News
INDEPTH FREEDIVING COURSE 12TH-14TH MARCH
Wild Blue's proud to have Dave Mullins coming up our way in March to conduct one of his 'InDepth' Freediving courses. These courses are tailored towards deep diving so are better suited to spearfishing than most other courses available. The courses cover topics such as safety, physiology, equalising and technique, chest flexibility; mouthfill equalising and packing; exhale dives etc.
We're going to be running his intermediate course as he recomends that one as most specific to spearfishing. There will be a classroom session here at Wild Blue, a pool session and open water session held out at the Poor Knights which will be a great trip in itself. Check here for the course curriculum and prerequisites.
The course costs $450 and that includes all expenses for the course - including boat to the Knights - and course manual. We're taking bookings now and you will be issued your manual when you pay so you can be all swotted up by course time. Register here at courses@wildblue.co.nz
This will be your last chance this season to get onto one of these courses before Dave begins prepaing for the World Champs.
Dave Mullins holds several New Zealand and World records in both freediving and spearfishing and was voted ICARE Male Freediver of the Year in 2008.
WILD BLUE SUMMER SERIES
 Following on from last years success, the Wild Blue Summer Series of comps have been set for 2010. These are fun shore based comps providing an excellent introduction to competition diving.
Each comp will have it's own fish list of which a maximum of five fish may be weighed in with no more than two fish of one species. 100 points are given per fish, 100 points per species and 10 points per kilogram of toal weight eg two butterfish, one snapper, one john dory and a cray with a combined weight of 5kg would score 950 points.
Entry is free and there'll be a BBQ and a few spot prizes at the weigh-in.
AUCKLAND 20 FEBRUARY
Registration at Wild Blue @ 0730
Fish List: Snapper, john dory, butterfish, crayfish, trevally
KAIKOURA 27TH FEBRUARY
Registration at Dive Kaikoura @0730
Fish List: Butterfish, blue moki, crayfish, paua, blue cod
WELLINGTON 20TH MARCH
Registration at Splash Gordons @ 0730
Fish List: Butterfish, blue moki, crayfish, tarakihi, blue cod
There will be t-shirts for sale for $20
LAKE TAUPO CATFISH CULL 2010
The inaugural Taupo Catfish Cull was held over the weekend. This fun compeition saw competitors from all over the North Island converge on Motuoapa to help control the catfish population in the lake. As the first competition of its kindnoone was sure what to expect, where to find the fish or how to shoot them. It was a polespear only comp further complicating things for those unfamiliar with them.
The basic premise of the competition was to go out virtually wherever you like and spear as many catfish in 6 hours as you can however you like and meet back for the weigh-in. The heaviest 40 fish from each pair were weighed and the heaviest 40 wins. There were also prizes for the heaviest single catfish for men and women. The official Freediving NZ record keeper, Pat Swnason, was on hand to create and record the new species.
There was a variety of techniques employed from berleying bread to canned tuna to catfood to snooping and to be honest it's still a little unclear which is best.
The winners on the day were Reid Quinlan and Kolt Johnson. Paul Best and Erica Colley took the mens and womens records respectively and the most fish speared by one pair was 98 by Paul Best and Juian Oneale.
NEW ZEALAND NATIONAL CHAMPS 2010
The annual NZ Spearfishing champs were held out of Ruakaka by the Port Valley club 20-24th of January. Big winds and swell marked the first few days of competition but had largely settled in time for the Open over the weekend
Day 1 saw Jess Whiddet take out the Womens competition with 10 fish and Todd Herbert the Juniors with 19.
The Photo Competition was held at the Poor Knights which allowed for a much greater variety of subjects than usual including rare species like spotted black groper and one-spot demoiselle to be captured. This was reflected in the results with Dwayne Herbert snapping a staggering 32 species. For those unaware of how the photo comp works basically all competitiors are issued a single, disposable underwater camera at the start of the day and they must photograph as many species of fish as possible. While there are calls for the competition to be digitalized the benefit of using film is that it makes for a very level playing field with all competitiors limited to the same number of shots each. This section is becoming increasingly popular and if exceptional sites such as the Knights can be used I'm sure this interest will grow.
Day 1 of the Open was held at the Chicks with the whole of Lady Ellis and Whatupuke Islands in the competition area. Fish were hard to come by but the winning super-pairing of Dwayne Herbert and Julian Hansford still managed 19. The end of day one was marred by inaccurate time keeping resulting in the farcical request for any late pairs to'own up' and accept a 10% penalty rather than the stanadrd disqualitfication. Thankfully systems were tightened to avoid a repeat on day two.
Day 2 was held around West Chick including the Sulphur and Tara Rocks. Competitors were treated to the surreal spectacle of a pod of Orca chasing stingrays through the start triangle. This area was much fishier which was reflected in the winning pair of Andrew Macdonald and Long John Andersons haul of 22. This score was doubly notable in that it broke Dwayne Herbert and Julian Hansford' winning streak of 5 days at the Nationals. This wasn't enough to take top honours though and Herbert and Hansford achieved their hat trick of three straight National Champs.
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