Thread: Beginners guide to freediving/snorkeling

tips and tricks and ideas

1 head down to your local MAF office and grab a couple of thier orange plastic paua knives take it home get out a ruler and soldering iron and on the oppiste side to the paua measure burn in you crayfish measures .. use a fine tip pen or vivid to mark 1st then burn/ etch em in (rember messure twice burn / cut once) I did it from the handle end so if you damage the knife end you measurement won't be wrong eh.

2 don't touch the paua before whipping em off.. touching em lets em know theres danger about and they clamp down and are damn near impossible to move (don;t smash thier shell move on and find another.

3 crays ..if you can when you are getting ready to grab a cray try waveing your non grabbing hand to one side distracting it and its feelers so you have a beetere chance of grabbing it horns ..aim for the back or middle of our cray because they will go back fast and if your aiming for the horrns all you will get is a handfull of feelers.

4 get a dive float / bouy they have a clip for your dive bag and this leaves you hand free for grabbing shit and also your not carting shit around all day.

another tip is get one of mafs fish ruler stickers, cut to width and stick on you gun so you can measure your catch

thats a mint idea cheers

[QUOTE=R93;67649]I may have to start free diving. My own stupid fault, but rats and mice have had a field day nesting and eating the contents of my dive bag over the last winter.

So the rats chewed through your G String dive suit? Martin will be upset

Cheek!!!
Sharks leave me alone because there too busy pissing themselves laughing at my dive gear.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. So please forgive my sausage fingers!!!

hahahaha!! Happy NY mate

ok ...so this one is a heart felt warning ...beware the salt water squirts ... spending a day in the water probably 5 hours with the water being warm and wicked shit happening ...so in the tide you would expect you get a few mouth fulls of salt water and a couple more as well ..for the next 24 hours fart with a great deal of caution ...salt water and your gut don't mix, trust me on this.. wet farts are a serious possabilty..

you will feel a slightly jelly belly and a few very mild cramps ... and then Farrrrrttttssssshhh.

F#&K my life.... stop laughing you barstards.

keep at it keep at it keep at it... what a weekend the young folk are getting down to 50ft staying there for a fair while..me I'm improving very slowly they spent the saturday down at french pass weve dived this area a shit load of times ..BUT bugger me blood found the crays not many but time and paintence the moki showed up and knock me down with a large hammer the big bloke found a very small of scallops ...for bloody real.. all in a patch of coast we've dived the shit out of ...never say never eh .

Oh never ever ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff fffffffffffff*#King ever say na I'll give you guys a head start you and your mate have a dive I'll catch up in 20 mins ...never do this it will bite you in the arse big time. Fuck my life those are sum big crays...damn I'm proud of em but SHIT!!

How is your rig setup?

Would be interesting in seeing types of ways people do it. I'm wanting to get into spear fishing. Been out for a few dives but with no spear.

Originally Posted by TotaraHunter

How is your rig setup?

Would be interesting in seeing types of ways people do it. I'm wanting to get into spear fishing. Been out for a few dives but with no spear.

what part do you want to see???

Everything if possible. I'm a complete newbie.

Do I need a float attached to gun, how long rope do I need. What are bungies for?

What part of country are u in? You will find different parts set gear different, but I run a metre gun
Hook a float line to the gun, I run a 10m, at a metre from the end of float line I have a knot with a loop which connects to my float, remaining metre of line loops back to float, making a loop to hang fish on, catch bag clipped on steel loop on float as well as torch,maf measure and 6 cray nooses, does that make sense? Will get a picture when I can


Float line length will depend on your location, I'm lucky to see 5m down here

Originally Posted by TotaraHunter

Everything if possible. I'm a complete newbie.

Do I need a float attached to gun, how long rope do I need. What are bungies for?

couple of sites with bit of basic info for you

Anatomy of a Spearo
http://www.wettie.co.nz/information.php?info_id=12

Well it being quite a while since i last posted here ...

So what have I learnt / changed... winter freediving

Female crays will be in egg now and they do seem more docile or just plain dopey, you can normally tell a female as she will have her tail tucked up and to save damagaing the next generation and a cray you cannot keep I try to aviod grabbing a cray that looks like this .. (yes i make mistakes). In the top of the south they will carry their eggs until late Oct, about this time the bucks shed there shells also making Oct a frustrating month. by mid Nov the females will be free of egg and the bucks should be finished the moult. (their are always exceptions) I've encountered smaller crays that have shed as late as Dec.

Gear up, as stated I've purchased a new open cell wetsuit (Yes because I'm a fat barstard ), So now I have to lube up (no kinky shit) what I found the best is to 3/4 fill a 3 litre bottle add body wash then when you want to lube your suit top up the bottle with hot water and shake... nice warm solution to pour into ya suit .. Nice warm suit to climb into.

Dive your feet first, Yesterday and in years past the bucks that aren't hold up in a nest of female seem to go shallow, so dive the weed more shelterd bays and spots with good turf but empty holes over summer suddenly can be very productive. We free dived cracks out to 50ft yesterday the wandered over to a shallow weed bed for a butter and wham bam boom, bucks in the weed 10- 20 ft.

It works if you work at it.... try everywhere dont drive past a shit load of coast to dive the same spot over and over try new spots constantly, yes you will see a heap of crap turf ... But those secret spots when you find them are priceless... and find them you will more than you can imagine.

If your interested look up Nelson spear fishing club on face book... apperntly some records broken over the weekend with wicked static breath holds 9mins + as well as a 280meter underwater swim.

Now thats off the scale freediving!!