But then again Sara, I'm sure there are one or two on DB who have bigger boobs than us both put together ;) Maybe we should start offering advice on bra fitting instead rofl


yeah i saw a shop today called Women ' Secret (sells lingerie)
maybe we could rename it to Wetsuit Secret rofl rofl

picking up my tanks today so will check out the guns.... do you dare me to ask him about b00b protectors?
 
Hehe I think you'd find out just how helpfull Ali would want to be :yack rofl
 
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