Spearos save the dates for these Kingfish Cup events
Thursday October 31st – Information night at Adreno Sydney
Saturday and Sunday November 9/10th – Kingfish Cup
Thursday November 14th – Presentation at Adreno Sydney
From Bird Island to Bass Point be a part of the biggest Spearfishing gathering around Australia.
More information to follow soon.
The Sealions have done it again! Their inaugural Crevice Creeper event was a great day for the eager divers in attendance with conditions seeing an average of 10m visibility across the Central Coast with the better visibility being on the south end of the coast; a one meter NE swell with the same wind direction 20-25 knots.
Thanks go to the 39 divers who travelled to Terrigal many from as far as Sydney’s southern suburbs, to Newcastle entering in this first time event. The Neptunes, and Dolphins were prominent in attendance.
A pairs event, each pair was allowed to enter two crayfish, two slipper lobster and two abalone between them, a very conservative amount being well under bag limits. Boats were used, too, many divers drove to locations and entered the water from the rocky coastline.
Invaluable Research
Back at the sign off a total of 16 Eastern Rock Lobsters were presented to the weigh master, along with abalone and Slipper Crays. Marcus Miller a crayfish researcher from NSW Fisheries was invited by the USFA and he took valuable data of the captured Eastern Rock Lobsters. The USFA again assisting with scientific research to ensure our fishery is well managed into the future for generations to come.
Results
Biggest Abalone – Kearin Timp – 570 gms
Biggest Slipper Lobster – Eric Yue – 770 gms
Biggest Eastern Rock lobster – Wenjun zhing – 2120 gms
Pairs 1st place – Eric Yue and Wenjun zhing – 6345 gms
Pairs 2nd place – Josh ward And Corey Thompson – 3520 gms
Pairs 3rd place – Steve Montgomery and Josh Green – 3470 gms
Congratulations to Wenjun and Eric with their terrific catches.
Thank you go the Sponsors – Under Pressure Spearfishing – a new player in the spearfishing equipment industry, Hohnke Spice Rubs, Wet Mammal, EKF and Adreno Spearfishing.
Well done to all who entered the event and we look forward to a bigger, better Crevice Creeper tournament in 2025.
thanks to Josh Ward the President of the Central Coast Sealions for providing information and images.
Simon Trippe
Do you like creepy crawlies?
The inaugural Crevice Creeper event hosted by USFA club the Central Coast Sealions is coming up on Saturday 24th August. A PAIRS event, so find a dive buddy, it involves catching two eastern crays, two slipper lobsters and two abalone.
This event will showcase the fantastic terrain the Central coast has for these species, add in the tremendous social structure the Sealions have in their community it will be a great day to dive and socialise with like minded people.
Conditions set out in the image below.
USFA membership is required to enter, for temporary membership hit the link and follow the prompts to register. Cheers! https://usfa.tidyhq.com/public/membership_levels/566e6d8499b3
Kurnell Competition Round 7 Report: Making Waves Despite Rough Seas!
Location: Kurnell
Date: 7th July 2024
Host: Port Hacking Penguins
G’day, diving enthusiasts! The 7th round of the Kurnell Alliman, hosted by the dynamic Port Hacking Penguins, was an event to remember. Despite the challenging weather conditions with rough seas and varying visibility, the spirit of competition and camaraderie shone bright. A hearty cheer for the 31 divers who braved the elements to compete! It was heartening to see a diverse group, including female competitors and fresh junior faces, dive into the challenge.
**Individual Glory:**
**Club Triumph:**
A round of applause and gratitude to the following stars who made the event seamless and enjoyable:
Apologies if we missed anyone, but your efforts are much appreciated!
Despite the weather’s best attempts to dampen our spirits, the day was a resounding success.
It was fantastic to see so many sign on and participate, showcasing the vibrant and resilient diving community. A huge thank you to everyone who attended, competed, and contributed to making this competition memorable. Here’s to many more such adventures and may the seas be ever in our favour!
Stay tuned for the next round, and until then, dive safe and dive happy!
Report by Pat Ireland Sports Secretary SMZ USFA
What is the Kingfish Cup?
The Kingfish Cup is about spearing a kingfish, over one weekend in Sydney’s prime Kingfish season, traditionally this is late October through November.
Where is it held?
“Greater Sydney” is the area entrants may enter. It stretches from Bird Island in the Central Coast to Bass Point in the South covering just over 250 kilometres of coastline. Weigh in Stations are at Adreno Sydney itself, Little Manly in Sydney Harbour, and Terrigal, on the Central Coast.
Who enters the KFC?
Such a wide-ranging demographic of both age, sex, and area. Going on recent years we are expecting over 200 spearfishers entering including sub juniors from 14 years of age right up to Grand Masters (over 65’s), Ladies entries have been strong (9 ladies competed last year). Divers come from as far as Queensland to fish the event. Those who are not competitively focused also fish the Kingfish Cup. We also get relative newcomers fish the Kingfish Cup some of which spearing their first kingfish in the event.
How does it work?
The USFA runs the event, Adreno Spearfishing and its partners are a big part of the Cup and sponsor the Cup, and we work with the Adreno Sydney team to make it the success this community event has become. Prior to the Cup, some 8 days before, we host a “get together” at Adreno – putting on some great food – one of our members creates amazing paella, we explain the simple rules, we have guest speakers (spearfishing gurus) that discuss kingfish habits and hunting tips, and this year we have some great scientific data being divulged on Kingfish by a team that is tracking fish via satellite. A great social night that includes several prizes being given out, for the attendees, and for the early bird registers, including one major prize (to be announced).
Since the running of the inaugural event in 2019 we have seen healthy registration numbers from 170 to well over 200 entrants, thus it requires a lot of organising from an efficient team. Entrants register online, they are given details of the event and how to “sign on” and “sign off” (any times between 0800 and 1600 you may fish multiple times on a day) on each day – (some entrants fish only one day) this lets organisers know who is in the water and importantly when they are back out – safety is paramount. On safety, the organisers also make the decision on postponing the days fishing if the weather is decided to be inclement.
The fish are weighed in at the weigh stations, we try to keep the weights discreet to build some atmosphere for the presentation night the Thursday following the event.
The event is ethical! Sustainable too!
Kingfish are in healthy numbers along Australia’s east coast. Take 2023, when we held the Cup over two days, we had 235 divers in the water for approximately 1343 hours, of the fish that were caught it worked out to over 83.9 hours of effort per fish, with an average weight of 9.5 kilograms per fish. Spearfishing is amazing.
Dates to remember!!
To kick off the biggest event on Sydney’s spearfishing seasonal calendar we host a social & information night to bring the community together under one roof to set the scene for the following weekends event.
This Kingfish cup was born out of necessity, a competition built to bring our communities together in a sustainable and ethically focused competition with divers from all around Australia participating. A competition driven by inclusion, from the most experienced to aspiring greenhorn learning the ropes and piecing it together. This is what spearfishing is all about. Mateship, adventure, respect for the fishery and healthy competition.
A Q&A panel with kingfish gurus such as Aaron Puckeridge, Derrick Cruz, Matt Poulton, Josh Ward, Artie Mensdorff along with past champion’s the night’s goal is to share experiences and knowledge around Sydney Spearfishing with a focus on the Kingfish species. Feedback from you has been requested on the science of this fishery, and we are giving this to you on the night, we have a very dedicated team who have been satellite tracking large Yellowtail Kingfish off our coastline and they are excited to be sharing their findings with us on the evening. An evening meal catered by the Paella King Rico, throw in some sensational door prizes for those in attendance on the night, and to those who early bird register for the Cup, the night is shaping up to be a ripper.
This social event will be bigger than the Cup itself!
Another fantastic social evening, where many of the entrants gather, again at Adreno Sydney Superstore, mingle and talk about the one that got away while enjoying some quality food while anticipating the results. Sponsors for the event are amazing and the 2023 event saw over $15 000 of prizes given out.
We look forward to greeting you at the next Kingfish Cup!
The Dolphins annual beach clean up is coming! Save the date for Sunday July 28th.
Meeting at Long Bay, Malabar, this year the beach and ocean area being cleaned will be Little Bay.
Food and refreshments will be provided after the event. All divers are welcome to come along and be part of the clean up in what is always a great social event.
Meet at Malabar Beach between 0730-0800 the day will finish up around 12pm.
The beginnings of a new spearfishing club on the Central Coast
At the start of February, the discussion came up between a few mates Alex and Craig Bond, Brett Carter, Beau Mellon & myself about a spearfishing club based at the north end of the Central Coast. As much as we loved diving with, and being part of the Central Coast Sealions, the distance was a problem for us getting to the meetings and dives that were out of Terrigal. The Central Coast is a huge area, and it can take an hour and a half, or more, to get from one end to the other.
The discussion was had with a few of the Sealions committee, and once it was explained about the reasons behind our decision, we had the blessing of our southern Central Coast brethren, and we were away brainstorming.
This was something that we were motivated to make happen, so it was time to start thinking of a name and where we would call home. Norah Head was a no brainer for us, most of the crew that was part of the discussion were only about 15 minutes from there, so that was locked in. Then the question, what was to be our mascot? A few ideas were floated around (pun intended) Norah Head Sea Wasps, no, too close to Sealions. Norah Head Tridents or Vikings, nah, then a few joke names like The Lake Macquarie Mermen and my son Flynn said we should call ourselves the Fishy Fellas. Then it came – The Norah Hammerheads. We had a name!
What’s the next thing a club needs? A space for meetings and presentations etc. The hunt began for a spot that had a few key things for us. Enough room to accommodate 10-20 people, surely that’s enough for a start -club, space for our kids to go and play (get out of our hair for a little bit), a good feed and cold beer. Brett visited a few places before coming across a hidden gem, the Norah Head Sporties. Well the name fits with ours, so big tick there. Time to test the food and beer, tick again. A meeting was set up with the CEO and not long into our talk she told us that their club was in need of a new sporting group for them to sponsor, so a few things were thrown back and forth and we had an agreement for The Norah Head Sporties to be our first sponsor and be our home base.
So, we set up our first meeting and decided that for us and people with families and work commitments that a Sunday afternoon would be a great time for a meeting. Then we could have the meeting and then if anyone wanted to, they could stick around for dinner or drink and have a bit more of a relaxed catch up. And what a meeting it was! Not long after our start time of 4.30 the room started filling up fast, and by the time everyone piled in there was standing room only.
Then an intro to our Club’s committee – Alex Bond was chairing the meeting and was to head up the Club as President, he has been diving since he was washing pee out of his dad’s wetsuits and his passion to teaching his own kids about the sustainability of spearfishing and building their skills in the sport is amazing to see, nobody better for this role. Brett Carter as Vice President, another great advocate for the sport that has been diving since he was (still is) a young fella. He is always available to offer advice wherever he can help, just make sure to double check comp start times that he tells you. Craig Bond as Treasurer. Now there wouldn’t be many around the spearing community that don’t know Craig, with his wealth (and years) of knowledge, I know he has taught me a thing or 2 in the few dives I have been with him, he has plenty of experience in the committee side of clubs and will be a key to keeping us in line and on track for our goals. Beau Mellon as Sports Secretary, Beau was the very first person I dove with when starting out and for a young bloke he is definitely one of the best spearos I have been out with. And then myself, Justin Elsey, as Secretary. Only a few years in the sport, but absolutely love it and the friendships that I have made over my time doing it. If I’m not in the water, I’m out on it in my boat.
We were also lucky enough to have Bob McComb attend and give the fresh and experienced divers a in the room a detailed talk about the USFA.
After all the formalities were done with, a count of the membership applications we had taken in for the day. 33 including us!! We did not expect that at all! The next day we also had another 3 join us, bringing the total to 36, and the breakdown of the following classes 5x sub junior, 2x junior, 2x intermediate, 13x senior, 7x veteran, 6x ladies and 1x Grand Master. And we still have a few more messaging us about joining up, so we are all very thankful for the support received so far and are extremely excited to see where this is going to take us.
Justin – Norah Hammerheads
Club Secretary
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