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ARTICLE · 19.06.2008

SPEARFISHING

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I Ixtiandr · Added 19 June 2008



James Aldridge

UNDERWATER HUNTING

Translated from the English by YURI SMIRNOV

Final editing by L. MAKAROV

FOREWORD
Lately a great many books and colour films about underwater hunting have appeared. Hundreds of thousands of people who have seen the vivid footage of underwater hunting at the cinema or read about it would certainly not mind taking up this fascinating sport themselves, but they mistakenly believe that underwater hunting is out of their reach for many reasons.
This book has been written precisely to show these enthusiasts, already tempted but still hesitant, how attainable underwater adventures are for them, and how badly mistaken they are in doubting that hunting, or at least swimming, underwater is open to almost everyone.
Not only people who live by warm sea shores, but also tens of thousands of women and men who spend their summer holidays on the southern seaside, can take up underwater hunting along the way, if they cast aside their groundless fears.
However complicated and difficult this alluring sport may seem to those who have come to know it from the screen or from books, all doubts and hesitations will vanish after a careful reading of this book, whose main aim is to dispel fears of imaginary difficulties, both psychological and material, for the basic equipment needed for hunting underwater is very simple and its cost is small.
Almost anyone who wishes to can, without any doubt, take up fascinating underwater hunting, all the more so because the information and advice given in this book do not concern the complex technique of deep diving and hunting very large fish at great depths in the sea. What is described here is underwater hunting for medium-sized and small fish, which are found in abundance off any sea coast, where it is very easy to hunt, provided, of course, that you know how it should be done.
This book is intended for readers who live on the coast and for those who visit the seashore during their summer holidays, if they can swim at least a little, and for those who can afford to spend a small sum of money on equipment: a speargun, a mask, a snorkel and fins.
The pages of this book provide information and advice without which an underwater hunter is unlikely to have a good catch and success. This information will help you learn how and where to find fish, how to hunt them, and how best and most correctly to use your equipment.
I also hope that readers will find in this book not only brief, sparse practical information, but also a description of the immediate sensations and feelings that accompany this sport, as well as the emotions that no one escapes who has seen the bright panorama of underwater life, extraordinary in its novelty, which opens before one's eyes as if in a fairy tale from the very moment one puts on a mask with a glass.
Everything written and told here can easily be done and experienced by anyone; that is the main aim of the book. And if the reader cannot wait to find out what thrilling experiences await him in the underwater world, then he should start straight away with the pages where I tell of my everyday observations, which everyone who intends to swim and hunt underwater in a mask will inevitably come to know.
A few metres from the shore, where even children row out in boats, the sea can turn out to be, for the beginning underwater hunter, a place of the most alluring and fascinating adventures, if only he knows how to handle his equipment, the cost of which will be repaid to him a hundredfold in a wealth of impressions and experiences.

THE BASIC PRINCIPLE OF UNDERWATER SPORT
In recent years, on sea coasts you can come across people doing underwater diving, if not for the sake of hunting (very, very few of them try to hunt), then in order to see the curious underwater world with their own eyes through a mask. Even if you take up this sport only to satisfy your curiosity, some general and simple information and advice about the basic principles of underwater diving will still be useful and necessary for those who have never done it and have never seen how it is done. Perhaps all this information will not be superfluous for those enthusiasts of the new sport who, although they have started, have not yet fully got the hang of it.
The most important and basic item of underwater sport is a rubber mask with an oval viewing glass. The mask must fit tightly to the face and let in no water at all. Through the viewing glass the sportsman can see everything under water freely, since the glass and the layer of air protect the eyes from the drifting fog that blinds the naked eye under water.
In this mask you swim freely and stay afloat easily. At the same time, without lifting your head above the water, you can breathe through a special plastic or metal tube, whose mouthpiece is in your mouth, held between your teeth, while the other end sticks out above the surface of the water. So you have to breathe through your mouth. Since you are not used to this, it will be the first major difficulty you run into, and at first it will even seem to you that you are about to suffocate. To get over this obstacle easily, there are very simple techniques, which are described further on.
From the moment you find yourself in the sea wearing a mask, everything you see under water will be a revelation of a new fantastic world, an amazing world that you could never have seen otherwise, no matter how much you swam in those very same places. Every new metre of underwater depth you see in the mask will fill you with the delight of an explorer before whom a new boundless world keeps opening up, where you can swim 365 days a year and every day discover something new and new again, invariably exciting and amazing.
Besides the mask with a viewing glass, you put on your feet special rubber fins, resembling a duck's webbed feet, which make swimming much easier. These fins will give you extraordinary extra power, which is especially needed during spearfishing.
If you intend to hunt fish under water, then you should have a speargun with a rubber or spring mechanism, loaded with a steel shaft.
Later, when you find yourself under water with a gun in your hands, everything will depend on your skill in finding a fish (and there are always enough fish in the sea), spotting it and sneaking up on it (this will seem difficult only until you learn how to do it, managing to swim up to the fish unnoticed to within two or three metres, which is where the whole skill of the spearfisher lies, and then to contrive to take a successful shot without missing. The latter, of course, will depend most of all on how good a shot you are, but however accurate a shot you may be, nothing will help you if the fish manages to outwit and deceive you, or if at the decisive moment you are taken aback by surprise.
So, the most important thing in the skill of hunting in general is the ability to observe, and although it is impossible to give exact rules for how to hunt under water, an account of the general principles will help set readers who want to take up spearfishing on the right path. That, basically, is all I intended to do when I set about writing this book.

EQUIPMENTMASK
A mask with a viewing glass is so much more convenient and reliable than watertight goggles that there is no point even talking about anything else. Today there is an endless variety of masks, although they are all based on the same principle. As already mentioned, most masks have an oval viewing glass; they cover the nose and eyes, leaving the mouth free for using a separate breathing tube.


Two types of mask: on the left, a mask with straight edges and a soft rim that hugs the face; in the centre, a flange-type mask that fits the face more comfortably; on the right, it is shown how a flange mask fits the face, or how any mask in general should sit on the face.

There are now also masks in which the snorkel comes straight out of the mask itself, so that the mask covers not only the nose and eyes but also the mouth, letting you breathe through your nose. This type has no advantages over the mask described above and only seems better because a beginner finds it easier to breathe through the nose. Its drawbacks will show up in practice, because for a spearfisher and for a diver an ordinary mask covering only the nose and eyes, with a separate snorkel, is considerably more convenient, safer, and cheaper too.
The mask must sit on the face as snugly and comfortably as possible, ensuring a completely watertight seal - this is the most important, basic requirement that a mask of any type must meet, first and foremost. This depends mainly, of course, on the quality and shape of the rubber skirt that rests against the face. Some masks have a straight shape without any flanges and a fairly soft skirt. From my personal experience, the most comfortable in general (though not always the best) is a mask with free flanges on the skirt; such a mask fits itself to the face very quickly and easily.
All masks have a special cut-out in the line where the mask rests under the nose. This is very important, since the mask usually fits poorly at that spot, and that is exactly where water seeps in.
Since both types of mask are equally good, you should choose whichever one you like best. (The same rule applies when choosing all the rest of your spearfishing gear.) But personally I'm in favour of the flanged mask - it's easier to put on, sits more comfortably on the face, and a beginner gets used to it faster, soon even forgetting it's there.
Mask colour: a neutral one is preferable, of course, although I myself, against all the rules, used a white mask and, surprisingly enough, didn't notice that the colour scared the fish much.
Masks use all sorts of special glass: there are lenses tinted for greater contrast, on the same principle as the filters used in photography; others are refracting lenses that bring sizes and distances, distorted underwater, back down to their real values. But frankly, I haven't tried even half of what's out there, and based on my own experience I can recommend a mask with ordinary shatterproof glass, reminding you once and for all that when you go underwater in such a mask, you see everything magnified two to three times. And indeed, the mind and our reflexes adapt so quickly to the magnified sizes and distances underwater that a person doesn't need to make any corrections in how the brain works.
I'll repeat once more: when buying a mask, first of all check that it is absolutely watertight, because even a few drops of water getting into the mask will spread across the glass and distort everything you see.
A few tricks for avoiding this annoying nuisance, and tips on how to wear the mask so that it doesn't happen, will be given below.

SNORKEL
The simpler and lighter the snorkel, the better; when buying a snorkel, be sure to test it in use together with the mask. The snorkel should fit comfortably in the mouth, and its mouthpiece should be as small and flexible as possible. Keep in mind that most new mouthpieces sold in shops, though cheap, are too coarse and thick, so choose the smallest and softest of them.


Two types of snorkel. On the left is the straight type, which is worse than the second snorkel, shown on the right, which has a wide bend and a slight curve, the so-called "double bend". Both snorkels are fitted with soft mouthpieces with two small lugs that are gripped by the teeth.

The most important thing about a snorkel is its shape and how it sits against the head. Starting right from the mouthpiece, the snorkel should be bent and then slightly curved back the other way (this is called a double bend"), so that it can be comfortably attached to the rubber strap of the mask, near the left ear. A straight, narrow U-shaped bend is not recommended - it is very uncomfortable. A snorkel must have a wide bend and a slight reverse curve.
Some snorkels have a special ball valve at the top end, whose job is to keep water out of the snorkel and, therefore, out of your mouth. Perhaps to some extent such a valve does do its job, but even so, if you intend to dive or hunt, avoid anything whatsoever on the top end of your snorkel like the plague. It is a very good idea to cut off the upper bend of the snorkel, thus making the snorkel straight. A more detailed explanation of this will be given below.
Snorkels are made of aluminium and plastic, but the latter should be preferred - if only because they are much lighter.
A mask with a faceplate and a snorkel - these are the two basic items that anyone can make do with if they want to explore the sea or satisfy their curiosity and see the fantastic underwater world with their own eyes. And you can be sure of this: once you have looked into the depths of the sea even once, you will immediately become a true captive of a kingdom you have never seen before, a kingdom whose existence you will find hard to believe, so unusual and new will it seem to you, this kingdom that was so close to you all along and that you have only now seen thanks to simple, even primitive, equipment.
But I personally stress one thing: a mere observer or spectator will not see even a tiny fraction of that amazing and genuine movement of life that is open to the eye of the hunter. Sight, mind, the sense of observation and quick wits become extraordinarily sharp in a fish hunter, and one can say with complete confidence that of two people who have been in the same place, the hunter will manage to make twice as many observations of the life of the surrounding environment as the non-hunter. From this the conclusion inevitably suggests itself: you need to get fins and a speargun - the essential gear for spearfishing.

FINS
Every day now more and more new fins of the most varied types and sizes appear, but they are all the same in their basic principle. Like other items of underwater equipment, fins must, first of all, be fixed securely and comfortably on the feet. If they are too tight, this can cause cramps. Pay particular attention that your toes are free inside the fins and that you do not have to keep them bent.


Open, heavy type of fins. Left - fins with a rigid strap fastening at the heel; right - fins with an adjustable fastening. Both types are equally good.

But even with this basic requirement for fins, a snug fit along the edges and at the heel of the foot is still desirable. Fins should match the shape of your foot as closely as possible, should not slip off, and should be held not by the heel alone, which makes the toes bend, but over the whole surface of the foot.
Most of the newest fins have an adjustable strap fastening at the heel, but the old type of fins with a rigid fastening is in no way worse than the new ones, provided, that is, that you do not walk around on land in them and thereby stretch and ruin the rigid heel fastening.
From my own personal experience, I find hollow, smooth, simple fins with a heel fastening more comfortable than those that have a foot shape in the centre surrounded by webbing like a spider's web.
For spearfishing, thick and heavy fins are more convenient - when swimming they sink slightly into the water on their own, under their own weight, whereas modern wide, thin and light fins have to be held under water with effort, inevitably causing loud splashes when you move, and, as everyone knows, a hunter must avoid the slightest noise at any cost. True, light modern fins can always be made slightly heavier if necessary.
So, let's sum up what has been said: tight fins, in which the toes are squeezed and bent, are dangerous, because this can cause cramps; therefore, the fins must fit evenly and comfortably over the whole foot. They should not be too light and wide. The choice between a rigid and an adjustable fastening is up to you. What about the blade area of the fins? There is no particular difference between the new large fins and the old medium ones. To be honest, I have tried most of the fins available, and all of them turned out to be good for hunting, so choosing them is a matter of taste. Personally, I lean towards ordinary simple fins. In conclusion, I repeat once more: avoid bent toes in your fins, it leads to cramps in the legs.

THE SPEARGUN
One could write a whole separate book about spearguns, their differences and types, so fascinating is the subject. Once it finds itself in the hands of a true hunter, a speargun is bound to give him an inventor's itch, spawning a thousand different ideas for design changes and improvements to the gun's mechanism. In my time I too did not escape the design fever, and some twenty times I "modified" and "improved" my own speargun, with varying success. To this day I cherish in my mind a new "ideal" speargun design, which for now is still in its infancy.
Even so, I will try to restrain myself and offer the reader only what I have found through experience to be most suitable for the kind of underwater spearfishing discussed here.
But one thing should be kept in mind from the very start: if, against my advice, you decide to buy a speargun of your own choosing, it will not be a big mistake, since you can get used to any speargun.
In this chapter my main intention is to share with the reader the most important knowledge gained from practice, so I will recall the old rule that a hunter with a handy weapon has twice the chance of success compared with one whose gun is too long, heavy or unreliable in operation. For the beginning hunter, a very short rubber-powered speargun is recommended, of any of the most varied systems and designs (experienced spearfishers use such guns as well). Later, in the chapters on spearfishing, I will explain the reasoning behind this advice in more detail, but for now I will give a few arguments showing why it is so important.


A short lever-action speargun with a rubber firing mechanism. Length 26 inches.

I recommend a very short speargun if only because a long one (some are more than six feet long) is too bulky and awkward when shooting at small fish, near rocks and in shallow water. Besides, it takes longer to learn to shoot with a long spear. And on top of that, not everyone can take along on a trip a six-foot tube that won't fit ,into any suitcase, whereas a gun about three feet long can be packed anywhere.
A rubber-powered speargun is better if only because it works almost silently and the spear is released more smoothly, so the recoil of a rubber speargun is also less noticeable to the shooter.
A spring-powered speargun is also an excellent weapon, and many hunters prefer to use nothing else. I had a spring gun at the same time as a rubber one, and I can say nothing against it. A friend of mine, and my frequent companion on many underwater outings, used a spring-powered speargun from his very first day of hunting underwater and shot fish with it successfully.
And yet, start hunting with a short rubber-powered speargun: it is much simpler to handle and lets you concentrate more on finding fish and hunting them, instead of busying yourself with loading the gun. With such a weapon you will miss less often and have less reason to curse underwater after every failed shot, and consequently you will be more likely to come back with a good catch.
The whole point is that when shooting at close range at small fish (weighing from one to ten pounds), an instantaneous shot is needed, and if you have in your hands a fairly stiff spring-powered speargun. which pushes the spear out comparatively more slowly, and with a loud noise and a jerk besides, you will miss far too often and far too badly. |


A short spring-powered speargun, about 30 inches long. The gun has a special detachable hand rest and a special reel for the nylon line.

Even the smallest spring guns today surpass rubber-powered guns of the same size in power and range, although, strange as it may seem, the initial speed at which they push out the spear is lower. The sharp kick of a spring gun badly mangles the fish and often leads to broken" spearheads.
Of course, once you have gained experience through practice, you will certainly be able to use a spring gun as successfully as a rubber-powered one; however, if you don't have spare time to build up that experience, it's better not to waste precious vacation days and to go for a rubber-powered speargun.
Remember one more thing: when hunting fish in coastal waters, shoot the speargun the way it has become an American tradition to shoot a pistol - from the hip, i.e. not aiming in the usual way, but simply pointing the barrel at the target. This aiming must be done without delay, as quickly as possible. There will be no time to think before the shot.
This is exactly where you'll see what a considerable advantage in speed a rubber-powered speargun gives.
The shortcomings inherent in a rubber-powered speargun will, of course, annoy you at times. For example, not every such gun has enough power to drive the spear properly into a fish from more than two meters away.


Another type of short spring-powered speargun - the "Lux Pliant" pistol with a double spring.

Because of this you'll have to thrash about and snort underwater more than once while a big fish tries to tear itself off the spear tip.


The ideal type of speargun. A short rubber-powered speargun with four power bands. One pair of bands is shown in the cocked position (on the spear). The second pair hangs free, ready to be pulled back and set on the spear's second notch. If desired, you can use just one pair of bands; then the second pair should be thrown over the end of the spear and left hanging under the gun so that it doesn't get in the way. This drawing does not show any actually existing speargun; it is merely the author's idea of the perfect speargun, but many spearguns include all the merits of such a gun: short length, four bands, a pistol grip.

Next: the rubbers break from time to time, and the wire loops that fit into the notches on the spear wear through, as do the rubber mountings on the gun barrel. These faults are rarely serious, but they are very annoying if they happen, say, at the very moment when you have already aimed at a fish and pulled the trigger. With spring guns, breakages of any parts, except for the spear heads, happen less often.
Many short, and long, rubber-powered guns are now made with four rubbers instead of two, and the spear therefore has two notches for stretching the four rubbers, so the force with which the spear is shot is increased. For me personally, this improvement makes the rubber gun almost ideal. If a hunter has the chance to buy such a gun, there is nothing better to wish for.
About two years before guns with four rubbers instead of two went on sale, I considered the power of my gun too weak and asked a metalworking shop in Chelsea to fit an extra pair of rubbers to it. But as soon as factory guns appeared with this design addition, done far more cleverly and ingeniously than mine, I hid my clumsy "model" away out of shame. The extra pair of rubbers can also serve as a spare in case the main rubber breaks, since you do not always have to use all four. When hunting near rocky shores, for example, you should use one pair of rubbers to avoid breaking spears, and if a big fish shows up you can quickly stretch the extra pair.
When you buy a rubber-powered gun of any system, be sure to get a spare pair of rubbers for it. Your gun may shoot for six hours or six years, but sooner or later you will call yourself a fool a thousand times over for not having a spare pair of rubbers at hand at the critical moment.

SPEARS
If you can afford a spare spear, get one: you are never safe from losing your main spear. A broken spear is a very rare thing; a bent spear is common, but easy to fix on the spot. If you are a careful and attentive person, one spear will be enough for you.

SPEAR HEADS
This item of gear deserves very serious consideration. Since spear heads often break and bend, they are made removable, screwing onto the spear.
Most harpoon guns are sold with spears fitted with a single-point head. The point has folding barbs that open once the spear has pierced the fish. These barbs are absolutely essential, because a wounded fish as a rule starts to fight desperately, and if these barbs did not hold it, it would manage to tear free.
It goes without saying that with a single-point spear you can hunt large fish more successfully, and anyone who manages to take a two-pound fish with such a spear will be a brilliant shot. So for hunting relatively small fish, a spear with a trident will suit you better.


A trident shown actual size, which, based on personal experience, I consider the best in shape and size.

No doubt there are many other excellent tridents, larger and smaller, meeting various requirements. The trident recommended above is made with any thread, since different guns have spears of different diameters, and therefore their own thread for the heads. This should never be forgotten, and when buying a head for a spear, you need to know for sure that it fits.
The proposed type of trident, with hard, well-tempered points, stays sharp for a very long time (for a while, of course, since underwater rocks will do their work). It bends more often than it breaks, a fault that is easy to fix, sometimes just by hand, or with a hammer and pliers. More than once I have straightened a trident bent by hitting a rock, literally bent into a ring, before it became completely useless.
There is a version of the trident of the same shape, only longer and thinner, which, though it bends more easily, is better suited for hunting certain kinds of fish because it goes deeper into their body and even passes right through it.
I have tried out an endless number of tridents of every possible size and type, and yet each time I came back to the trident of the pattern recommended above, because it has an excellent shape, is strong, stays sharp for a long time and holds the fish securely.
All the success and all the pleasure of underwater hunting depend to a huge degree on how sharp the spear head is, so never go out hunting with a blunt spear. Better not to start hunting underwater at all if you have not provided yourself with a sharp head. This condition is so important for successful hunting that there is no need to say much about it. Below, in the chapter on caring for gear, I will give some tips on how to keep the spear head sharp.
You need to have at least three spare heads for the spear, and during the hunt one spare head should always be on you, on the belt of your swimming trunks; I will also talk about this in more detail in one of the following chapters.

FISH STRINGER
I'm not joking when I say: "Always keep a fish stringer on you". Very often it gets forgotten at home, and even more often it gets left somewhere far from shore. Just in case, it's best to have several.
There are two very simple types of stringer that are easy to make yourself.
One of them is made from an ordinary, not too thin, steel bicycle spoke. Bend the bicycle spoke into a ring and make a hook at one end, and bend the other, sharp, end slightly so that when it goes into the hook it locks, like on a safety pin. Essentially, this will be something like a big round safety pin that can be attached to your swim trunks with a cord. When a fish is on the spear, you unhook the "pin", push the sharp end through the gills, bring it out through the mouth, lock it on the hook, and only after that take the fish off the spear.
The second stringer, the shuttle type, is just as handy. It is made from a piece of smooth wood, plastic or metal about seven inches long, a little more than half an inch wide, and thick enough that it doesn't break too easily. A hole is drilled in the center of this shuttle-shaped stringer to attach a thin cord, the other end of which is tied to your swim trunks.
Using this primitive stringer is very simple: once the fish is on the spear, the shuttle is pushed through the gill opening and then through the mouth. That way the catch ends up on the cord and can't slip away.


Two kinds of very simple stringers. On the left is a stringer made from a bicycle spoke bent into a ring, with a safety-pin-style lock at one end. The second, on the right, is the shuttle type, made from wood, plastic or aluminum; it is about seven inches long, a little more than half an inch wide and no more than a quarter of an inch thick. Both of these stringers attach loosely to the swimsuit with a cord.

Nowadays you can find other, more complicated stringers, but the two described above are better than all the rest: they are simple and convenient to use.
There's one more thing to always keep in mind: when you attach the stringer to your swim trunks, tie the cord with a secure knot, but at the same time one that, even when wet, can be undone easily and quickly at the end of a day's hunting, when you're chilled and excited and need to drop your catch into the boat or the pot fast, without any unnecessary fuss.
Some hunters carry a sheath and knife as extra gear, with a cork handle for buoyancy. In this sport there are certainly moments when a knife is necessary, or at least useful. Personally, I rarely use a knife, and only when I'm doing prolonged deep diving; on an ordinary spearfishing outing I find an extra item of gear too much of a burden. What's more, using a knife underwater can be dangerous. If you can get a small stainless pocket knife to use out of the water, then I wouldn't advise a beginner spearfisher to carry a blade while hunting.
Of course, if you intend to go hunting octopus specifically, armed with nothing but a knife, nobody will object. But that's a kind of sport that I personally don't find exciting or rewarding; rather, it's restless, fussy, and brings nothing but disappointment. It seems to me that when hunting octopus, one good jab with an ordinary table fork fixed to a shaft is far more effective than a stab with a knife.
To sum up what's been said about gear for the spearfisher, I'll note that every item of this gear has its drawbacks, but they are all very easily fixed with a bit of skill and knack; reading this book to the end will also help you a lot.
Get this into your head once and for all: from the moment you pick up a loaded speargun, you are holding a very dangerous weapon. If handled carelessly in the water or on land, it can easily kill you, and even more easily a bystander or spectator. Under no circumstances should you load a speargun on the surface, out of the water. And when it is loaded in the water, handle it so that the spear is pointed away from yourself and from other people.
When you clean coral seaweed off your speargun, removing the spearhead in the water, don't put your face in front of the spear tip. Point the barrel down or to the side, and look down at your feet. Very often the spear accidentally slips off the trigger, and such an accident can be fatal.

HOW TO WEAR AND HANDLE YOUR GEAR
All your success in underwater sport may depend on how you wear your mask and snorkel, so let me point out a few simple mistakes that can spoil everything for you right from the start.
I think it is best to bring you, with all your gear in hand, down to the water and start right here, because you should not put your gear on until the water is lapping at your very feet.
If you have never used a mask and snorkel before, then when you take them up for the first time, set the speargun aside for now. You will need a couple of hours to learn how to use a mask and snorkel, and this time should not be considered wasted. Let us assume from the outset that you have never used these items before. So how should you wear a mask and handle it and the snorkel?
The learning begins long before you get to the water, because first of all you need to attach the snorkel to the mask. And if you do it wrong, you will find it very difficult to breathe through it.
Once you have taken the snorkel into your mouth, do not let go of it and do not let it dangle freely. Do not hold it with your mouth alone. Whenever possible, never pass the snorkel between the strap and your hair; it is better always to attach it with a cord over the mask strap so that it runs exactly in front of your left ear. The snorkel should move freely up and down in the loop of the cord, which in turn must be securely fastened to the strap. This is necessary so that you can adjust the position of the snorkel in the water.
Having fixed the snorkel to the mask strap, crouch down by the water and thoroughly rinse the faceplate and the rubber of the mask in the water. While washing the glass, rub it well with your fingers, as if polishing its entire surface on both sides with water. You should do this every single time before using the mask in order to remove the salt film, which is invisible to the eye when you look at the glass, but which you will notice at once if you look through the glass of the mask.


The ideal position for the snorkel: the snorkel is attached to the mask strap and runs in front of the left ear. A cord or a rubber band are equally suitable for attaching the snorkel.

Now put the mask down beside you and leave it there while you put your fins on. Do not put on the mask until you have put on your fins.
To make them go on easily, wet them and both feet thoroughly with water. After that, if yours are adjustable, you can put them on and fit them properly so that they sit snugly on the foot without bending your toes.
As soon as you have put on your fins, take your mask and rinse it in the water once more. To give the mask's flanges a better grip on the skin of your face, wet your face with water too. Now put on the mask, and do not take the snorkel mouthpiece into your mouth until you have fitted it properly on your face.
Here are a few tricks that will help you avoid many of the troubles that lie in wait for a beginner: first of all, the mask should not sit too tight. Almost all beginners, as a rule, pull the mask very tight onto their face, expecting to achieve a perfect fit this way. However, the mask should fit the face snugly but without pressure; the edges of the mask should not cut into the skin of the face. This is easily achieved by adjusting the mask strap around your head.
Remember from the very start that in most cases trouble and seepage of water occur right under the nose, or in the places where the two creases run from the wings of the nose to the corners of the mouth. Water seeps in along these lines if you have not covered them securely. So the rubber flange of the mask must be well fitted under the nose.


How to fit the mask on your face: arrows A and B indicate the places where water is most likely to seep in. Arrow A points to the creases that usually run from the nose to the corners of the mouth, along which water gets in. By breathing in air from the mask through your nose, you can tell whether your mask is well sealed against water. Arrow B shows the hollow under the nose, which also needs to be covered securely — not tightly, but securely. This measure also helps to eliminate trouble at the spot indicated by arrow A.

Once you have fitted the mask flange snugly under your nose and adjusted the mask as a whole, you can easily check whether it lets in water. To do this, take a deep breath in through your nose. If the mask is watertight, it will noticeably pull on your face, and once a vacuum forms, you will feel at once that it does not let even air through. On the other hand, if you manage to breathe even a little through your nose via the mask, or you feel air coming in along the creases running from the nose to the mouth, then your mask will not be watertight.
So keep changing how the edge of the mask presses on your face under and around your nose until you feel that the mask finally sits comfortably and snugly, no air gets into it when you breathe in through your nose, and thanks to the vacuum the mask holds firmly on your face. Make sure that not a single strand of hair gets into the mask, otherwise it will cause water to seep in under water.
While checking the mask's watertightness this way, you will run into a small nuisance: your warm breath will condense some moisture from the air and cause the glass to fog up.
In that case, take off the mask, rinse it with water, wipe the glass with saliva, shake off the excess water and put the mask on again. Only this time do it faster, and then go into the water. Everything has to be done exactly this way in order to find the ideal strap tension for your head, fasten the strap buckle in that position and fix it firmly in place with the loop. And from then on you will not have to adjust the strap again.


The arrow points to a piece of rubber band or cord fastened by the buckle of the mask strap so that the strap, once fitted in the right place, does not slip. Once you have set a comfortable strap tension for your head, note that position and, when needed, simply slide this rubber stopper back to it.

As soon as the mask is securely on, put your face into the water without delay; otherwise the heat of the sun will fog up the faceplate again, even though saliva helps prevent this, and the tiniest foggy spot on the glass will irritate you so much while you are underwater that it may spoil all your enjoyment. So go under head first as soon as the mask is securely fitted on your face — that is why the mask should be the very last thing you put on.
Of course, before going into the water, you need to take the snorkel mouthpiece into your mouth and fit the snorkel properly in the loop that attaches it to the mask strap. Be sure to remember this: you should not clamp the rubber snorkel mouthpiece in a "death grip", as they say. It is quite enough to hold it firmly between your teeth, making sure the rubber mouthpiece sits in front of your gums, not behind them. That is why it is better if the mouthpiece rubber is thinner and softer. Later, once you get used to it, you will be able to sing, whistle and fool around however you like without letting the snorkel out of your mouth, but at first hold the snorkel without strain, with your mouth firmly closed and the snorkel gripped securely in your teeth.
And now relax the muscles of your body. Stay loose and at ease, move slowly; your movements should be barely perceptible.
Just lie comfortably and easily on the water, preferably in shallow water, lie flat and try to make as few movements as possible. Don't tense up. Relax your muscles — relax, relax, relax!


Relax your muscles. Stay afloat, barely moving your fins. Breathe freely, easily and slowly, but only through your mouth. Forget about your nose, leave it alone. Then try breathing through your nose, and you will find that it is blocked, you will choke and will have to take a breath through your mouth.

If necessary, lower your arms and make exactly as many movements as are needed to stay afloat. You will stay on the surface according to the laws of physics, so don't give in to the thought that you are about to start sinking. Just lie on the water and look ahead.
As soon as your head goes under the water, don't start breathing hard and in gasps through your mouth. Of course you must breathe through your mouth, but breathe easily and evenly — definitely easily and without any hurry.
It is possible, even likely (this happened to me too at first), that after taking a few breaths through your mouth you will suddenly feel that you are suffocating, rush to the surface and tear off the mask to gulp some air. But if you follow all the advice given above rigorously and strictly, even the tips that seem the most trivial at first glance, this will never happen to you. However, even if you do feel like you are suffocating, don't panic and don't lose your head. The reason for this is very simple — you are very tense, you feel stiff, you are trying to breathe through your nose out of habit rather than through your mouth; or perhaps it is that you were seized by a rush of delight and amazement at the sight of what opened up before your eyes underwater.
Well, and once you have looked underwater even once, you will certainly try to do it again and again.
I assure you, if you manage to breathe through your mouth for even a minute, from that minute on you can safely consider that you have got the hang of breathing in a mask. Really, it is a very simple thing that doesn't take long to master, provided that, while underwater with the mask on your face, you don't put feverish effort into your movements.
Move easily, at ease and without hurrying; when swimming, use mainly your legs, not your arms. If you still need help from your arms, replace them with movements of your chest — slow, easy, free movements of your rib cage.
Naturally, by now you have already become yet another victim of this new sport, and words of delight will involuntarily escape your lips and get stuck in the snorkel. It is quite likely that some of these delighted sounds will break out beyond the snorkel, and then, having swallowed some salt water, you will have to surface, take off the mask and cough it out. Later you will certainly talk to yourself out of an irresistible urge to share with someone your delight at everything you have seen underwater, and during spearfishing you will even start swearing, pulling faces, laughing and even shouting in the heat of the fight with a stubborn fish. But that is a separate conversation.
Right now your main task is to get used to the mask, to get comfortable with it, which can very easily be done in the course of one day.
Without any doubt, at first the mask will leak a little, press very hard or, on the contrary, sit too loosely, slip, and generally cause you a lot of bother, but by remembering the advice given at the beginning of this chapter and using it, you can quickly manage to fit the mask to your face and find the most comfortable position for it, one that ensures it is completely watertight.
Swim more, get used to the mask, deliberately break the rules for using it, and so see for yourself what that leads to. Nothing terrible will happen to you: at any second you can tear off the mask and spare yourself any trouble. Self-confidence always helps you overcome any obstacles with ease.
Fairly soon you will hardly notice that you have a mask on your face and that you are breathing through your mouth. Only now and then will an involuntary shiver or a loud reminder from your buddies let you know that you have already been in the water for several hours and that it is time to go and have breakfast.

So, pick up your speargun.

In this case, if all the tips given above seem to anyone too simple or insignificant, watch from the sidelines as a beginner who has put on a mask and snorkel for the first time without having received these tips helplessly tries to master and adjust his gear, fixing minor mistakes. There is no doubt that in the end he too will overcome all the difficulties and get used to the mask, but it will take him at least twice as long as it takes you, who have received and absorbed these practical tips. Later, when you start hunting underwater, some of the techniques and tips mentioned here will prove very, very valuable to you.
Let's assume you have mastered the mask and snorkel and feel at ease underwater. Now you can take up the speargun.


The length of the nylon line connecting the shaft to the speargun; the line pays out automatically at the moment of the shot. Letter A shows the line reels at the handle (sometimes this is a simple hook). Letter B is the hook at the front end of the barrel. Letter C shows the working fitting that fixes the line rigidly to the shaft. In the drawing the nylon line is shown slack. Normally it is pulled taut. Many hunters simply let the line out, and it trails behind them under the left arm.

Don't be afraid of the speargun, just handle it carefully and confidently, and you will get the greatest satisfaction from it as a tool for hunting and sport.


How to load a rubber-powered speargun: floating freely, rest the butt of the gun against your stomach and pull the rubber back until it catches on the shaft. Put the gun on safety until you have wound the nylon line (not shown here), and only after that take it off safety, but do not touch the trigger with your finger until you are ready to shoot.

Head straight away to where you may have already spotted some fish earlier, and right there start learning to load the gun in the water and to bring back the shaft, which is tied to the gun with a long nylon line.
The main trouble with a speargun will most likely start with the nylon line, since guns of different designs have different ways of attaching the line. On most guns the line is wound onto special reels located at the far ends of the gun, or onto a small spring clip on the underside of the gun. Depending on the conditions, you should roughly work out how much line you need, so that there is no excess line floating around that will snag on everything and drag it along.
At first it is hard to calculate the required line length precisely, because wet nylon stretches and so suddenly turns out longer than the piece you carefully measured and wound on shore. But soon you will learn the exact length of line, allowing for its stretch in the water, and this problem, in a sport that demands constant and close attention, will present no difficulty for you.


How to load a spring-powered speargun: treading water with your fins, insert the loader into the head of the shaft (or above it), brace the butt of the gun against your leg, pushed slightly forward and bent, help hold the gun upright with your left hand, then with your right hand push the shaft into the cocked position inside the gun. Another convenient position for holding the gun is to cross your legs as in ordinary gun shooting and grip the end of the butt between them, or to hold the butt on your outstretched leg.

And later on, when you become a hunter, you won't even always wind the line onto the reels, but will simply leave it floating freely beside your gun; this method is not recommended for beginners, but it saves time and cuts down on hassle.
So, get used to the speargun — load it and shoot it, watching and noting its peculiarities, its range, and so on. To begin with, this will be all your practice. But just don't forget one thing: don't pick up, from your very first steps, the bad habit of aiming the speargun at your quarry the way it is done in ordinary target shooting with a gun. Remember once and for all, from the very start — point the barrel of the gun at the fish, don't aim it. Although this will be covered in more detail in the next chapter, I would like to warn you once more in advance, so that while practicing with the speargun you develop the right habits straight away. If you consistently follow this way of shooting while swimming underwater, you will become a better shot than someone who shoots on the usual principle of a hunter with a gun on land.
And only now will you see with your own eyes the advantage of a light, short gun.
If you have a spring-powered gun in your hands, you will immediately feel how much harder it is for your hands to work and how comparatively slower it shoots. And if you then pick up a short, light gun with double rubber power, you will see how much more convenient it is to shoot. You use your whole arm and wrist, and easily point the barrel at any spot.
First the eye, then the wrist, the arm itself, the body and the brain: this is the order and sequence the aiming impulses should follow when shooting underwater. By making this principle a firm rule, you will develop a feel for your gun and will later acquire the habit of automatically merging into one all these component mental impulses of an experienced spearfisher.
So far you have been doing all this lying on the surface of the water, unless, of course, you have already been tempted to dive under. If that has already happened, then you are on the right track, because it is almost impossible to stalk a fish and shoot it without diving underwater to do so.
And finally, the better you can dive, the greater your chances of success in spearfishing. Therefore, diving is well worth devoting a separate chapter to.

DIVING
The art of diving and the ability to move freely underwater come down mainly to developing natural habits that will let you focus all your attention on searching for, tracking and pursuing fish, without putting all your effort and energy into diving, staying underwater and coming back up to the surface. All of these actions should be done effortlessly, almost involuntarily and easily.
You absolutely must be able to dive well, because many fish usually hide under stones and rocks or in seaweed, and they feed mostly on the bottom. And even when chasing a fish swimming not far below the surface, a spearfisher who can dive well and move freely underwater will shoot at it more easily and more surely.
If you have never dived before, then the first time, put your speargun aside and take it with you only after you feel relatively comfortable and free underwater.
There are two things you must always remember and deal with while diving: water getting into the snorkel, and the mask pressing harder against your face, because the water pressure at depth becomes greater than the pressure of the air filling the mask.
When you go down a few feet underwater, the snorkel naturally fills with water. But since you have taken in a supply of air with a deep breath before submerging, and you hold that air as you descend, no water will get into your mouth as long as you hold your breath.
And when you come up to the surface, you, as you know, exhale hard through the snorkel, thus pushing the water out of the snorkel along with the air. After that you can take a new deep breath.
Never forget one thing: when you come up to the surface and exhale, exhale as forcefully as possible, do not let the air seep out of your mouth gradually. Push the air out with a strong, sharp exhalation. And remember once and for all this most important and most useful piece of advice for divers.
You will fully appreciate the habit of exhaling quickly and forcefully at the surface when, in pursuit of fish, you go deeper underwater, because only such a full and forceful exhalation completely clears the water from the snorkel, so that right after it you can quickly and without delay take in the fresh supply of clean air you need, with no water mixed in. And if you don't thoroughly blow the water out of the snorkel, the next breath of fresh air will come with water; you will choke, start coughing and spluttering, and tear the mask off your face. So, once you have come up to the surface, blow the water out of the snorkel decisively and take in a new supply of air with a deep breath.
Keeping all these instructions in mind, do a few shallow dives - don't dive deep straight away, just swim a few feet below the surface. And once again: don't strain, don't stiffen your movements and don't put all your effort into them. Stay relaxed, free and easy.
The initial, or starting, bend of the body at the waist and the so-called duck dive for going under may not work for you at first, but as soon as you manage to dive under even once, immediately start working your fins moderately to move forward. And from then on your fins will do all the necessary movements.
Without rushing, do the following several times: take a breath (but not a very deep one), put your head under the water so that the weight of your head helps you sink deeper. As soon as your head and shoulders are underwater, make a few strokes with your arms and then straighten your legs so that they stick straight up out of the water. And you will easily start sinking underwater.
Remember that your head is very heavy and, if you lower it, pressing your chin to your chest, diving will be much easier for you than when you keep your head up.


Later on you will have to give up this technique of throwing your legs vertically out of the water, and I mention it here only so that a beginner finds it easier to learn the initial, or starting, dive in the first attempts. So don't get used to this technique and don't use it later, once you have mastered the technique of putting your head and shoulders under the water and have learned to break away from the surface, which holds your body up, using only the first few strokes of your arms.
All my advice and instructions on this stage of underwater sport come down, basically, to getting you to commit to plenty of swimming at shallow depth until you learn to hold your breath and, once you come up to the surface, to breathe out the "spent" air forcefully and completely, and until you acquire the knack of gliding freely underwater.
And once you have mastered the essentially simple technique of the starting dive, learned to stay underwater at least a little and to come up easily for a breath, it will no longer be all that hard for you to dive to greater depths in search of exciting adventures in the underwater world.
But before I tell you how to get started on deeper, serious diving, I must mention one important thing that I have not brought up until now only because it doesn't matter while you are diving to a depth of a few feet. What I mean here is the slight squeezing of the mask under water pressure.
As you go down, you will find that already at a depth of six or seven feet the pressure of the sea will be so much greater than the air pressure inside the mask that its rubber flanges will be noticeably squeezed. This squeeze naturally increases the pressure of the mask on your face as well, and not only will it bother and annoy you, but soon you will also feel that you can barely see, and of course you won't be able to put up with the loss of visibility and the pressure on your face and eyes.
True, there is nothing dangerous about it, since the mask doesn't shift out of place. And if it gets squeezed a little, it won't do you any harm. You'll just start to feel discomfort, and it will annoy you so noticeably that, never mind the hunting itself, you won't even be able to dive freely unless you get rid of this nuisance.
There is a way to do this, and although it is very simple in itself, it still takes developing a special knack.
When you are already getting ready to dive, you take a breath through your mouth, and just before you put your head completely under the water, blow a little (just a tiny bit) of air from your lungs into the mask through your nose (the smallest amount). And then go straight down.
This small addition of air to the mask makes up for the difference in pressure. It may also happen that, lingering at the surface, you overfill your mask with air and thereby break the seal between the edge of the mask and your face, letting water in. But underwater the pressure changes so much that this small addition of air is necessary, and it doesn't let water into the mask.
This small addition of air is usually quite enough to keep the mask from being squeezed at depth and to keep it sitting comfortably, and once you are more experienced (I don't recommend doing this until you have been underwater a few times), then while deep in the sea you will be able from time to time to borrow air from your lungs and blow it little by little through your nose into the mask. But this can still be risky, especially if you don't know what it can lead to; so better not resort to it until you learn about the necessary precautions, which I will talk about later.
This air equalization technique is the key to free deep diving, and it is well worth the effort to learn to do it automatically.
Once you have pulled off this technique successfully at least once, so that you understand why you are doing it and what it gives you, you can consider yourself fully prepared for deep diving, that is, for the most thrilling activity in underwater sport. By the way, when I talk about deep diving here, I mean a depth of up to 12-14 feet, which as a rule is considered deep for almost everyone, except of course professional divers. So don't mistakenly imagine that I'm pushing you into depths from which you'll never come back. Later on, of course, you can dive as deep as you like, or at least as deep as your lungs allow.
So, back to proper diving.
When going underwater, you can take your speargun along just in case, getting used to having it in your hand from the very start. Next: you look around, deciding where you'd like to swim. Hold the speargun in the water below you so that it helps you sink down. Take a good, deep (just not frantic) breath through your mouth, breathe a little air into the mask through your nose and put your head in the water so that its weight pulls you under; then bend at the waist, forming something like the letter L with your body, and after that glide smoothly and effortlessly into the depths.
Then you go down head first, now using strong, vigorous kicks of your fins. Under no circumstances make erratic, exhausting movements with your fins - that kind of work uses up your breath far too quickly.
At the particular depth you need, level out horizontally.
You won't need much effort to stay underwater. If you have a spring gun in your hands, its weight will help you a lot with that, and since you won't be putting any effort at all into it, you can glide freely and easily through the water however and wherever you like. A lighter rubber-powered gun will make you a tiny bit more buoyant, but again not enough to get in your way.
While underwater, swim in a straight line, make turns, roll over, shoot your gun, get in among the rocks, take a few shots at small fry, collect shells - in general, learn to do anything you want underwater freely.
Then, when you feel th

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About this material

Type Article
Author Ixtiandr
Date 19.06.2008
Views 10 825
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