OK, so there isn't a fish to shoot in a 700km radius from Johannesburg (for those who don't know it's illegal to spearfish in inland waters)

That, however, doesn't stop some intrepid WUC spearos from making the occasional sortie to the coast to shorten the life of some kingfish on the Natal coast or picking on an unsuspecting fish on the Cape coast. In general these trips are aimed at simply having a good time and eating good, fresh fish.

In past experience, however, not enough has been actually shot to eat... so the environmentalists among you can relax again (beaming, innocent smile).

Introduction:

Due to the significant interest shown in freediving and spearfishing by members of the club it was decided to open this portfolio for 2008. It is our intension to develop this discipline this year and have come up with some strategies and events to facilitate this.

Our vision is to promote and support freediving and spearfishing in order to produce top class participants, well versed in the techniques and theory of the sport, who can represent WUC with pride and distinction.

Strategy:

It is the opinion of many in the Club and in the diving industry in general that breath-hold diving is a crucial and essential skill, not only for spearfishers, freedivers and underwater hockey players, but also for normal SCUBA divers of all qualification levels. Unfortunately due to international trends snorkeling and freediving is becoming progressively less thought in diving courses.

The proposal from the WUC committee is that we offer our club members with opportunities to at least, on an informal level, learn and hone these potentially life-saving skills. 

There are a number of experienced club members that currently can provide the expertise to assist in training and mentoring upcoming apneists (breath-hold divers).

We also have close ties with both the Dolphin Underwater Club in Port Elizabeth and the False Bay Underwater Club and we are currently working on possibly closely liaising with both these entities, organizing mutual dive trips. This will firstly build ties between the various clubs and secondly present opportunities for networking within the country’s freediving and spearfishing communities.

It has further been suggested that we arrange talks/seminars by specialists on various technical issues. Amongst such items are the following:

• Freediving/apnea talks
• Speafishing talk
• Yoga Specialists
• Diving Doctor- Freediving physiology

We propose the creation of a freediving interest group within the WUC structure. This entity will facilitate the exchange of technical information and present a pool to draw from in terms of training partners and diving buddies. A mailing list unique to the group will be instituted.

Weekly training sessions are proposed for the summer months. This should preferably coincide with the underwater hockey players’ use of the Wits pool on Thursday Club evenings. We furthermore are intent on arranging frequent trips to various open water venues for both freediving and spearfishing activities.

One rather important issue with regards to freediving and spearfishing, especially in the sea, is that the diving trips are significantly different to SCUBA diving activities. Unlike SCUBA diving where, due to safety implications and prohibitive factors such as cylinder capacity, dive sessions/trips are of fairly short durations, freediving/ spearfishing trips are very often whole day events. Smaller groups of 4 or 5 persons per vessel are also more desirable. For this reason we will need to re-commission the two WUC boats. They are currently in good running order having recently been serviced by our members. What is however required is that the safety and operational equipment to both boats needs to be re-supplied and updated. Once seaworthy, the boats need to undergo yearly seaworthy tests.

In addition there will be a necessity to train some WUC members to become small boat skippers of the applicable vessel class.

It may be also be a good idea to train up one of our members to become a certified boating official.

This would mean that WUC would be able to run its own Skippers courses and do its own boat safety in-dating. Monies so generated could make this idea sustainable and provide some valuable income to the WUC coffers.  

I am currently attempting to arrange a skippers package, split in such a way that we can do the theory (classes and exams) up in Johannesburg. We have a very good chance that we may be able to do the at-sea practical in Port Elizabeth, with members of the Dolphin Underwater club with boats from the same, thus keeping costs down – financial implications to follow.

Events:

The proposed events for the year are as follows:

• Weekly Freediving Fitness raining in Wits Pool
• Informal Freediving ½day Skills Session - Date(s) to be announced
• Informal Spearfishing ½day Skills Session - Date(s) to be announced
• Speafishing talk(s)
• Skippers course proposed – early Feb 2008 to end March 2008
• Regular freediving training sessions at Miracle Waters/ Badgat/ Wondergat
•  Literature Reviews
• Freediving underwater photography competition (concept to be further investigated)
• Spearfishing trips

v      Vidal/Mapalane (St Lucia)

v      Mozambique -Inhambane/ Zavora or similar venue  –  to coincide with university holidays

v      Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape – February/March 2008 –to coincide with skippers course possibly

v      Stilbaai, South Cape Coast – December 2008

v      Namibia/West Coast Lobster Diving Week – (dates to be confirmed)

(All trips will be on a limited number basis with 1^st come 1^st serve basis being applicable.

All dates are preliminary and subject to availability of accommodation and club ratification)

If you are interested in Spearfishing with WUC, come to the clubhouse on Thursday evenings or leave a message here.