Hetland
Contributor
This is a much-delayed report, as Ive had my irons in many fires the last few weeks and havent had time to write up a report until now. My biggest regret is the lack of photos available from the weekend. I had my camera, but Ive learned that spearfishing and photography dont mix
unless you have a gun-cam.
Guns & Hoses 2012
I met up with Team Niuhi before dawn and began loading the boat for some die-hard spearfishing. We were competing in the 2012 Guns & Hoses Spearfishing Tournament. We made good time due to calm seas, and splashed not long after daylight. We concentrated on smaller structures, most of which were not published, but not super-secret either
The A-Team immediately took three snapper in the 18-pound range. We knew we needed 20+ pound fish to place, but we wanted to make sure we had something for the freezer too, so each diver took a single fish, and looked for larger snapper, or large fish in any of the other categories. Barry ended up boating a red grouper that eventually placed second in the contest. B-Team dropped on another spot nearby, and ended up bringing their eating fish aboard, and added a few nice mangrove snapper to the box as well. Shelby shot a spadefish that placed third in the contest.
We hopscotched across the Gulf in search of 20+pound snapper, but kept striking out. We saw a goliath grouper on the Brass Wreck, and shot a half-dozen flounder, but they were all pretty small, and we didnt bother weighing any in.
The pinnacle of the dive for me was being buzzed by a trio of dolphins. They did two passes, and looked at me like I was crazy to be laying on the sand waiting on snapper to come in. It was one of the coolest things Ive yet to see underwater, and I was laughing and cheering their visit through my reg.
As stated above, Team Niuhi placed 2nd in Grouper, and 3rd in Spadefish. Two places out of five possible categories isnt too shabby. Congratulations to Barry and Shelby for winning recognition for their skills. Barry won a brand new AL80, and Shelby took home a camo dive skin.
Technical Oriskany Dives
Note to self: Not a good idea to do tech dives one day after spearfishing tournament. Nature had conspired against us, as we had originally planned to do our Tech dives first, and then do the tournament, but we ended up doing the opposite. We planned our spear-o dives very conservatively, and had a 16+hour surface interval. We ran worse-case scenarios for our deco planning and felt we were all well within established limits. We also all made sure to get a solid 8-hours of sleep, but Ill admit I felt my age rolling out of bed at 6:00am the next morning.
Our tech-diving team consisted of four divers. One rebreather, and three OC divers with trimix (21/35) and 100% O2 for decompression. We planned two dives. Our first dive was to a maximum depth of 175ft. We would assess the conditions at depth, and execute a swim-through of the hangar deck if all seemed okay, and all team members agreed. About 20ft inside the hangar deck I noticed a moderately-sized fireworm tumble lazily through the water in front of me. The exhaust from the first OC diver hitting the ceiling had dislodged the critter. I shuddered at the thought of that guy landing on the back of my neck, and continued through to the daylight on the other side of the ship. Once on the port side, we turned upward, and slowly gained altitude until reaching the flight deck. We hugged the deck looking for free dive gear and perhaps an unlucky slipper lobster. Once at the tower, we slowly ascended in a corkscrew around the tower until we hit our first decompression stop.
After an hour and a half surface interval, we splashed once again. We were limited to 145ft for the second dive, and had planned a swim to the fantail. About ¼ of the way down the length of the deck, we began thinking the current would be too much to complete the task. At the ¾ mark we abandoned the plan. We simply didnt have the gas reserves to make the trip with the increased current. We let the current carry us back to the tower, and explored the foot of the tower until we hit our ascent time. The surface current had picked up a bit while were down, and we had to hold a little tighter during decompression. Bottom times for both dives were around 20 minutes, while total run times were just under an hour (about 40min of deco for each dive).
Once onboard the Niuhi, we secured our gear and headed North. Captain Andy and his dive masters took good care of us over the two days on two totally different dive trips. Fresh-cut pineapple, Gatorade, bottled water, fruit-flavored honey-sticks, even fresh grouper tacos during the spear-o trip! If I can ever stop blowing all my disposable income on dive gear, Ill definitely be back on his boat. Niuhi Scuba Diving Charters - Pensacola, Florida
Guns & Hoses 2012
I met up with Team Niuhi before dawn and began loading the boat for some die-hard spearfishing. We were competing in the 2012 Guns & Hoses Spearfishing Tournament. We made good time due to calm seas, and splashed not long after daylight. We concentrated on smaller structures, most of which were not published, but not super-secret either
The A-Team immediately took three snapper in the 18-pound range. We knew we needed 20+ pound fish to place, but we wanted to make sure we had something for the freezer too, so each diver took a single fish, and looked for larger snapper, or large fish in any of the other categories. Barry ended up boating a red grouper that eventually placed second in the contest. B-Team dropped on another spot nearby, and ended up bringing their eating fish aboard, and added a few nice mangrove snapper to the box as well. Shelby shot a spadefish that placed third in the contest.
We hopscotched across the Gulf in search of 20+pound snapper, but kept striking out. We saw a goliath grouper on the Brass Wreck, and shot a half-dozen flounder, but they were all pretty small, and we didnt bother weighing any in.
The pinnacle of the dive for me was being buzzed by a trio of dolphins. They did two passes, and looked at me like I was crazy to be laying on the sand waiting on snapper to come in. It was one of the coolest things Ive yet to see underwater, and I was laughing and cheering their visit through my reg.
As stated above, Team Niuhi placed 2nd in Grouper, and 3rd in Spadefish. Two places out of five possible categories isnt too shabby. Congratulations to Barry and Shelby for winning recognition for their skills. Barry won a brand new AL80, and Shelby took home a camo dive skin.
Technical Oriskany Dives
Note to self: Not a good idea to do tech dives one day after spearfishing tournament. Nature had conspired against us, as we had originally planned to do our Tech dives first, and then do the tournament, but we ended up doing the opposite. We planned our spear-o dives very conservatively, and had a 16+hour surface interval. We ran worse-case scenarios for our deco planning and felt we were all well within established limits. We also all made sure to get a solid 8-hours of sleep, but Ill admit I felt my age rolling out of bed at 6:00am the next morning.
Our tech-diving team consisted of four divers. One rebreather, and three OC divers with trimix (21/35) and 100% O2 for decompression. We planned two dives. Our first dive was to a maximum depth of 175ft. We would assess the conditions at depth, and execute a swim-through of the hangar deck if all seemed okay, and all team members agreed. About 20ft inside the hangar deck I noticed a moderately-sized fireworm tumble lazily through the water in front of me. The exhaust from the first OC diver hitting the ceiling had dislodged the critter. I shuddered at the thought of that guy landing on the back of my neck, and continued through to the daylight on the other side of the ship. Once on the port side, we turned upward, and slowly gained altitude until reaching the flight deck. We hugged the deck looking for free dive gear and perhaps an unlucky slipper lobster. Once at the tower, we slowly ascended in a corkscrew around the tower until we hit our first decompression stop.
After an hour and a half surface interval, we splashed once again. We were limited to 145ft for the second dive, and had planned a swim to the fantail. About ¼ of the way down the length of the deck, we began thinking the current would be too much to complete the task. At the ¾ mark we abandoned the plan. We simply didnt have the gas reserves to make the trip with the increased current. We let the current carry us back to the tower, and explored the foot of the tower until we hit our ascent time. The surface current had picked up a bit while were down, and we had to hold a little tighter during decompression. Bottom times for both dives were around 20 minutes, while total run times were just under an hour (about 40min of deco for each dive).
Once onboard the Niuhi, we secured our gear and headed North. Captain Andy and his dive masters took good care of us over the two days on two totally different dive trips. Fresh-cut pineapple, Gatorade, bottled water, fruit-flavored honey-sticks, even fresh grouper tacos during the spear-o trip! If I can ever stop blowing all my disposable income on dive gear, Ill definitely be back on his boat. Niuhi Scuba Diving Charters - Pensacola, Florida
