OMER Open

[earl campbell]

Mark,

Thanks for a great time. Shooting a gun rather than a pole was great and having Eric and Luis on the boat was fantastic. I dont know if Luis told you or not but on one of my dives he was watching a very interested sand tiger checking me out. He had the gun on the shark just in case... Seeing the shark from a distance of 2 feet was a feeling I wont soon forget.

Looking forward to next year and to seeing you over thanksgiving!

ciao

earl

 

[Stephan Whelan]

Just heard from Mark - sounds like a brilliant time was had!! He should be uploading photos to our gallery in the not too distant future!

 

[Stephan Whelan]

And the Gallery is up: http://gallery.deeperblue.net/showgallery.php?cat=9038

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

Earl and all, I'm glad you guys had such a great time. Hatteras is a pain to get to and the weather as you can see is often iffy even in July but its a great place to dive and the Omer Blue Water Open is a good excuse for a tribe gathering there.

Of the 48 divers in the meet all shot fish and 28 entered the weigh in.

PICTURE 13 IS SCORE AFTER DAY 2 I'll send a picture of the board with the final score after day three as well.

Thanks for coming and making it a great time, one of the best things for me is seeing so many great divers in one place at one time that I've for one reason or another lost touch with through the years, and actually getting to chat and dive with them makes it all worth it.

Mark
PS- AS DIVERS SEND ME PICTS FROM THE ACTION I'LL UPLOAD THEM ASAP OR FEEL FREE TO DO IT YOURSELF!
pps- yes, pic 4 and 5 are the same fish. My buddy Alex shot a wahoo and it got devoured by the cudas and he was left with only the tail so I told him to take what was left of mine since the light was really nice for a photo

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

2005 Omer Hatteras Open, Hatteras, Nc, July 29-31

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

2005 Omer Hatteras Open, Hatteras, NC, July 29-31

note: only blue water species counted, I took the picture of Manny Puig prior to the meet on wednesday when I took him to a spot to try his new polespear on striped bass.

 

[Murat]

very nice pictures mark

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

2005 Omer Hatteras Open, Hatteras, NC, July 29-31

Biggest Pompano was Blake Gaylords actually but I didn't have the photo of Blake so I put this one up of his team mate Trevor Smith with a nice 34 pounder.

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

2005 Omer Hatteras Open, Hatteras, NC, July 29-31

Just a few random ones that were nice, also noteworthy was Ralph Tieman (62 years old) pictured with a very nice pompano one week after his 3rd place Individual placement at US Nationals in Table Rock Missouri.

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

Type of boats used and best suited to the conditions in Hatteras.

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

2005 Omer Hatteras Open, Hatteras, NC, July 29-31

Steve Rogers boat, the Spear One was really nice. If I had a pick of a new boat from the ones I saw in the tournament I'd have that one or the Glacier 28' ...Steve's boat screamed by everyone at 55mph!

On the 2nd boat GR Tarr, Guy Nesbit and Matt Turner's boat the Stalker, which was a fast 28 foot catamaran that had been chartering fisherman for 5 years, was on it's way out with the 4 divers on board and split a seem and started taking on water. (this boat isn't pictured) The young captain raised the Coast Guard immediately on Ch 16 and before you knew it they had two of the other boats in the tournament (Navigator & Carolina Girl) back up stern to stern to them and take their divers. The Coast Guard's fast 30knot plus rig was immediately dispatched and got there half hour later and gave the guys on board their sink proof pump designed for this sort of thing until the captain was able to get the boat light enough to get on plane to run her back to the barn and put the boat on the hill, where the owner was waiting with his truck and trailer. A little bit of excitment but luckily seas were fairly calm. A funny thing I heard about it was when the Coast Guard showed up and saw lifejackets tied to gear bags instead of on the divers....guess they weren't too worried about drowning.

Mark

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

2005 Omer Hatteras Open, Hatteras, NC, July 29-31

All the proceeds of the fish were donated to the Hatteras Cancer Society. It's great to have such a good time with great diving and spearfishing while giving something back to the local community that made it all possible

 

[Juan-John]

Mark:

When will Manny's pole spear be available for sale? I saw a preliminary ad for it on his and Mark Rackley's web site. I'm thinking about getting into spearfishing but wanna take it slow and simple first.

Thanks, and great pix!

Juan-John

 

[Erik]

Looks like an awesome event Mark. Great pics!
Peace,
Erik Y.

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

Here it is:

Final results. Everyone was surprised by how much back and forth was going on in the standings each of the three days. I was sure Cameron,Blake, Steve R, and GR were going to duke it out until the end and then a mistery fish from California named Brandon Wahlers signed up three days before the meet to put a twist on things and a few boats started falling apart to make things even more interesting.

My second sense also told me that the freediving legacies made of Terry Maas, Rene Rojas, Bill Ernst and Sheri Daye would open their bag of tricks and kick into high gear and teach the others a lesson or two. The way things unfolded was fun.

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

Front and back of the tournament program with the contenders, sorry to the other guys who signed up last minute that we couldn't squeeze in there! My wife Lydia made these programs up for us. I'm a lucky man to have such a wife. Well, I better get to work now my pickup is still half full of junk...

 

[Memo]

Very nice pictures Mark, next year you may have a couple of entrants from gib

 

[Screen Name]

This year was more than a tournament, more like a life's experience..........just freaking awesome! Great diving and great people!

Yes..........Steve's boat is sweet. He smoked me on the intercoastal too, but once we actually got on the water............ummm, I think that was him that we went by out there! :ko

We really got lucky with the team I dove with.............great, great people! We had almost too much fun. Roberto Reyes is not only an awesome diver, but great guy to dive with. Dana and Mike are super people too. Thanks for diving with us guys!

Thanks Mark & Family for hosting us this year, cannot wait until next year!

 

[Mark Laboccetta]

Thanks Murat,Memo Eric and Juan John. You just cannot imagine what it is like to have all the best blue water hunters in the country in your backyard duking it out for three days.

I was a bit stressed out, nothing a beer or two didn't fix, boat's sinking,divers diving deep and risking SWB, sharks, thunderstorms to dodge, weigh in times...But, at the end of the day at the barbecue you're looking around and there are all these great divers, I mean great divers and all of them problem free and easy going, hanging out eating and discussing strategy, gear, shark tactics, shooting really nice fish, it just put a smile on my face as I walked around. I've been diving all those wrecks for a while and to hear their perception and their enthusiasm reminded me of a lot of things I had forgotten or maybe never noticed. It was an environment where a beginner and even a seasoned veteran would learn so much.

The first morning things were a little shaky and diving for the day was up in the air, I said you know if it was me here diving I'd probably go, it's calm, look these guys came from thousands of miles away to get here, it's calm out there...get in your boats and go for it! I'm glad you guys went for it, shit you were going to get wet anyway, and a little thunder and lightening oh common whose scared of that :duh

John, I gotcha eh eh. That's a rocket ship you got there for sure, she's a shweeeet one. I got the impression you were having more fun chasing off sharks than chasing after fish, the sharks are just there to test your nerves...next time I see a flasher swimming around with a shark attached to it I'll think of you. Hey thanks for coming, guys like you with great attitudes made this tournament so much fun.

 

[Juan-John]

Mark --

That photo of Manny Puig with the striper and pole spear, could you give us some detail about how he went about catching it, i.e. depth, stalking technique, etc.?

Thanks!

Juan-John
:wave