In the End

[blueh2oboy]

As always Omer and the Labocetta family held a well organized and fun tournament filled with more stories and lies and big fish to last us another year until we are able to dive again.
The core group of Spearfisherman from around the US and world that made it to this tournament truly showed the comraderie and passion that we all share for the sport and throughout the three days of diving every diver and boat driver looked out for one another in the difficult conditions regardless of teams and personal gain. All divers returned to the dock safe and some incredible fish were landed. With divers pushing 100 feet and freakish 3:00min dives (Brando "the Rook" Wahlers) being posted every day it was no suprise that the scales each day were laden with impressive fish and many personal bests.
Some highlights of the Tourney:
John Majeski's Wahoo and Dolphin battling it out from the Cudas
An 84 lb AJ for Brian Head which also landed him largest fish for the Tourney
Fresh Tuna sashimi and the Japanese Spearo's kicking A$$ and representing!
Schools of Wahoo and Yellowfins and Dolphin
Giant Cubera Snappers watching our every move and waiting to pounce on any fish shot down deep
Spearchuckerz sporting his Kanichiwa shoes for a total of 2.4 seconds before attempting the hardwood staircase.(landing in a mangled heap on two floors later on his neck)
Watching Rene Rojas calmly swim from the bow to the stern and then to the bow again on the Dixie Arrow lifeguarding the "kids" as they all kicked like hell just to hold position over the wreck.
Crystal clear water on some of the deeper wrecks and giant Sand Tigers hovering like giant tadpoles over the whole scene.
Spending time with some of the greatest athletes and personalities and all around nice guys in our sport. This is a great crowd and a fun tournament and I'm glad everyone made it home safely and got to see a lot of fish and blue water.

At some point in the festivities Sunday evening the Final Results ended up on the Dock and were held for Ransom by the Hatteras Taliban. (They) will post them as soon as we can under the condition that this tournament be held with as many good fish and divers for many years to come.

[Spearchuckerz]

The highlight for me was when Cam tried to catch a speeding beer can with his ear! :lol:

[Mattedhead]

The highlight for me was when Cam tried to catch a speeding beer can with his ear! :lol:

They should have let Ron get a hold of you with the HD film rolling :D

Konichiwa.....bitches.

[Mattedhead]

moved from travel thread:

F#$& Me....I made the 6hr drive back and got home at 0230 last night after a 45min pitstop on the side of the road when my tail lights decided to quit on me. A great time was had by all, as always it was good to catch up with everyone and 3 days of Hatty diving is never a bad thing...my execution, however, was. Another great event...and thanks/congrats to the Mighty White Team! You guys really stepped it up in the safety department(while diving anyways) and also took your freediving to a new level. PB's all around with many dives in the 80-90' range...safely. For arriving in Hatteras with NO GPS #'s we managed to give ourselves a shot...sorry, I have to brag on my team a bit, they impressed the Hell out of me :thumps: ! Big ups to our special guest star yesterday...Brandon"The Grom" Wahlers...AKA(in Cabo) "white male suspect, 6', 150lbs, fleeing on foot"...your YouTube debut is fast approaching, I just hope Mexico has a lenient statute of limitation. :eek: Good diving with you again Bro, and thanks for being extremely hungover on Sunday you made us feel like rockstars and you seemed nearly human. Keep that 98' for 3:00 sh!t on another boat. Keep me posted on the Late summer WSB run...I'm there. Enough rambling, time to drawl under my desk and pass out.

If only they gave a prize for the daily races into and out of the inlet...we would have made a hell of a poker run squad.... :D

[JLittle44]

Was virgili the only guy with a camera or are we just going to have to wait for OIA 3 before we see some pics of the weigh in?

Good write-ups though guys.

[virgili]

Mark took a lot of pictures during each weighin on the dock. In my opinion we would enjoy it next on his web site.

[RabiSpear]

As always this was the most fun you can have in and out of the water. As I flew back I was already thinking about next year. Awesome vis and light current really made for two great days of diving. Seeing the huge cuberas was a highlight for me. The first time I saw one, I almost swallowed my snorkle b/c I thought it was a grouper. Little did I know that I would see many, many more for the trip. The Wahoo were pretty thick and I have only myself and my gear-switching to blame for not landing a couple nice ones. (I will be selling a wong gun soon because I can't switch between styles anymore- going all euro, all the time with no exceptions). Also, the sand tigers were awesome to watch out in that purple water on the Proteus. There were like 30 of them hanging out over the high part of the stern and just lazily swimming into the current like they were in a parking lot.

As always, strategy is EVERYTHING in this tourney and our search for dolphin came up short in spite of shooting 9 off different schools with none of them meeting the 10lb minimum size limit.

Congrats to the Northerners with a very strong showing. Thanks to the Japanese divers and everyone from Cali for making the trip. Great time and thanks to Mark and everyone at OMER. I will see you all next year. This tourney is the best I've been involved in.

[guttshot]

Definitely a great time, day and night...

Here are a few pics from the ILM crew with 'the Rook' and a few Floridichiwa's too:

[guttshot]

This one's for you Cam- great amplitude!

[Spearchuckerz]

This one's for you Cam- great amplitude!


That had to hurt!

[OBX Fish Killer]

It was great to see everyone agian this year. A great bunch of guys and tremendous divers. Cam that last pic makes my spine hurt. Till next year.

[Mattedhead]

I dub these Spearchuckerz Kryptonite...hey K-Dub...how's your neck???? :thumps:

[Spearchuckerz]

I dub these Spearchuckerz Kryptonite...hey K-Dub...how's your neck???? :thumps:

Note to self; dont wear slaps with platform plywood bottoms after 110 dives and 12 beers!

[Red Tide]

This tournament is definitley getting better every year. Better competition, better fish, and better friends were the end result in my book.
The only thing better than Brando's 3:00 breath hold would have to be Ron's 3.0 Blood / Alcohol at the awards banquet. :D It was also great to finally meet the Frying Pan Shoals Mafia. :thumps: you guys were great.
Seriously, I really enjoyed the company and stories from everyone and really look forward to next years event.
Thanks again to Mark and family for their efforts.

G.R.

[surfspearo]

Hmmm...while enduring a ferry prolonged journey home, picking AJ scales out of my face, I reflected on my personal highlights from the trip...First off, thanks to OMER, and the Labocetta Family for a great weekend...killer tournament...literally...Probably the greatest highlights were the personalities of the hunters after a few dozen beers :beer: :beer: :beer: ...good folk all...was amazing to see so much passion for our sport from so many places :thumps: other highlights would include getting run down by a freaking crazy Hattera$$ sea captain driving the Flying Fish :mad: :mad: :mad: , getting bitch slapped by a 30 lbs. AJ carcass :stupid: and nailing two African Pompanos with one measley shot :D couldn't have asked for much more except for a couple of tuna or wahoo...till next year...with thoughts of pelagics dancing like sugar plums in my head...

ps, the attached pics were forwarded to me by the Hatteras Taliban I believe because of my connections with the media...I DO NOT CONDONE TERRORISM

[Mattedhead]

A stand by my previous statement, the SeaDonkey carcass was meant for the back of Wahlers head....but in the end, it couldn't have happened to a better guy. :thumps:

On a side note, I will be making a full post along with statements to the USCG and local LE over Pieno's stunt on Saturday. I wanted to hear his side of the story first. I cc'd those involved the email I sent him today.

[kjflyfish]

The Omer Blue Water tourney was great. It was great to meet everyone and the banquet was really nice. I am haunted by the wahoo I missed, especially after seeing all the killer prizes. 'Till next year.

[wiz]

So who was it that blackedout at the Dixie Arrow?

[berty]

that must be me.(the guy in the army uniform) a lesson learned plan the dive dive the plan i was realy lucky my buddy did his job of watching me like i asked him to i realy owe my life to that guy :thumps: ALEX WALZAK AKA AS THE FISH BURGULAR i hope i spelled your name right :eek: but thank god im all right

[berty]

and all those books we read are right the blackout comes with out warning it is a very scary thing but i know what i did wrong so hopefully it wont happen again ill probobly be there again in 2 weeks so mabey ill get to dive with a few people that were at the tourny i mean the locals like you wiz it says there your from nc ?