• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Slip tips

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

Hawkeye31

New Member
May 5, 2002
99
11
0
52
So, Santa brought to me a riffe Hawaiian with the ice-pick slip tip. Life is GOOD. Ive been messing around with it a bunch, imagining how its going to work (Freud?). Anyway, the spear tip seems to always twist, so that the cable does not connect to the spear in a straight path. I am picturing this causing an innaccuate shot. Ive read about guys using small rubber bands (the kind used for braces) to secure the slide ring. What are you guys doing to maximize the effetivness of these tips?
Thanks
Adam
 
Yeah, no sh#t life is good!! I got some Sponge Bob bubble bath...
:waterwork

The cable that retains the ip to the ring doesn't really need to be straight along the shaft. The way the cable is wound, or laid will tend to make it want to roll in the direction of the strands. No biggie. Just take the little Kevlar twine that is also on the ring and slip it through the bands, pinching it, once they're stretched and the ring will be be pulled back enough to keep the cable nice and smooth.

Nice job Adam!



sven
 
Thanks

I was at my friend Joe Barks' house today setting up some vinyl tubing and other stuff to make float lines and he showed me exactly what you are talking about- stretching the kevlar string through the stretched bands...too easy. Man I love it when techniques are shared and timing is correct.

You see,I spent about an hour yesterday looking for the vinyl tubing, nylon core, swivels etc at Home Depot and Boaters World. Not able to find all the components, I went home empty handed and imagined myself losing my new gun because I speared a big white only to have the Bolan knot on my polypropelene float line come undone. (This has happenned to me already). Im dejected.

So this morning Joe calls me up out of the blue to tell me that he is getting ready for the early season WSB and asked if I was prepared.....so I go to his house and he GIVES me enough materials to make two fifty foot float lines!

And I get home and find that my postings were not heckeled....

life is good

Adam
 
Yeah, when the Karma's workin' it's all good, ain't it?

...and it's bowline knot. I still crimp mine after the knot. Those parts and pieces get pricey after a couple of losses.


sven
 
You tie a knot in the polypropelene? :confused:


I always just threaded it back through for about 5+ feet with a couple weaves outside, inside, outside, then finish inside to make sure it cinches tightly. Friends and I have used it as a floatline for years without a slip - even on 50# fish. :)
 
Not the poly in the floatline, just for the shooting lines, mainly on my rock guns.
If anyone here has a source for the metal swivel/plug ends for the 3/8 tube, lemme know...

And hey, for the float, dakine is just one of those hard plastic pool lane floats about the size of your fist, well mine anyways. You can use a Riffe torpedo and all, but the pool float will just ease on through the kelp. Smoothly.


sven
 
I am putting together a floatline and was wondering if anyone knoew where to soarce black vinal 5/16 or 3/8 OD. I have 150 yard roll of 300 pound test mono that I was going to use instead of poly but the line is almost see through - not cool. Thanks for the Hanapaa float tube plug/swivels contact.
 
yo quero Yellow Pages?

Home Depot had the clear 3/8" tube and I've seen it at TAP Plastics, Orchard Supply and at plumbing supply places.


sven
 
What I did with my clear tubing(may be too much hassle for some of you guys) was to get some hot water & toss in some RIT fabric dye. Sucked it up throughout the length of the hose, then dropped the whole thing(with dye inside) in the container. When I took it out(bout an hour+), the tubing had been stained to completely black. Ran water through it to get rid of the dye & rinsed off the outside. Since the dye permeated the tubing material, it's permanent and does not scratch off. Trying it with cold/room temperature water resulted in a grayish color - pretty cool, but not what I wanted.

If you make the water hot, you may be able to get by with just staining the outside. I did for one of the shorter ones & this makes it a lot easier because it's a pain in the butt to get the moisture out of the insides :(. Since I have more float tubes than I'll ever need, I stopped my experimenting, but may start again to make a few long ones. I had to cut my only long one in half because I mistakenly burnt the middle on a stove(don't ask, the story is even stupider than you'd think)

One thing I found is that if you use orange dye, it'll make the tubing look just like kelp!!! Great if you want camoflauge, but not in my situation. I was trying to make it very visible(thinking orange is bright - apparently only if it's phosphorous based as Sven pointed out in a thread many moons ago), but since the result blends so well, I lost my speargun for over and hour at Ocean Cove as I swam around in circles trying to find my float line so I could pick off the abalone I marked. The line matched so well with the Bull kelp stalks, I swam past it several times & only by dropping down 30 feet & swimming around in circles did I finally see the white butt/handle of my gun :eek:

I got my tubing at Orchard Supply & Home Depot & my dye at Walmart. For the ends, I didn't have time to order any swivles, so I plugged the ends with a good amount of marine silicone(don't think there's any real difference), looped a swivel in a small section of bloodline/nylon/spectra(experimented with different ones), then inserted the ends of the line into the tube & secured via a couple clove hitches with waxed thread. On a couple I used heat shrink tubing to make it look smooth, but found that a couple wraps of electric tape worked just as well & would be a lot more durable. For my short marking lines(mostly for abalone, rock guns), I didn't thread line through it & tested it with some tug of war with a friend just for fun. The longer ones have a nylon core.
 
Hey Fuzz,
Have you ever used the vinyl tubing without a core to fight a fish?
The reason I ask is Im making some floats right now, (not exactly) and it seems to take a lot of effort to stretch the stuff to twice its length. Do you think so cal fish get strong enough to break the vinyl? There must be a reason everyone uses a core doesnt there? It would be so much easier to just omit the core.
Adam
 
Sorry, never tried to fight a big fish(over 10#) without a core.

I don't really think they could break the vinyl.... but if you have just one nick in the line, it could tear/rip and that's what the core prevents. With the entries into the water/storage/pets & kids messing around with your diving stuff, it's easy enough to have an undetectable slash or gouge in your line.

Uh, why are you trying to stretch the line to twice it's size? :confused:
 
I had not thought about a nick or cut...reason enough for the core. From what Ive read, Once the core line has been threaded into the vinyl, Im supposed to stretch the vinyl to twice its length while feeding additional core into the tube. This way, when I slack the vinyl, the core winds up inside like a spring. This is supposed to allow the vinyl to stretch during a fight with a big fish.
 
I learn something new every day :hmm

Be careful with that stretching, I've been privy to some not so fun experiences with mates making bungies.
 
Did I just use "privy" & "mates" in a sentence?

I need some sleep :(
 
Hey Adam, I think you're confusing a float line and a bungie floatline. A regular floater uses the vinyl and a core, often just plain ol' 1/8" nylon "parachute cord", the same length as the tubing. OK, maybe a tad more if you put the tube in the Sun and let it get warm. Sun's in short supply up here lately...

A bungie floater uses rubber (neoprene) hose and the core line. Tying off the core and the hose and then stretching the hose and letting the core just slide in as the hose grows (!) and then clamping off the end and terminating with a plug/swivel is what gets you the stretch. Bungies will stretch 25%, 50% and 100% of their lengths depending on the materials and the kind of day you're having. The core for a bungie is often Spectra/Dyneema for the weight savings, but what you save in grams hits the checkbook pretty hard... So a floater will float, a bungie floater will stretch and float.

You can use them in tandem as a shock cord or seperately depending on your needs. For my forays to So Cal for WSB and hotties, I just use a conventional floater and a peanut float, a pool lane float threaded onto the tube. That rig slides smoothly through the kelp and surge and all and at 100' gives the fish some room and me some space.


sven
 
Yeah, your right. I read the instructions for making the floatilines at the freediver.net website, under the heading Floatlines. (A great source of info. ) That must be where I got confused. Sounds like Im going to be easier off making the simpler floatline. Thanks for the clarification;)
Adam

Hold on. Did you say you use a floater for the hotties? How'd that go over?
 
Last edited:
Hi Hawkeye31,
The are good DIY instructions for building your own floater at http://IC_Spearguns.tripod.com/. Also read what they say about Bungee float design.

You might want to consider adding a short bungee (say 6 feet) if you are after big fish that like to dive hard. It is the initial jerk as the fish tries to pull your float under that can rip the spear out. The best slip-tip can be ripped out of soft sushi especially if the shot was poor and the fish runs hard against a good 7 or 11 liter float. The bungee is shock absorber "insurance policy" but might be overkill in SoCal - not if you venture further south into Mexico.
 
eshowe, Im gonna keep it real simple for now. Im half way done with two 60 ft floatlines-one for me and another for a buddy. Using the vacume/ cotton ball/ dental floss trick worked like a charm. Pulling the 1/8 in nylon back through was only slightly more difficult. I need to find a local outfit to buy the swivels and Ill be set. For local dives this should be all I need. I may even shine using a float....Thanks for the link.
btw- the WSB fishery you mentioned in Encinitas is the only one I am aware of. From what Ive heard, that fishery has helped a lot, with more to come:)
Adam
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT