hookah diving?

While browsing the shark attack map (http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/display/ci_21048958), I noticed a lot of attacks on people who were "hookah diving." Presumably for abs, since they were from the 70s and 80s.
A quick google search turned up a lot of resources about hookah diving. http://www.keeneeng.com/pdfFiles/Hookah%20Instructions.pdf

I don't know much about this technique, but I'm interested. Is it legal for spearing fish in CA? And has anybody tried it?

I don't see why it would be any different than spearfishing with SCUBA.
Haven't tried it.
Are the decompression tables the same as on SCUBA?

I usually just burn a bowl, bringing the whole hooka thing down to the beach seems a little too much effort. 

Lots of commercial urchin and sea cucumber divers use hookah.  No tanks or bottom time restrictions to deal with

Not sure what the regs are but you'd need a boat and a tender to follow you around all day.  Man up and hold your breath ;D

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I don't see why it would be any different than spearfishing with SCUBA.
Haven't tried it.
Are the decompression tables the same as on SCUBA?

Isn't that just breathing surface air? not compressed air so no tables needed.

I usually just burn a bowl, bringing the whole hooka thing down to the beach seems a little too much effort. 

Bwahahahah classic 💩

Isn't that just breathing surface air? not compressed air so no tables needed.

No.  I believe dive tables still must be adhered to.  But I'm no expert ...

-Allen

Hook diving in Ca used to be used for gold dredging in the rivers as well. You ABSOLUTLY have to use dive tables or you will get dead or worse. You still breath the air pumped down to you while you are underpressure so so absorb the  gasses accordingly, thus the need to follow the tables. Training would be a good thing also 
Open Water Scuba Inst emeritus
SS

It's essentially the same as SCUBA diving, so yes, you need to deal with tables, and yes, you can legally take fish.

I don't think it would be too practical to pursue fish with... seems like the trailing hose would be rather cumbersome. Guys down south primarily use hookah for scallops and lobster. It might work up here for hunting lings and such in really deep caves and cracks that a tank wouldn't be able to fit into.

I have a dive buddy, Bob, that was an Urchin diver.  They use Hookah.  In shallow depths they can stay down longer than the air in a tank would last, but they must adhere to dive tables.  Bob says that he has encountered sharks while working on pinnacles and near seal haul-outs.  For this reason he never did a decompression or safety stop.  He has been bent numerous times.

In my opinion, the sound of the bubbles seems to attract curious fish.  Sharks often follow fishing boats, they have learned to high-jack our fish.  So urchin boat + bubbles... 

I have done Hookah, it is fun.  I am SCUBA certified as well, so use my standard dive tables and decompression times.  The Hookah I use is on my dad's gold dredge.  We have taken it out in the lake several times and played with it.  It is a gas unit, so is noisy.  You also must not dive deeper than what you can emergency ascend.  You need to be able to make it to the surface, not rising faster than your smallest bubbles in case the motor fails or carry a spare air.  I limit myself to 40-45 feet.  It is bulky and heavy, so I would not likely use it in the ocean.  If it was mounted on the kayak or a boat it might not be bad.

Matt

I like pk's thought process on this one though.....alot of guys get bit while hookah diving.   I think I'll try it and drag around a stringer of bloody fish while I'm at it .

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Hey I didn't say I was gonna do it!
For some reason, the term "hookah" diving sounded interesting to me. I've also been reading a lot about muff diving online. It seems to have peaked in the early 90's w/some fella named Big Johnson? 

Hey I didn't say I was gonna do it!
For some reason, the term "hookah" diving sounded interesting to me. I've also been reading a lot about muff diving online. It seems to have peaked in the early 90's w/some fella named Big Johnson?

nice.

You read about it online.....have you been living under a rock?  You need to give it a go, land ab is highly prized and does wonders for waf or gaf.  Go ol'school, no breath hold or tables....plenty of online videos if you need instruction.


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