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Old 04-09-2019, 10:02 AM   #1
CuzzA
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Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

A trip out on the Pelican... Some thoughts copied over from the viz thread.

Just when you think you're pretty comfortable around sharks, feeling confident, first Gulf dive of the year, you drop in, hit the bottom, no fish yet as I'm literally seconds into the dive, and to my surprise this ****er is sniffing up my ass as if I just rolled around in a vat of Jack Mackerel. He darts around and makes two quick passes on me getting within 7 ft. (shaky video and wide angle lens doesn't do any justice). Anyway, I grab a powerhead preparing to give him a date with his maker and as I'm putting it on, while he's coming back at me... I freaking push it out of my hand with my gun as I'm loading it and it drops to the sand. I pick it up and against better judgment, I say screw this spot. I knew I could just bury a shaft into him at anytime, but I just got frustrated.

Back on deck Rich suggests we drop back in and smoke him. I agree. Clearly this Sandbar has been fed too many times. We're descending, Rich shoots a snapper and boom the shark darts out from our right flank and scoots under Rich, it's giving chase to the fish, we're now chasing the shark, the fish with shaft-in-tow slips under a ledge and the shark comes back at us giving Rich a broad side shot, but it was too far away and there was no detonation. It circles back around to me and I'm lining up a shot and it darts off out of viz range. I'm looking at Rich like, shit. He's looking at me like, shit. We both look down and there's a nurse shark just watching the whole thing.

As Rich reminded me later, from the words of Jacques, "The only predictable thing about sharks is that they are unpredictable."

There's no training when it comes to sharks, so I actually embrace the challenge and each encounter I learn something new. Fortunately most of my encounters have been rather docile fly by's and I've only been charged when on the surface. Regardless, I just chalk it up to good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. All I can do is keep diving with them. Later on in the day I have a limit of hogfish on my stringer and another Sandbar just casually strolls by, not a care in the world. Go figure.

One final thought I had was from my open water instructor when I told him I was getting into diving to spear fish and I asked what to expect from sharks. He said, "Don't worry, you'd be lucky to ever see one."

Having not shot since November and slightly under the weather, I felt my shooting was pretty good. I'm looking forward to June to improve on my grouper stalking skills and make up for last year where I wasn't able to make as many trips.

Anyway, here's to trying to inject some life into this board.

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Old 04-09-2019, 10:25 AM   #2
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

That was an ornery shark. Were you using the green DCC on your paralenz?
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Old 04-09-2019, 03:22 PM   #3
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Nice video, James! Turtle Ledge sure is pretty, eh?
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Old 04-09-2019, 05:11 PM   #4
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

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That was an ornery shark. Were you using the green DCC on your paralenz?
I was using the blue, although green may have been a better option. Hard to say as the water was more milky blueish rather than green. I need to open a ticket though because the DCC was inconsistent throughout the day. A few dives were hardly useable.
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Old 04-09-2019, 05:18 PM   #5
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Thanks man. Yes, beautiful healthy spot. A lot of reef critters and hogfish makes for an enjoyable dive.

Here's a crazy looking purple with yellow stripe nudibranch that caught my attention. It came out looking more black than purple in the video. Weird creature crawling on the reef.

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Old 04-09-2019, 07:03 PM   #6
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Have had that issue too. One they mentioned to me is to slow down and let it turn all the way on before rotating to video. Then let video boot all the way up before starting to record. I haven’t had the overexposure issue since following that protocol. Still haven’t optimized blue vs green vs no dcc

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I was using the blue, although green may have been a better option. Hard to say as the water was more milky blueish rather than green. I need to open a ticket though because the DCC was inconsistent throughout the day. A few dives were hardly useable.
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Old 04-09-2019, 10:41 PM   #7
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Nice shooting - wish we could shoot hogs over hear.
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Old 04-10-2019, 04:09 AM   #8
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Thanks for sharing the video and story, that nudibranch is pretty sweet.
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Old 04-10-2019, 05:31 AM   #9
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Cool video. Looks like your refinished biller worked well.
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Old 04-10-2019, 05:54 AM   #10
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

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Cool video. Looks like your refinished biller worked well.
Yes. It performed flawlessly. One thing I noted was it seemed to be much lighter than my Rhino gun. I suppose the trade off with the Rhino coating protection is the extra weight. Likely not an issue with two shafts, but a third shaft makes the Rhino gun a hair heavier than I'd personally like.
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Old 04-10-2019, 06:20 AM   #11
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

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Yes. It performed flawlessly. One thing I noted was it seemed to be much lighter than my Rhino gun. I suppose the trade off with the Rhino coating protection is the extra weight. Likely not an issue with two shafts, but a third shaft makes the Rhino gun a hair heavier than I'd personally like.
Glad to hear the modified Biller is working well. The larger barrel on the Ocean Rhino KB Signature guns will help solve that weight issue when using multiple shafts.
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Old 04-10-2019, 07:34 AM   #12
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

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Glad to hear the modified Biller is working well. The larger barrel on the Ocean Rhino KB Signature guns will help solve that weight issue when using multiple shafts.


Yes, Kevin. That was my first thought when I saw the Windsong. Also, I'd note that the Rhino gun isn't too heavy, just heavier than bare wood. I don't see most guys carrying three shafts so it's hardly an issue.

If I were looking to buy a new gun I'd buy the Windsong in a heart beat. I have a new found appreciation for a teak gun.

The rhinofrankenbillerstein is lights out. Thanks again for your help.
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Old 04-10-2019, 04:43 PM   #13
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

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Yes, Kevin. That was my first thought when I saw the Windsong. Also, I'd note that the Rhino gun isn't too heavy, just heavier than bare wood. I don't see most guys carrying three shafts so it's hardly an issue.

If I were looking to buy a new gun I'd buy the Windsong in a heart beat. I have a new found appreciation for a teak gun.

The rhinofrankenbillerstein is lights out. Thanks again for your help.
I have modified many hundreds (maybe thousands) of Billers over the past 35 years. Glad the gun is shooting lights out for you. rhinofrankenbillerstein.......love it!

I have always been partial to teak......both of the guns I used throughout my commercial career were rhino coated teak. I really like to shoot Mangos and they can be very challenging to shoot. Sometimes when I am going to target Mango’s I would remove the extra shaft from my gun when I got to the bottom. This would make the gun much lighter at the muzzle and more maneuverable. With the larger KB Signature barrel I no longer need to remove the extra shaft from the gun as the added barrel size gives enough lift to compensate for the weight of the second shaft.
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Old 04-11-2019, 01:53 PM   #14
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

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Yes, Kevin. That was my first thought when I saw the Windsong. Also, I'd note that the Rhino gun isn't too heavy, just heavier than bare wood. I don't see most guys carrying three shafts so it's hardly an issue.

If I were looking to buy a new gun I'd buy the Windsong in a heart beat. I have a new found appreciation for a teak gun.

The rhinofrankenbillerstein is lights out. Thanks again for your help.
You can never have too many guns, may I suggest you buy a "Wind Song" as that deeper barrel is very good and if you buy now you can have first shot at the teak grain pattern you like best. For the grey suits a CO2 dart works well with a hit in the mid-body, all you have to do is weigh your cartridges to check they are still charged up as otherwise they are pretty foolproof.
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Old 04-15-2019, 08:02 AM   #15
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Re: Video Highlights from Sunday, April 7th, 2019

that's a difficult situation for sure. every part of your brain wants to be either out of the situation or killing that aggressive animal. that wasn't a bad shark it just felt like it. over time you will be much more relaxed in that situation. not being able to put your powerhead on shows how nervous you were. i used to be there. only after hundreds of encounters and dozens of bad ones can i look at a sharks body language and know exactly what kind of situation i'm in. that shark wanted fish not you and there is no way to satiate his appetite so the best thing to do is either have your dive buddy do shark patrol while you shoot fish or move on to the next spot. that little sandbar is what we refer to as a purse snatcher not a cold blooded killer. it's hard to realize that in the moment. i rarely kill a shark anymore just because i realized you don't need to most of the time. you did great and have some cool video and a story to tell. now you will be better prepared for the next encounter. if you think it was sharky this trip wait till next month!
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