Quote from: Squidder K on June 30, 2021, 07:51:21 AM

Quote from: eelkram on June 28, 2021, 07:59:55 PM

The guy gave an interview to one of the news outlets. He said he was freediving for crabs and it was a quick, almost gentle bite.  And he described it as an exploratory bite, not an attack.

He definitely lost a lot of blood though. He tried to improvise a tourniquet which didn't hold. A fisherman tried to assist with another improvised tourniquet limited results. 

There are simple rules for applying tourniquets:
-Never around the neck 
-Avoid joints
-If your casualty is crying and begging you to loosen the tourniquet, keep cranking on it until they fight you. Then give it a couple more turns before you tie it off. 

Something to think about adding to your ditch bag.  If you happen to see a City/County Medic, you might ask them for a free tourniquet... all they can do is say No. 

I have a one handed one issued to me when I went to the sandbox.  You can buy these, take them out the packaging and get familiar with them.   I know there is the CAT model and the Rapid stop, there are more, but I am not familiar with those.  You can go old school bandana and a stick, but I try to avoid that.  Another option, and available at REI is using a blood stopper.  It is a bandage with a clotting agent in it, that will aid in clotting. The combination of a  tourniquet first, and a blood stopper second, has amazing results.  It is often possible to remove a the tourniquet later (done by a professional, of witch the majority of us are not one of them, so don't even think about it). The blood stopper if I recall was $50 (maybe).  Not cheap, but what is your kids leg worth?

The CAT is similar in practice to what you were issued in the sandbox.  It's just a bit improved for general use.  Clotting bandages have come down in price drastically over the years.  A 4 foot QuikClot gauze bandage is $30 and a 2 foot version is $16.  Israeli bandages are also really handy and can be self-administered with practice.  I buy these ones off Amazon.

Whether it's a shark attack or you galf yourself in the femoral artery or find your bait knife sticking out of your thigh pulsing as a heart rate indicator... we have the opportunity for severe lacerations and puncture wounds without any help immediately available.  Be prepared to keep yourself alive until that helicopter shows up.

It's worth mentioning that there are a ton of counterfeit CATs on the market, particularly on Amazon. Not sure why that's a thing, but there have even been reports of them making their way into military supply chains. When you fully tighten a TQ it's under a lot of force, and you want to make sure you have a legit one so it doesn't break when you need it most. Which is all to say, buy direct if you can and resist the urge to grab a cheaper model just because it looks the same. The Committee on Combat Casualty Care (TCCC or ToCCC depending on who you ask) has a published list of TQs approved for combat use. The CAT is on there, as is the SOFTT-Wide and a few others. I prefer the SOFTT-W for diving as it's a little easier to apply to your own leg with big freediving blades and gloves on. The CAT is a little easier to apply one-handed. I usually have a SOFTT-W on my person and a CAT on my kayak or dive board, along with some QuikClot gauze.

And while we're on the QuikClot thread--the instructions generally say something to the effect of "for exterior use only." I'm not a doctor by any stretch of the imagination, but all the resources I've seen say hemostatic gauze works best when it's packed into a junctional wound. And if you're going to be packing, you'll use a lot of it. So grab one of the 4m / 12ft rolls (they're smaller than a deck of cards when vacuum sealed). But the general consensus among people with much more training and experience than me seems to be that regular gauze packed into a wound works almost as well. And that stuff is like $2-$3 per 4m roll, so it doesn't hurt to have a lot of it on hand.

Quote from: pedxing on May 14, 2020, 09:11:38 AM

I grew up in Southern California and dove for corbina right in the surf.  I found the easiest was to be right behind the wave.  If you're actually in the surf you're going to get pounded by the waves and its going to roll you and rip things off.  Also you gotta be really careful in knowing your surf.  You're not paying attention to it, so you won't see any potential sleeper waves coming in.  You'll have to get a feeling for those.  Also polespears, belt stringer and short open heel fins are going to be your friends.  Other things is make sure you spear away from others as people's feet can be on the other side of that fish.

good luck!

Thanks, Can I use float + floating line in the Surf Zone? What thickness of the wet suite would you recommend?

If it's an open-cell freediving suit, 5mm or 7mm would be fine. If it's a closed-cell scuba suit, 7mm all the way.

Like everyone else said, the better hunting is going to be over reefs. There are plenty of sandy beaches in the area with reefs right off shore that would be fun with the family. But if you're dead set on diving in places you'd surfcast for perch, you're going to cover a lot of ground. A float would just get in the way. Best case it'll just be a pain to tow around; worst case it'll yank you around or tangle you up in the surf. A float catching in the wind and pulling you back is just going to be a hassle with no added benefit.

If there are no surfers around you could use a float line with no float on the end, but IMO there's no point. Perch don't pull nearly hard enough that you'd lose your gun or tear out on an average shot, and you're not going to be marking holes like you would for rockfish. A muzzle bungee is plenty, or you could throw a reel on and have a little more flexibility with stripers and halibut. 

https://www.ediblemontereybay.com/online-magazine/summer-2014/in-the-kitchen-moon-jellyfish/

Awesome, thanks! A little embarrassed about my Googling skills now... but excited to hunt some jellies.

Does anyone know if local jellyfish are edible? Specifically thinking about sea nettles (Chrysoara fuscescens) and moon jellies (Aurelia labiata). Their west Pacific cousins (C. pacifica and A. aurita) are edible, at least according to Google, and I’m tempted to play around with recipes as long as I know I’m not going to kill or seriously injure myself.

And on the off chance any of you have cooked local jellies before, is the trick just a fresh water bath to discharge the nematocysts followed by removal of the tentacles? Or is there another trick to it?


EDIT: Just wanted to round this out in case anyone else is interested. I was looking back through the regs for some other info on inverts, and it looks like recreational take of jellyfish is prohibited in CA:

“Except where prohibited within state marine reserves, state marine parks, state marine conservation areas, or other special closures only the following may be taken: red abalone, limpets, moon snails, turban snails, chiones, clams, cockles, mussels, rock scallops, native oysters, octopuses, squid, crabs, lobsters, shrimp, sand dollars, sea urchins and worms except that no worms may be taken in any mussel bed, unless taken incidental to the harvesting of mussels.”

I got my 6 on craigslist for $200, pretty much brand new. When I was looking for that one a few screaming deals popped up, some still sealed in the original box. Or if you want to get a 7, you can have my 4 back and use it for the trade-in.

So last night my new speargun arrived, what was supposed to be a Pathos Laser Open Pro 75CM.  Instead they sent me a 90CM version of the gun.  Question is, should I keep it?  I'm going diving tomorrow (first time since my son was born, yay!), but can always resort to using the old sling..

Personally, I don’t notice much of a difference hunting with my 70 vs. a 90, especially after I spend some time with a pole spear. If it were me, I’d probably hang onto the 90, as it’ll give you a little more flexibility if you travel down south or have days with better viz. I don’t find the extra ~8 inches to be all that much of a hindrance except in the tightest of holes. But I think I’m in the minority when it comes to max gun length for this area. If you’re concerned about length and what you really want is the 75, I’d exchange it. You’re gonna have it for a while, may as well be shooting what you want to be shooting.

Moving today and completely forgot I owned this. Pier net / hoop net with a bait cage and either 75 or 100 ft of poly rope. If you swing by today (ideally) or tomorrow it’s yours. Located in Palo Alto, text (408) 835-0876 for address.