Underwater Skindivers and Fisherman's Association

Sydney Cup 2016

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 — 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.

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Results:

2016 Australian Spearfishing Team needs our help

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

USFA 2016 address to Spearfishers

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

Local Competition Rules for USFA – Sydney Metro Zone

Adopted 12/1/09………
Revised ……………

These rules are to read in conjunction with the current USFA competition rules.

Dates of Alliman Shields Competition

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 1^st January and completes 31^st 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.

Continue reading Local Competition Rules for USFA – Sydney Metro Zone

Taylor Shield 2016

January –
February –
March –
April –
May –
June –
July –
August –
September –
October –
November –
December –

Alliman Shield 2016

January – Gunnamatta – Cancelled – dangerous ocean conditions
February – Bayview – Cancelled – dangerous ocean conditions
March – Kurnell – Results
April – Little Manly – Results
May – Watsons Bay – Results
June – Gunnamatta – Cancelled – dangerous ocean conditions
July – No Competition
August – Bayview – Results
September – Long Reef – Results
October – Kurnell – Results
November – Port Kembla – Results
December – Gunnamatta – Results

2016 End of Year Alliman Shield Results

Congratulations to:

Individual placings:

1st – Matthew Poulton
2nd – Derrick Cruz
3rd – Evan Leeson

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.

Grade Changes for 2017

Legend:

++ up two grades

+ up one grade

– down one grade

A Grade

B Grade

C Grade

2016 USFA Executive Committee

Underwater Skindivers & Fisherman’s Association office bearers:

Office	Person
President	Peter Saunders
Vice President	Peter Walsh
Secretary	Peter Walsh
Assistant Secretary	Nic Williams/Mel Brown
Treasurer	Kevin Saw
Assistant Treasurer	Lee Dalli
Membership Officer	Lee Dalli
Accreditation, Insurance & Strategic Officer	Peter Walsh
Sports Secretary	Peter Walsh
Events Coordinator	Alby Cooke
Webmaster & Social Media	Sam Krywulycz

Fundraising Officer	Jason Montes De Oca
Grants Coordinator	Vacant
Online Solutions Officer	Nigel Sirisomphone
Historical Officer	Mel Brown
Strategic Planning Officer	Peter Walsh
Public Officer	Peter Walsh
Public Affairs Officer	Peter Saunders
Safety & Education Officer	Simon Trippe
Recognised Training Officer	Simon Trippe
Spearfishing Records Officer	Hayden Montgomery
Data & Research Officer	Vacant
Endangered Species Officer	Matthew Poulton
Environment Officer	Vacant
Marine Advisory Councils Officer	Oliver Wady
Marine Parks Liaison (Far North – Coffs)	Ray Powell
Marine Parks Liaison (Far North – Byron Bay)	Ray Powell
Marine Parks Liaison (North)	Dallas Davies
Marine Parks Liaison (Central)	Matthew Pulton
Marine Parks Liaison (South – Jervis Bay)	Oliver Wady
Marine Parks Liaison (South – Batemans Bay)	Ric Cumming
Members Liaison	Vacant
Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA) Representative	Matthew Poulton

Wally Gibbins

A touching presentation speech for the Wally Gibbins Trophy read by David Birch at the 2015 USFA Awards night.

Walter Hammond Gibbins was born January 16^th 1930 in Sydney. In the early 1940s he harpooned leatherjackets from the jetties of Sydney Harbour to feed his family before entering the water with his homemade mask, snorkel, belts, a scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) system and speargun to chase bigger game so successfully that most speargun manufacturers use his speargun design even today.

Wally Gibbins - 68lb (30.8kg) Fairy Bower 1952 — Wally Gibbins – 68lb (30.8kg) Fairy Bower 1952

Wally’s adventurous aquatic life was often compared to the leading French marine explorer Jacques Cousteau. He was a pioneer diver who spent thousands of hours exploring fish, shells and underwater salvage sites. He filmed many of this exploits for TV or films along with a team of high-profile names, including Ben Cropp and Ron and Valerie Taylor. Wally pioneered the trigger mechanism still used today in many guns.

He caught his first shark, a wobbegong, at Middle Head in 1947, and shot and landed the first man-eating shark in Australia – a bronze whaler in 1950. The capture of a shark by a skindiver (rather than a man being caught and eaten by a shark) created headline news. He also caught with a spear a 400-kilogram tiger shark at Sykes Reef near Heron Island in 1963.

In 1948 he helped form the Underwater Skindivers and Fishermen’s Association at Long Reef , winning spearfishing competitions for the next 10 years, as well as the 1952 contest between anglers and spearmen. Wally single handedly caught more fish than all 37 anglers who had fished from the shore or boats. The rest of the spearos that turned up that day, may as well have stayed at home! Continue reading Wally Gibbins

USFA Awards Night 2015

Continue reading USFA Awards Night 2015

USFA DiveR prize winner – Adreno Sydney Opening

Good afternoon spearos

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.