Winter down South

It's cold in the Cape and I'm heading off in search of some warmer waters. Trip report and pics to follow.

Galjoen target

Danielle spearing her first fish - a nice size galjoen!

Dassen catch

Some more yellowtail caught at Dassen recently.

West Coast Cob

Shot a 7.5kg surprise cob on the West Coast a short while ago, the water was between 12 - 14deg, not normally the kind of water temperature they favor. It appeared while I was lying on the bottom waiting for a galjoen to come in and I managed to stone it with a head shot.

Spierre Pure Carbons at the Alphard Banks

Here is some nice footage shot by James Loudon of myself hunting yellowtail at the Alphard Banks off Struisbaai, South Africa in January. You can see the Pure Carbon's action quite nicely in the video.

Spinning for Yellowtail

A short clip of a good catch of yellowtail by AD and myself yesterday. We managed to get our full quota.

SA Nationals - Individual's Results

Below are the individual results for the South African National spearfishing competition held on the Natal South Coast this week (5-8 May). We are happy to see how many of the top 25 divers are diving with Spierre fins, 5 of them placing in the top 10.

Well done to Brod and Gyula for taking 1st and 2nd place.

		Day 1	Day 2	Total	%
1	Brod Whittaker	36.81	69.55	106.36	100%	Spierre Fins
2	Gyula Plaganyi	43.42	56.8	100.22	94.23%	Spierre Fins
3	James Lawson-Smith	38.8	55.95	94.75	89.08%
4	Adriaan Kriel	47.73	44.65	92.38	86.86%	Spierre Fins
5	Angelo Spada	39	48	87	81.80%
6	Craig Heslop	41.02	44.6	85.62	80.50%
7	Neil Barnard	46.58	35.6	82.18	77.27%	Spierre Fins
8	Fred Bester	35.66	39.7	75.36	70.85%	Spierre Fins
9	John Girzda	38.49	36.5	74.99	70.51%
10	Richard Bruno	38.17	28.85	67.02	63.01%
11	Graham Carlisle	39.74	25.5	65.24	61.34%
12	Renier Coetzee	32.82	29.7	62.52	58.78%
13	Jeremy Williams	23.27	38.8	62.07	58.36%
14	Robert Reynolds	25.76	35.3	61.06	57.41%
15	Andrew Henwwood	18.21	40	58.21	54.73%	Spierre Fins
16	Chris West	26.87	30.45	57.32	53.89%
17	Garrick Morris	22.61	34.7	57.31	53.88%
18	Brent Borstlap	41.73	14.8	56.53	53.15%	Spierre Fins
19	Tony Heugh	30.99	25.35	56.34	52.97%
20	Garret Staats	26.82	26.15	52.97	49.80%	Spierre Fins
21	Carl Werner	22.66	27.7	50.36	47.35%
22	Rob Willes	21.58	26.1	47.68	44.83%
23	Sean O'Connor	17.09	29.4	46.49	43.71%
24	Ian Ewing	22.72	23.65	46.37	43.60%	Spierre Fins
25	Chris Swart	21.15	23.9	45.05	42.36%	Spierre Fins
26	Rick de Vries	21.96	22.15	44.11	41.47%
27	Bartho Kotze	22.34	15.55	37.89	35.62%
28	Owen Huxtable	9.73	27	36.73	34.53%
29	Greg Bisset	23.45	11.85	35.3	33.19%
30	Simon Karsten	26.65	6.65	33.3	31.31%
31	Eugene van Wyngaardt	15.57	13.4	28.97	27.24%
32	Paul Putter	16.2	12.75	28.95	27.22%
33	Hylton Newcombe	10.17	16.2	26.37	24.79%
34	Trevor Burger	16.55	9.78	26.33	24.76%
35	Hardus Bouwer	5.74	18.85	24.59	23.12%
36	Darryl Hiscock	11.91	8.75	20.66	19.42%
37	Christo Vermeulen	16.41	4	20.41	19.19%
38	John Little	12.9	5.6	18.5	17.39%
39	Craig Burmeister	4.94	10.85	15.79	14.85%
40	Dane Salmon	2.77	12.5	15.27	14.36%
41	Glen van Ooten	2.42	12.55	14.97	14.07%
42	Dave Coetzee	3.1	11.2	14.3	13.44%
43	Terrance Bellingan	2.15	12	14.15	13.30%
44	Andrew Kallman	3.11	8.9	12.01	11.29%
45	Shane Strong	2.33	6.3	8.63	8.11%
46	Stuart Jardine	7.78	0	7.78	7.31%
47	S Aiken	6.55	0	6.55	6.16%
48	Fred Snyman	3.54	2.05	5.59	5.26%
49	Grant Teubes	2.41	2.6	5.01	4.71%
50	John Kallman	0	1.95	1.95	1.83%

underwater camera

I just received a new underwater camera and tried it out in the kelp on some local galjoen. check
the clip below.Tomorrow I'll try get some yellowtail footage.

Two garrick in one

Marc White sent a clip of a friend of his who shot two garrick with one shot at Cape St Francis (with his RA gun).

20.8kg Amberjack

Some nice shots of a 20.8kg amberjack shot by Eyal, our distributor in Israel.

2009 Hottieshoot at Paternoster

This year's Hottieshoot took place on 18 Apr at Paternoster on the Cape West Coast. Freezing conditions and low viz didn't deter the close to 50 entrants of this popular competition. Early morning west coast mist delayed the start of the comp by ± 2 hrs and it stayed misty for most of the day. Diving in these conditions requires at least a 7mm suit and although hunting for hottentot is perhaps not as high adrenaline as game fish hunting, it's every bit as competitive and enjoyable.

The fish were scarce all round, the divers who dived just before you enter the islands did the best, most of the top 10 finding their bags of fish in this area. The rest who headed out amongst the islands mostly did not fare as well but it was still a great day and enjoyed by all.

The informal atomosphere at the prize-giving went down well, it was a beautiful windless evening at the camping site where the guys stayed and the prizes were well sponsored. Well done to Riaan Theron who chose a pair of Spierre fiberglass camo blades as his 1st prize and to the Hugenote Club for organising an enjoyable comp.

Skipskop – Arniston

Erik Lombard and myself headed up last night to Arniston to join Gavin Hau and well-known big wave rider Pierre de Villiers for a days diving at Skipskop having received reports of some nice yellowtail and cob being shot there over the weekend. There was a light westerly blowing, the sea was quite dirty on the inshore but the closer we went to the banks it became progressively cleaner. The viz though was only about though 6-7m which is quite scary for this area (whites). Erik was first in the water and on his first dive down he shot a 14kg yellowtail. The ice being broken and despite the less desirable viz we continued diving and I shot 3 nice size yellowtail. Gavin also landed a nice fish.

On our last drift of the day, while I was at the bottom I noticed a large great white approaching me from the right, I immediately turned and headed for the surface while watching to see if he was following me up. On my way up I saw that Pierre de Villiers was busy fighting a nice size cob, luckily the boat was already there to pick his fish up and I hopped in. The white came and made a turn at Pierre’s cob but moved off again. The cob weighed 15.7kg, needless to say Pierre was very chuffed with his fish.

We ended the day with 6 big yellowtail between 11-14kg and 1 great cob.

Bonito Open – Stilbaai

The weather predictions in the week running up to the Bonito Open comp held in Stilbaai were looking as if they could go either way; the predictions for Saturday were not looking too good for the morning but each day closer to the weekend looked progressively better. The morning of the comp looked excellent, divers had been out the previous day to scout the area and Russell Warren had shot a 16kg and 9kg poenskoep so things looked promising for the comp. The conditions on the day were windless, there was very little swell and the viz was a good 10m on the inside. The boats gathered at Morris Point just outside the harbour at 07:00am for the start. Just before we left the area we noticed some birds working and signs of fish breaking the surface of the water, jumping in a school of bonito came through and I shot my first weigher.




We continued further up towards Jongensfontein to look at one or two areas that we had scouted the previous day. Most of our dives were in 8-12m depths but we found most of our fish in the 8m range. I had just shot and lost a nice red roman and had just reloaded and dived down looking for another nice weigher when I saw the silhouette of a lone yellowtail approaching just off the bottom. It first turned away when he saw me and then turned back towards me and I managed to give it a nice spine shot. When I swam up to the fish and grabbed it I saw that the barb had not exited on the other side so I could have easily lost it. A little later in the same area a nice size musselcracker of about 9kg swam straight up to me and just as I pulled the trigger he turned while my spear just harmlessly bounced off his thick head. I found another school of yellowtail nearby and managed to shoot another fish of about 6kg. At the weigh-in some nice fish were weighed in amongst others a 17kg poensie by Renier Coetzee. My friend Morné who has very recently started diving managed to win the doppie prize (beginner prize) with his first parrot fish – a nice Rob Allen1.3m tuna speargun!

James Lawson-Smith took first place and chose a pair of Spierre pure carbons as his prize, the top 6 divers in the comp are now all using Spierre blades!

James with his prize of pure carbon blades



Morné receiving his Rob Allen prize from Russell Warren

Mozambique spearing

A nice pic of Pieter Scholtz taken during his Dec trip to Mozambique

Gletwyn's pure carbon review

We built a pair of pure carbons for SA Springbok spearo Gletwyn Rubidge in July last year. Click the link below to his blog site to read his review written after diving with his blades for a couple of months.

southafricaspearfishing.blogspot.com/

Some great Brazilian catches with our Pure Carbons

Chris pictured below with an impressive catch

Yellowtail @ the Alphard Banks

Friday morning saw Eric and myself sitting at 04:00am with our kit on the dockside at Struisbaai waiting for our lift to where the 42 foot Mac Diver lay on its mooring. The reports from other divers who had been to the Alphard Banks the previous week was that the water was dirty and we were hoping that the blue water entering the bay for the first time in months would mean that the deeper reefs would be clean.

Apart from myself the divers were Gavin (the skipper), his son Chris, Eric and James. On the way out to the banks Eric caught up on some sleep after having left Cape Town at 12:30am. After a two and 1/2 hour trip at 22 knots covering 42 miles we arrived at the Alphard Banks to find the water a nice blue with around 15-20m viz. and a light South Wester blowing the whole day. There were quite a few whales around the pinnacle area to greet us on arrival. The reef rises from the deep to a large area of 15-20m depth.

At first there were no yellowtail to be seen on the shallow pinnacles and then James spotted some after a few dives. I dived down to be greeted by a large school of yellowtail, with a couple of big ones in between. I managed to shoot a nice fish of around 11kg with my 1.4m Rob Allen reelgun with 2x 16mm's and 1.9m 7mm spear. The ice was broken and we continuously landed fish throughout the dive with Gavin, James, Eric and myself each managing to shoot some nice fish with quite a few between 10 and 14kg. We headed back to the harbour around 13:00 as it was still a long run back to land. An amazing day's diving, the kind you won't easily forget.

Yellowtail at last!

The weather has turned and it looks as if we're in for a week of flat water and very little wind on the West Coast. Saturday we managed to get 4 yellowtail (the largest was over 6kg) and a couple of bream, the water was still murky in places but the cleaner water seems to be moving in from the deep.

Whale watching :)

We went to check for fish at Dassen Island yesterday, more just to get away from it all and into the water. The weather conditions at the island were perfect with glassy seas and the wind that was predicted not arriving. The water though is cold (12.3deg) and the visibility is poor - I only saw only a few small hottentots (bream). There are a number of whales around the island at the moment and we enjoyed the whale watching.

Cracker catch

Janneman with a nice musselcracker of 8kg shot in ±5m viz at Arniston on the east coast

Pure Carbons and Cubera Snappers

A nice pic of Chris with cubera snappers - 18kg and 35kg.

Weather blues

We're still waiting for the winds to die down and the water to clean up, especially on our Cape East coast where we normally head this time of year for blue water and large schools of gamefish on the deeper reefs while the shallower reefs are abundant with bottom fish with the occasional bonus of a gamefish coming through. Late last week I spoke to my friend who lives on the east coast,he has been diving this area extensively for the past ± 20 years and we recalled how December time was normally the begining of clear water on the banks and other reefs, this pattern seems to have changed the past 10 years with the 'wrong' winds blowing longer and longer into the season. At this stage we're living on memories of schools of fish turning around us in purple blue waters with large shapes that bear the promise of the fight of your life swimming in between. As soon as the light is green we're heading out and the waiting will be over, in the meantime we'll keep the spearfishing dvd's playing and once again check that the equipment is ready :)

Putting some new equipment to good use

Not much happening on the spearing side on the west coast, the water is dirty and cold here at the moment so I headed out to Rooi Els with my dad for a crayfish dive yesterday. Conditions were fair (about 4m viz) and we managed to get our quotas relatively quickly with a strong South Easter blowing.

Morné, Neil and Rob headed out to an undisclosed spot where they had clean water (± 15) and a really enjoyable dive shooting some nice hottentots (bream). Morné took his new Rob Allen 1.2m Caranx with to test and according to him it was deadly accurate. He also found his Scorpio perfect for maneuvering in the kelp beds - the right speargun for that type of hunting, it enabled him to shoot his biggest hottentot to date. Neil and Rob also cleaned up amongst the fish.

New Spierre Brown Camo fiber composite blades

We've just added another camo design to our kelp camo range of fiber composite blades, I'm believing this will prove to be an excellent camouflage when hunting the brown kelp/weed forests. I've had some really good feedback from the guys diving our composite blades some of them going down to 32m on the 5 mile banks at Struisbaai with their blades, Ryan showed me his set of kelp camo blades that he's been diving with for over a year and he has put them through some hard dives including diving for sea cucumbers against strong currents the Coral Sea where his fins worked very well for him. It's really good to hear about the fins performing well for the guys diving them, it makes up for the many challenges faced working with epoxy resins, getting a good finish just being one of them.

December looks as though it's going to be a busy month for us on the blade manufacturing side, I'm just hoping the east coast starts to clear up so that we can get even just a day trip in sometime soon.

Kitted out with a Rob Allen Caranx

We rigged up a new Rob Allen 1.2 Caranx today for Morne, adding one of the RA nylon re-inforced reels with dyneema line to the gun as well. I was reminded when I gave Morne his gun of myself as a relatively new spearo, not being able to afford the then expensive Omer and Picasso guns - looking longingly at the equipment and then nursing my old Champion handles to last a few more years and sanding down my rusted spears. Starting out spearing with an excellent gun like Rob Allen's Caranx is really a pleasure and when the long-awaited clean water and good conditions finally kick-in I'm sure we'll soon see some great fish being shot by Morne with his new gun.

West Coast crayfish dives

Crayfish season on the Cape west coast is in full swing and the conditions were favourable during the past 2 weeks allowing some good days for diving. Some nice size crayfish came out at Melkbos and my dad (at 75) dived out one on the West Coast of 1.5kg (pictured above held by my daughter). The water has now turned so hopefully we get some good water again next week. The nice thing about crayfish diving is it keeps one fit for spearfishing.

Spearfishing Worlds - Venezuela

What a controversial ending to the South African team's 2008 world championships in Venezuela! After all the personal sacrifices and time and money invested so that the team could compete and represent our country, to be disqualified from 2nd position overall as individual and at least 5th position overall for the team - a decision based on the testimony of one Chilean competitor without any appeal or hearing granted. Well done to our team for having such a good attitude despite the huge disappointment and to Jaco for going back to compete on the 2nd day, achieving 14th position overall without a score for day 1! Read the full report by team member Mark Jackson on the www.saspearoranking.co.za forum posts.

The pics of Gyula and his carbons were taken during scouting in Venezuela - apparently the various teams at Worlds tested each other’s equipment and according to the SA team our pure carbon blades came out tops above the other brands. Our whole team ended up returning to SA minus their fins after selling them to the other competitors!

Stretching the boundaries

Yesterday saw Trevor Hutton, Piet Zietsman, Dirk and myself heading out to Oudekraal for a quick training dive for Piet & Dirk, the water was dirty and I'd pulled a muscle while running earlier the same morning and decided to rest so I observed Trevor actively coaching the two divers, from the side. I found myself thinking that although teaching is an intagible transfer of skills it's really hard work and I could see Trevor continously interacting and training them during the dive.

Leaving Oudekraal we headed to Sea Point pool where we did some preparation for today's dive at Blue Rock quarry.

Arriving at Blue Rock we suited up while Trevor shared some further words of instruction, starting at the 26m part of the quarry. My first descent was to 22m meters as a warm-up attempt, next I went down to 26m comfortably with some time spent at the bottom. The water was quite cold down there, about 15deg, and dirty - only about 2-3m viz. we then moved to the 30m mark, I went first going down to 27m but turned just short of 30m as the water became pitch black ahead of me .I tried again awhile later and again went to 27m. Next time I'll take a torch with just to overcome the psycological barrier of diving into the unknown. Overall it was an exhilirating feeling to pass the 16m depths that we normally dive in, I had a sensation of pressure on my chest but Trevor explained that it should disappear in future as my chest gets used to the pressure. I was also diving an old very soft pair of fins and would definitely take some of my latest pure carbons next time. Piet Zietsman managed to make a dive to 30m with 20 seconds to spare at the bottom, using a demo pair of our pure carbons. Dirk also managed to reach 30m. I'm looking forward to my next attempt with Trevor for the 30m mark!

For Trevor's version of the dive - http://trevorhutton.blogspot.com

Trevor Hutton's Freediving Academy site

Take a look at 2 x official world record holder, Trevor Hutton's new freediving site (www.trevorhutton.co.za). It includes some impressive info. about freediving, courses offered by Trevor and his experienced team of instructors to assist you to improve your deeper diving abilities aimed at various skill levels and disciplines as well as some great photos of the Spierre pure carbon monofin in action.

Spierre Pure Carbon Monofins

A nice pic of Trevor Hutton and Paul Winter taken at Oudekraal over the weekend on the Cape West Coast with their carbon monofins.

New - Spierre PVC Gun Bags

We've just introduced our new gun bags, manufactured from heavy duty black PVC and designed to easily accommodate 5-6 guns with reels. The 2m long bag can also hold wooden tuna gun with ease with extra straps inside to hold additional spears. Heavy duty YKK zipper with double stitching and closed seams complete the bag.

South African team dives Spierre Carbons at Worlds

Although the past two months has been poor for spearfishing in the Cape, we've kept busy with an influx of fin orders.

We're proud to say that the following members of our South African National
team will be diving our Pure Carbon blades at this year's World Spearfishing Championships in Venezuela: Gyula Plaganyi (Captain), Jaco Blignaut (5 x SA Champion), Allen Fraser and Mark Jackson. We wish them well during the Worlds and believe that they will do South Africa proud.

Sumora now has Spierre Blades...

We've recently established an alliance with Sumora USA and divers in America will now be able to order Spierre Pure Carbons and our range of Camo composite blades directly from Erik Sun (www.sumora.com). The first consignment of blades should arrive at Sumora late August and we look forward to working alongside Erik in supplying American divers with blades that will propel them to new depths.

Erik with nice yellowtail

New - Carbon Tuna Gun

I've just completed building a custom carbon tuna gun with a wooden stock shaped to 1.4m. The reason behind using the wood as the inner core is for added weight to assist in absorbing the recoil generated by 3 rubbers and 8mm spear. The gun is an open-muzzle design which can hold 3 rubbers. I built an integrated track and fitted a solid polyethylene rear handle with 316 stainless steel cassette. I specifically designed the handle to withstand large loads, the mechanism can handle up to 5x 16mm rubbers comfortably. I originally designed the cartridge for the 5 rubber wooden tuna gun that I built in 2003. Any comments on the design and suggestions to further improve are welcome. Will add more info. as we go along.

Cape West Coast Hottieshoot '08

Saturday 12/4 saw the yearly Hottieshoot comp organised by the Hugenote Spearfishing Club take place at Paternoster on the Cape West Coast. Anyone who knows SA Cape west coast conditions will appreciate that the cold water (9-11deg) and in this case 1-2m viz makes for some extreme diving while hunting for Cape Hottentot (bream). The challenge is to shoot 5 of these fish each weighing in at a minimum of 1kg, while trying to accumulate the heaviest bag. This year saw 2 West Coast divers (figures) take 1st and 2nd place. AD Beukman (above) took 1st place with his biggest fish weighing in at 2.88kg and Lee Elves took 2nd place. The venue and food was excellent and a welcome way to thaw out after a day spent hunting in these conditions.

Plain Black Fiber Composites

Towards the end of last year (2007) we introduced our first plain fiber composite blades. From the feedback we’ve received it seems as though these blades are going to prove to be an excellent alternative to the carbon blades, not the same dynamic performance as carbons perhaps but seen on their own with their smooth flowing action and torque they outperform any plastic blade and are well priced in comparison.

Divers using the composite blades have mailed me with feedback saying that the blades propel them at amazing speeds back to the surface. One spearo sent his dive log which showed him diving to depths of 32m with his fiber composites, normally having to drop his weight belt and float line when ascending to the surface - with the composite blades he swims it up to the surface. We will continuously research and aim to bring new products to the market but am satisfied that the existing blades are performing for the guys using them.

Pure Carbons for a lady spearo

We have just finished building our first pair of pure carbon blades for one of our lady spearos, up to now we have worked out our formulas based on heavier and more robust divers using the blades (she weighs under 60kg) and it was a challenge to determine a formula that would cater uniquely for a female diver without underestimating or curbing her finning capabilities. The blades were handed over on Friday and have already been tested in the sea despite the conditions being less than perfect which says something for keenness and stamina of this spearo :) The feedback received was very positive, the fins are propelling her at greater speeds than she is used to through the surf and the formula for the blade is working for her. We look forward to Janette outperforming some SA records with her new fins.

Pure Carbons for Jaco

Carbons for Jaco

After 4 years of top South African divers using our pure carbon blades and receiving amazing feedback from guys such as Mark White, Erik Lombard, Adrian Kriel, Andrew Henwood just to name a few with regards to the performance and durability of their blades, I built a pair of pure carbons for Jaco Blignaut (our 5 x National Spearfishing Champion) in January 08. I know Jaco to be a diver who is very perceptive to the performance of his equipment and he won’t be shy to give you his feedback, good or bad. Bearing this in mind I built the blades working on a formula that I hoped from experience would be the closest fit to Jaco’s depth capabilities and his overall physique. The feedback Jaco gave during the past two months of diving his blades extensively in Natal waters to depths of up to 120feet was very positive, one of the comments that he sent to me was “I am really enjoying these blades! This pair is the winning recipe. I’m shooting fish with my carbons at 132ft without using a drop weight”.

Rob Allen Gamefish Challenge 2/2/2008

With the huge numbers of yellowtail coming out during the 2 weeks prior the the RA Gamefish Challenge in Struisbaai, it looked as though this would be more ideal conditions than last year which was hardcore with very windy conditions and big swells making for a very short dive time.

This year however, the conditions were excellent with very clean water at the 12mile, some guys even going as far as the Alphard Banks. We ended up going to Saxon reef where I shot two yellowtail, one of 13kg and one of 14kg. I hoped that I had a good chance of placing in the top 3 with my 14kg fish. Then on the way back to Struisbaai harbour we encountered some birds working on bait balls and after 3 jumps on the bait I managed to shoot an 18.86kg yellowtail from a school of about 30 large fish with my 1.2m carbon reelgun. The fish gave me quite a fight but managed to land it. This is my biggest yellowtail up to date and it also gave me the 1st prize. Thanks to RA for sponsoring a great event.