Amateur hour.. Or day

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    Posted: 27 Nov 2022 at 8:39am
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Was sitting in my office, sick of dealing with the general public, partner unable to do anything on my weekend due to a bug she picked up from work. Started looking at the weather and thought yip thats me after work. Im going to finally get back into the water (last outing was march).
Quick call to the old man back home. One condition you can take the boat out you get it a WOF first (theyre in Whangarei) confirmed my dive gear still in their garage aswell. Sweet as. 

Finished work 5.30pm, packed with the essentials (1 set of clothes and the phone charger and my 90l chilly bin) headed off from Hamilton. First stop Devonport to pick up the brother from the front gates of the naval base. Success.

Going past Waipu realised ah. My PLB is in my ute thats still sitting down in Mr Isuzus possession. Bugger. 

Got home, 10:20pm. Quick pat to the guard dog, into bed.

Up at 5am, thought righto get it all ready. Out to the garage doing the usual lights check, jack it up, bearings etc happy days. Go to pack the boat... Hello.. No dive gear.. Brother has his from ship. Appears mines in Hamilton! Mix matched a set between the old half knackered pile and the old mans gear.

Got down to the testing station 8.15am. (had to borrow parents vehicle, the courtsey ute ive got is 2wd and wouldnt be able to get the boat up the driveway) They open at 9am. Second in queue. WOF passed within 15mins. Off we go to the OBC.

The little bathtub was successfully deployed into the tide, beautiful day. Slightly against time as high tide was a bit after 10am and it was now 9.40am... Hammer down kingi oclock is ticking. Flat calm had the little 4.5m boat sitting at 5500 rpm sitting at 38mph, happy days.

Flopped into the water at guano, first issue. Old mans weight belt slightly over weighted but impossible to move and remove weights off it after decades of being dropped on the ground and in the boat... Mental note taken. 

Knowing from my dive log with previous years, first dive down. Sinking like an absolute rock, peered over a ledge. 18lb snapper pops out in front. Now ameuter hour begins. Took the 110cm speargun thinking can punch through a kingi, should be able to maneuver the shallows appropriately if need be... 
Second snapper appears out of the kelp. Much bigger model now im just thinking oh stop it, too good.... Got greedy... Tried to sit and weight for a good shot on the bigger one (id say 25lb)
The smaller one then looped back round, this is where things started to go pear shaped. It slightly spooked as i was trying to get the gun from my side hip area to out in front. It slowly kicked off which alerted the big boy. Couldn't get a good shot, didnt squeeze the trigger.. . Big boy bolted and id assume is probably somewhere out by the Mokes now.

Next few guts had small snaps in it. Took one 49cm one for eating..happy days just glad to be back out on the water.
Was sitting on a ledge at 15m went to go get to the surface and snap, right fin broke. Now down to 1 and a half fins, extremely overweighted working my butt off to get to the surface.. Less than ideal.. Bugger. Next up, brothers weight belt broke, the pins on thr buckle went ping.. Couple cable ties from the boat... Back to it. 

After these small inconveniences decided to go swim the shallows, thought ill take a 1m gun, easy to maneuver no need for the mornings errors. Go to load it up. No way, rubbers are less than ideal condition just outright dangerous if they go ping with a metal wishbone... (leave that to the imagination) Next 1m gun.. The gun we call the pretzel (shaft has had better days, we KNOW it doesnt shoot straight but have been too lazy to buy a new shaft and just do the old eye ball straightening on the knee trick). 
Told my brother the genius said. To swap shafts over (why didnt I think of that!) 

Old man quite enjoys the odd butterfish, thought will pop a couple. Squeezed the trigger and bugger me. No way you can hit anythinf with that! So we are now down to a 120cm gun and a 110cm gun, brother can still hit the 20m drop offs no worries, I wasnt going past 7m with the state of my fins... 

At this point had been swimming for 4 hours, starting to get pretty over how things had been going and i was absolutely knackered from having to constantly kick just to keep my head above the water. 

Decided to pull the pin and head home, in the mindframe of what next is going to occur. Thankfully nothing else went sideways, however cannot say the usual 'anyday is a good day when on the water, as long as nothing breaks and everyone gets home safely'. 

Had an epic day out but just a good reminder, gear maintenance rather important, slow it down and dont be so excited and in a rush to get back out on the water. 

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Titanium
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Oh well, it goes like that sometimes. You're probably still a better a spearo than most of the sea monkeys out there. Regular practice and gear maintenance are essential for whatever sport you undertake, but you know that. You might find checklists useful as you get older Smile
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Post Options Post Options   Likes (0) Likes(0)   Quote JustAnotherSpearo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 Nov 2022 at 7:25am
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Theres some pretty good gear down in Hamilton... Still a better day out than no day and boy the lactic acid in the legs is making today tough
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