Just stabbing-no crabbing

Joel-get some gloves with some sort of thumb and finger abrasion protection.  You'll find if you start Ab'n you'll shred the tips of lesser gloves on pulls and grabbing rock to move yourself around in the slots.

Suits are different for everyone. I personally get cold easily and there'll be days when you could swear your swimming with ice cubes, so I opted for a one piece attached hood-7mil "Excel" suit.  It's awesomely warm at 20' down and it's really strechy.. the most important thing is the size though.  You have to get a suit that allows you to move freely and that doesn't compress you.  I've seen alot of guys days cut short because there suits were too small (rental) and constrictive.

guest - thanks for the tips - but I don't plan on doing any abalone diving. I just want to pull a trigger on a fish  

Have you had abalone?  It's very good stuff, and if you're diving up north, might as well pick a few abs too while you're in the water.  Spearfishing is probably best either north or south out of easy powerboat range of the harbors anyway, and that's an even split from HMB.

Yup - I've had abalone - tastes like calamari to me!

I rather shoot fish then pry abs - more action You can't really stalk abalone  

IME, rockfish lay on the rocks and wait for you to spear them, just like the abalone do, they have more faith in their spines than they aught to.      Of the bunch, the greenlings are the most skittish, but their idea of 'too close for comfort' is still only around 6'.

I heard the blacks and the olives are pretty skittish - are they?

What about Perch?

I've not had any skittish issues with black/blues/olives.   The biggest problem I've had is that they come in schools and you have to decide which one to target.  The olives seem to hang with the black/blue schools and are usually a little bigger so I usually focus in on them when I see them.  I've gotten them with both poles and spears with not too much problem once you find the school.  That being said, I usually have scuba gear on when shooting so i have more underwater time.

-Allen

Maybe I should do what Scwafish did - practice on shallow water with Perch before I move on to deeper water.

Any tips from free divers here - on how to practice shooting and holding breath?

I bet Stuart is getting nervous now....."Joel with a  loaded spear gun under water"  - "God help us all"  

You don't have to hold your breath when shooting perch since they're usually in 5 or 6' of water.   Just swim around until you find a school and start shooting.

Though the water is shallow, the surge can be a big issue, if you thought seasickness was bad on a kayak going up and down 6 feet,  try going up and down 3' and laterally back and forth 12' in a field of fluttering seaweed with nothing stationary as a reference point to help with the seasickness.  Then spend a couple minutes fiddling with your gun to reload.     Perch eat puke.  I know...

Joel-you can shoot in shallow water from the top but its not going to do much for your freediving skills, and as already stated its a surgy mess.  We were in anywhere from 5-25 feet that day, but I shot most in 10-15 feet while on the bottom.

Joel..

When I lived in San Diego in the late 80's we would use a hawaiian sling and spear rockfish at La Jolla shores.  We dove in about 15 to 20 feet and the sling was very accurate.  I've never used a gun but the slink was alot of fun.  I've also been scuba diving in some rough conditions and it's no fun.  One time the ocean was rough and we were doing a search and rescue exercise some where in orange county and I had to stay on the surface for a while.  When I finally dove down I puked underwater with regulator in mouth and also at the surface.  I never knew you could get seasick in the water but i found out.  So definetley pick a semi calm day.