what brought you to the sport

It was an "evolution" for me....Always LOVED being in and under the water...Salt, fresh, muddy, deep, shallow, warm, cold, etc....:inlove

I was freediving as a child but did'nt know what "freediving" was. I was "snorkeling" and diving down as deep as I could and staying down as long as I could... Scared the heck outta my mom quite a few times back then! :t

Even now, my wife gets a bit nervous if she's on shore (Golden Lake) and I disappear underwater for a minute and a half or so! :chatup

I happened to see a Russian dude spearfishing about 3 years ago...He had a stringer full of carp, dogfish, and some huge crappies. I was kinda pissed off about it as I thought it was illegal...I immediately called the DNR with my cell phone and was flabbergasted when I found out rough fish and panfish could be speared legally! I thought to myself..."Someday I'm gonna get a speargun and start spearfishing too." A few days later I saw a show on TV where they were usin' polespears in Hawaii for small fish...It was then that I said " I'm gonna get me one of the polespear thingy's!"...I got one...Now I am hooked bigtime...:t Also bought a speargun from Whopperhead last summer for the carpski's....But I prefer the polespear...I just gotta get me a Gat-Ku now!

So I've been slowly trying to get ALL the PROPER gear now a little at a time, as to not get the wife mad at me for buying too much stuff!:chatup

First of all, you can't just ask a question like this and not give your story!

I started scuba in 1993. Then got away from it, then came back too it. Somewhere in there I saw a show on Discovery about a guy that wanted to set a record on a sled and approached a scuba club to be safety divers. They thought he was nuts, so to prove he had skill they went diving.

The scuba divers went down to a 110' deep wreck, a few minutes later, this guy came down freediving and stayed down for a minute and went back up. I was impressed and decided I would try it one day.

Back in 2005 I started thinking more about it and checking it out. I joined DeeperBlue, but around here in Peoria there is not a lot going. While in Florida I would check out fins and contemplate buying a set to try. I love diving for sharks teeth on scuba in Venice Beach FL, and the shop there has freedive gear, and they freedive for teeth while out. I looked at fins in the shop and finally bought a pair this past summer. I figured I would mess with the fins and try to learn. I knew I wanted to take a course too.

I returned to DeeperBlue and found that the WI group had taken off pretty well. And here I am, 2 new wetsuits and 2 new spearguns later. And I'm getting ready to take the class and it will really take off from there!

I'm a divemaster and working on scuba instructor, but I really prefer freediving. Both have their place and purpose for me though. Freediving is a challenge and awesome accomplishment if you can see something deep under water on one breath. But scuba, to go down and look at a wreck and just hangout and check everything out for awhile is great too.

For me it started when a friend(Tass) and I were at a lake trying to shoot Carp with a bow and arrow. We got several that were close to the surface, but the REALLY BIG ONES were down towards the bottom. We took shots at them but the arrows would bounce off. We talked about a way of getting these carp to come up towards the surface. Then Tass mentioned that he thought they could be speared with a speargun in the water or something like that. I had never heard of this and immediately started to do research on this "shooting carp with a spear". I did a search for 'Spearing carp in Wisconsin' and came across this site. DeeperBlue.net I did alot of reading on the forums to find out what gear I needed, the laws and regulations. I found out, that not only can we shoot Carp but ALL Roughfish and panfish in alot of the areas in Wisconsin.

I started to buy gear. I knew I needed a wetsuit- so I bought a 3mm neoprene AKONA, socks and gloves. I went cheap on the mask and snorkle and fins. Bought a float and a 100' float line. :head I was also able to set up my friend Tass with basically the same get up. We went to the outlet to shoot some fish. After shooting my first carp and taking a decade to reel in my 100' line to get to my float- I was hooked! This is FREAK'N Fantastic!!! A few Weeks went by and I joined up with some of the other members of DB at a CARP FEST at Rock Lake. JON decided to go with me in my boat (which could only go about 5mph because of spark plug problems) And started to give me pointers. Like "why do you have a 100' float line? cut it in fourths". After Seeing JON dive, I knew then- I know nothing about Diving. I started looking into "Freediving" and what it exactly was and found a book "Freediving" by Terry Maas and another guy whos name I can't think of right now. I learn ALOT from that book. Read more post on DB that started to make sense. And I got in the water as much as I could. I was diving about once a week if not more till about mid summer. At this time I also realized my gear was not the best for me and I was having problems- So I started to upgrade: Elios custom suit, better mask, better float, cut my 100' float line into 25' lenghts, cressi fins and so on. The buying of gear has not stopped. I have enough gear to set 2-3 people up that don't have anything. I was also helping out a few friends and family members that showed interest in Spearfishing. So, far I think i've set up 5 people Completly with what they need to go spearfishing minus the spearguns and floats. I figured I needed a buddy to go- So If I got them the gear, they don't have an excuse.

Needless to say I've become addicted to learning as much as I can about freediving and want nothing more but to improve my technique and to be a very safe diver. And most of all..... HAVE FUN.

Whopperhead said:

And most of all..... Enjoy myself.

Click to expand...

ERR...Scott...
TMI

rofl it was a joke Scott, you did not have to edit it!

Lol, I found that slightly humorous. At any rate, my story of how I came into the world of diving. I live in north central Wisconsin, out in the boondocks. There isn't much to do, but I live on a farm with several small ponds in it. From the time I was little (4 or 5) my parents couldn't keep me out of the water, whether I was in the canoe, or just swimming with the dogs. From there it progressed. My brother started teaching me to free dive and snorkel. The very first lesson came at age 5. He took his mask and snorkel, and threw it into a 10 foot in ground pool. He told me I had to get it back without the use of any gear. I finally got it, after hours of attempts, and after that the rest is history. I started spearfishing at the age of 6. My brother took me out, pulled back the bands for me, and let me shoot my first small bluegill. I would hang onto his weight belt, so i could dive down deep with him, and see all the things that were too deep for me. My brother would eventually get me into scuba diving as well (age of 13) but i would never appreciate it the same way as the raw connection you have with the earth when you are free diving. Right now at the age of 17, my dives are limited to a little less than a minute, if I'm in prime condition. But I'm working hard to get that number up. Hypoxics in the pool, bottom crawls, and even weighted sprints on the bottom. The biggest part is that for me, as a native american, this is more than just hunting, its a reconnection, and a spiritual experience, as I am sure it is for most of us. Re-live the animal you once were. Hey whopperhead, is there a prize for longest explanation of your introduction to the sport?

spearfished with Jamaicans in Jamaica and loved it. Was walking through Bass Pro and saw the regs for spearing and netting in Wisconsin.... and I thought... "I wonder..." and was delighted to see it was legal. I ordered a speargun off the internet that night.