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SpearBlog 2018

Bob Diaz - Wednesday, 22 May 2019 22:18

Some things are just worth doing again and again. For us, that thing is our annual Pirate Trip to Grand Cay. For 4 years now, we've been lucky enough to be able to pull off epic annual trips to the Bahamas for the sole purpose of spearfishing. Our first trip was to South Andros , and as epic as that trip was, since venturing out to Grand Cay on our second trip, we keep getting drawn back. Maybe it's the accessibility, maybe it's the environment, maybe it's just a great time! Sometimes, the grass isn't greener. Every year, we talk about trying new places in the Bahamas, and although I know that some day we will travel to those other places, for now we're content, no exhilarated, at the chance to jump in those waters in and around Grand Cay.

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Bob Diaz - Thursday, 03 January 2019 10:28

Another long overdue edit, but what can I say? Life continues to get in the way of my hobbies... Check out the blog .

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Bob Diaz - Sunday, 29 April 2018 14:17

Finally got around to editing the footage from our first trip to Grand Cay back in 2016. It really sucks when what you have to do gets in the way of what you truly want to do. Who knows, this might lead to my getting around to editing all of last year's footage too! Check out the blog .

SpearBlog 2017

Bob Diaz - Saturday, 30 December 2017 00:53

Wind Seas Viz Temp N-NE 10-18mph 2-4' 30' 77F As 2017 was drawing to a close, I decided it was time to get back on the water and give it one last try before grouper season closed on January 1. With the Christmas break upon us, my kids were home and off from school, so we decided to make it a family day on the water (with the exception of my wife that was unfortunately at work today). Throw in my daughter's oldest friend for good measure, and we were off! The forecast wasn't exceptional, but definitely tolerable especially since all the kids had basically been raised on boats. So with my hopefully good luck passengers aboard we headed to one of my local spots that have been very productive over my last few trips and I was hoping for more of the same today.

SpearBlog 2017

Bob Diaz - Thursday, 05 October 2017 22:50

So for the third year in a row, we begin to plan our annual guys spearfishing trip to the Bahamas in April via What's App. The group is put together and the messages start to fly with talk about the great trip we had last year and how everyone can't wait for this one. There's talk about new gear and new training tools and regimes, but the one thing that we knew wasn't going to be different was the destination. It was an immediate and unanimous decision to re-visit Grand Cay near Walker's Cay once again. Although we all like the idea of new adventures, we were all looking forward to taking advantage of last year's experiences for this year's adventure. With the usual issues coming and going of who's in, who's out, which weekend, would we go Thursday through Sunday or Friday through Monday, there were actually a couple of times when the entire trip was in question.

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Bob Diaz - Wednesday, 24 May 2017 20:17

One of the few usable clips from our outing for the opening of the Atlantic Grouper season 2017. Definitely demonstrates why you should always be checking your surroundings. Enjoy! Check out the blog .

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  • Performance Freediving

SpearNews

Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2006
Thu29Jun2006

June 29, 2006

Information
Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2006 | June 29, 2006 | Print

Winds: 10-12 South
Seas: 2-4 feet
Surf Temp: 83 F
Viz: 10-15 feet
Today started out a little slow, but we were rewarded for our continued effortrs by bagging some of our favorite and recently absent quarry, Black Grouper. Not just a Black, but a big Black, at least for this area (34 inches). We haven't bagged a specimen like this for more than a few years (actually, since 2001).

We actually bagged more grouper today than we have for the past couple of weeks. The big one from above, another Black (27 inches) and a relatively small (but legal) Red Grouper (22 inches). It sure was nice to shake off that bad mojo of not getting any Grouper over the past few weeks. And to break the streak with such a nice fish was just a real plus.

The viz at our offshore patches has not improved at all. We have been staying closer to home in shallower water, but still areas that produce a decent catch for us (at least historically). Just to make matters worse, in addition to the overall crappy visibility we have been experiencing, there is a tropical wave over Puerto Rico that is supposed to be smack dab in the middle of the keys by Sunday or Monday. Oh well, I guess the viz can't get too much worse... (just kidding, oh spearfishing gods :).

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Bob Diaz - Thursday, 11 February 2010 20:57

Believe it or not my latest addition to my spearguns is not one for shooting fish (well at least not shooting to kill them). But it hopefully will help others watch online what I love to do underwater. I have made a camera mount for my Riffe Euro guns. This mount will fit on any Euro that has the reel inserts (basically all of them). It was terribly simple to make. The only fairly tricky part was putting together the actual mount screw for the camera tripod mount itself.

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 10 March 2013 12:57

Back in March of 2010 I enrolled in and completed the FII Level One freediving course . I was extremely happy with the course content and the outcome (check out the SpearView ). Unfortunately for me, I'm not a professional freediver, so as with many people, life gets in the way and complicated which in turn keeps you from building a true regimen that reinforces all the good behavior learned in the course. Needless to say, I forgot some of the basics, fell back into many of my old bad habits...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Wednesday, 21 December 2011 15:51

I realized recently that I had overlooked the fact that I had purchased and used some new SpearGear at the beginning of the Summer of 2011 and hadn't gotten around to posting about it (here or in SpearGear). This article is going to be one that definitely crosses over between SpearViews and SpearGear because of the fact that I do own it but I definitely think it's worthy of a review as well. In the end, SpearViews won the coin toss deciding where I would put the article (especially after I...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Saturday, 28 September 2013 18:22

The summer had been busier than I would have liked this year and I honestly hadn't had as many opportunities to post much less given much thought to writing a new SpearView, but after having time to really reconsider, I realized that I had actually had multiple opportunities to try out new equipment this year (not all of it successfully). Further to that point, when I took the PFI Freediver course back in March I had decided to invest in a new mask and ended up deciding on the Omer Zero Cubed...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Monday, 09 June 2014 16:50

Over the winter I looked into and purchased a couple of sets of Reef Runner Gear's fin skins. I had contemplated having my own manufactured but when I came accross these, it just didn't seem worth the hassle. You can create your own custom design for a few bucks more and although you can run into some small snags when doing so (I'll elaborate later on), Jon from Reef Runner Gear is an awesome guy to work with and he will do everything he can to make things right.

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 12 February 2012 23:29

{sigplus link=oculusr5 index=1} {/sigplus}Hot on the heels of my review of the GoPro Hero2, I felt I would be remiss if I didn't follow up with a review of the case that resolves the one (and only one in my opinion) flaw in the Hero2 design, it's underwater focus (or lack thereof) flaw. You see, as I wrote about in the Hero2 review the curved lens on the stock case creates a focus fallacy when shooting underwater. It's fairly common knowledge now, so if you want to read about it, you can check...

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SpearBlog 2005

Bob Diaz - Monday, 25 July 2005 15:05

Winds: 0-5 Variable Seas: Less than 2 feet Surf Temp: 84F Viz: 80-100 feet This is what I have been waiting for all summer long! This was without a doubt the best weekend in short term memory. We literally had no chop for as far as the eye could see. Water clarity once you were outside of Hawk Channel was easily 80 to 100 feet in any direction. We dove depths from 20-40 feet and there was no noticable change in the viz. The other thing we noticed was the uncanny number of Spanish Mackerel that...

SpearBlog 2006

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 30 July 2006 15:14

Winds: 5-15 South Seas: 3-4 feet Surf Temp: 84 F Viz: 20-35 feet This weekend we finally started to find some cleaner water without having to go too far offshore. For the past few weeks, the real clean water was unfortunately a little deeper than we are accustomed to diving. But over the past week, it seems as though the blue water has moved in a little closer to shore and started to give us a break on viz. We were actually able to spot and follow most of our prey without having to commit to...

SpearBlog 2006

Bob Diaz - Monday, 07 August 2006 15:15

I'm not going to lie to you, I got a little lazy and didn't track any of my weather stats this weekend. Diving, cleaning fish and cooking start to take their toll on you and you get to the point where all you want to do is get some sleep instead of being responsible and entering your blog. Then again, I probably tell more people about our goings-on these weekends than actually read them here... Opening day of lobster season! What a madhouse!!! The really interesting part (and by interesting, I...

SpearBlog 2017

Bob Diaz - Monday, 13 February 2017 20:24

Wind Seas Viz Temp S/SE 7mph 2' 25-30' 73F Disclaimer : No matter what I do or write, it is NEVER a good idea to dive alone. I do know better, but I'm old and stubborn (no excuses, just stating facts). No matter how cautious I am with staying in shallow depths, watching currents and waves, it's extremely dangerous to dive much less spearfish alone. The possibilities for life threatening situations are too numerous to count, so please don't follow my very bad examples. Since October of last...

SpearBlog 2011

Bob Diaz - Monday, 20 June 2011 16:22

Seas: 1-4 feet Winds: 10-15 S/SE Viz: 25-30 feet Temp: 84 F After last weekend and the good luck we had with finding the large mangroves, we decided early on that this weekend we would focus on doing more of the same as we talked during the week. We also knew that we only had Saturday to fish since Sunday was Father's Day and even us dads have dads, so we knew most everyone needed to depart early Sunday to spend time wth family. With only one day to dive, I was hoping to arrive early on Friday...

SpearBlog 2012

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 15 July 2012 23:47

Seas: 3-5' Winds: 15-25 SE Viz: 10-15 Temp: 86F This week I was hoping for something a little extra. At the start of this weekend I hadn't shot a grouper yet all summer and I was hoping I would get the first one in spite of the fact that the weather forecast was pretty horrible and I was only going to get to dive Saturday because we had to get back home early this weekend to make it in time for a friend's daughter's birthday. So with little time and an unfavorable forecast, I was going to see...