. . . like tears in the rain .

[devondave]

Somebody , I think fishimani , started a thread asking how people got started in spearfishing .
Following on from this I thought it might be an idea for the spearo's and freedivers of db to share some of their most cherished memories .

I thought something along the lines of the famous monologue in Blade Runner by Roy the replicant :-
' I've seen things you people wouldn't belive .
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion .
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near Tannhauser Gate .
All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain . '

So I was wondering , when it comes to your turn to shuffle off this mortal coil , what would be your ' . . . lost like tears in the rain ' monologue .

Thinking more underwater type stuff rather than ' when my tabby had six kittens ' kind of thing . Given the hundreds of years of collective experience on db I bet there are some mind-boggling memories and recollections out there .
Please guys and girls , help the dark UK winter nights pass a little swifter with some watery tales .

Regards ,
Dave .

 

[mishu1984]

Dave,
when i shot my first kingfish, or spanish mack, has to top my list so far.
there have been times when the vis was mind-blowing and that was great as well.

another memory that stands out would be one of those times i was shore diving in Qatar, and its a 4km swim out to the reef, and then run the lenght of the reef which is another 4km, and then swim back something like 7km and from the get-go i had been pucking in my snorkle, but i decided to press on. to make things worse, i was with my little bro who is very comfortable in the water as long as he doesnt think of sharks. the entire swim back there was a bull shark swimming bellow me at abt 8m in 7m vis. not the most comfortable 7km ever..

 

[apneaboy]

And one of your own Dave, it would be rude not too, we know your dying to give us a story

 

[agbiv]

Always been a water creature; swam competitively up to college but really got into snorkeling & spearfishing at 10 years old when we were stationed at Panama City, Florida. In 1969-1971 the water was incredably clear and the fish were awesome. Been enthralled ever since. When hunting spearo I get a very similar inner experience as when out on foot with my muzzleloader walk or stalk hunting.

Went back to Florida 2 years ago and dove/fished many of the same places. It was really cool but the water wasn't nearly as pristine as I remembered--due to shore changes by storms mostly.

 

[apneaboy]

I've had loads, the latest one was recent, in the Menai.

The tide was running but a good friend, and luckily a good guide, had us running it the right way so we were drifting back. I had my gun but it was just attached to my hand because it was just sooooooooo much fun I couldn't be bothered spearing. We were drifting over reefs, saw the occasional fish but you could do 100m - 150m dyn without kicking, 2min+ at a time, niiice.

Gentle duck dive, the tide was like wind in a sail on your fins, I swear it felt like you could think your way around the rocks coming up, a gentle motion of the body can change your position in the water. You get pulled down by eddies, 5m -10m at a time but it was sooooo easy diving it just felt right. Some proper sleepy smiley at one moments all the way back. They were like the really good statics you get where you just melt away and lose all feeling and just look at yourself with a grin.

As close to flying as you will ever get, including flying

Moments like that are what its all about, nothing else matters atall.

 

[cdavis]

I'll give you two, first a spearos tale. Now, nobody bug me about safety issues, this was a long time ago.

It was in the Bahamas more than a few years back. We were shooting Hawaiian slings, which consist of a 5 ft spring steel spear and a slingshot-like handle. The shaft is free once you release it and requires that you shoot, run down, secure and bring up the fish and shaft together, preferably on one dive. My buddy and I were spearing out of a 17 ft whaler in a place where two good divers could put a couple of hundred pounds of fish in the boat in an hour or two(those were the days). That day we had just gotten started, it was just past 7:00 am and the light underwater was still dim. Nice conditions though, calm, no current, vis maybe 90 ft when the sun got higher, warm, hard to beat. We were in a little deeper water than we usually speared in, coral ridges, tops about 45 ft. and bottoms maybe 60. This was before longfins. I was wearing jetfins and 60 was plenty deep. The drill was one guy in the water to scout until we found the fish, then anchor in and both divers shoot.

I was in the water, my buddy following in the boat. As I looked ahead, two shapes appeared out of the misty distance, a couple of BIG grouper, cruising up off the bottom at maybe 35 ft, angling in my direction. Not something you see very often. OH BOY! Quick, a couple of purge breaths, a quick dive and drift towards them. We dove heavy in those days and could sink almost from the surface. 40 ft away and they are not turning, closer and closer, the fish getting bigger and bigger in my eye, jeez man these fish are huge! 35ft , 30, 25, the big one is starting to get itchy but still too far for a shot. Don't move, not so much as blink. 20 ft, 15 ft, now or never, they are about to spook. I let fly, the spear went in just behind the head, straight into the backbone, perfect stone shot, the fish just rolled over and kept drifting forward as I swam into him, grabbed his gills and headed up. Slowly, very slowly, this fish weighs a lot. I break the surface almost next to the boat, haven't been down but maybe 30 seconds. My buddy takes one look and freaks out. The fish looks bigger than the diver. Well not quite. he weighed 60 lb, close to my biggest and enough to win my spearo club's freediving grouper category for that year. Considering that some of the divers in my club(definitely not me) won the US National Championship the year before, I don't usually have much chance of winning anything.

About as close to spearo perfection as you can get.

Connor

a freediving tale comes later

 

[Bill]

I never saw the movie but the quote from Blade Runner reminded me of parts of a poem from long ago, before jets flew.

"Oh! I have..... danced the skies on laughter silvered wings......"
".....and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds....."
".....and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of....."
Magee 3Sep41

 

[Amphibious]

I never saw the movie but the quote from Blade Runner reminded me of parts of a poem from long ago, before jets flew.

"Oh! I have..... danced the skies on laughter silvered wings......"
".....and joined the tumbling mirth of sun-split clouds....."
".....and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of....."
Magee 3Sep41

heard that read a few times, usually when putting someone in the ground. quite a sad story behind the poem.

 

[foxfish]

My diving experiences go back to the early 70's, I can remember waiting on the beach for my two brothers to return from their dives, very often laden with prime fish.
Plaice and Sole were abundant in those days and generally most sought after.

During the 70's and the 80's, my brothers became very efficient hunters, catching many specimens and even a few british records! Personally I have never reached their accolades however, i've a few stories to tell!!

I once shot myself throught the collar of my wetsuit with a large air compressed gun but there was one dive though, in about 1994, which saw me walking down Perelle beach slipway.
To some I guess I may have looked slightly odd, due mainly to a shiny silver oversuit I had made from a St Johns Ambulance survival blanket.
Anyhow it seemed my appearance had attracted quite a crowd. A teacher friend of mine was leading a group of special needs kids on a beachcombing jolly.
After serious interigation as to why a space man was walking down the beach I had a chance to explain to my teacher friend there was a small reef only metres from the shore, if I was lucky enough to spear a fish I would stand up and show it to the kids.

The conditions were perfect a big spring, hot and sunny. Of course spitting in my mask and de-snotting bought rowdy laughter from my audience.
A few metres out I loaded my gun, a few metres more & I was at the spot. The reef is only one and a half metres high and barely covered, produced the ideal conditions.
The many crabs that live amongst the bladder wrack were having their cover swept back by the incoming tide, exposing them to any lurking Bass. Staying on the surface and keeping on the outside parameter, making best use of my camouflaged oversuit against the silver surface glare. I spotted a silver patch amongst the weed, took aim and fired.
Deep down inside I just new I had a fish to show off, I was wrong!
I had neatly speared two Bass of about three and a half pound a piece. Standing up I shouted "I've got two"!

Several weeks later I saw teacher friend, strangely he seemed to think I was somewhat lucky!!
I told him the silver smoker is never lucky.

 

[cdavis]

A double is always a rare thrill. An audience makes it even better.

 

[cdavis]

bump

Come on folks, this thread has too much potential to just fade away. Lets have some more good stories.

Connor

 

[Erik]

I have many.
When I was still a scubadiver, there was a day that I was diving off the west coast of Canada at a site called Browning Wall. It's a 100-metre deep wall covered in more life than you can imagine, along a cliff near Port Hardy. I was solodiving with a little set of twin steel 50's and in a great drysuit. At one point I turned to face the wall from about 5 metres away. Vis was easily 20 metres that day. The sun was shining direcctly down and I had a "moment".... you either know or don't know what that means. Hopefully you do. I have had many since, and now I have them in very extended form via all the meditation I do, even walking around and functioning during the day.

 

[fcallagy]

had a moment like that last sunday on my first dive of 2010 Eric. Funniest lighthearted was a couple of years ago or last year cant remember ,on the pontoon where I usually dive in mullaghmore myself and my brother I think were about to head out.

Off this pontoon you have about 2m at best but usually something to see before heading round the corner. In anycase the sun was shining and some kids were also playing at catching fish with there handheld nets. A little girl came up literally as I pushed off into the water to wait for the brother. catch me a fish she asks and I laugh back saying i'll try. ( i had no gun or anythiing just the camera) anyway I dive down just to have a look about and see a fishing lure with line on it and laugh to myself that this will do for the girl above.

I pick up the lure and the bit of line thats still left on it an pull up a small plaice/flounder that was stuck on another hook that was just lying there hooked.
I surface and keeping as calm a face as possible hold up my catch to the little girl who is obvioulsy amazed. The brother then explains about releasing it etc as its too small to keep and the girl agrees. Nice tale and a bit of education thrown in cant remember anything about the dive afterwards so must have been crap

 

[cdavis]

Serendipity can be so nice.

 

[devondave]

Serendipity can be so nice.

Yeah , booked a livaboard in the Red Sea once hoping to find hammerheads , found a wife instead , oh and hammerheads .
Although ' nice ' doesn't quite cover it . :inlove

 

[cdavis]

Browning Wall, quite a place, and my thanks to Erik for showing it to me.

Ok, a freediving story. This one was posted in "stories" years ago, but retreading seems like a good idea.

Serendipity

Sometimes, if you do something long enough, serendipity, karma, or dumb luck works in your favor, or maybe the gods are smiling on you. So it was in the summer of 2003, when I tried deep diving for the first time.

I've been a freediving spearo for a long time, but always shallow. The vast majority of my fish came out of 5-15 meters, still do. I'd only been freediving below 60 ft twice, maybe three times, in my entire life. Then I discovered Deeper Blue, in about 2003. This forum and its contributors inspired me to try something deeper, so we rigged a line and a sea anchor and tried it out on our next Bahamas trip. The second time out, by pure luck, we dropped the line directly over the wall, where it rolls off quickly from 38 m to 46 m and then drops straight down to 300+ m. The visibility was about 40 m and we didn't know we were on the wall until we got in the water . It was an incredible and completely unexpected experience. First drop there was something huge and torpedo shaped at the edge of visibility just off the wall. Didn't move like a shark, maybe a very big tuna or billfish. Second drop, two extremely large (as in HUGE) sharks came off the bottom to check me out, then go on about their business. Gigantic schools of fish all around. The wind and Gulf Stream current together kept us right over the wall, seeing a different section on every drop, dumb luck again. In the clear vis, the wall was awesome. An overused word, but perfectly suited to this situation. The feeling of immense space, the dark grandeur of the scene, acres of fish, coupled with looking down the vertical wall as it dropped into blue-black nothingness, just mind blowing. Third drop, a 20 kg grouper, then a 25 kg grouper. Schools of big jacks. Fourth drop, tremendous schools of jacks all over, swimming up through hundreds of them, wow!! It kept going until we were too exhausted to continue.

I got no deeper than 25 meters, but it was a truly fabulous visual experience. In 38 years of diving, I've seen few things to top it.

Connor

 

[gates]

last summer i was viviting my folks in vernon BC and went snorkeling with my old man. That year I had just started diving and had recently released from the army and felt kinda lost ever since. Anyways i ducked under and slowly allowed myself to sink, following a rock wall to about 30 ft. I wasnt wearing a suit so the depth bit at my skin harshly. i hit a large bolder covered in moss lookin stuff and rolled over and looked to the surface. Now im not a guy that feels much 'PEACE' Inner nor outer but i had a moment while watching my dad float so high above me on wat looked like mirrors. it was a feeling of disconnection to 'IT'. I dont know wat else to call it but the entire ascent it kinda bummed me out i had to leave that feeling down there.. Weird but cool. now every time i go diving i look for that feeling.. I love this sport.

 

[foxfish]

There are now loads of great stories on this thread - keep them coming as it makes very good reading.

 

[devondave]

There are now loads of great stories on this thread - keep them coming as it makes very good reading.

Very good stories, surprised there aren't more 'then the mother killer whale bit the great white in half' type of thing . It's great people have put down how they felt, as well as things they saw or did .

I've been lucky enough to see some great stuff while scubadiving, big and small, had good times spearing, even snorkeled with whale sharks (eighteen in one afternoon) in Tanzania . But I'm pretty sure that when the time comes for me to pop my clogs and the last of my morphine-addled neurons fizzes into oblivion, the final image to leave my mind will be of an empty, upside down limpet shell, rocking in the swell . . .

Being a complete snorkling newb', armed with a leaky suit, small fins (flippers), a crap mask and a weightbelt made from beach stones with holes in them tied with string :naughty, I had just returned from the scary deep water (about 3 or 4m) and was paddling back through the shallows, when something caught my eye.
It was a limpet grazing on top of a pedestal of rock, not an amazing site on it's own I admit, but swarming up the sides of the rock column were a dozen shore crabs. They stopped under the lip and took turns to peer cautiously over the top before ducking down again. Curiosity aroused I kept as still as I could and watched in fascination. One crab, braver or faster than his mates pulled over the lip and scuttled towards the limpet, the limpet sealed it's shell down to the rock but not fast enough, the crab had got one claw underneath the shell.

The other crabs joined the first as it began snipping at the limpets foot, trying to get under it, eventually they loosened the foot and flipped the shell over, all diving in to carve-up the poor mollusc. When they'd scoffed the lot, all of them scuttled back down the rock and disappeared into the kelp leaving a cloud of limpet bits and an upside down limpet shell, rocking in the swell.
Not an earth-shattering event but one that got me hooked on the underwater world and still comes to mind at odd times.

Regards,
Dave.

 

[Erik]

Explosive jaw-dropping wonders are great, but it's the simple things that trigger the big moments IMO.