NEED HELP: Dialing in Weight & Gear for Spearfishing

Hello Dive Buds!

STOKED for the amazing conditions for diving this week. Headed to N. Big Sur tomorrow morning (if anyone wants to join us) for spear fishing (no tanks) - bringing the yaks to get us out there to talk to them (might go toward Lobos Rocks)!

BELOW ARE MY QUESTIONS (sorry ahead of time for all of them!):
I'd like your advice/opinions on dialing in my current gear and technique better.

I am 6'3", 199 lbs, 17% body fat (I am in the gym often and in pretty good, solid shape - muscularly speaking - this is FYI for buoyancy and breath hold advice). I dive with a 5mil open cell farmer john suit w 3mil gloves and socks, Omer Cayman 75 single band, 19lbs on belt (3-3s and 2-2s).

1) I float with water midline on my mask at the top, but I still feel pretty boyant in the water in about 30ft of water (i understand deeper=sink faster) - Should I add more weight - safely?
2) I only dive about 2-3x/mo, so my breath hold is weak (maybe 45 sec on the bottom in 20-30 ft). Any thoughts on how to increase this? Any web links to static exercises? I'm super comfortable in the water and very conscious of my rest periods. I practice the 3-4 seconds breath in with 6-8 seconds breath out at 80% lung capacity for ~1.5min then breathe in chest first then stomach at 100% before diving down).
3) Does black out have any indicators before it happens? I typically dive with someone but that someone is usually 20-40 ft from me.. which is like diving alone, i suppose.
4) Should I add a 2nd band to my gun? I've never shot the nice guns before, so I don't have a reference for how my gun performs, although the forums say its a good one for around here). My PR for ling is 37" so I know it can penetrate but I feel like I've been missing easy shots lately. Maybe I need to stiffen my arm and grip before pulling trigger (not something I was consciously focusing on before)
5) My kayak is finally super dialed in for free diving off of, but I feel like it's only useful to get out of the mouth of still water cove (to avoid swimming it). Any other places it really helps - it adds a whole separate level of effort to bring it on a dive trip.
6) Any pointers on locations to dive down in Big Sur? Tomorrow is my first time going that far south.
7) Are there any free diving courses in Monterey area?

Thanks for letting me be a pest and ask a ton of lame questions. I'd be all kinds of down for a few experienced divers to let me tag along with them. If you have any questions or need clarifications, please let me know.

Hello Dive Buds!

STOKED for the amazing conditions for diving this week. Headed to N. Big Sur tomorrow morning (if anyone wants to join us) for spear fishing (no tanks) - bringing the yaks to get us out there to talk to them (might go toward Lobos Rocks)!

BELOW ARE MY QUESTIONS (sorry ahead of time for all of them!):
I'd like your advice/opinions on dialing in my current gear and technique better.

I am 6'3", 199 lbs, 17% body fat (I am in the gym often and in pretty good, solid shape - muscularly speaking - this is FYI for buoyancy and breath hold advice). I dive with a 5mil open cell farmer john suit w 3mil gloves and socks, Omer Cayman 75 single band, 19lbs on belt (3-3s and 2-2s).

1) I float with water midline on my mask at the top, but I still feel pretty boyant in the water in about 30ft of water (i understand deeper=sink faster) - Should I add more weight - safely?
2) I only dive about 2-3x/mo, so my breath hold is weak (maybe 45 sec on the bottom in 20-30 ft). Any thoughts on how to increase this? Any web links to static exercises? I'm super comfortable in the water and very conscious of my rest periods. I practice the 3-4 seconds breath in with 6-8 seconds breath out at 80% lung capacity for ~1.5min then breathe in chest first then stomach at 100% before diving down).
3) Does black out have any indicators before it happens? I typically dive with someone but that someone is usually 20-40 ft from me.. which is like diving alone, i suppose.
4) Should I add a 2nd band to my gun? I've never shot the nice guns before, so I don't have a reference for how my gun performs, although the forums say its a good one for around here). My PR for ling is 37" so I know it can penetrate but I feel like I've been missing easy shots lately. Maybe I need to stiffen my arm and grip before pulling trigger (not something I was consciously focusing on before)
5) My kayak is finally super dialed in for free diving off of, but I feel like it's only useful to get out of the mouth of still water cove (to avoid swimming it). Any other places it really helps - it adds a whole separate level of effort to bring it on a dive trip.
6) Any pointers on locations to dive down in Big Sur? Tomorrow is my first time going that far south.
7) Are there any free diving courses in Monterey area?

Thanks for letting me be a pest and ask a ton of lame questions. I'd be all kinds of down for a few experienced divers to let me tag along with them. If you have any questions or need clarifications, please let me know.

I wouldn't count myself among the more experienced guys on this forum (I've been diving this area ~6 years, but for a variety of reasons--mostly only getting out once a month or so--my bottom time is typically 45s - 1min), but I'll take a stab at this.

1) Depends how new your suit is. I'm 6'1" and 185 (+/- 5), and I dive a 7mm suit with 18 lbs. When the suit was new it kept me neutral at 30ft. These days I plummet to the bottom once I pass ~15ft. I should really take some lead off, but I'm using my old scuba weights and they're not in small enough increments. FWIW, I just ordered a custom 5mm closed cell suit from Elios to replace my current suit, and I'm hoping to drop 4 lbs off my weight belt.

One solution for you could be to pick up some quick weights from Neptonics, so you can clip them on for shallow dives and leave them in the yak as you move deeper. They're really popular with WSB divers down south, since they usually hunt around 25ft and retrieve fish 50ft or deeper.

2 & 3) I use the Apnea Trainer app for breath-hold training. I'll either do ~10 minutes before bed or (more often) bust through a session while I'm on the toilet. Sounds gross, but it's easy to make excuses not to train. When you're pooping you're your own captive audience. As for blackout indicators, nothing beats an FII or PFI class, but the Manual of Freediving is a good place to start (https://www.amazon.com/Manual-Freediving-Underwater-Single-Breath/dp/1928649270).

4) I have two small i.d. 14mm bands on my 82 Pathos, and I like the extra kick for longer shots on free-swimming rockfish. You don't need a second band shooting into holes, though.

5) You can launch from the reserve side of Lovers Pt and hit a whole bunch of deeper kelp beds to the west. There are some cool pinnacles out that way, too, if you have GPS. Just don't dive while you're on the reserve side and you're golden.

6) Haven't found an excuse to make it down that way yet, so I can't help you there.

7) I think Bamboo Reef started doing SSI freediving courses, but as much as I love Bamboo Reef, I'd stay away from SSI since they're not compatible with FII / PFI. Kris (I'm forgetting his last name) runs classes out of Red Triangle Spearfishing in Petaluma and usually does his ocean dives at Stillwater in Carmel. I haven't taken his class yet, but I've heard consistently great things.

1) It depends on how deep you're diving. If you're diving > 40ft you probably want to be neutrally buoyant at 30 ft (i.e. you'll kick to 30 ft on the way down and sink, you'll kick to 30 on the way up and ascend pretty rapidly). When you're diving shallow you generally want more weight so you're not flailing around trying to do aspettos/looking in holes.

2) Honestly just diving as much as you can and then doing some cardio during the week is enough. I used to think not diving frequently would hurt my breathhold a whole lot, but now I tend to think it's more mental and about being comfortable than it is physical.

3) I don't know the official stuff that a freedive course might teach, but I think a headache is a good indicator of oxygen debt. Other than that, just don't push it and you should be fine. SWB is pretty unusual in our cold, uncomfortable waters, I've heard.

4) It depends entirely on your setup. I generally like having two bands (e.g. two 16mm or 14mm bands on a RA) in case one breaks, even though I'll usually only load one to save my tip some sharpening if I'm shooting into rocks.

5) You can carry more stuff, shoot more/bigger fish without having to drag them around on your hip/gun/dive board, take breaks, drop a deuce, give up spearfishing and go pig hunting every weekend  , etc. with a kayak.

6) Pretty much anywhere not in an MLPA where there is kelp. You'll hit a lot of dead areas, but eventually you'll get into really fishy pockets. Schooling blues are a good indicator of all sorts of life. Take it easy on the sheephead, those things get hammered by folks, plus sheephead aren't even that good to eat.

7) Probably. I haven't bothered to ever take one, but I've heard the safety stuff is valuable. I know PFI and FII are the two main ones.

I am 6'3", 199 lbs, I dive with a 5mil open cell farmer john suit w 3mil gloves and socks, Omer Cayman 75 single band, 19lbs on belt (3-3s and 2-2s).

1) I float with water midline on my mask at the top, but I still feel pretty boyant in the water in about 30ft of water (i understand deeper=sink faster) - Should I add more weight - safely?

First off 3-3s and 2-2s is not 19lbs.  That is actually 13lbs and probably okay with your weight and a 5 mil suit. 

Most people start off with around 10 percent of their body weight in dive weights and adjust from there depending on how buoyant your suit is.  You probably do not need the full 19lbs so adding more is not the best idea if you can get to 30 ft without issue.  Once you go deeper you will start to sink and you will really have to work to get back to the positive buoyancy depth if you have to much weight. 

Try exhaling when you are at the surface and see if the whole mask is submerged.  I like to have the mask Midline when I exhale completely and mostly out of the water when I inhale.  It’s way less than the 10 percent suggestion but it works for me especially on deeper dives.  I am to lazy to add weights in the shallows so sometimes I have to grab onto a rock or kelp stalk if I am floating to much.

Kris Cortez

This is the guy you want to contact. All is info is on this link.
http://www.freedivinginstructors.com/fii/courses_by/kris.cortez

Be safe tomorrow

Tell him Antonio says 

Hello Dive Buds!

STOKED for the amazing conditions for diving this week. Headed to N. Big Sur tomorrow morning (if anyone wants to join us) for spear fishing (no tanks) - bringing the yaks to get us out there to talk to them (might go toward Lobos Rocks)!

BELOW ARE MY QUESTIONS (sorry ahead of time for all of them!):
I'd like your advice/opinions on dialing in my current gear and technique better.

I am 6'3", 199 lbs, 17% body fat (I am in the gym often and in pretty good, solid shape - muscularly speaking - this is FYI for buoyancy and breath hold advice). I dive with a 5mil open cell farmer john suit w 3mil gloves and socks, Omer Cayman 75 single band, 19lbs on belt (3-3s and 2-2s).

1) I float with water midline on my mask at the top, but I still feel pretty boyant in the water in about 30ft of water (i understand deeper=sink faster) - Should I add more weight - safely?


Yes. But increase it a little at a time. Weight yourself for half what you're hunting at. Example 40' weight to 20'.

2) I only dive about 2-3x/mo, so my breath hold is weak (maybe 45 sec on the bottom in 20-30 ft). Any thoughts on how to increase this? Any web links to static exercises? I'm super comfortable in the water and very conscious of my rest periods. I practice the 3-4 seconds breath in with 6-8 seconds breath out at 80% lung capacity for ~1.5min then breathe in chest first then stomach at 100% before diving down).

You can do a lot with 45 seconds. But just keep practicing dive tables. Search the App Store on your phone for a good one.

3) Does black out have any indicators before it happens? I typically dive with someone but that someone is usually 20-40 ft from me.. which is like diving alone, i suppose.


Blackout can happen at anytime and can have zero warnings. But I've never heard of one where the person wasn't diving at least 40 feet before blacking out. 90% of them happen within 15' of the surface after a dive, 9% happen below that coming up, and .9% happen at the target depth.


4) Should I add a 2nd band to my gun? I've never shot the nice guns before, so I don't have a reference for how my gun performs, although the forums say its a good one for around here). My PR for ling is 37" so I know it can penetrate but I feel like I've been missing easy shots lately. Maybe I need to stiffen my arm and grip before pulling trigger (not something I was consciously focusing on before)


Depends what you're hunting. You can stab ling with a knife, pole spear etc. So a small gun shouldn't be an issue with that. But maybe if you start hunting rockfish at longer distances you would like more power.


5) My kayak is finally super dialed in for free diving off of, but I feel like it's only useful to get out of the mouth of still water cove (to avoid swimming it). Any other places it really helps - it adds a whole separate level of effort to bring it on a dive trip.

Huh? You don't feel comfortable paddling further?

6) Any pointers on locations to dive down in Big Sur? Tomorrow is my first time going that far south.


Yeah, prepared to have people trash talk you if you post any pictures.

7) Are there any free diving courses in Monterey area?


Yeah, Kris might have one in the near future but he's been pretty busy.

Thanks for letting me be a pest and ask a ton of lame questions. I'd be all kinds of down for a few experienced divers to let me tag along with them. If you have any questions or need clarifications, please let me know.

Better to be on the plus side of buoyancy if your breath hold isn't that great IMO.
I definitely recommend taking a freediving class.
I finally bit the bullet and took a class. My only regret, and it was a big one, was that I didn't do it 30 years ago.
Day 1 in a pool, day 2 in the ocean.
They say by day 2 you'll hit 50'....day 2, sure enough, 50 feet.
I wear less weight than before, use a lot less energy, and am way more comfortable diving than ever before.
Nothing changed for me physically in that two day course. Knowledge is power.

Better to be on the plus side of buoyancy if your breath hold isn't that great IMO.
I definitely recommend taking a freediving class.
I finally bit the bullet and took a class. My only regret, and it was a big one, was that I didn't do it 30 years ago.
Day 1 in a pool, day 2 in the ocean.
They say by day 2 you'll hit 50'....day 2, sure enough, 50 feet.
I wear less weight than before, use a lot less energy, and am way more comfortable diving than ever before.
Nothing changed for me physically in that two day course. Knowledge is power.

You still dive? 

Better to be on the plus side of buoyancy if your breath hold isn't that great IMO.
I definitely recommend taking a freediving class.
I finally bit the bullet and took a class. My only regret, and it was a big one, was that I didn't do it 30 years ago.
Day 1 in a pool, day 2 in the ocean.
They say by day 2 you'll hit 50'....day 2, sure enough, 50 feet.
I wear less weight than before, use a lot less energy, and am way more comfortable diving than ever before.
Nothing changed for me physically in that two day course. Knowledge is power.

You still dive?

In my dreams. It's all about to change though.

"wet dreams"

First off 3-3s and 2-2s is not 19lbs.  That is actually 13lbs and probably okay with your weight and a 5 mil suit. 

Man... my math was way off... haha not sure where I pulled that from, but what I meant to type was four 3lbs and two 2lbs. Which is still not 19. haha.

6) Any pointers on locations to dive down in Big Sur? Tomorrow is my first time going that far south.

Yeah, prepared to have people trash talk you if you post any pictures.

So long as I'm not giving away the "location" specifics, why is it a bad thing to post photos?

6) Any pointers on locations to dive down in Big Sur? Tomorrow is my first time going that far south.

Yeah, prepared to have people trash talk you if you post any pictures.

So long as I'm not giving away the "location" specifics, why is it a bad thing to post photos?

It's not.

 

6) Any pointers on locations to dive down in Big Sur? Tomorrow is my first time going that far south.

Yeah, prepared to have people trash talk you if you post any pictures.

So long as I'm not giving away the "location" specifics, why is it a bad thing to post photos?

"Location specifics" varies from person to person. Some might complain you had a recognizable cloud visible in your picture.

If you want to be super cautious of not pissing off anyone, you can back yourself up against a rock wall, or use a photo app to blur out everything in the picture but you.

I always make sure to black out the background in the pics of my secret spots in Shadow Cliffs.