Spearo in Training

[CountrySpearo]

I know guys it's a late post but thought ya'll might get a real kick out of my youngest and the pics from Labor day weekend. He had been bugging me to try it and I finally bought him mask,snorkel, and boots&fins during the summer for him to start learning in the pool. Well we made our first camping trip to Ft Bragg for the Abalone opener and I wouldn't let him bring his gear or get in the water. I wanted to see where and how his responsibility was with just plain camping..... kind of a test of sorts. He passed with FLYING COLORS!! So our next camping/diving trip i rented him a wetsuit and hood and took him snorkeling but would not let him put any weights on yet. So, we surface swam about one to one and a half miles. I brought my gun just in case and he knew how it worked and on the way back into the shallows I saw a bunch of rubberlip surf perch I handed him the gun but he wasn't familiar with what to realy look for and was nervous about everything so he never shot, but he chased them around for a good 45 mins even though he was already tired. All in all a GREAT bonding experience and I'd say he's getting the bug. Now he's trying to practice loading my 24" speargun and can handle my pole spear with no problems. And keep in mind he has just turned 9 this fall.

[Kingspear]

Great post. Good times. good call on teaching saftey first.

[Erasmus]

That kid will so appreciate it, as will your relationship with him. Great job!

[silenthunter14]

i wish my dad speared dove surf ne thing... at least he fishes and got me into that :-)

[Travis Jones]

My dad got me into fishing. He ditch bank okie fished, but that was enough to get me hooked. Your kid has that deadly spearo look on his face. He's going to be embarassing you in the water withing 5 years. Just keep taking him with you and you never know, you could have another Brandon Wahlers on your hands.

[Im1chunkymunky]

Brando- watch your back!! lol

[seahunter]

That is great it is always cool to see kids start out young because they have the potential to become incredible divers. I am extremely thankful that my dad got me into diving. It was a great bonding experience. We still go on dive camp outs. When My parents first got married my dad dove every weekend. Now he dives almost once a month, but not quite. I started snorkeling on trips to Hawaii at about the same age. I started diving on the north coast with my dad when i was about 11. At first I was really afraid and I did not want to go out, but I didn’t want to let my dad down so i did not say anything. On about the 4th day of diving i realized that there was nothing to be afraid of and I started having a lot more fun. I grew a lot and my dad did not want to buy me a wetsuit that I would out grow in a few months so I got really bad handy downs. I got my first new suit on my 18th birthday, but stupidly I bought a 4/3 because it was more flexible so i thought I could diver deeper. Instead I stayed in the water a lot less. I started playing underwater hockey with my dad when I was pretty young and there was a guy who was really into freediving (my dad was to, but he was of the jet fins generation) this guy was into long blade fins and the works. I got a pair of long blades when I was 16 and have been absolutely consumed by freediving.

I started out with a yellow day glow polespear . And I think it would be a good choice for your son too. They are safer to start out with then a gun, if he drops it the polespear will be easy to find, if he loses the polespear it was pretty cheep. It will teach him good stalking techniques and make him appreciate the fish. My mom made me eat all the fish I shoot. If she had not then I would have come home with 10 perch after every day of diving and never been that motivated to shoot the more difficult fish.

[Ron S]

Brad, that's awsome dude! My boys are into snorkelling, and have their little 2mm shorties, but they really wanna get into the ocean. They're so skinny, (like their dad...), that the shorties are kinda baggy.
If I remember correctly, that dive shop in brag has a 4' bright orange polespear that would be good for your boy.
Oh, and please don't give him a weight belt too soon. My fragile ego just can't handle being out dove by a 9 year old...
Ron.

[CountrySpearo]

He says you need to catch up to the learning curve and look over your shoulder cause he's coming up quick.

[So-Cal Spearo]

great to see your son getting in on this.

I was lucky enough to have a dad who was into fishing and spearfishing who would get me into it...funny thing is that now I have gotten into both fishing and spearfishing more hardcore than he ever was.

Here are some pics I found from when I was living in hawaii when I was 5 or 6.

http://sharkjawsales.com/images/fishing/Spearfishing-Pics/1995dive-small.jpg

http://sharkjawsales.com/images/fishing/Spearfishing-Pics/smallalbacore.jpg

[Travis Jones]

Austin, don't ever lose those pics. Those are classic.

[CountrySpearo]

How old were you when you started actually spearing Austin?

[So-Cal Spearo]

I was about 12 before I could convince my parents to let me get a gun but I used to mess around with a pole spear in hawaii since I was 7 or 8

[Eyt@nnah]

great shots. Theres nothing better than goin to do some spearfisin.
Its the best hobbie you can ever get into

[undrH2Ohntr]

classic......I can't wait.

[CountrySpearo]

classic......I can't wait.

BTW Happy Birthday Eric!!!

[Ron S]

He says you need to catch up to the learning curve and look over your shoulder cause he's coming up quick.

As you've seen, the only thing I do quickly is sprint back to the surface after my amazing 10 second bottom time. :D I'll be happy to let him pass me by and I'll enjoy watching his progress. :thumps: You've got a great kid there Brad.
By the way, I'm actually glad the dive conditions are so bad right now, cuz this cold's STILL kickin my a$$. Now the whole family's sicker'n dogs. :rolleyes:

[mikelb]

Stud-in-training! Totally, totally awesome!

[Eyt@nnah]

Did the kid catch anything????

[GITMOLeviathan]

I'd like to get some of the Sacramento-area spearo-dads together with kids for a dive outing. I've got three boys who are ocean-ready, ages 6, 8, and 10 and two more in training. With all of the dollars we'll be spending on gear over the next few years I wonder if Dolphin Dive Center would do a freedive class for kids. If not I'd have you guys bring your kids to my place for pool training.

Great father-son haircut BTW. I'd do the same but my wife would have a melt-down.

[Travis Jones]

Great father-son haircut BTW. I'd do the same but my wife would have a melt-down.

:lol: I gave my son a mohawk and my wife put her foot down. The next day, he was bald, like me. She shaved off the stripe. Oh well.

[IB Boyd]

I am dreaming of the day my two house hoodlums are old enough to start spearing and surfing with me. The older one (three) was practicing bring hotwheels up from the bottom of the Jacuzzi the other day while his little bro (who is already bigger than him at two) splashed around the rim of the tub. Very cool to see pics of all the little hunters. Cant wait to introduce mine to the pole spear. Surf Perch will be back on the menu!! :thumps: :gun:

[seacrecher]

Ok, you guys are killing me! I have to add this one to the topic. I think that this is a great thread, and I hope more will make a contributuion. Here is mine.
This is one of my step-sons. He was 12 when he shot his first WSB, which was last summer. Please note that there is no reel and no floatline.

This is the story. We were working our way back into a cove along a shallow reef that hold a lot of Calicos and the occasional WSB ;) As we headed into a small kelp bed, I passed over a short WSB just outside of it. I went into the kelp. When I surfaced I heard the boy screaming for help :confused:

Not knowing what the hell could possibly be wrong, I swam toward him when he screams for help again. This time he says he has a WSB on! I immediately think of the short that I had just swam over only a few minutes earlier :mad:

I as I swim up to him, he is kicking his ass off with a two-handed white knuckle grip on the gun! Sure enough there is the WSB! It was well over the legal limit! To add to the excitement, there is also a 100 lb Harbor Seal playing tug-o-war with the WSB :eek:

I immediately go after the seal and get it off the fish. I tell my boy to calm down and get his fish in ;) The seal won't leave us alone and tries for a few more grabs. I end up taking over to get the fish subdued. The seal takes a few more grabs while I am taking the fish off and gets poked in the head a couple of times!

The boy got smart on me and went down and shot a sand bass while I was trying to deal with the sea-lion. He comes up with with this shit eating grin and says here give this to the seal. it works like a champ. We swim in and go take pictures :thumps: The fish was 12 lbs and 32" long :thumps:

Edit: BTW I think that this is positively one of the greatest things that a Dad can do with their kids. Mine was a hard-core video game junkie :rolleyes: After I got him into spearing, it's all he ever wanted to do! I also used the reward system with him for good grades and behavior. He had a lot of problems in school and the school tried to diagnose him with ADD :rolleyes: When he did well in school, he got to go spearing and would also get equipment upgrades ;)

[CountrySpearo]

Did the kid catch anything????


No He ended up just getting used to holding the gun and aiming at different things but never pulled the trigger as he wasn't sure if he could shoot it or not. So, his next avenue of training will be fish ID

[CountrySpearo]

I'd like to get some of the Sacramento-area spearo-dads together with kids for a dive outing. I've got three boys who are ocean-ready, ages 6, 8, and 10 and two more in training. With all of the dollars we'll be spending on gear over the next few years I wonder if Dolphin Dive Center would do a freedive class for kids. If not I'd have you guys bring your kids to my place for pool training.

Great father-son haircut BTW. I'd do the same but my wife would have a melt-down.



I don't know how that would go down Eric. Mike may not do to well with that because of legalities. Also who would they bring in or have teach the course. I don't think there's anybody of noteable mention in the area to really teach that kind of class.

[CountrySpearo]

:lol: I gave my son a mohawk and my wife put her foot down. The next day, he was bald, like me. She shaved off the stripe. Oh well.


Why in the world Travis, does that not surprise me that you would do something like that with your kids?

Hey lets hook up again soon and kill something. I might have a new gun soon to tinker with and get used to

[CountrySpearo]

Awesome story John!!! Hopefully after we get moved to oxnard I'll be able to get some different kinds of fish and teach my son a little bit more

[Travis Jones]

Hey lets hook up again soon and kill something. I might have a new gun soon to tinker with and get used to

Where? When?

I'm diving Malibu on the 17th for the Larry Staat Polespear Meet. Let me know if you want to go. If you drive to Fresno, I'll give you a ride down.

I'm wanting to dive somewhere on Tuesday, but all signs point to swell, wind, swell, more swell, somebody mentioned bacteria runoff from recent rains, and more swell. Not sure what I'm going to do for tuesday yet, but something will die. :D I might end up doing a night raid on my neighbor's plastic reindeer with my Metal Tech 4. Maybe that would get it out of my system. :thumps:

[Travis Jones]

John, awesome story. Your boy should be proud. I'm sitting here dreaming of WSB. I've never shot one. Fishing and hunting really does bring familys together.

[Prodigal Son]

Edit: BTW I think that this is positively one of the greatest things that a Dad can do with their kids. Mine was a hard-core video game junkie :rolleyes: After I got him into spearing, it's all he ever wanted to do! I also used the reward system with him for good grades and behavior. He had a lot of problems in school and the school tried to diagnose him with ADD :rolleyes: When he did well in school, he got to go spearing and would also get equipment upgrades ;)
That's a great story John. Thanks for sharing it. I can't wait to try this with my sons and daughter.

[rkymtn]

Thank you for the inspiration to become a better diver & hunter. I hope that some day your kid realizes what you've done for him.

[seahunter]

That is a good story john.