Dan
Contributor
This is what free diving is for:
The Badjao
The Badjao
Doing a free diving for a living
- Thread starter Dan
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
Definitely the earliest form of professional diving. Thanks.
- Messages
- 5,141
- Reaction score
- 4,146
- # of dives
- 5000 - ∞
As one who began as a spear fisherman long before Cousteau and his bubble machine graced our shores I am amazed that the art of spearfishing is still practiced in the south seas and with such primitive home made equipment: apparently home made goggles and a home made thumb trigger spear gun- items that were used and discarded in the western world 50 to 60 years ago.
With the depths and length of the dives the gentleman apparently makes on a regular basis I would suspect that Taravana is endemic to that area 's divers.
FYI
Over 25 years ago there was a board titled "Free dive list." eighteen years ago they organized and sponsored the huge 2000 Free Dive Party which was the last gathering of the worlds "Fathers of Free diving and Spear fishing." It was a very monumental event in the history of spear fishing. The 50 or so fathers came from all points of the globe for this last hurrah; Central and South America, Europe, Australia, the Pacific Islands and North America -three were honored from Orange County California the late Ron Merker, Allan (Omar) Wood and my self
In honor of the event and the Fathers I posted the following on the Free Dive List:
"We Fathers of Free Diving and Spearfishing have been honored as pioneer participants in a noble sport where one matches their skill in a very hostile environment with that of his finny adversary in an activity that has become internationally known as "Spearfishing."
Spearfish with great dignity and pride in this the noblest of all man's activities, but with restraint and selective spearfishing rather than wholesale slaughter, for with every activity there is a Beginning; a Middle; and an End............"
We the "Fathers" of this great activity were honored to have been a participant in the Beginning, we are some where in the Middle and if precautions aren't established and restraints aren't practiced the End of spearfishing can be in the immediate future"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Always remember this:
"if precautions aren't established and restraints aren't practiced the End of spearfishing can be in the immediate future"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FYI
Only a hand full of the Fathers have survived the passage of the last eighteen years ~~ One by one they have passed on and are now diving on that big reef in the sky.
Two of the Fathers and all time great spearfishermen were Florida's own Art Pender, and my dive buddy for over 50 years World record holder Spear fisherman Ron Merker - who was also @drbill s basic instructor
You may want to read their obituaries on this board in "Passings" "Art Pender, King of sling." and "Ron Merker"
Thanks for discovering these two snippets and posting them--
SDM
With the depths and length of the dives the gentleman apparently makes on a regular basis I would suspect that Taravana is endemic to that area 's divers.
FYI
Over 25 years ago there was a board titled "Free dive list." eighteen years ago they organized and sponsored the huge 2000 Free Dive Party which was the last gathering of the worlds "Fathers of Free diving and Spear fishing." It was a very monumental event in the history of spear fishing. The 50 or so fathers came from all points of the globe for this last hurrah; Central and South America, Europe, Australia, the Pacific Islands and North America -three were honored from Orange County California the late Ron Merker, Allan (Omar) Wood and my self
In honor of the event and the Fathers I posted the following on the Free Dive List:
"We Fathers of Free Diving and Spearfishing have been honored as pioneer participants in a noble sport where one matches their skill in a very hostile environment with that of his finny adversary in an activity that has become internationally known as "Spearfishing."
Spearfish with great dignity and pride in this the noblest of all man's activities, but with restraint and selective spearfishing rather than wholesale slaughter, for with every activity there is a Beginning; a Middle; and an End............"
We the "Fathers" of this great activity were honored to have been a participant in the Beginning, we are some where in the Middle and if precautions aren't established and restraints aren't practiced the End of spearfishing can be in the immediate future"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Always remember this:
"if precautions aren't established and restraints aren't practiced the End of spearfishing can be in the immediate future"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FYI
Only a hand full of the Fathers have survived the passage of the last eighteen years ~~ One by one they have passed on and are now diving on that big reef in the sky.
Two of the Fathers and all time great spearfishermen were Florida's own Art Pender, and my dive buddy for over 50 years World record holder Spear fisherman Ron Merker - who was also @drbill s basic instructor
You may want to read their obituaries on this board in "Passings" "Art Pender, King of sling." and "Ron Merker"
Thanks for discovering these two snippets and posting them--
SDM
Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Very interesting.
I’ve seen documentaries about very primitive free diving before.
What strikes me as very unusual and kind of sad is how depleted their fishing grounds are. They dive all day for very small fish and have to cover a lot of ground and do lot of searching just to find anything. It looks very barren.
I wonder if it’s always been this way, or if generation after generation it becomes less and less only to be entirely gone one day.
I’ve seen documentaries about very primitive free diving before.
What strikes me as very unusual and kind of sad is how depleted their fishing grounds are. They dive all day for very small fish and have to cover a lot of ground and do lot of searching just to find anything. It looks very barren.
I wonder if it’s always been this way, or if generation after generation it becomes less and less only to be entirely gone one day.
runsongas
Contributor
gonna disagree with akimbo
pearl diving and sponge diving has been known since greek and roman times and i am not confident there were guys pole spearing back then
pearl diving and sponge diving has been known since greek and roman times and i am not confident there were guys pole spearing back then
OP
Dan
Contributor
Yes, that’s sad. I think they over fished their fishing area. Some of them do dynamite fishing, which is unsustainable.
More reality / survival story about the Bajau (sea gypsies) people:
Last edited:
DeepSeaPirate
Contributor
Similar threads
