New to Spearfishing, Malibu area, HELP!!!!!!!!!

[bamf624]

Hi I am new to spearfishing and have been research it quite a bit the past few weeks. I live in the West Hills area so Malibu is only about 15 min away from me.

Anyways I heard that a decent spot to spearfish near me was Leo Carrillo Beach about 5 min down PCH from Malibu. So before buying a speargun and all the other equipment I figured I would go snorkeling there to scope out the scene.

Upon arriving in wetsuit and flippers I went out into the water about 100 ft offshore. However we could see absolutely nothing the visibility was probably less than a foot unless we swam the the bottom which was about 11 ft down and then we still only had about a foot of vis.

Is Leo Carrillo normally like this?

Also is there anyone in the area that would be willing to give me some pointers on where and what time to go, for a beginner.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Tommy

[ralphthehalibut]

The vis at leo varies greatly.

Pointers:

Don't buy a gun, start with a polespear.

Look up spearfishing clubs local to you and go to meetings - you can probably get help there (I'm not a club guy so I don't know what's around you - maybe someone else can help on this one)

Start doing regular vis checks along the coast near you, try and check the swell direction, size, tides, water temp and wind for the time you go and what those factors have been doing for the past few days. Learn how those factors associate vis in your local area (eg, after a strong santa ana wind condition, vis in typically better, but water temp. tends to drop, in many spots, vis tends to get better on high tides - but not always, etc.)


Good luck and welcome to the sport/board. It's awesome, addicting and can easily become a lifelong pasion.

[bamf624]

I found one spearfishing club in the area but it is very far away and meets only once a month. So a club would be very difficult seeing as I also go to school in riverside during the year and am only in the San Fernando Valley on weekends.

I know they have surf fordcasts online. Is there any way to check water visablity for a certain beach online?

[ralphthehalibut]

Many dive shops have online vis reports. They tend to be, IMO, wildly inaccurate. In the SD and OC area, local lifeguards have beach condition phone lines that have recorded messages which include vis estimates. Again, the accuracy varies wildly. The best reports are those you'll get from people you know who dive. Try and hook up with local divers. Other than that...


www.wetsand.com
www.surfline.com
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/
http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/la
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/rmd.shtmltest_run/enp.anim.2.gif
www.tempbreak.com
http://www.underwaterhunters.com/links/
www.terrafin.com
www.bloodydecks.com
www.******************.com
freedivelist
http://www.lajollasurf.org/socal.html

etc.