So this is the lucky spearo, Rob Crawford, who won the awesome Ray Powell DiveR fins designed by one of Ray’s many hot artists, Naomi Gittoes, that were raffled at the Sydney Adreno opening day by the USFA.
Rob Crawford. Winner of the USFA prize at the Adreno Sydney opening.
Rob enjoys his spearing and loves a day out on the water in his boat.
Thanks goes to DiveR Australia for his continued loyalty to the USFA, Adreno for their wonderful support, and to all spearos on the day who purchased a ticket. Please look at www.usfa.org for dive and safety tips and to see the work USFA is doing for spearos along the coast.
The conditions looked good as the sun came up over Botany Bay. It was 7am and there were the usual bike riders and dog walkers about while the ring and sign on sheets were organised in the park but no divers! Sure enough from various directions the spearo boats came steaming in and by 7:30am nearly fifty divers in fifteen boats signed on and gathered for the safety talk and at 8am wandered off to the boats to gather about 500m away for the boat start flagged by Macca. Continue reading Alliman Shield 2015 – 11th October – Kurnell
The day dawned a beautiful pink promising clear skies and at Fishermen’s Beach the air was still and the sea a mirror. There was nobody around as I set the ring up but by 7:30am the place was buzzing with boats zooming in and the divers signing on. What a great day for an Alliman!
The usual safety talk was given with the emphasis on diving in pairs as the many reports of shark activity had some divers nervous but as it turned out not one was seen. Just before 8am the divers made their way to the boats and putted out slowly to wait for Macca to wave his boat flag to signify the start of the competition. The boats raced away North & South! Continue reading Alliman Shield 2015 – 13th September – Long Reef
The inaugural State Championship was held at that great, usually fishy, accessible location on the Central Coast, Norah Head. A rock hop event, the location was chosen as it offers a variety of depths and fishing ground and safe leeway depending upon the prevailing wind at the time.
As I arrived at the sign on location early I had time to check out the area and was pleased that the event was safe enough to hold with just a light SE wind puffing away. I begin setting up the area when the Montgomery “brothers” arrive on the scene, talk about keen! Still 90 minutes until swim off. Steve Montgomery had just come back from a USFA members trip to NW Island and had embraced the calm, warm and clear waters of the tropics spearing some great fish while Hayden Montgomery (no actual relation) is a frothing young spearo who at 15 has already captured an abundance of great species that many spearos even three times his age are in envy of. The two lads ripped in and helped me set up which was greatly appreciated.
Josh Green and Zane Hutchison Junior Champions
With half an hour to swim off many more “Sea Lions”, members of the local spearo club, had rocked up Bailey Ives, Zac and Pat with a mix of the usual suspects from the Sans Souci Dolphins – Mudcrab Marsh, Paz, Cohan and the Alliman and Canada Cup champion the Handsome Mexican Cruz; good to see some Neptunes from Newcastle (the Green clan) and South Coast Barracudas Joe Hyzdal, and the current NSW champion and king of the south coast Jack Lavender. Jack had really enjoyed the previous social pair event the USFA had run where he had keenly offered to swim with a young newcomer to offer many tips and techniques.
NSW Open OUOD Champions Jack Lavender and Joe Hyzdal
A briefing of the regulations was given – such as the 4 metre rope the surface diver needed to be connected to, while his dive buddy (the one under) uses a standard length rig cord, swapping to the shorter cord when it was his turn to remain on the surface, that one diver in the pair must always remain on the surface. The restricted species sheet discussed, where only 1 only of some basic species, such as red morwong, were to be weighed in between a pair. The scoring today was 100points a fish and 10 points per kilogram, Simon Horvath very kindly took two juniors with him as we did have an odd number of divers sign on.
Mentor and Grommet Champion Simon Ross and Mal Green.
By 0800 the safety boat with pilot Joe Brennan and co-pilot Nathan Gradidge had launched Al Cooke’s beautiful Haines 600r (a big thanks for lending your tub for the day Al), and we had twenty three of the keenest spearos in NSW signed on, briefed and ready to brave very difficult diving conditions. There was an unusually strong current mixed with cool, dirty water that belied the calm surface conditions and thus for the first time in my memory in a comp every competitor was back well before finishing time.
The hard luck stories are always worth listening to, for a laugh, though I did feel sorry for young Jay Bain and his early exit from the competition due to losing a fin in swimming through some surf attempting to spear a huge Bream that was on dry land, I know, you will have to ask him yourself.
Lachy Green towed his dad Phil around all day, or was it the other way around? Depended on which Green was telling the story. The father and son team came across a nest of bugs and had 4 splendid specimens in their keeper bag. Another father and son team was Rabbit Kyle and his 10 year old son Max, Max is beyond keen and they brought in some nice fish, Max landing two great Red Rockies himself and they looked likely to take out the Grommet section until another Green member, the youngest, Malakai and his mentor buddy Simon Ross brought in the same amount of fish with just a slightly heavier total bag.
Aaron Puckeridge and his float towing partner himself a former NSW champion like Aaron, Ben Bayfield, had an indifferent day and they brought in 5 fish as well, they were both pleased to see an esky and hot meat pies at the weigh in. Josh Green the biggest and probably the ugliest of the Green siblings, and his great mate Zane Hutchison weighed a good swag with 8 fish and they looked the winners as the last group to weigh in arrived, Jack and Joe from the ‘Cudas, they presented a smaller weight though with 9 fish to edge ahead of the Newcastle juniors to be crowned the inaugural NSW One Up One Down Pairs champions.
Class
Diver
Points
Golden Oldie
Joe Hyzdal
980
Silver Oldie
Phil Green
538
Junior Champion
Josh Green & Zach Hutchison
887
Open Champion
Jack Lavender & Joe Hysdal
980
2nd Open
Josh Green & Zane Hutchison
887
3rd Open
Aaron Puckeridge & Benny Bayfield
550
Largest Fish
Rock Blackfish – Cohan Jones
3075gm
Convenor’s Choice
Bream – Hayden Montgomery
1150gm
Sportsman’s Award
Simon Horvath
Young blokes going hard on the dogs eyes
This event will continue, as will its more social format where the younger and new USFA members are teamed up with experienced spearfishers who pass on valuable expertise to their allotted partner.
The overwhelming feedback form the divers repeat several key points:
“It’s definitely safer”
“I relax so much more knowing my buddy is over me, my diving just naturally improves”
“Far more enjoyable way of spearfishing a comp”
“So relaxing having someone right there with you”
“I love it when I see my partner stuff up”
It is a given that when you are relaxed and confident you are going dive better, it’s a given if your buddy is slightly at higher level than you that you will be drawn up to his level by diving with him it’s a given that diving one up one down with your surface buddy right there watching your every dive is safer, it’s also a given that it is great to share experiences with your mates who are right there to witness what you saw.
Looking forward to diving in the next one. Date out soon, keep January open.
The day dawned perfect for the sixth round of the Alliman Shield 2015 at Bayview. Forty two divers and fourteen boats gathered on the beach on a rather mild winter’s morning and after the safety talk and the sign on the boats made their way up the channel into Pittwater and then out in the open ocean, although some hit the estuary first.
The day dawned calm and conditions looked terrific for the fourth competition of the 2015 Alliman Shield competition year. The boats & competitors arrived late (bloody winter!) but the sign on, safety talk & roll call went quickly and the divers made their way down to the boats only a few minutes after 8am.
6:45am one week after daylight saving ended dawned dark and grey at Little Manly cove as the boats gathered on the beach as the ring was put up and the tables set up for the weigh in later in the day.
Forty three divers signed up for the competition including that old stalwart Trippey from the Dolphins who was seen shaking out mothballs out of his dive gear. There was a lot of talk and catching up and it was good to see a new breed of young guns from the North Shore Seahawks that a forming a good team.
The safety talk was conducted and everyone made their way from the reserve to the boats and a few minutes before 8am the boats made their way out slowly to the gathering point outside the cove ready for the flag start from Emanuel’s big R.I.B.
The flag was waved and the boats made their way in all directions some up the harbour and the rest out to sea.
The conditions were quite ordinary with a strong Southerly wind blowing and a nasty sloppy chop making things uncomfortable. Coupled with this was an ordinary 6m to 8m cloudy visibility with a lot of particles throughout the water. Nevertheless the conditions were still very spear able and the fish that came into the weigh in was proof of this. Continue reading Alliman Shield 2015 – 12th April – Little Manly
What a great day was had! Twenty eight divers, of all ages, and locations along the coast rocked up to the Dolphin’s club house to sign on for the first USFA One Up One Down Pairs meet. No one left disappointed, the diving saw to that, yet even before a fin was dipped in the water spearos were showing obvious signs of stoke. Passing over their fifteen bucks to register for the event and being handed a trucker cap, T -shirt and Stubby cooler all embossed with great sponsor Adreno’s logo on them, spearos were incredulously asking “…What, we are given these, and we get a beer and are fed for fifteen bucks?!? Awesome!!” Hell yeah!
Lachy Green towed his dad Phil around all day, or was it the other way around? Depended on which Green was telling the story. The father and son team came across a nest of bugs and had 4 splendid specimens in their keeper bag. Another father and son team was Rabbit Kyle and his 10 year old son Max, Max is beyond keen and they brought in some nice fish, Max landing two great Red Rockies himself and they looked likely to take out the Grommet section until another Green member, the youngest, Malakai and his mentor buddy Simon Ross brought in the same amount of fish with just a slightly heavier total bag.
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