A Day of Firsts...

 On Sunday May 30th, the dive conditions were so good that I got my shifts covered at the Lighthouse so I could go freediving with my girlfriend Kristen, some other friends, and coworkers. Kristen had never been more than a 1/2 mile or so offshore. We were heading to a flounder hole that was in around 50' of water about 3.5 miles offshore.

 I decided not to bother bringing a gun in the water and that I would just show Kristen a few things as her freediving course was rapidly approaching. The clarity was not as good as it was on Friday but it was still great.

 There was no structure here, such as a wreck, so it was kind of boring. I was not seeing many fish. Everyone else was on scuba tanks and Kristen and I were breath hold diving. We made several dives here and practiced some skills that I learned in my course. Kristen is a natural, she went as deep as me and I have quite a bit more experience than she does. I did reach a new personal best though of 50'!

 We were picked up by the boat and headed a little bit further out to a sunken barge. Again I opted out of bringing the gun which I would soon regret. This old barge laid in about 45' of water. This was the 1st wreck that Kristen had seen. Although it was a less than stellar wreck, it was still exciting. After doing a couple of dives, we both saw these 2 big Sheepshead on the wreck from 40' above them. I dropped down to around 20' above them and immediately regretted not having the gun with me. After ascending I made a mad dash for the boat to get the gun.

 In position over the wreck and fish again, I desperately tried to calm down and breath up properly, so I could make a good dive, and put a good shot on one of those beasts! I could see the bubbles from the scuba divers getting closer and knew they would scare the fish off or shoot them, either way no good for me! As they approached I was not ready to dive but went anyway. There was no way I was going to lose that fish to the bubble blowers. Descending towards my target I felt as though it was a race. As I was about to pull the trigger, a diver came right below me, I couldn't shoot! I saw the other fish make a break for the wreck so I followed him, he went into a hole and I lost him!

 I literally missed the biggest fish of my life by seconds! I surfaced not knowing if they shot the big one, the divers stayed down for a bit longer, I descended towards them and could see the big Sheepshead on the stringer. At least someone got one I thought, but damn that was mine!

 The divers were doing their safety stop, at a depth of 15' or so. I was still laying on the surface waiting to see that other fish come out of his hole hopefully. Then out of the blue appears a silhouette, ooh! A cobia! No wait it's a shark!

 I could tell the shark was looking for an easy meal, probably better said as the dead fish on the stringer attached to Roy's weight belt. The divers were unaware of the 4ft. Sand Tiger sneaking up on them. I dove down directly at the hungry shark and hit him in the nose with the tip of the gun, which bought me some time to try and alert them. I got their attention and it was time for me to surface. I watched as Roy poked the shark several times with his pole spear before the shark gave up. I stayed in the water and watched while they finished their safety stop. The shark was not to return.

 On the way in we stopped at the Alexander Ramsey, so Kristen and I could do a few drops and maybe get some dinner. On my first drop I swam into the bow of the wreck and found my target. I was on the starboard side of the wreck and the tautog crossed over to the port. I followed and found a vertical column to hide behind. I poked my head around and there he was, I slowly pulled the gun around and put a perfect shot on him. I started to swim out but the shaft got stuck on that same column, I swam back in a bit and it freed up. At the surface I raised my fish so the boat could see and they came and put it on ice.

 We made a handful more dives each before calling the boat over to pick us up. Kristen got to 52' and touched the bottom. When she takes the course and actually learns how to do this she will be much better than me. We motored slowly back to the inlet and enjoyed some cold beers and talked about our shark encounter. The perfect end to a perfect weekend. Man those tautog tacos were good that night!

Thanks for reading! Dive safe and hunt responsibly!

New Depths and Epic Conditions

 2 weeks ago we were blessed with the best inshore dive conditions I have ever seen, which isn't saying much because I have only been diving for a year or so. However many people who have been diving for a very long time said they had never seen it that good.

  It was Friday May 21st, the day after the night dives, my hunting buddy and now roommate headed out to the Alexander Ramsey. It was kind of ironic that the 1st time that we met last year, we "tried" to dive this wreck. Neither of us knew our ass from our elbow as far as freediving was concerned then. This day was to be a much different experience. Alex has reached depths of over 100' and took the Performance Freediving Instructors intermediate course in Ft. Lauderdale last October. In April I took the basic Freediver course offered by Evolve Freediving here in Wilmington NC.

 I have been experiencing some sinus issues that have held me back as far as my depth goals have been concerned. I could not get past 33' during my course, which left me very disappointed, but not discouraged. I can't explain why, but for some reason I feel the need to hold my breath and dive as deep as I can and hunt for my dinner.

 Not having a GPS or a depth finder on the boat makes it difficult to find a shipwreck. Luckily there is a buoy in the vicinity to mark the artificial reef. It still is not easy to find though. I knew that if we could find the buoy I could find the ship, I have done several dives there on SCUBA with friends and on the Aquatic Safaris boats. Still no guarantees though.

 There were 2 boats fishing the area when we arrived, our buddies were on one of the boats and said they were on the wreck. It rests in around 45' of water, the top of the structure lies around 20'-25' from the surface. I looked over the rail of the boat to see a sight that I will never forget!

 Peering down into the ocean was like looking into a fish tank, you could clearly make out the wreck and even see fish swimming, keep in my mind I was still on the boat! Freediving is more or less meditating, as excited as we both were, we knew we had to stay relaxed and keep our hearts from racing. After actually getting into the water, I knew how special this day was going to be! You could see the bottom, 45' below. Offshore visibility like this is common, actually this would be mediocre, but only 3 miles from the inlet this is incredible!

 I dropped down to the wreck to check the anchor and was blown away, it was as if the wreck was alive. Well it is, being covered with corals and plant life, fish were everywhere, though most of them very small. We practiced the one up one down technique and shared a gun. The gun was attached to a float and a 50' line. The visibility was so good that while I was on the surface, I pulled on the line to alert Alex of a decent sized tautog behind him. Thwack! Dinner!


 We were comfortably hunting in the 25' to35' range in and out of the wreck. I swam under a ledge of the midsection of the ship and poked my head around an opening to see another tautog. Could this be my first fish taken from a wreck? Yup! Put a great shot on him and pulled him out of the wreck to the surface. It was not the biggest fish I have ever shot but, it felt great! I finally felt like a real spearfisherman.

 Another really exciting thing happened as I swam the fish back to the boat. I was knifing the fish to "silence" it, and had a feeling. I threw the fish in the boat and climbed in the stern of the 17' Pioneer, just in time to see the 4' Sandbar Shark literally inches from my fins, which were dangling in the water still. Awesome! It was a close call with the tax collector, but my fish came home with me!

 We made a lot more dives that day. I touched the sand at 43', my new personal best. The accessibility of this wreck leaves it extremely over-fished. We did not see too many fish that were worth shooting. What a great day! I  got to practice the skills that I learned in my basic freediver course, saw some beautiful marine life and explored a wreck while holding my breath.

 Alex and I made the full circle from our first trip to the Alexander Ramsey less than a year ago. This trip was different, we knew what we were doing, we dove the wreck, we hunted the wreck, we are Freedivers now, not snorkelers!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for further postings! The rest of the weekend had epic conditions, this was just Friday!

New beginnings!

 Well, I got another job, working at Aquatic Safaris. To be totally honest I am scared shitless! It is an incredible opportunity for me. I wanted to learn how to dive, here we go!  I will be put in situations that I am not totally comfortable with, I will have to dive at night, I have to take rescue diver courses. Sharks will soon become an almost daily encounter, but none of this is what scares me! Well maybe a little bit...

 I am soon moving out of the dump that I live in and putting what little I have in storage. I am going to stay with my loving girlfriend in her apartment until I can find a place. I am so lucky to have her in my life, and also very lucky to have the Hardee, Adams, and Taylor families on my side! (and it goes without saying my own family but they are 600 miles away!) So I am going to be sort of homeless, and starting a new job, well more of a new life than just a job. Starting out I will make VERY little money and hopefully move up to making a little money!

 Now we are getting at why I am scared. Everything is very uncertain right now. I have to keep both jobs and spend as much time as possible underwater. I can't survive on just one of the jobs, I need to be able to work both jobs and hope they won't interfere! I have invested WAY too much money on SCUBA and freediving courses, and not to mention gear, of which I need more now, for this to not work for me! It has to work! I have never been a gambling man, but I have been gambling all along trying to make this happen, now it has happened and I am freaking scared that it won't work!

 Sorry nothing exciting like surfing or spearfishing is happening in this post but I felt like writing about whats on my mind, after all it's my blog! Actually I went spearfishing the past 2 days, well we went in the water, visibility was less than poor, there was no spearing of anything. Sometimes going hunting either for waves or fish, ( thats all I hunt) is not about actually getting waves or shooting fish, the best part is the hunt. I met some wonderful people this weekend, and am very happy to have met them! I look forward to the adventures we are going to share together in the future!

Thanks for reading and wish me luck!
Stay tuned for some more interesting posts this week, freediving course starts on Friday! If you are interested in freediving or not really sure what it is check out this website!
http://evolvefreediving.com/Evolve_Freediving/Home.html

The Club

 I am very excited about the club that has started here to bring freedivers and other spearfishing enthusiasts together. A name has yet to be decided, but don't worry it will be very cool, I promise! I missed the first meeting but will never miss another one. I attended the second meeting this past Friday. It was really nice meeting other freedivers. Actually I am an aspiring freediver, not quite a freediver yet!

 At the meeting on Friday night Ashley and Ren, instructors from Evolve Freediving, and co founders of the club, led everyone in the group through a proper breathing up technique. I held my breath for 2:15. Many others did much better than I, including my super athlete girlfriend. Needless to say everyone shattered their own expectations. I have never been so excited in my life, next month I am going to take their course, and hopefully become a certified freediver.

 Freediving is the purest way to explore the last great frontier, the ocean. Pushing the limits of what humans think they can do, is very intriguing. Most people, including myself, until recently, never even dreamed of staying underwater on a breath hold for 2 or 3 minutes and well beyond that. With proper training I hope to achieve the goal of a 3 minute dive in the next year. I feel like it is achievable; we will see! For those of you that have never seen any freediving check out the inseatv video player right here on this blog. I can promise you it is going to blow your mind! Ryan is also one of the co-founders of the club.

 Our area is becoming quite the hot bed for freedive spearfishing. I feel extremely fortunate to have met the people I have met when I met them! Ren, Ashley and Ryan have been true ambassadors to the sport that they love. It is so refreshing to know that there are people like them in this world, when it is full of the million dollar athletes who could care less about the sport that has provided them with everything! They have been more than helpful and informative as I get ready to pursue freediving. The sport truly is better off for having them involved!

 Thanks for reading!

A start

The ocean; it means many things to many people. To some it is an uninviting death sentence, to others it is merely scenery, to some it means nothing, to me it is everything!

My entire life has been spent living close to the waters edge. I learned to swim before I could walk, I was drawn to surfing at a young age; where surfing barely existed, the north shore of Long Island. Thanks to my Dad, who learned to surf with me, and some other very good friends, Mr. B, Chuck and Ken, I can say that I have been surfing for 20 years now!

Until the summer of 2009 I tried very hard to keep my head above the water. One day a buddy of mine asked me if I wanted to swim out to the jetty and shoot fish. I thought he was crazy and brushed it off...but I couldn't stop thinking about it. I purchased a mask and snorkel first. My first experience going underwater was in Masonboro Inlet...I thought this was crazy but everyone seemed quite comfortable, including the 5 year old girl on the boat.

I was addicted instantly...why have I not been doing this all along I thought! Fins, fish identification book, pole spear were all soon to follow. I spent the summer and fall snorkeling around the jetty, and one trip to the Lib Ship. I learned how to hunt fish, nothing spectacular though, but it was a start.

As I start writing this I am working on my SCUBA open water certification. I have my first open water dives next weekend. (in a lake much to my dismay!) In April I am planning on taking a freediving course. Along with my dive log, I am using this to chronicle my new life as a diver and of course surfing.

My goal is to have a site where other watermen can meet, share stories, and information. Please bear with me as I figure out all of the intricacies involved in making this a great site. In the mean time...What does the ocean mean to you?