The Far South Coast Spearfishing Championships are held annually in Narooma. They are proudly hosted by the south coast skindivers club. With a fantastic junior division, this spearfishing competition is famous for its rock hopping and good quality kingies that are caught.
Author: USFA
Australian Pacific Coast Spearfishing Championship – Spearfest
Organised and hosted by the Newcastle Neptune’s Underwater Club the Australian Pacific Coast Spearfishing Championships are held at Nelson Bay, Port Stephens over the Easter long weekend.
A mystery teams event is held on the afternoon of Good Friday along with training and 10 individual age comps (8 to 17) for juniors. The Premier Team event and 1st heat of the individual championships are held on Easter Saturday and the Premier Pair and 2nd heat of the individual championships on Easter Sunday. A Bluewater shootout for the largest 3 fish operates over any of the 3 days with cash prizes ($500, $300, $200).
PLEASE NOTE THERE IS A FISH AUCTION AFTER THE EVENT and all proceeds go to the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service.
There is a huge range of accommodation available just Google Port Stephens, Nelson Bay or Shoal Bay. Divers must be USFA or AUF financial and have appropriate safety gear (float with flag, mirror and whistle).
It is a fantastic competition with great prizes and spectacular fish weighed each year.”
Australian Pacific Coast Spearfishing Championships – Spearfest – Easter Program 2015.pdf
Alliman Shield
The Sydney Metro Alliman Shield competition is a fin fish spearfishing competition open to both males and females and is held on a monthly basis with scores accumulating across the calendar year. Four Sydney clubs compete in the Alliman Shield with some great competitive rivalry between both mates and clubs.
The Alliman Shield Competition days are a great opportunity for divers to learn how to hunt a large diversity of fish species and forces divers to think about the fish they want to take, where to find them, techniques and the best equipment to use. It also provides a set date, usually the first Sunday of each month, when divers can plan to hit the water together and try their best in the local arena or just have a bit of fun with mates.
Only one of each of a set list of species of fish may be scored by a diver, thus maintaining the sustainability of our sport and of course there are many rules in place to enforce and emphasise the safety aspect of our sport.
There are many different categories within the Alliman Shield competition based on age and diver ability and divers range from National Champions through to absolute beginners. There is no better way to learn about spearfishing than to dive the comps and learn from the experience of the great divers around you.
The weigh-ins at the end of the day are always good social events with divers swapping stories of the adventures of the day, proudly showing off their fish or just enjoying a drink or two with mates and fellow divers. And of course, you end of with some fresh fish for dinner at the end of the day!
You can find out more about the history of Alec ‘Curly’ Alliman here.
Taylor Shield
The Taylor shield competition is held every month on the first Sunday. The spearfishing competition dates back to the early 60’s. In the height of spearfishing popularity, the early 70’s, there were many clubs on the south coast, all of them being a part of the two zones in the region, the southern zone and the far southern zone. Gradually less competitors were competing so smaller clubs weren’t able to function with so few members, they ended up joining up with bigger clubs such as the South Coast Skindivers Club.
The Taylor Shield is now contested within the Southern Zone, which comprises of the Barracudas, Reversby Workers Club and a southern branch of the San Souci Dolphins. Each competitor dives not only for his individual points but also to contribute to a club score. The sum of these points over a competiton year decides the winner of the Taylor shield in that year. Barra’s have won the Taylor Shield 28 times in 44 years, RWC 13 times. Other clubs won the title the other 3 times.
Living Water Freedivers
The Living Water Freedivers comp structure has evolved over the past three years, concentrating on selective taking of fish as this is an ecologically sustainable sport.
The comp is run by Living Water Freedivers who are proudly affiliated with the NSW Underwater Skindivers & Fishermans Association. The competition is open to all spearos affiliated with the USFA which encourages selective fishing by awarding the top ten biggest fish, from a selective species list, weighed in for the day. Competitors can only weigh one fish in this competition making it a comp that allows the diver to target a particular species rather than several.
Big Fish Comp
Nelson Bay is located a comfortable 3 hour drive north of Sydney in NSW. Its well known as a popular tourist destination that offers great accommodation, restaurants, spectacular views and beaches. Another exceptional quality is the areas well-known ability to produce large game fish and other species in the clear warm waters from January to June each year as the East Australian Current pushes warmer water down from more subtropical areas up north.
The warmer current brings with it marlin, dolphin fish, yellow tail kingfish, mulloway and cobia, just to list a few. The coast has a number of offshore islands and reef systems that hold excellent reef fish and pelagic fish, a small tinny can easily access these, so to enjoy the fishing does not mean big dollars.
The Spearfishing Challenge was designed to limit each competitor to one fish at weigh in. By doing so we limit the overall catch of competitors and normally the weigh in is much more spectacular due to people hunting for larger fish. It also decreases the amount of time it takes to conduct the weigh in, leaving more time for the important things eg. talking about the one that got away! The format for the comp is one fish per diver to be weighed in, a Species List will be made available on the day for all divers to have, this is not a pelagic only comp.
1770 Comp
For the last six years in late June early July a large group of mostly like-minded spearfishermen and women have gathered in the small coastal town of 1770 in Central Queensland for the 1770 Classic. The Classic was started back in 2009 by the Organising committee of the Curtis coast Spearfishing Club. For the first two years it was held as an in house competition, but in 2011 the competition was opened up to all A.U.F. registered divers with an overwhelming response of 43 competitors. Since then the competition has grown each year and this year’s competition has already attracted interest from around 70 divers.
The location for the Classic (1770) is one of the most picturesque, laid back coastal town you are likely to find anywhere on the Queensland coast, with impressive headlands and sheltered bays 1770 is a must see destination for both Aussies and overseas travellers alike. Also 1770 is in very close proximity to the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef (1 hour by boat) and has access to a vast network of coastal inlets and reefs. The Competition for the 1770 Classic is not unique however it is a different scoring system to most of the other spearfishing competitions around Australia. The system simply sets a species list and a target weight for each species. Divers are allowed to weigh in three fish each (from the species list) and points are awarded as a percentage of the target weight.
Cutting Down Spears
Why would anyone want to cut down a spear? Ever had a tip snap off at the flopper hole? Bent a spear at the flopper on a long gun? Well now you should be able to recycle these old bits of steel for another gun and hopefully another fish. Other things you can do are add floppers to spears like those butterfly spears or change floppers from top to bottom. Whatever the reason you need to cut a spear down here’s how to do it.
First thing is spring steel spears are MUCH harder to drill and machine than spring stainless spears. But I haven’t come across a spear that I’ve never been able to drill…eventually. Particularly tough spears are the freedivers spring steel and the Rabitech spring steel spears. Rob Allen spears are fairly average to drill, Riffe are just as easy and Torres tuffs are like cutting butter.
The first part of chopping down the spear is getting the flopper off. This can be a little tricky depending on the manufacturer. Riffe spears are near impossible and you may as well buy a new flopper! Here is a freedivers spear in the vice ready for the flopper to be removed.
Now all you do is file off the rivet flush down with the flopper and tap it out with a centre punch. This doesn’t always work so you may have to flip it over and file down the other side and punch it out that way. Either way after a bit of stuffing around you’ll end up with a spear with no flopper like so:
Now the next part is drilling the spear. If you’re taking off 10cm from the spear obviously put a nice big pen mark 10cm from the end. Now get the flopper and position it about 1cm behind this mark. Where the end of the flopper sits is where you want your hole. Always have a little bit more tip than the length of the flopper.
So no you know where you want to drill your hole how do you go about drilling through these hardened bits of spring steel? Well the first step is a drilling jig. All this does is keep the spear locked in place by the stainless screw and it has little hardened inserts to keep the drill bit in the centre of the spear. You should be able to buy something similar from a dive shop, if you have a lathe you can knock one up on the lunch break. I used bits of silver steel for the inserts, did all the machining and then hardened them. I have two drill hole sizes, 3/32” and 7/64”. I use the smaller one for 7mm spears and the bigger for 8mm spears.
Enough of the jig, here’s how you mark your spear. Place the mark where the hole needs to be on the little hole on the jig and mark another line so when you shove the spear up the guts you know where to stop!
Now don’t go tightening the spear in the jig just yet. You may want to line the spear up so your flopper goes straight up and down (yes I’ve had them come out at 90° before!) I use a little bit of stainless or nail or whatever to make sure the spear hole in the back of the spear is vertical, THEN tighten the jig so your flopper hole will be up and down. Seems obvious but I’ve done it a few times!
Now to drill these spears I use a Formula Cobalt drill bit in the 3/32” or 7/64”. You will also need some cutting compound. You may get away without for stainless spears but with spring steel ones forget it. This is what I use, ‘Rocol’ it’s a brown turd coloured paste but it works a treat.
Another compound to use is ‘Molycut’ but it’s a liquid stuff. Either will work fine and make drilling a breeze. So set your bit up in a drill press and make sure you put a nice smear of cutting compound on the bit. Use the slowest speed possible on the drill. Don’t be tempted into “going faster means finished faster!” You won’t get anywhere. If you want to use a hand drill you can try but you will probably snap a few drill bits. A drill press is the way to go with lots a downward pressure and remember SLOW!
Once you’re through take the spear out of the jig and viola! If you can’t get through the spear which will happen on the odd freedivers spear try a new drill bit. If that doesn’t work you may have to heat up the area to be drill cherry red and then let it cool and then drill. After drilling put the temper back into the spear as follows below. Only do this as a last resort.
You should run over the drill hole with a larger drill bit to sort of counter sink it to get the burrs off. The next part of the whole process is putting a tip back on the spear. Lucky with spring steel spears they can be re-tempered which means ANGLE GRINDER. You don’t have to worry about getting it red hot because it’s going to happen down the track anyways. So go nuts and put that tri-cut back on the tip. Work one edge at a time to get a basic shape and the angles right. A few minutes later and you will end up with a nice tip like so. You will get better and better doing these tri-cuts so if the first couple turn out a little less appealing than the mother in law don’t fret, just practice on some old spears. A file isn’t really necessary after a while but it will help to clean the tip up a bit.
Note; only go hard out with the grinder on spring steel spears, on stainless try not to get it discoloured or red because you can’t put the temper back into them. It will take a while longer but then again they aren’t as hard as spring steel spears.
Now to put the temper back into the tip of the spear so it’s not soft as butter. Simply rip out that blowtorch from all those prangers you’ve been making and heat the tip up cherry red. Once it’s all hot plough it into a jar of oil. Any oil will work; I used the old stuff out of my car so it’s not critical! Don’t use water or you will cool it down too fast and the spear will be too brittle. A little smoke and smell here is normal.
Now we are back to where we almost started a spear without a flopper. Pinning floppers is an art in itself which needs to be practiced or shown. For a flopper pin I find a snap clip works a treat. Don’t be tempted to use nails or what not the pin needs to be pretty hard stainless. Some brands of spears use 316 pins and the floppers stuff up very quickly as the pin bends out of shape. Snap clips and shark clips are made from high tensile spring stainless steel and do the job perfectly, never had an issue with them. You can also use proper flopper pins from a dive shop. Snap clips fit perfectly in the 3/32” holes, bigger shark clips work well for the 7/64” holes. Use some bolt cutters to snip off a bit about 2.5mm wider than the flopper. Also check to make sure the flopper is on the bottom (yes that’s happened to me before as well!)
Now you will need an anvil of some description, a vice jaw works okay but I have a bit of railway track that’s perfect for it. Using a ball pin hammer gently rivet over one side.
Don’t go bashing it too hard and try to get it as around and wide as possible. Repeat for the other side. You have probably got a flopper that’s pretty stiff or something wrong with it. Not too worry this can be fixed! For a stiff flopper usually forcing a bit of 8mm stainless into it to make it wider will do the trick:
This should make the flopper swing open and close willy nilly. If not try some 10mm stainless or get the pliers out and wiggle it around, you should be able to pick the points of friction making it stiff. So assuming your flopper is nice and loose gently tap this area down with a hammer:
This hopefully will make the flopper swing open to about 30° and then lock open the rest of the way.
The best way to tell if a flopper is tuned properly is to put the spear in a gun and hold it upside down so the flopper is sitting down on the spear. Give the gun a sharp smack with your palm and the flopper should flick all the way open and stay there. That’s how a perfect flopper should be.
So now you have a perfectly working spear that can take down another few fish. This is particularly handy if you have all the same brand gun and you bend a spear on your 1400 and then just cut it down for a spare 900 gun spear. You can also put two floppers on spears if you’re keen. Also now you blokes should be able to put floppers on threaded shafts so you can have cool looking spears with prangers or points for comps!
Conduit knife sheath
Filleting knives need to be kept sharp to allow you to process your fish effectively and easily. Knives are sharp and will cut up your wetsuit, mask and anything else in your dive tub if simply thrown in unsheathed. This is how I make a quick, cheap and very practical knife sheath. Works great and I can throw my knives in with the dive gear razor sharp and no blink an eye. I pinched the idea off my late Grandfather who was a keen fisherman from Townsville for years.
What you will need first is your filleting knife and a short section of 25mm grey electrical conduit. The orange underground heavy duty stuff works but it takes a bit more heat to soften. Cut the section of conduit about 20mm longer than the blade of the knife.
Now get that gas bottle your use for making prangers and some insulation tape. Cover 3 of the 4 holes on the flame burner.
This doesn’t allow as much oxygen to the gas and lowers the temperature of the flame. This way you don’t burn the conduit…as easily! You can also stick the conduit in the oven for a bit until it is soft and floppy. I couldn’t be bothered waiting for the oven to head up! Now keep that flame MOVING over the conduit. Sit in one spot too long and the conduit will burn. Roll the conduit over to get even distribution of heat.
Obviously remove the flame from the conduit while moving it so you don’t burn your hand. After a minute or two the conduit will start to feel soft and mouldable. Once this is achieved put your knife in the soft conduit. Yes the conduit will be hot and you can use gloves if you’re not feeling manly.
Now quickly jump over to a wood vice and squash the conduit and knife in the jaws to make it all flat.
If you don’t have a wood vice simply get some bits of timber in a normal vice to clamp the conduit it. Now leave the conduit to cool in the vice for 5 minutes and then pull it out. You should have something that looks like this.
It should be a tight fit around the blade but it won’t touch the edge on the knife. To make it cover that last bit of the blade simply cut the sheath on a slight angle like so. You can shape them a little bit with a bench grinder or a file. I like to put holes in my sheath to allow for drainage of water if I put the knife in the sheath after washing it hopefully after processing a nice fish. Also if you have all the same brand knives and handles are the same you can see the blade through the holes and identify the knife.
So there you have it. Pretty simple to do and makes a great cheap sheath. No excuses for blunt filleting knives now!
Wetsuit repairs
Every spearfisher wears a wetsuit, they are critical to keeping you warm, free from the harsh sun and performing at your peak whilst diving. Typically spearfishing wetsuits are of two piece construction with a hooded jacket and farmer john style bottoms. Wetsuits restrict water flow around the body where the body warms up the surrounding water and it stays close to your skin thus keeping you toasty warm. This is why spearfishers prefer open cell style wetsuits as you are most comfortable and flexible but they also conform to the body’s shape much better. When water intrudes and breaks this mass of warm water around your skin your body will become cold trying to keep your skin warm and you will feel cold. Any diver who has been cold in the water knows that it makes diving much harder as you struggle to hold your breathe. I notice I dive better in summer when the water is much warmer. The main cause of cold water entering a diver’s suit is holes or tears. Many divers overlook the little rips and tears in their suit however you will notice a great difference in your diving when wearing a hole free warm toasty wetsuit..
Repairing holes and rips in wetsuits is quite simple and easy to do for the average diver. However there have been some pretty dodgy attempts such as drowning the hole in wetsuit glue and hoping for the best! With a little care and time you will be able to fix your wetsuit to a standard that will last and extend the life of your suit. The things you need to gather to make a successful repair are as follows. Damaged wetsuit, neoprene glue, aquaseal urethane sealant, nylon thread with a needle and a bit of plastic wrap. See image 1.
You should be able to get wetsuit glue (neoprene glue/cement) and aquaseal at most good diving shops. The nylon thread I use is the stuff used to bind ‘eyes’ on fishing rods. I bought a spool for $7 at a bait and tackle store, you might have to ask for it but it is pretty common. If you use regular cotton thread it will eventually rot with the seawater – no good. The bit of plastic can be anything, just to stop you wetsuit sticking together which I will explain a bit later. Now this is quite a decent rip in this wetsuit. This will require not only gluing but stitching to make it a strong join. See image 2.
The first step to any repair is to put the plastic wrap on the inside of the suit. This is very important because if and when you get a drip of the glue falling off the join it will bond to the other side of the suit, consequently you may have a very tight fitting suit at the end of the ordeal. See image 3.
Now we are ready to start applying some glue to the neoprene. To ensure the strongest bond you need to apply two layers of glue. The first coast is to slightly melt the neoprene and get it ready for the bond and give the second layer a better grip. Smear a bead of glue on the neoprene part of the wetsuit as shown. You can then use a paddle pop stick or small brush to spread it over the area evenly. See image 4 & 5.
After you have spread the glue evenly over the area to be joined you must keep the two sides of the join apart for approximately half an hour and let the glue dry. After the glue is touch dry and not tacky in any way you can then go and apply another layer of glue to the sides of the join, also keep the two sides apart for 5 minutes so the glue only just starts to dry. See image 6.
After the 5 minutes we can now push the two sides together. Starting at one end ‘pinch’ the suit together whilst keeping it flat as not to get a raised up mountain look alike join. This is where the plastic you placed inside the side comes into its own, as you squeeze the joint together and keep it flat you will be guaranteed to glue your suit together in the wrong place if you didn’t have the plastic there. See image 7.
Keep pushing the join together from one end to the other remembering to keep it flat as possible. You can push any parts of the join that are raised up back down with a little pressure from your thumb. See image 8 & 9.
Once you have introduced the two sides to each other you should have a wetsuit that looks pretty spiffy and rip free.See image 10.
Because this is such a large rip in the suit and along a seam which is a high stress area of the suit it needs to be stitched to prevent the join splitting open. For smaller cuts or nicks under an inch you can get away with using the steps so far, stitching is probably not required. I would suggest leaving the suit to fully dry for a few hours before stitching it. Using your needle & nylon thread you can blind stitch the join. Blind stitching is where the needle enters the surface of the wetsuit but does not come out through the other side; this keeps the stitching on the outside and much more comfortable to wear. I like to double over the nylon thread just to make it a little bit stronger. Simply thread you needle and cut a length of the thread and tie an overhand knot in the end. See image 11.
As far as the stitching goes there are probably a few methods out there but I just go for the simple in one side out the other and back over method. Ask the missus and she might even stitch it up for you! When stitching it is important you thread the needle through some of the outside nylon of the suit or the nylon thread will just pull through the neoprene and have no effect. I like to go about 1mm from the edge of the glue like so. If you go much further out the join will start to rise up like a mountain range as you stitch it. *WETSUIT12 IMAGE* After a few stitches you should have something that is looking like this, a nice flat join with even space stitching. Yes I pride myself on my masculine sewing ability. *WETSUIT13 IMAGE* All done. Now you can snip the thread off close to the surface of the wetsuit. See image 14.
The final part to the repair job is quite simply, smear some of that aquaseal goop over the stitching and join. See image 15.
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Have another swig of your favoured beverage and then put a good lump of spit on the end of your finger and smooth out the aquaseal over the join to make it smooth. Make sure you spit on your finger so it doesn’t stick, you’ll have a hard time getting it off otherwise. See image 16.
Now let the aquaseal fully dry overnight before you go diving in your new hole free suit. The inside should be even and flush, on this particular repair trying to hold a camera and squeeze glue at the same time led to a few drips as you can see. Glad that plastic was there to stop the suit sticking together! See image 17.
There are a few things that can keep your wetsuit being tear and hole free. The first is using appropriate lube for your wetsuit. All open cell wetsuits need to be lubed up to get into. To extend the life of other suits that are metalite, goldslick or titanium lined they should be lubed up too. The easiest lube is simply a few squirts of cheap hair conditioner into a sports bottle and some water. Personal lubricants such as ansell are said to make good wetsuit lubes when mixed with water however I have never tried it. Another great product is Green Goblin, ask around the Sydney clubs and you will be able to track it down. Keeping finger and toe nails trimmed will also reduce the amount of cuts you put on the inside of your suit too. Lastly when possible get someone to help remove your wetsuit jacket (keep the hood on too!) instead of trying to do a ‘get of a straight jacket’ impersonation yourself
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