Early review -- Dive Free
I received my signed copy of Dive Free by Ian Rodger [see above] this week and have read all sections relevant to spearing in the UK, i.e. all except: the Med, Tropical, photography & the extensive Bibliography (and I am saving those for later).
When I first open the book to the middle pages of colour images of the tropical coral I thought, good ...but is it going to relevant. I need not have worried, this book could have been written specifically for me - a relative novice spearo with a lot of questions. While I suspect this book will have less to offer a spearo with years of experience (although I am sure they'd learn a few things - some interesting insight into Bass & Wrasse for example), they might still wish to consider buying this book to lend to curious beginners with too many questions.
By the way, although the book is ostensibly about freediving -- it is squarely aimed at spearfishing & photography, rather than modern extreme freediving competition. It could equally be titled as something like: an introduction to skin diving for spearos.
Some of the things I like about the book include:
- its south coast of England emphasis & references
- the image of the author with his first fish in 1958!
- coverage of basic freediving
- some novel techniques for fishing caved-up fish
- simple straightforward approach to gear
- provides a great summary of what it is all about (for example, which fish are really relevant, the effect of tides, safety vs. solo,...)
It is good to be able benefit from this sort of experience in a sport that is relatively small & where experienced proponents are few and far between (and those able/willing to to share it even fewer).
Strangely, this book is a good compliment to the Len Jones book. There is surprisingly little overlap, the former having photos & UK-specific info. re. fish, habitat & techniques with emphasis on freediving, the latter has line diagrams of equipment, sea-kayaks, surf entry & SA spearo focus -- it is all good.
I received my signed copy of Dive Free by Ian Rodger [see above] this week and have read all sections relevant to spearing in the UK, i.e. all except: the Med, Tropical, photography & the extensive Bibliography (and I am saving those for later).
When I first open the book to the middle pages of colour images of the tropical coral I thought, good ...but is it going to relevant. I need not have worried, this book could have been written specifically for me - a relative novice spearo with a lot of questions. While I suspect this book will have less to offer a spearo with years of experience (although I am sure they'd learn a few things - some interesting insight into Bass & Wrasse for example), they might still wish to consider buying this book to lend to curious beginners with too many questions.
By the way, although the book is ostensibly about freediving -- it is squarely aimed at spearfishing & photography, rather than modern extreme freediving competition. It could equally be titled as something like: an introduction to skin diving for spearos.
Some of the things I like about the book include:
- its south coast of England emphasis & references
- the image of the author with his first fish in 1958!
- coverage of basic freediving
- some novel techniques for fishing caved-up fish
- simple straightforward approach to gear
- provides a great summary of what it is all about (for example, which fish are really relevant, the effect of tides, safety vs. solo,...)
It is good to be able benefit from this sort of experience in a sport that is relatively small & where experienced proponents are few and far between (and those able/willing to to share it even fewer).
Strangely, this book is a good compliment to the Len Jones book. There is surprisingly little overlap, the former having photos & UK-specific info. re. fish, habitat & techniques with emphasis on freediving, the latter has line diagrams of equipment, sea-kayaks, surf entry & SA spearo focus -- it is all good.
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