The South Coast Champs held at Ulladulla was an outstanding success for the Southern Zone. Great weather, well run with a record sign on – 20 boats ranging from Alby’s refurbished 6 meter Haines down to vintage 1960’s Tinnies and the proverbial rubber duck. The SCC was run in conjunction with the Taylor Shield. 55 signed on for the SCC and all divers weighed in. There was a good representation from the Neptune’s, the Sea Lions, Barracudas and of course the Workers. It was the traditional 2 day format, with a quality fish format. 5 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday. The seas were virtually flat with only a small ground swell to give a bit of white water. Not a puff of wind for the 2 days. Visibility was a varied feast, from plankton rich cool 3 meters to a much warmer 15 meters or more. Spoilt for choice at Ulladulla some boats travelled North and South, near and far while others stayed put and fished the local bommies to great success ( if you could dive the murk.)
The 64th hosting of the Canada Cup was held on Saturday the 13th of February at Terrigal on the beautiful Central Coast. The comp was held on the Saturday due to Sunday being Valentine’s Day. This gave divers a chance to spend the day diving with their mates freeing up Sunday to spend with the other half and stay in the good books.
The Sydney Cup was held this year on Sunday 31st January; it was a calm day when driving down to Gunnamatta Bay with a fog forming over Botany Bay. As the divers gathered for the sign on and safety talk the weather cleared and it promised to be a good day for spearfishing.
Divers had come from all around with divers from the South Coast Barracudas, Newcastle Neptunes, Sans Souci Dolphins, Mosman Whalers, Central Coast Sealions & Revesby Workers attending with many of them juniors and sub juniors. There was the standard safety talk on emphasising the importance of flags on individual divers floats (mandatory), and the need for boat drivers to be extremely careful in and around divers floats. Twenty eight divers then walked down the hill to their boats to travel down Gunnamatta Bay and the open ocean.
The competition end was scheduled for 2:30pm and thankfully all were back well in time. The weigh in was then conducted and Tony a supporter of the Zone was there with a fantastic BBQ lunch of Portugese chicken, salad and plenty of iced drinks, a real social atmosphere with plenty of members catching up for a chat and a catch up.
The presentation was held at about 4pm with Simon Trippe as the presentation host and ably assisted by the glamorous Natalie Vercoe presenting the trophies, awards and prizes. The prizes were donated by Adreno Spearfishing who is a great supporter of spearfishing in NSW.
Congratulations to the Sydney Cup 2016 champion, the well-deserved Jack Lavender from the Barracudas with a score of 903pts which was way ahead of the next score of Evan Leeson’s (SSD) of 575pts, Jack reportedly ran all the way down to Port Kembla seeking clear water and found it.
Jack Lavender – Sydney Cup 2016 winner
In the age categories Grand Master was won by Patrick Mullins (SSD), Master Joe Hyzdal (SCB), Veteran Simon Trippe (SSD), Senior Jack Lavender (SCB), Intermediate Graeme Casey (MW), Junior Josh Green (NN) & Sub Junior Patrick McGimpsey, congratulations all. They shared in the quality prizes donated by Adreno including a speargun, diving fins, numerous smaller prizes like sun glasses, gloves booties and other accessories, this was much appreciated by all who received them.
The day was a lot of fun with a lot of the old hands being there as well as some new faces. Competition diving is a lot of fun and not as hard as most envisage. If you want to find out more and a list of upcoming competitions go onto the USFA website, usfa.org.au or contact any of the executives listed on the site.
The 2016 Australian Spearfishing Team is getting ready to smash it at New Zealand in March and USFA are 100% behind helping them get there. Any donations go into the draw for a huge prize pool.
From the team:
We’re heading to the Interpacific Spearfishing Competition in New Zealand this March and are raising funds to make it happen. If you would like to make any donation it would be greatly appreciated! You can visit our fundraising page
Also if you would like to check out our friend Michelle de Rooy Speara‘s athlete page, you will notice she is doing everything she can including promotional videos on youtube to help the team go viral… Check it out!
Hello there winners (cc team and sponsors)
Congratulations to you all – please see the draw results attached.
Thanks for entering the raffle and supporting the team this year, it was certainly appreciated by us all.
It was a tough and fair competition with our men finishing 3rd and our ladies team 4th. Both hard earned results in some very tough conditions which played right into the hands of our kiwi brothers and sisters.
We raised $3,220 through our fundraising efforts with the majority of that money being applied toward our travel and associated costs (think excess luggage!) for our 8 person strong team.
Please be sure to thank the sponsors for their generous donations and do what you can in future to support those who generously give back to our sport year after year.
Congratulations once again from myself and the rest of the team,
Mick Pannach
Another new year has come around and therefore timely that I make mention of some good things that will continue on benefitting all spearos. In the USFA we are fortunate to have many talented members who willingly volunteer their time to assist in the running of the Association.
The One Up One Down pairs events were well received, why would they not be as any new members are invited to dive and be paired with some seriously outstanding spearos who choose to give up their time to assist newcomers to the sport and show them the ropes for a few hours. Continue reading USFA 2016 address to Spearfishers
a) The first Sunday of every month of the year, except January, Mother’s Day, long weekends and major championships. Dates for the upcoming year are to be notified three (3) months prior to commencement. The year commences 1st January and completes 31st Where agreed, Allimans may be held in conjunction with major metro controlled events.
b) A notified date shall not include any date which has been allocated to another championship event except as in (a) above. It shall also not include any date which has been previously notified by any club as a veto date. Veto date must be notified to committee at least four (4) months prior to the upcoming competition year.
c) Alliman Shields must be held on the notified scheduled dates.
d) Allimans will start and finish at the following times
January, February, March, April, May, June – 8am till 1.15pm
July, August, September, October, November, December – 8am till 1.15pm
These times may vary only where an Alliman is conducted in conjunction with a major Metro controlled competition normally 8am till 2pm or as otherwise notified at the venue.
B Grade – Cohan Jones
C Grade – Phil Sheppard
D Grade – Patrick Koch
Grand Master – Patrick Mullins
Master – Gordon Black
Veteran – Rob Tierney
Senior – Matthew Poulton
Intermediate – Aaron Puckeridge
Junior – Joe Halkyard
Sub Junior – Jarod McKenzie
Congratulations to: Sans Souci Dolphins winning the year on equal points with North Shore Seahawks.
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