Hi Spearos!,
Save the date
The Underwater Skindivers and Fisherman’s Association is celebrating 75 years this year and would like you to be a part of this celebration.
More details to come in the following weeks. In the meantime please inform your old diving buddies from last year or last century to save the date – October 7th.
Thank you,
On behalf of the USFA Committee
Simon Trippe
Happy Seventy Five years to you USFA!
My mind boggles at all your members have achieved over the decades; from beginning as an action group, started by adventurous men and women “speargunners, on this day 1948, to prevent spearfishing from being banned. These energetic souls wished for official recognition of speargunners, to educate the community about spearfishing, to stop safe access areas being denied to speargunners, to enhance codes of conduct and safety and of course to enable those still to come to be able spearfish in the coming decades.
During this tumultuous post-war period when returned diggers, who had seen indigenous Pacific Islanders spearfishing, thus began turning military equipment into all forms of diving kit to enable them to catch a fish, safety was not often thought about first, nor was being physically assaulted by fishers, recreational and commercial alike, who believed these early pioneers would turn the oceans into deserts, leave alone them being arrested and placed in cells., yes this did happen. What these wonderful ambassadors for spearfishing were able to achieve is quite remarkable. Dick Charles the original President of the USFA said in this day “we band together if we want to continue spearfishing, united we survive – divided, we fall.”
On behalf of all current spearfishers in this land I wish to thank all those who have come and gone, and those here today who have contributed their time to enable spearfishing to prosper. You have indeed made it possible for future generations to enjoy this wonderful recreation and lifestyle, and we cannot thank you enough.
Simon Trippe
President
Underwater Skindivers and Fishermen’s Association NSW
Jonathan Cassell from the always progressive north coast club the Coffs Harbour Bluewater Freedivers has landed quite the fish. This amazing Green Jobfish is the new USFA NSW record and was speared in the Solitary Island group, it was 106cm long and a couple of grams over 13 kilos.
A handsome, wily, strong fighting fish Jobbies can really work your breath hold. Splendid specimens like Jonathan’s are definitely a top tier specie to land, as Jonathan expressed so well in his application, “…into the boat where we rejoiced in amazement” definitely a stoke specie, and, they are a great eating fish too.
Coff’s Harbour is known as the gateway in NSW for the warmer water species and with this great mix of reef and pelagic species some amazing spearfishing both on and off the shore can occur, it is well worth visiting the Solitary Islands Marine Park you will enjoy the experiences the water will give you.
Justin Ewan recently landed a new NSW record Western Foxfish (Bodianus frenchii) of 1478gm. Long time St George member Andrew Boomer held the record previously of 1430gm.
Interestingly the NSW record has come from the same area at least three times.
Western Foxies, as a rule of thumb, seem to like access to steeper drop offs, with boulders and caves close to hand, so think of pinnacles too, so they can be seen in shallower water, yet a lot of sightings seem to be that 13 plus metre mark. They have two distinct pale yellow dots, one near the top centre of the body and the other located near the caudal peduncle.
Generally shy they are not often seen by spearos and appear more abundant on the Mid North coast and it’s array of Islands and offshore reef systems. Part of the Wrasse family, (think peg teeth, not fused teeth like Parrots) they are good table fare.
Well done Justin, and thank you for submitting this excellent specimen.
Adreno Sydney Kingfish Cup
The information night – Thursday November 3rd from 6.00pm
To kick off the biggest event on Sydney’s spearfishing seasonal calendar we are hosting a social and 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 Dan Jones, Grayson Hinrichs, Marty Kieselbach and Derrick Cruz the night’s goal is to share experiences and knowledge around Sydney Spearfishing with a focus on the Kingfish species. Add on a fish preparation masterclass by @spearochef Jai Gibbons as well as the sensational BBQ skills of the in demand Adreno team, plus, some sensational door prizes for those in attendance on the night and to those who early bird register the night is shaping up to be a ripper. This social event will be bigger than the Cup itself!
Attendees to yesterday’s clean up at Malabar were treated to glorious weather conditions and participating divers came through with some pretty spectacular rubbish hauls to match. Fantastic work being done by all, but special rubbish mentions for the large part of a boat hull retrieved, as well as a section of pipe so large you might have thought we were digging up infrastructure in the bay.
A massive thanks to everyone involved in a great morning out, over thirty spearos assisted on the day. Thanks too to the invaluable boaty assistance provided by Ben, Shane, and Dan. A Malabar clean up definitely deserves to be a fixture on the calendar, perhaps Little Bay as well, it is a fantastic way for spearos to give something back to the local community.
Lastly a special thanks goes out to the legends at Adreno Sydney for both their physical help on the day, Pauli and Jake you were great, and the generous prizes donated for the event, vouchers being awarded for the best rubbish hauls. Thank you Adreno’s Craig Seadog, your enthusiasm to assist is always appreciated.
The mystery lucky door prize is yet to be drawn and revealed. Stay tuned for that one!!!
Randwick Council sent a supportive message post clean up, aware that spearfishers care for their environment and community well being.
Alex Sehrig
Les Gleaves, Sans Souci Dolphin Life Member, NSW State spearfishing representative, UW hockey player, great all-round fisherman and man of the sea, an excellent pool player, and just an all-round gentleman and good guy.
Appearing at the Dolphins in the late 60’s as a gangly, quiet teenager Les quickly made his mark spearfishing amongst his peers.
Growing into phenomenal strength both physically and mentally, and possessing a freakish breath hold and a fantastic fish sense Les had this unerring ability to usually spear the biggest fish of an outing. Les held the World and National Record for Dogtooth Tuna at 55kg, an amazing achievement at this time (speared in 1986 in the Coral Sea) the record lasting a decade.
Selfless and a good listener. he would be that guy who would often take the juniors and beginners on his boat, never worrying much if it affected his day; you could ask Les anything and he would tell you what he knew to help you progress; he would listen to everyone’s tales of woe (typical of all fishermen) yet I could bet after you spilled your misery he would have some quip, or his own experiences of the day to say to brighten your own day. Les continually assisted on committees of his club, Zone and State and held positions as Sports Secretary and Records Officer amongst other roles.
Revered amongst the Spearfishing Association scene as a lovely bloke, who possessed a cracking sense of humour, Les was seldom seen without a beer in hand after a dive usually bare chested wearing his customary wetsuit shorts for all seasons and climes. Les was a fount of knowledge on all things fish, superb at fish identification, and complemented this with knowing where best to find each species of fish.
Les, myself and plenty of others were looking forward to catching up with you at the USFA’s coming 75th anniversary, those that had the good fortune to have met you will miss you, may the waters you dive be clear, the fish abundant, your spear flies true and forever cold is your beer. Thank you for being so kind and patient with me, and for everything you gave to spearfishing, you never asked for anything in return. You were one of my heroes.
Simon
As part of the new-look USFA, we recently met with the Director of Strategy for the Deputy Premier of New South Wales, to take our issues directly to Macquarie Street. As part of these positive discussions, the USFA arranged a face-to-face meeting with the NSW Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, the Hon Dugald Saunders MP.
The meeting was held in Woopi, at Mick Featherstone’s place (Mick has been the spearfishing rep for Solitary Islands advisory committee for over 12 years). Brian Hackett, the President of the Coffs Harbour Blue Water Freedivers, was also in attendance. Mick and Brian discussed the Government announcement to introduce a slot limit for the Dusky Flathead (and prosecute the USFA’s position on the matter), gauge the Ministers interest in introducing more marine parks while explaining the importance of our spatial needs in the parks.
Thanks for your time @Dugald Saunders @Paul Toole @Gurmesh Singh
We will be continuing our efforts to ensure that spearfishers voices are heard with decision makers here in NSW. Please reach out if you have any queries or comments!
I guess when I first heard about this massive, huge, big money fishing comp I was a bit ““oh yeah” line fishing, so what?!?” I was surprised that there was going to be a spearfishing event, I pricked my ears and I liked the phrases I was hearing “great for the community…educate the growing spearfishing community on safety…getting all kinds of rec fishers together…family weekend away during school holidays…. the council is right behind this…Fisheries love it….” then Adam Martin who seems to run the beautiful township of Tomakin on one hours sleep a week, contacts the USFA and asks if they would be interested in “running” the spearing side of the event on the Tomakin Fishing Clubs behalf. How could you say no!
After a couple of months of brain storming back and forth between many spearos and fishos it was decided to run a true pairs event, that is, two divers spearfishing together that sees one spearfisher diving while his pair dive buddy remains on the surface, this is really putting into practice what the now well coined term “One Up One Down” is all about, it’s great spearfishing safety. TO explain a little further each pair partner can use one gun and has one rig cord connected to their gun, one of these cords is only 4m long, generally the partner on the surface has the short cord hence the diving partner in the pair has the longer rig cord, both cords are connected to one float only, thus ensuring the float is generally immediately in their dive zone, as east coast southern water spearos can attest to the huge boat traffic we can encounter a dive float and flag is the start of our safe diving checklist.
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