OS Kelp

Last weekend, the FDH crew headed out from North San Diego County in hopes for ghosts and yellows. Fred and Link went out with some friends while FDH scooped up Ryan and Doug, our favorite Fathomier, to join us on the Fishmaster. The two vessels launched simultaneously, and the race to the kelp was on!

A happy seaman
A rocket scientist joins us... Doug was able to show us a few pointers while tolerating our juvenile shenanigans...Both vessels united temporarily to discuss our findings, or lack thereof. While Jordan was inspecting one of JBL's latest guns, he slipped and scrambled, and finally ended up in the water fully clothed. He claims he did it on purpose to liven things up and garnish the morale, but we know better.
We all enjoyed watching an episode of Jordan vs. Ocean
Fred, Guy, and sons wishing they were amongst the seamen on our poop deck

A couple of young Calico went the way of the grave in style, and the local kelp paddies made for excellent hunting structure, but the visibility was so poor (even for WSB) that we ended the dive early and took up paddle boarding.

-TJ

The Day Tom Missed Out :(

I dont have much to say. The day was perfect minus my best mate Tom! SUCKS! You should have been there Tommy boy it was your day.

GWS?

Four crew members were off to West End Catalina in search for... this story is getting old - it seems we are always in search for White Sea Bass. Well, we were a little closer this time, so keep reading...
An unspoken truth: the first one in the water gets the biggest fish. Jordan started putting his suit on before we left the harbor, and when Jordan grabbed the wheel to drive, Tom secretly slid into his suit -the race to be first was on!
On our way out, we were treated with a large school of dolphin, so big it must have covered about 2 or 3 football fields! We slowed down and went right through the school. A lot of them started swimming alongside the boat and directly beneath us.

They were jumping and feeding and swimming about. It was a beautiful spectacle.

Here we are holding tight onto Jason's legs, so as to acquaint himself with our seawater, mammal friends.
Our first stop was backside of the West end. The conditions were less than poor - viz was no more than four feet and murky and the current and surge were strong. Jordan and Tom were silently uneasy, but dove for a good twenty minutes. Tom ran into a Calico that had just eaten about three anchovies, and was in no condition to escape - Tom capitalized! We headed back to the boat and begged Fred to take us to more friendly waters.

Second stop was on the front side. Conditions were slightly better, but still kelpy, 5 or so feet of viz, murky, and quite eerie. After about 25 minutes of diving, Tom was diving fairly close to shore in 30 ft deep water, when he ran into an unexpected predator. Tom was silently cruising through the kelp at 15 feet, hoping to run into a prized WSB, when he glanced left to find a large grey/white fish making its way through the kelp just three feet away. Tom lined up to take a shot thinking it was a White Sea Bass due to its similar color pattern. The body of the fish was unusually large in size, and Tom was beginning to think he'd land a new world record. He continued to turn and adjust to locate the head of the fish, but wasn't able to since it kept swimming steadily forward. Finally, the tail came into sight, and this was the shocker - it was not a flat and wide tail like he'd been hoping - it was a lot like a shark's tail instead. This took a couple of seconds to register... when it did, Tom just about soiled his wetsuit while swimming to the top with his gun pointed in the direction of the shark. Quickly, Tom located the boat and furiously scurried off, constantly scoping around him to ensure no sharks were following. Jordan made his way over to the boat where we thoroughly discussed the situation.

The consensus was that this was not a fish, but rather a shark. We identified it by process of elimination, and the decision was made that this was none other than a juvenile Great White ranging in length of 7-8 ft. Frederic continued dressing himself with wetsuit, belt, and gun and headed off to that exact spot, while Jordan, Jason, and Tom decided Fred needed some alone time in the water.

While the rest of us were gathering our thoughts and nerves, we let the boat drift with the current while Fred was drift diving and scaring all the sea bass out of the water with his preceded reputation as a WSB killer. He did have a sea bass sighting, but wasn't in position to fire.

We packed up and headed South East for one more stop. This was a fun dive with plenty of five plus pound Calico hiding in their holes. Jordan was in the zone and nailed a healthy Kelp Bass and an unlucky male Sheephead.
Jordan treated us to a nice meal of roasted weeny. You can see Fred in the background showing us youngsters the art of stealthy hunting.
The sun was shining, and the air was warmer than what we have been experiencing lately - it was a welcomed climate change in deed.
Happy hunters - we live to see another shark.

-TJ

working out the kinks

We are up and running again! Mr. Calico and Capitan put in a lot of hours and sweat into renovating the trailer, and now we are finally able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Usually, the first day of the season for the Freedive Hunters is considered to be a trial run, even though we always hope for Yellowtail or the scarce White Sea Bass (deep down, we know those chances are slim to none).

It was an early start to the day, and most of the crew was expectantly unprepared. Line needed crimping, spears needed sharpening, weight belts needed adjusting, masks and snorkels needed reuniting, boat needed last minute TLC, etc.

This week's fearless crew: Frederic, Jordan, Tom, Jason S., Orion, and Eric.

Fred's critique on Jordan's technique: "Jordan managed to pull the boat out of the driveway without demolishing the neighbor CMU Wall. The launching technique still needs work. The idea is to launch the boat in the water as opposed to launching the boat on the dry part of the ramp (As John "The Magnificent" is rumored to have done in Mexico). Jordan also brilliantly performed the back up of the boat back into the drive way with 1/2" to spare on the wall side."
Cozy in the cabin.
Hercules distributed his famous flapjacks, and the crew was ready to dive.
Can you tell who is who amongst the many camo Yazbeck suits?
Remember the unspoken rule of respect regarding Captain Frederic: you speak when spoken to, and you may never make direct eye contact with him.

No fish pictures this time. We each had a go at a Kelp Bass, and Eric annihilated an entire school of Sheephead. There were baby Yellowtail sightings - too small to shoot at, but exciting to see. Diving conditions were decent - we enjoyed about 10-15 feet of visibility in most spots, and the water was a chilly 55-56 degrees. It was almost warmer in the water than being on the boat in a wet suit with the cold air blowing. Needless to say, the diving was fun. We are now ready for warmer waters and bigger Yellowtail.

We are getting good at this boating stuff.
Look at all the FDH shirts! When are we diving next?
Frederic's report of the savory Calico he consumed later that night:
"Calico was lightly steamed and served with a Tarragon/Lime/Butter sauce on a bed of spinach sauté with garlic. Autopsy revealed the following: Its last meal shortly before the fatal encounter was octopus. It has some kind of learning disability as it had been shot before."



-TJ

frosh/soph shenanigans

Double kayak + Tom + Jordan = Disaster!!!


If there were only a video camera rolling... we would speed up the pace and add hilarious fast-playing piano music - we would be You Tube stars!!!


It was amateur hour at San Clemente. Darren spoke of WSB and reef structure, so we set out.


Our first launch attempt: We loaded the kayak and strapped down the gear as best we could. Darren, BSB Exterminator, quietly removed all his gear from the kayak before we launched (Good move. He had a rough kayak experience a year or two back, and he knew what was about to go down). Jordan grabbed the front handle of the kayak, and Tom grabbed the rear handle. We thought we timed the rolling wave sets perfectly... we charged! As soon as we hit the water, my foot got trapped in the fish hook hanging off the back, I tripped and dove head first in the water. In the mean time, the kayak was turning sideways and trapping Jordan between itself and a crashing wave. Jordan went under, the kayak toppled, and gear went everywhere. We scrambled and gathered up the floating gear as quickly as we could. No lost gear at that time, but the Honzo sword's shaft was damaged - my gun was pinched between Jordan's leg and the kayak, and the shaft was totaled; the tip of the gun was split and chipped. D'oh!

Second launch attempt: We loaded the kayak yet again and secured the gear a little better. Calico in front, Jedi in back - we charged again. This time Jordan hit the drop off where the sand stops and went under. I kept running forward, and I too hit the drop off and went under. We had a floating, unattended kayak; we scrambled yet again with oncoming waves in sight. Jordan flops on top of the kayak like a seal and falls off the other side. I make an attempt and secure my seat on top and start paddling over the oncoming waves in fear we'd have a repeat tumbling. I make it over and wait for Jordy to swim out to me - no way am I heading back into danger. We made it out this time!

We had a hard time finding the reef where the alleged White Sea Bass dwell, and Darren is determined to find it, so he swims off on his own leaving the two unsupervised amateurs on the kayak. Jordan gets in the water and swims around and figures he wants to dive a bit. He swims to the front of the kayak where the fins are strapped down, unties the cords, and frees up all four fins. The fins start slipping into the water quickly - this alarms Jordan, and he quickly scrambles to gather up the sinking fins. He is able to grab three and notices the fourth is sinking like a brick of concrete, in a hurry to join Davy Jones' locker. Jordan tried with all his might to swim after it - keep in mind he is holding three fins in his arms (none on his feet to help swim) and has a weight belt around is waste. It sinks too fast, and the fin vanishes into the deep. I am unable to jump off and help, because I was holding the two guns and paddles, so all I could do is watch - where's the video camera?
We are beyond angry at this point - an inoperable gun, a lost fin, and shattered hopes, but the losses are not over. We decide to pack it in, and Darren offers to buy us breakfast at Pipes to boost our spirits. We approach shore and notice the swell has picked up a bit. We get closer and closer. We are as patient as we can be at this point, waiting for the right moment, timing the sets, waiting, waiting... ok, now!!! We paddle hard into shore. As soon as we commit, I look behind us and a huge wave out of nowhere approaches fast. It nails us before we're able to make it. We get toppled and gear goes everywhere; we scramble and grab whatever we can in our reach and make our way to the sand out of the ocean's evil grasp. We must have made ten trips to the shallows and back to sand within a minute and completely exhausted and out of breath, collecting as much gear as we possibly could. We were able to collect most of our possessions, but the ocean claimed my mask, stringer, bent gun shaft, and Jordan's fin. Total damage = $420, but memories and the experience gained are priceless.

-TJ

puerto rico's finest

Mr. Calico and The Jedi headed to the Atlantic for a rendezvous with Puerto Rico's finest spear fisherman, Roberto Reyes - his credentials can be found at http://www.puertoricofreedivers.com/.

We got a late start the morning March 13. Beto took us to a private launch - he blind-folded us, so we wouldn't remember the way. First stop was a nearby buoy - 20-25 ft deep dive, where we'd dive for chummers which we'd later use to try to lure in the larger fish in deeper waters. The water was warmer than we could imagine, but the merk was thick. No catches the first dive.

Notice Mr. Calico wearing his newly acquired FDH shirt below.

Second chummer fish stop yielded nicer returns. At the bottom, I snuck up on a large fish, not knowing what it was, and nailed it. My reel was buzzing underwater - the fish took off and zipped around the large buoy structure. I followed it around the structure under water, then quickly swam up to get boat help in fear my line would run out, and the fish would fight enough to drag me under. I swam to the boat just in time to hand off my gun to Beto. The line ran out, and the fish continued to fight. We finally worked it up gently and loaded it onto the boat - a barracuda! These grow much bigger in PR from what I'm used to in So Cal, and I'm told these barracuda are often double this in size.
It was a fun start to the day, and I headed out for more. The next dive - a permit! Of course, I didn't know what it was until Beto had a look at it. He says, that these are a prized, delicious fish. I was surprised to feel this fish's strength under water - this 6 pounder felt more like a 20 pounder due to its pulling strength. Beto says they grow much larger than this - must be a gorilla of a fight with one of those bigger ones.
During this same dive, Mr. Calico made quick work of a curious tarpon. In the merk, this fish just happened to be so curious as to approach Mr. Calico head on, the fish turned slightly, the gun fired, and the fight was on.
Puerto Rico offered the warmest waters I've ever experienced and visibility that cannot compare. Too bad it's such a long flight over there... just one tip for travels to PR - DON'T FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES!!!

-TJ

last call for lobster

March 19th, the last day of lobster season, I decided to head out one last time to try and capture some bugs. I booked a dive trip aboard the Conception out of Santa Barbara. I arrived at the boat at 1 a.m., loaded my gear and found a bunk. There were 21 other divers on the boat so getting a spot was a feat in itself. At dawn I went up on deck and saw that we had made it to Santa Rosa Island. I’ve been on many trips where the destination was either Santa Rosa or San Miguel and we weren’t able to make it due to weather, so at the sight of Santa Rosa I knew the day was off to a good start.

Our first of four dives started at 7 a.m. I jumped in and spent about ten minutes around the boat in search of good structure (i.e. reef or lobster habitat). There wasn’t a lot of it, so I decided to make the long swim in towards shore. I knew that if there were still lobsters in the shallows in Laguna Beach, there must be some in the shallows of the islands. There were—I found some excellent structure with an abundance of lobsters. I didn’t have much time, since I spent most of my air (I was scuba diving, not freediving) just getting to my desired destination. I had about fifteen minutes to go for as many lobsters as I could. I was able to bag three on this dive.

The next dive I decided to head into the shallows again and was able to grab another three. The third dive I couldn’t find any good habitat and came up empty handed. The last and final dive of the day I was determined to get my seventh lobster for the day, which would be the limit (I’d never had a limit). Fortunately I found a good place where I knew there had to be lobster. I had about fifteen minutes of air left, again, and I grabbed a lobster but upon measuring it, discovered that it was just barely short. Then a minute later I grabbed another and it was legal by ¼ of an inch. I had accomplished my goal and started back on my mile long swim back to the boat. After getting all my gear off I was able to grab some lunch and head down to take a nap during the three hour ride home. Even though lobster season is over for six months I’m stoked for the spring and summer to come to go after some wsb and yellows. Fish on!

Written by:
Darren Harline, BSB Exterminator