Spearfishing competition worries

[mickdaboat]

Dear Deeper blue spearfishing members,
I hope you can help me.
My 20 year old son has entered a 2 day completion here in Tenerife, Canary Islands.
And I am concerned about it;
Basically he is going to be diving on his own.
He has entered and paid all he's subscriptions and the 1st day is this Saturday, in 2 days time.
I only found out yesterday that he would be in the water solo, he is going with another spearfishing friend, who will be the 'boat man' in a small rib, but not actually in the water with him with visual contact. they are, at this moment, off practicing and looking for some good marks to use in the competition.
Now I have a little scuba diving experience, as when we moved here 18 years ago I took up scuba diving, and one of the golden rules we where taught is never dive alone.
My son is a very fit 6ft + healthy non smoking/drinking lad who has grown up here and works with me on my charter fishing boat business, and he has been spearfishing for quite some time now, and by all accounts is very good at it, so he's peers have told me.
He knows I do not want him to do it alone, since I found out, but he is fearless, and I suspect it isn't the 1st time he has gone solo, but the difference is this time I know beforehand, and should anything happen to him I would never be able to forgive myself for not stopping it.
I called the completion organiser yesterday and asked if it would be ok if another friend went along in the water with him, without a speargun ,and just watched him from the water surface in case he got into a situation needing help, but the guy said no, its against the rules of the competition in case he helps him with the catch, two people can be on the boat but not in the water.
I'm not sure if it is my sons fault for not entering another diver with him, and he could have in fact had a buddy along with him, but just left it too late to get him in the competition now as it's past the application date; perhaps there are other boats with two divers together who can go, so it may not be the organisers fault, or do you think it should have been a part of the conditions of entry that no one can dive alone?
Anyway he's determined to go, and as he left this morning I told him that if he goes ahead with it, I would never support him again in the sport, as it is not fair on he's mother and myself, I have always supported him in it, even though I would naturally worry a bit, just normal parental worries, but was very proud of him for leading an active life and not stuck in front of a Playstation game, like many of his age.
The problem is, he has been looking forward to this for a long time now and is going to go ahead with it, even after I have told him he should call it off and enter the next one, better planned.
I said it's not illegal but common sense, it's like a formula 1 driver racing without a seatbelt or crash helmet!
He knows what I mean, but I just need some quick help to drive home the point, and hopefully stop him from going ahead with it.
If any of you out there can post me some advise, or links of accidents, fatal or not, or close escapes, please send them to me and perhaps it will help.
Ok hope to hear back from someone,
Mick, (a very worried dad) :-(
PS. can I put my e-mail address on here?

 

[Jonny250]

Hi Mick,
sorry to hear of your worries! i cant tell you any 'rights or wrongs' about this but just offer my 2p worth, i will also point a couple of competition spearos at this thread to see if they can offer more relevant info.
my 2p worth - i virtually 99.9% dive solo. I think most spearos on here probably do as well. that does not make it right, just an observation or perception.
with respect, your reference to the scuba rule is a dubious one [not to me, but with scuba folks], there are lots of scuba folks who apply the 'same ocean' buddy rule, dive with complete strangers as buddies, etc. so not sure it holds up in practice.

One thought though - and i dont know what the rules are in most competitions, but being told no to a buddy in the water sounds odd. If you have a buddy they need to be in the water and watching/dropping depending on the depth.

i suggest use the private message system on here - it will email you when you receive a message.

 

[mickdaboat]

Thank you Jonny 250 for taking the time to answer me.

I will send you a message as soon as I work out how to do it, I don't really use many forums, just facebook for my fishing business here.

Any way I appreciate your opinion, and as I said I thought he has gone solo before, and there is no need to over worry about it, but I just think it's common sense, especially as he will be using a gun with a reel and buoys with ropes etc. I am pretty sure he knows what he is doing, as I said he's spearfishing companions say he is good, but I am 50 years old now, and have been working on the water for enough time to have learnt a few lessons regarding respect for the sea, I have pushed my luck a few times and have been glad to make it back to port, also one I time went scuba diving in what I thought was a calm bay and got rolled between some rocks in the smallest of swells, but got a bit grazed up and thought how lucky I was to not bang my head. I think confidence is a good thing, but over confidence is dangerous.

But thanks again for your feedback, I will take it in.

 

[cdavis]

You are fighting a hard one.

Spearos all to often dive alone. I got away with it for the best part of 40 years, and most solo divers do, but that doesn't make it safe. Shallow water blackout kills dozens, maybe hundreds of divers every year and it is the ones who are getting good at breath hold(and before they acquire caution) that are the most at risk.

If the water is clear, its not that hard to learn how to spear effectively with a buddy. Sometimes it works better than solo, personal experience.

I don't know much about tournament rules, but a competition that PROHIBITS buddy diving in this day and age is bordering on criminal negligence, IMHO.

A few black out links below:

See post nine for the video
http://forums.deeperblue.com/freediving-stories/83173-bahamas-return-2009-a.html

http://forums.deeperblue.com/freediving-stories/74732-lessons-learned-swb-story.html

I know both these guys well and have been diving with at least 4 other good divers who have experienced a B0 in open water spearfishing. Its not that rare among serious skillful divers.

 

[kevind]

Hi Mick

Like many on here, I have done a great deal of diving on my own since starting almost 20 years ago (that includes many competitions both locally and internationally). I don’t go out recommending that but it’s just the reality of the sport. When guys go out socially for a dive together, they often are not actively watching each other anyway so it’s more of a false sense of security for parents. When I go out with my buddy, I often don’t see him for a few hours. The “one up one down” principle which is the safest way of diving is not followed by a large proportion of spearos as it’s impractical unless the diving is very deep. In an ideal world, we would follow that system but in reality, most of us just don’t.

Your son will have a boatman watching him for every dive and provided the boatman is vigilant, I think the format of this competition is far safer than your son would experience on an average social dive. He must also be correctly weighted so that if the worst happens, he floats up and the boatman can see him.
I have personally seen a blackout where the diver was saved by a vigilant boatman and not the other diver in the water as the two divers in the water were not actively watching each other.

It doesn’t seem like you will stop your son so my advice would be to speak to the boatman and ask him to be very vigilant and watch him on every dive. Your son must of course not push himself and must not be over weighted.

These might not be the answers you were looking for but I’m just giving my opinion.

Best regards and good luck to your son.
Kevin

 

[kkdavids]

I agree with Kevin, unless one up one down, diving with a buddy doesnt make you any safer. Personally dived in comps since the age of 14, just knowing your own limits is the key

 

[spaghetti]

Boat assistants in competitions are often fellow freedivers themselves or expert guys, and any official competition will have a RIB boat cruising the area with a medic and some kind of rescue team (hopefully.....). I don't know how it works in tenerife but the Spanish spearing federation is a serious one, and I'd be hard pressed to believe that no one will take care to watch wether divers are or aren't coming back to surface.

 

[cdavis]

Having an experienced boat driver following one properly weighted diver is a whole lot better than being completely alone (or diving "same ocean", which is the same thing), but it is no substitute for an attentive buddy. Given some wind, chop, whitecaps and sun in the drivers eyes, divers can be damned hard to see. It is extremely easy to lose them unless both divers and driver are working together as a team. A driver who is not practiced at following divers can lose them in a hurry, especially if the divers are not paying attention to where the boat is.

Connor

 

[eric aqua]

Hi Mickdaboat
Two basic things to tell your son! If he is in any doubt about reaching the surface take his weight belt off and hold it in his hand, when blackout does happens (Which is very rare) it is nearly always near the surface and the first thing to go is your grip, letting the weight belt fall allowing the diver to gain the surface. The other thing is if he is new to competition keep his buoy line attached to his belt then the boat man can pull him up from the surface if he is not happy with the time he has spent down. If you want any other information go to the British Spearfishing Association web page and look at the safety page.

 

[growingupninja]

I agree with the most of the other guys who said that an attentive/experienced boatman is probably safer than typical social 'buddy' diving. This has been my experience 100% of the time except twice in my life--once when spearing 2 divers 1 gun with a competition safety guy with a reputation even among OTHER instructors as a bit of a safety nerd, and once in Florida where we were in heavy currents/deep water and legitimately diving 1 up 1 down.

However, I disagree with the previous poster. Being attached to a line I find to be a bad idea. In almost every single place in I have ever dove, such a thing presents a risk of getting tangled on the bottom if not elsewhere (like a shot fish, kelp, rocky structure, etc), and having somebody at the surface potentially yanking on it could only make it worse, and at the very least it is more crap to manage--which if diving deep (read: being slightly narced) is never a good thing.

Instead, if the spearo is using a float line with a float then the boatman can keep an eye on his position?

As far as swimming up with your weight belt, well, I am sure someone else can weigh in on how frequently SWB victims are found wearing their weightbelts but it brings to mind one of the sweeter things my mother told me once--namely, 'if you get into trouble you know you are supposed to take your weight belt off, right?' Coming from anyone else I would have retorted with some kind of wise ass remark to the Captain Obvious who wastes my time with dumb tips that any 10 year old snorkeller knows. But coming from my non-diving, non-swimming mother it was really sweet and unforgetable. I didn't even think she knew what a weight belt was.

I am sure your son will be fine.

 

[mickdaboat]

Ok Thank you all for your opinions, and sorry I have not replied earlier.

In The end the competition was reduced to 1 day due to bad weather, and Jack, my son was fine.

What you have all told me is about the same I got from he's spearfishing friends here, they basically agreed that what I said made sense, but in reality it's not practiced much, even the guy who organised the competition had his son in it!

Anyway he said he had qualified to enter the next competition and seemed really pleased with himself coming in 5th place, I congratulated him but deep inside, had other feelings, cant help it.

Anyway it seems like you all know what your doing and I wish you all good spearfishing and above all be safe, you don't know what you 'Spearos' put your mums and dads through, well you do a bit now!

Thank you all again

Mick.