Chile

[clavinr]

Good luck to the Women's Team. Kick some ass ANNE! Post plety of pics when you are done.

[Chauggie]

Clav,
Well we made it to Chile and have been diving for 4 days now. Iquique is a coastal city of 350,000. The surrounding terrain is a dessert. The only vegetation to be seen, has been put there and maintained by someone. One of the sites we dove from is the Iquique Golf Course. It has not one blade of grass. The "greens" seemed to be slicked down with oil to help with putting.
On the other hand the ocean is teaming with life. We have encountered many commercial freedivers going for octopus, clams and urchins. Not many SCUBA divers. We are learning the fish and finding some good spots. The water temp has been 57 to 62 Farenheit and I wish I had taken a 7 mil suit. We´re taking a lot of photos although I´ll have to work on the underwater ones before I can post them.
I´ll see if I can post something interesting when we return.
Chauggie

[Vin]

Hey guys been a while- Good luck to the Women!!

Sorry I have been out of touch- bogged down with a job change....

Fish are running out of the westport river and I am sick of lobster- waiting for the scollops to return in the spring. but will be diving all winter - so we should all stay intouch and do some frostbitting!!

stay intouch

Vin

[clavinr]

Friggin awesome! Great to hear from you guys. Dry suit weather coming up. Keep in touch.

[Bergo]

Has anyone heard how the competition is going?

[Chauggie]

Bergo,
The two day competition for the women begins tomorrow and for the men a week later. Looks like the ocean conditions are taking a turn for the better, at least for the women. I´ll post day one results tomorrow evening.
Chauggie

[Chauggie]

TOO tired to write much now but, Margarita from Chile is in 1st, followed by Carole from France. Top American is Anne in 6th place. More later.
Chauggie

[clavinr]

Nice! I'm on the edge of my seat! Don't worry, you're not missing much here, the fish are almost all gone here. Bush is still president...A windstorm blew my neighbor's HUGE tree down. Just going into hibernation until May...I'm going to try to do the PFD course in April.

Have some tequila for me!

[Bergo]

thanks Chauggie

[Chauggie]

1) Margarita Aldunate Chile 37,185
2) Carole Gouget France 27,690
3) Delia Vargas Chile 24,345
4) Pia Olivares Chile 22,655
5) Mery Salazar Chile 21,135
6) Anne Doherty USA 18,510
7) Janis Smith USA 17,595
8) Brandi Easter USA 15,385
9) Bonnie Row USA 15,095

[Chauggie]

1) Margarita Aldunate Chile 30,955
2) Mery Salazar Chile 28,755
3) Delia Vargas Chile 25,510
4) Pia Olivares Chile 21,745
5) Carole Gouget France 18,645
6) Janis Smith USA 17,750
7) Brandi Easter USA 14,445
8) Bonnie Row USA 12,275
9) Anne Doherty USA 9,510

[Chauggie]

1) Margarita Aldunate Chile 68,140
2) Mery Salazar Chile 49,910
3) Delia Vargas Chile 49,855
4) Carole Gouget France 46,355
5) Pia Olivares Chile 44,400
6) Janis Smith USA 35,341
7) Brandi Easter USA 29,836
8) Anne Doherty USA 28,020
9) Bonnie Row USA 27,370

Team Results
1) Chile 118,050
2) USA 65,181
3) France 46,335

[clavinr]

Nice work Anne!

Welcome home. I'll look forward to seeing you both at Boston Sea Rovers!

[Bergo]

Congrats to all the ladies!!!

[Chauggie]

While I was there at least 20 people from Chile and other places ¨suggested¨ that the next Championship for women should be in the US (regardless of where the mens world championships might be). In her acceptance speach Margarita said she looked forward to defending her title in the USA.
The mens team is entirely from California. The womens team members were all from CA, except Anne.
Due to the unpredictable fish and game laws in CA, the venue for 2006 is looking like Rhode Island.
There are many questions about organizing this event???
Anyone know any real good women spearfishers?
Chauggie

[needgills]

Sounds like a good time. Congratulations to all - impressive showing! RI 2006? Cool. Post some pics if you get a chance - certainly a different environment.

[Chauggie]

Needgills,
My computer was completely crashed when I returned and I'll be getting a new one soon. Here's a photo from Bill Ernst's camera of the US Women's Team. From left to right Anne Doherty, Captain Bill Ernst, Bonnie Row, Brandi Easter and Janis Smith. We still have plenty of T-shirts and a raffle going if anyone's interested. Some pretty good stuff in the raffle.
Chauggie

[clavinr]

Now show us some dead fish!

What's the deal for the raffle? Count me in!

I was at Camp Varnum, Narraganset RI training yesterday....talk about being frustrated...I want to go diving! I saw four guys in an inflatable and some smaller boats tooling around...it's going to be a long winter!

Buzzard's Bay Dive Center is having a "Turkey Hunt" This Saturday at 0900 at Electric Ave Beach in Buzzards Bay. It is always a great time. Find a brick with a number, win a prize. Big cookout afterwards.

PS I'll be in a drysuit.

[biggsy]

Congrats to the women for a good showing!

[Bergo]

When is the raffle being picked?

I would love to win my new float before my Australia trip.

[clavinr]

How about a MA Freediver get together? Show off the pictures tell some stories, shake the spearos hand?

(PS You could make a Christmas shopping/get together road trip?)

[Chauggie]

Clav,
The raffle information is in the Spearfishing Gear section of this forum. Hint - most tickets have been sold in New England or Northern California and the big guns have fewer tickets. All the Mares/ Dacor/ Sporasub stuff is new and no one has tickets for them.
Chauggie

[Chauggie]

Here's a photo of the Iquique Golf Course taken by Dave Edlund and yes people actually use it quite a bit

[biggsy]

Chaug...Is there anyway to pay pal the money for the raffle? I know the raffle is the 10th, when is the last day to accept money?

Do any of the girls ever come on spearbooard?

[Chauggie]

Biggsy,
If you PM me I'll send info on paying with PayPal.
Anne looks at the board fairly regularly but as far as I know has not joined or posted anything. The rest are from CenCal and that area does not seem well represented on the board (male or female).
Mike McGuire and Jennifer Lim are interested in Promoting the 2005 Nationals. I did my best to convince them that Spearboard would be a good forum for this, either under "Freshwater" or a new MidWest category.
Last day for the raffle I imagine would be the 9th, but wouldn't want to overload Brandi at the last minute.
Chauggie

[Chauggie]

Here's a photo of French Champion Carole Gouget. I believe she was sponsored by Immersion. Note the cutom made wet suit.

[Chauggie]

I have a new computer now and can work with photos.
The Chilean Navy took an active part in the competition. We could see Naval Officers standing high on a cliff, watching the event. The Naval Police patroled part of the shore in a 4WD vehicle. Two Zodiacs with three men each (including a diver) cruised around among the competitors. Each morning just as the competitors arrived, the gun boat in the picture would buzz the coast doing about 35 kts, then hang out about a half mile from shore.

[Chauggie]

Here's a photo of third place finisher Delia Vargas.

[clavinr]

Chauggie,

Do you have any more shirts? Mine got "dissappeared" I should have known! What do you have for colors and sizes. I'll need a large and a medium.

What's up with the navy? Are they very helpful friendly types, got nothing better to do, or protecting the competitors from bad guys?

Not to take anything away from the US Team, but that is a stunning pic of Dalia.

[Chauggie]

Clav,
No problem with the shirts. We still have plenty left in both white and grey. Just send $20 each and I'll ship them right out.
The Navy was rather helpful or at least on guard for us. Had there been any safety issues I'm sure the Navy divers would have hopped right in. There was a Naval base bordering on the tournament area. I thought the gunboat was very cool.
Chauggie