Wild sh!t

[Louis Rossignol]

We had some wild shit happen while out diving.

I got confused about the laws and almost shot into a 400-500lb manta ray.

I got rubbed by a 6ft. shark that was more interested in tasting me rather than my fish.

But the best was, we had a boat captain running us all around the gulf while we kept our gear on jumping every structure we could find. We got some extra gear together and let him get in on one of the rigs. So I see him tooling around at 200ft. and tell Wil to get his ass up. Will yells at him, the guy, Scott Orfanello, and he hauls ass outside the rig. A marlin is approaching him straight on. The bill is coming right at him and behind that bill is a 16 ft. fish. So Scott does what any normal person would do,, tries to get closer so he can shoot the beast. Scott's shaft fell just inches short. But now he can say he shot at an 800lb Marlin before.

Rok out

[LSUBigL]

Dang, that's insanity. What was he going to do, clip it off to the rig? :D

What are the regs on manta rays? Is there a size restriction or is it just plain illegal to shoot them?

[Mobile Diver]

More Cajun craziness; you guys amaze me.

[Louis Rossignol]

Other cool things happened also,

The first dive of the first day, I got to see a 100lb. Warsaw Grouper, the only problem was that I was at 230ft. and the grouper was at 300ft and not budging. Jerry Bourgeois tells me at the rodeo, "You should've gone and got him".

Mr. Jerry would have, I've dove with him several times in the last 20+ years.

The next dive I saw a 12 ft Hammerhead and he let me approach him pretty close. Those things usually run everytime I've ever seen them.

The whole weekend was a cameraman's dream.

Rok out

[kitefisherman]

The next dive I saw a 12 ft Hammerhead and he let me approach him pretty close. Those things usually run everytime I've ever seen them.

You should've gone and got him :D

[Stinkey Fish]

Stan the Man would of punched down and brought it up dead. Louis your not thinking right !!!

[inletsurf]

Damn, that's a lot of excitement!

[Wil]

yeh Rok, i think if Scott would have waited for that Marlin to come to us instead of charging after him, he would have at least 2 shafts in his ass maybe three because Mark was coming in stealth from the right. When we got back on the boat we all must have been thinking the same thing, put a shaft in his head, hopefully stone him or at least stun him long enough to tie him off and get some more guns and finish the job, if the riding rigs held. Man that was some wild shit.We may have to return to that rig at a later time and see if the bruser is still around, we may get a second chance.

[narcosis]

When you hunt at 230', are you using trimix, do you carry the extra bottles or hang them, and how long are your bottom and deco times?

[Nsearch]

NARCOSIS....these guys are hitting those depths on AL 80's with air. Think of your screen name :D

[narcosis]

Nsearch-

Do they just drop down, take a shot and then drag the fish up without putting it on the stringer?

Which brings me to another question that someone may be able to answer:
How fast can you safely ascend between 200 and 100 feet. I was certified 20 years ago, and haven't taken any advanced courses (except nitrox) even though I dive all the time. I used to think that you could double your ascent rate for every atmosphere you obtained in depth, but recently read somewhere that speedy ascents, even at the 120-140ft range can cause microbubbles that are like the baby bends.

Any thoughts?

[Louis Rossignol]

The Rok guide to deep diving say's, drink alot (when you're not diving) and you never know if you're narked out.
Next haul ass to whatever depth you want to be at. If you go past 200 when you decide to come up, blast up to 100, then slow down till you hit 50,, stop for a minute ( hunt mangroves and barracudas) then move up to 20,,, stay there for a couple of minutes,,depending on how cold the river water is at that time of the year. Then get up to 10ft.
The ol' "Bendomatic" after a few minutes will start to come down a little, when it does, you can feel safe, you will live.
The Bedomatic is an S.O.S. docomputer, meter that is older than most divers right now, made in Italy. The one I have now is JB Welded back together because it blew up from going too deep. I also have a brand new in the box one in my closet.
Then when you get on the boat, if you feel any pain, 2 excedrins and a Michelobe Ultra will do the trick, skindive for 1 hr. and do it again.

We don't spend any time at depth unless we can't control an unruly fish. The idea is to kick their asses fast. That is how to "bounce dive".

Rok out

p.s. I know yall are gonna knock my shit but the Hell Divers were using these when I got in the club, as long as people followed the meter, they never got bent. From what I know, the world record cave dive was done by a guy using one of these.

[dagodiver]

If it aint broke dont fix it..!!
Sounds like it works fine to me.
Great report..!! You guy are fknnutz, keep typing the reports..!

Thanks

Dago.

[Louis Rossignol]

As a rule, me and my crew make 4 deep dives in a day, then we dive 100ft. for the rest of the day ending up in 60 ft. of water. Hopefully by the time we get in shallow, you are fully decompressed. We will however make up to 15 or more dives in a day. 3 days in the HD Rodeo, we made 37 dives and burned around 18 tanks a man.

Rok out

[kitefisherman]

As I understand it, if you dive on an AL80s, you don't "camp out" at depth, and you make it to the surface, then you should be fine.

It's only the guys on nitrox, on steel tanks, camping out, breathing deco gas, etc. that get in trouble.

You guys Rok!

I won't argue with the philosophy as it works for you. There is so much stuff to see and shoot (if you dare) there.

The people are so nice that I have to do it at least once a year. It is worth the drive. It is truly the wild west of spearfishing given what I saw.

Rok: Congrats on your AJ SBO open win! Hope to do the HDR some year although I don't know how I could ever be competitive with the way you guys dive.

I can't think of a better place to dive. Hope to hook up with more of you guys the next time that I am there so that we can party in Rock Bottom's houseboat.

[inletsurf]

That's a kick ass homepage, Rok!!!

[Stinkey Fish]

Louis - I like the way you talk....

[kill shot]

HOw long does it take you guys to do a dive in the 250 range. Just curious.

[Louis Rossignol]

HOw long does it take you guys to do a dive in the 250 range. Just curious.

This thread got kinda sidetracked, I wanted to hear what the rest of the people diving the HDR saw that they thought was out of the ordinary (wild shit, weird happenings, etc.). But no problem.

Anyway, to answer your question, I normally don't go past 200, and my bottom time is less that 1 minute when going to that depth. But sometimes I may make a detour on my way back to the surface. The whole dive may take 15 minutes though, (descent, bottom time, ascent, chasing fish up shallower, looking in the bell housings for lobsters, then decompression). I just about never decompress if diving shallower than 150. And with 150ft. dives we don't usually take a surface interval, just jumping in at the next rig, is time enough.

From what I believe, if you pick up nitrogen fast, you give it off fast and vise versa.

The bendomatic works no matter how bad you try to f#ck it up. Never needs batteries, never locks you out, never blinks or does that annoying beep that scares all the snappers away.

Rok out

[ROCK BOTTOM]

Hey Rok, as far as the weird shit goes, this is my report. When the ole lady was fighting that Almaco at 212 fsw and I told her to let the fish (and gun) go, she thought it was because of the big shark behind me. I didn't see the thing but she said that it was as big around as I am (and I am a fat bastard). She didn't get a look at the head and has no idea how to describe a shark by its dorsal or tail fins but she did say that it reminded her of a Great White. She didn't even bother to point it out to me because she thought that I had seen it and that was why I was telling her to let go.

Other than a few dozen medium sized manta rays on the rip and a big one with about 10 cobia following tightly underneath, we only saw typical shit.

Zz

[kill shot]

Sorry Rok, wasn't trying sidetrack the thread just curious about the crazy shit that you guys are doing. Gets me interested to hear about this kind of stuff. Been keeping track of the HDR for a few years now and will probably be at next years rodeo, all this WILD SH!T you guys are doing has got me fired up for next year already.

[Louis Rossignol]

1 more thing that qualifies as Wild Shit,

2nd dive of the last day and I got a hanover out of this world, stayed up till 1:30am with some buddies, they didn't have scotch so now I switched to vodka. Big mistake.

We're approaching this rig and before we get to it, I see someone taking a shit off of a dive ladder on a boat that's already tied up to the rig. I tell my crew "Suit up guy's, lock and load", we pull up to the rig with 4 Hell Divers, gear on, guns loaded and ready (we have a captain so we don't have to waste time tying up). I notice the guy on the other boat is Toby Armstrong and he's with Tracy Palmisano. Toby yell's at me, "We already killed them all on this rig"! I look at Toby, and tell my guys "BULLSHIT!!! his hair is still dry"!!!! We plundge,, and that's how I shot 1st place Jack Crevalle in the HDR 2005!
At the rodeo they were hot, but they both admitted they'd have done the same thing. They are friends of mine and competition is competition.

Rok out

[LASeaCat]

Hey Z,

I think the reason your wife dropped the gun is so she could use both hands to try and coax the Shark into eating you!?

Well, me and Chad jumped off to go skin diving and the HD on the boat evidently thought he had a little time and privacy? Well I nail me a Red Snapper and I'm right back to the ladder located between my cat's motors only to see this big white butt with the turtle poking his head out!! Well he cut it off like a beagle seeing a rabbit and I didn't eat the rest of the day!!

[Louis Rossignol]

So, your not naming names? My appetite is already f#cked on a dive boat, but now everytime I look at a certain individual, I won't be able to eat.

Rok out

p.s. maybe I don't want to know who it is.

[Louis Rossignol]

BTW, this is why we have so much time to waste on spearboard.com on a weekend,,,I can't even go trout fishing with this forcast.

Rok out

TROPICAL STORM WARNING IN EFFECT

HURRICANE WATCH IN EFFECT

TONIGHT
EAST WINDS 20 TO 25 KNOTS BECOMING NORTHEAST 30 KNOTS
AND GUSTY IN THE LATE EVENING. SEAS 8 TO 10 FEET BUILDING TO 12 TO
15 FEET AFTER MIDNIGHT. NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.

SATURDAY
NORTH WINDS 30 KNOTS AND GUSTY EASING TO 20 TO 30
KNOTS LATE IN THE AFTERNOON. SEAS 14 TO 17 FEET SUBSIDING TO 12 TO
16 FEET IN THE AFTERNOON. NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND SCATTERED
THUNDERSTORMS.

SATURDAY NIGHT
NORTH WINDS 15 TO 25 KNOTS BECOMING NORTHWEST 10
TO 15 KNOTS AFTER MIDNIGHT...THEN EASING TO 10 KNOTS AFTER
MIDNIGHT. SEAS 6 TO 9 FEET SUBSIDING TO 4 TO 6 FEET AFTER
MIDNIGHT. ISOLATED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.

[chasintail]

OK dudes heres my Wild Shit story.
We get to the Lena and the water is so blue its purple.Mobile Diver is tied he up and we start bullshiting.**********tampa says not many fish but he got a big bug and saw a big ass mako.We tie up and I say I ain't divin with a ****in mako.Red Tide,rigdva,and Freedro jump in.Rigdva says "Nick,you have got to dive.There are sharks everywhere and the vis is 200+".Sweet,I grab a camera and over the side I go.
From the surface I could see schools of big black tips cruising at 80ft with a mako or hammerhead mixed in for good measure.We swim all through the rig sightseeing and I take a bunch of pics.Then GR went into full Red Tide mode. :eek: He start whacking jacks left and right.I take a few pics and then I watch him dive through the sharks and whack a blackfin tuna.The sharks go ****ing nuts but GR got it to the surface with only one small bite mark.Rigdva is talking about all the HH that were following the tuna.It was sweet!!! Took a few pics of the fish on the boat and GR says "The tuna are here ,lets chum".WONDERFULL IDEA. ;)
Me and rigdva are getting things squared away on the boat and Red Tide shoots another BF.We get his fish in the boat and I jump in.Freedro,Red Tide,and I took turns poking the 6ft blacktips that were so close I kicked one accidentally.10 to twelve foot hammers were getting braver and keep getting closer and closer. :eek: GR drops and takes a shot at a BF and misses.I drop and take a shot and only nick the tail. :(
Back on the surface GR slips on a PH to thin out the sharks that were getting over friendly.First he shoots a black tip and the PH didn't go off.Then he shoots a HH that had been charging me,no boom.PH was a dud.I see a big mako cruise by.That was it,I ran outta BALLS.I call rigdva and said PICK ME UP!!!!! "hold on dude,I gotta float line in the prop" I scream like a little bitch,I'm SERIOUS DUDE.
My ass was so puckered you couldn't have drove a pin in it with a 20 pound maul.YOU HERE THAT MIKE,IM COMING CLEAN,I PUSSED OUT! :o I get the **** out and down about 4 beers and keep a close eye on my divers.Of course after I got no more sharks were seen.And did I mention this was my first bluewater hunt.I'M HOOKED. :cool:

[Mobile Diver]

Great story, Nick. Conditions there were unbelievable.

[Big Pig]

Best I can come up with was watching a shaft fly by me while I'm holding on to the rig doing a deco stop. I poke my head around the corner to see Rock Bottom's wife stringing up a spadefish. Back on the boat I had to ask her if she was trying to shoot me for the Misc catagory and hit the fish by accident

[Freedro]

OK, so heres the part Chasintail didn't see when he and Rigdva are in the boat. GR and I are making drops on the Blackfin in the chum. There's no fish showing and GR does this awesome Jedi mind trick on the tuna where he dives on this piece of chum that is just floating there all by itself about 70 feet down. Out of nowhere, this nice Blackfin comes angling up out of the deep right when GR gets to the bait, and he just snapshots it! It was AWESOME!!! How did he know it was coming??? Well, as soon as GR's got the tuna hooked up, this 6-ft blacktip and two 400-lb hammies come right in and start circling and bluffing each other off for who's gonna get the first bite. I had just finished breathing up for a drop on the chum, so I drop down the float line and back up to GR's tuna and go rodeo clown on those sharks, chasing them down and giving them an authoritative jab right behind the ribs, and one by one they each decide that the meal's not worth it. GR was able to get the tuna to the boat, and then he broke out that dud of a PH. The hammies got a lot more respectful, but that one damned blacktip had been bird-dogging me for about 2 hours. I was a lot happier when I was swimming back to the boat and saw the blacktip doing this weird sideways limbo with a big hole in him.

Nick's first shot on the first tuna he encountered was bad-a$$ also. These three tuna came streaming in from right to left, and Nick and I were down there about 60 feet. I was holding just above Nick and to his right. He lines up, and I watch the spear fly and take a little piece of skin off the tuna's tail rudder. I am instantly amazed at just how well and prolifically Nick screams obscenities at 60 FSW with no tank to back him up!

[chasintail]

[Nick's first shot on the first tuna he encountered was bad-a$$ also. These three tuna came streaming in from right to left, and Nick and I were down there about 60 feet. I was holding just above Nick and to his right. He lines up, and I watch the spear fly and take a little piece of skin off the tuna's tail rudder. I am instantly amazed at just how well and prolifically Nick screams obscenities at 60 FSW with no tank to back him up![/QUOTE]


I was a tad bit pissed. :o

[Louis Rossignol]

That's deffinately some "Wild Shit"!!!

Whose the coool ass dude that masterminded this thread?:cool:

Rok out

p.s. Nick, let's see some of those underwater pics.

[chasintail]

p.s. Nick, let's see some of those underwater pics.[/QUOTE]


You here that rigdva!!! :mad: Get off your ass and send me some pics.

[Louis Rossignol]

I'm still waiting on a CD full of pics from Mark, of when we did the real species depeletement, but here is what I got right now!!!

Vinnie is shitting in the "Rok Zone"!!!

[Louis Rossignol]

Notice on those snappers,, whose ever got the longest arms has the biggest snapper.......

[Louis Rossignol]

Some other fun pics,,,,

in that grouper pic, that's not the fishes blood!!!!!

[Stinkey Fish]

That type of boat are you guys on , how big ? It looks nice, got anymore pic's of the boat ?

[Louis Rossignol]

That's a 32ft. Twin Vee,powered by 2 225 Honda 4 strokes,,,,and yes it's awsome.