OK, another n00b question:
I'll be in Coromandel this Saturday on the East coast of the peninsula. With my limited understanding of swells and weather conditions I'm thinking it will be pretty average vis because of the easterly swell on the preceding days - I'm using swellmap.co.nz to try and figure that out. Would you experienced guys agree with that?
And if that is right, then am I also on the right track in thinking the West coast of the peninsula might be alright for vis on Saturday?
If the Western side does look OK do you reckon Fantail bay or Waitete Bay would be decent places to start?
I know I could find this out myself given time trying different places, but appreciate any advice you guys can offer will help with that steep learning curve I'm facing right now, so thanks in advance.

TG wrote: If the Tube doesn't have a Rail, how is the Spear guided?

Just by the two points: muzzle and trigger mech. Although some tube guns also have 1-3 plastic guides that stop the spear from sagging in the middle.

In the case of a rail gun, the shaft is supported by the rail all the way from trigger mech to muzzle (well, sometimes the rail stops short of the muzzle or trigger mech like on Esclapez carbon guns, but most of the shaft is supported).

Yep, just rests on the muzzle which is normally raised slightly above the level of the barrel.

Even some very fancy European guns are like this, C4 springs to mind. The idea is that by removing the rail a fair bit of drag is lost, and a longer overhang in front of the muzzle is supposed to reduce and balance the shaft sag between muzzle and trigger mech (the shaft would still be an 'S' shape though). I'm a bit skeptical of how much friction a rail is actually responsible for but that's their reasoning.

Some people also say that the shaft doesn't touch the rail but instead sits on a layer of water. I think this would depend largely on whether the bands were pushing the shaft slightly upwards or slightly downwards, onto the rail - but the water would at least do some lubricating.

RE: UW Hockey helping diving, I've found competitive to hockey have a negative effect on my diving, becasue they use completely different energy systems. However some casual club hockey will be helpful as your general fittness will increase, that said, if you're after some general cardio vascular fittness which will undoubtedly improve your diving you are better off doing a land based sport as your body supresses your heart rate for some reason when you are in the water, hence the need for hockey players to cross train!

nikilaulau - swell not looking great for weekend on east side.

West side is generally poos.

Yep all the way up the west side the viz is poo. as you drive up your thinking its never going to clear up. round fantail bay and further it gets ok, long drive tho. I did the same thing once for a few butterfish, snapper and a couple of crays when the other side was raging and the best viz i got was about 5 metres.

Hi Guys,

I had my first real spearfishing trip today. We started out at about 8:00 am in Torbay and hit the road up to Leigh. It was wonderful and never to forgotten....

Let's cut the crap. It was hell on earth! hahaha. Now I know what all you guys are going on about, but you want to know what? I fell in love with the sport. I had the most problems that I ever had. I had 1 hour sleep last night (My lovely daughter ate something she shouldn't have and was up all night puking. LOVELY) and things were just insane. I didn't even notice we drove through a tunnel that way and only noticed it on the way back. And nope.... No sharks whatsovever. "Never been there, new to new zealand and haven't really got around to exploring"

Firstly (And if anyone can help here it would be appreciated, I have BIG problems equalizing, I cannot equalize at all. I am heading out to lake Papuke,  tomorrow to try and sort this out), I am having serious problems equalizing. I get down to about 4-5 metres and try and blow out the nose and it just isn't happening. I realize that it was my first real dive and I promised myself to be very patient with it. Any advice would be appreciated. I seem to be able to equalize (just popping the ears) out of the water, but as soon as I get in the water, it doesn't work out for me. I must say that I did borrow a snorkel that I never spat out as I was scared of loosing it. I also had immens issues with my mash leaking as I completely forgot to shave (Blame it on no sleep) as well as feeling unconfortable with my nose open and able to breath(Crazy, I know, my parents always said I am not well). I tend to breath out my nose when I go down accidentally. that doesn't help at all as I get water in it then. My suit hood also seems to mess around with my mask, it seems to be a little big and I am too afraid to cut it. It seems to get in between my face and my mask. Bit of a mission on the first dive to still try and get the rubber out from under the mask.

Besides everything, I think this is the best sport/past time in the world. Even though I have never experienced so much pain in my ears and they still hurt, I think this is brilliant!.

The catch of the day (Not me, I don't have a speargun yet and Mark from Bluefins can testify that I was crusing around with a PVC pipe as a poking stick, just in case some biteys tried to join) was 1 kingfish by my friend. I'm including the pic below. We cut some steaks and smoked the bugger and it went down very well.

I am going to post this one in the "newbie" sticky as well as I would really like to get some input on the equalizing issue I am having (And yes, I am already busy reading through the old "equalizing" posts)

Cheers!

hmmmmm,

Thinking about it Mullins, Yup, indeed. I do it by using my chest. Just done it here on the couch and that is indeed how I do it

Thanks Dave, I have a word document saved here somewhere on the laptop with all the eq techniques and Frenzel was one of them. Going to search for it and crack it open again.

Are you using the Frenzel technique?

PS: If I get this under control, I'm sure things are going to look up much more than what they are now!