Articles

Read our exciting action packed and inspirational Spearfishing and Freediving Articles

	Dive Computers Why is a dive computer so important for freediving and spearfishing?
	Memory Lane I can still vividly remember the first kingfish I ever laid eyes on. It was 30 years ago and I was fishing off the rocks at Te Arai Pt and, having just cast a dead sprat into the crystal clear water, didn’t know what to expect. All of a sudden, I saw this huge fish that was so much larger than anything I had ever seen before,
	Snapping the Barrier One man's memorable journey stalking snapper at Great Barrier Island with the Axemen.
	Waste not Want not What percentage of your catch do you actually consume and how much of it goes to waste? Perhaps we should consider trying to maximise the yield of every catch and throw less away
	Jet Kings When the good spots are too far for a shore dive; you don't have a boat and you're too lazy to paddle a yak - what do you do?
	King of Kings The Three Kings charter was booked as a fishing trip in August last year, but come December, and New Year resolutions I set myself a new challenge. I decided to get back into spearfishing and as I am pushing 55, knew that it was now or never.
	Snap Yak Attack Forget the boat, Donovan Gibbs has found a new weapon for landing big moochers.
	Spearfishing Tanzanian Hunting dogtooth tuna out on latham banks off the coast of Tanzania and spearfishing deep ledges in the Kilwa area
	Barkers Grand Slam And so began the legend of Barker’s Grand Slam Spearfishing Tournament - a ‘boys only’ weekend about mates and fun. It’s a tournament, so by its very nature it involves competition, but it’s more than that.
	Spearfishing The Chatham Islands I can quite honestly say I have shot more hapuka than I have John Dory and boarfish. My biggest hapuka to date was taken from the Alderman Islands in 1996 - an absolute leviathan of a fish weighing in at 40.4 kg and only 460 grams short of the NZ record
	Little Barrier Lucky Strike This is a story about one of those magic afternoon dives when everything just seems to go your way – and even the tax collectors can’t spoil the fun
	Sticking A Boar It’s said that the most effective time to hunt boarfish is in the early hours of the morning. My dive buddy James had planned to hit the road at 5am much to my dissatisfaction – however weather forecasts had predicted calm, glassy seas and variable winds for the entire day
	Mahi-Mahi Mayhem Nick Binks retells his encounter with a school of mahi-mahi off the northland coast. 0-5 knot winds, 20miles off the back of The Poor Knight Island. Trawling through a calm purple ocean, captain Lue yells out, “there’s fish jumping up ahead” as we get closer Mahi-mahi are jumping out in front of us,
	Dynamic Apnea Take your training to a new level with these essential guidlines. If you don’t have easy access to deep water, then dynamic apnea is one of the best ways to train for both freediving and spearfishing. You can work on fitness and technique in a very safe and controlled environment, and because conditions are always the same, it’s easy to keep track of your progress. Even if your focus is on deep diving, you still pick up a lot of relevant information from experimenting with swimming speeds, breathe-ups and finning techniques.
	Crash Course Bermuda Serious fish need serious pole spears As we headed out to spot X Scott gave me a run down of our target species and the gear we would be using to get them. At that time of year on the inshore reefs the main target is what the locals call black Rockfish, which is more widely referred to as the black grouper,
	White Ghosts Steve Hathaway discovers the amazing kelp forest in the city of Angles and develops an addiction to pursuing the elusive White Sea Bass.
	Mud Town When conditions are right and the vis allows, Hawke's Bay can be a great place to hunt... “You need two weeks of light westerlies and no swell.” That’s what Mel Blackwell once told me at the Freedom Divers club meeting.
	Winter Wonderland For us Americans, Christmas and New Years are the two great winter holidays. Full of bright lights, snowflakes, and stocking stuffers. For a select few, winter also means spearfishing the wrecks of the North Carolina coastline.
	Fear Factor “ I claim I was dragged into the sport of freediving kicking and screaming and while that is a bit dramatic it is not too far from the truth.” I developed a fear of water in 1994, after being involved with a body recovery. I was a member of the local fire service recovering the body of an experienced scuba diver.....
	The Rock Niue, ‘The Rock of Polynesia’ – not many have heard of it and even less have ever been there. And here we were, gearing up for seven days of spearfishing around this unspoiled coral island in some of the most untouched waters in the South Pacific Ocean.
	Meet Dave Mullins Meet the man who has taken the sport of freediving to a new level. Fran Rose talks to the multiple world record holder and finds out that despite all his achivements to date, he's only just getting started......
	Freediving Psych Ant Williams, a competitive freediver, explains how spearo's can benefit from freedivie training techniques.
	DNF Training DNF (Dynamic No fins) Kathryn McPhee discusses her new training techniques that are taking her to the top of Dynamic No Fins. Over about the last year I have learned a new and effective way of training that suits me and my competitive freediving goals. I do short, intense sessions mainly focussing on perfecting technique.
	Option 4 Updates Option4 has joined forces with the New Zealand Big Game Fishing Council and the mid north iwi fisheries forum, the Hokianga Accord, to achieve abundant fisheries and a healthy marine environment. This is good news for fishers, spearfishers and freedivers.