U.S. National (Freedive) Spearfishing Championships - 2007

[Dave Edlund]

Hi SBers,

The U.S. National (Freedive) Spearfishing Championships will be held on Thursday, August 9, 2007 in Fort Bragg (Noyo Harbor), California and it is sponsored by the Underwater Society of America. The Cen-Cal council of divers under the direction of tournament director Mike Gower is gearing up for this years fine event. Cen-cal is setting up a website that will hold all the all the registration materials for this years Nationals. It will be up and running in March. For those unfamiliar with Fort Bragg, it is located in beautiful Mendocino County, an area with rugged coastlines and great natural beauty.

There will be plenty of 3-person "men's" teams attending, but at this date it is still too early to tell if we will have both "women's" and "mixed" team divisions which have 2 divers each per team. A "mixed team" can be made up of the following two combinations: An adult male diving with any adult/minor female or with a minor male (under age 16). An adult female diving with either an adult or minor male.

This is an important U.S. Nationals as it will determine our "International" spearfishing tournament teams. The next CMAS World Spearfishing Championships will be in Margarita Island, Venezuela in fall of 2008 and it will have both a men's and women's event. That's the good news. But, as the total countries participating will be limited to around 20, the U.S. men's team must dive an Americas Qualifier at Higuerote, Venezuela from roughly October 5-9, 2007. So this means, that after this years Nationals is over, there will be less than 2 months before the U.S. men's team must try to qualify for Worlds. Yikes! This will not be easy as the South American teams will be very motivated to qualify as the Worlds will be in South America. I will be working with Mike McGuire (Asst. National Skindiving Director) to determine the specific requirements of team participation. There will be likely a minimum time you must be prepare in Venezuela this October, 2007 in order to hold your position on the World team for 2008.

One final comment. The Florida and Southern California men's divers have the best chance of making the U.S. World team as they scored the most points at the 2006 Longfins hosted Freedive Spearfishing Nationals. With the World's being held in Venezuela, conditions similar to Florida, these divers should be very motivated to come to Northern California and make the U.S. World team. This is your great opportunity.

For those of you that want to participate in this year Nationals, you need to belong to a dive club recognized by the Underwater Society of America. As the National Director, I want to get your club involved. If tournament diving is your cup of tea, please e-mail me. And if you are a potential tournament sponsor and would like to support the U.S. Nationals or the U.S World spearfishing teams (both men and women), I want to work with you.

And for those interested in all the rules of U.S. National Freedive Spearfishing, I will post the website in March.

Here are the big picture details of the 2007 Nationals.

Hosting dive club/council: Cen-Cal (Central California Council of Diving Clubs, Inc.)

We, the skindivers of Cen Cal, take great pride in submitting this bid to host the 2007 United States Spearfishing Championships. It is our intention to host the 2007 Nationals on Thursday, August 9, 2007.

• Competition: 6 hours of diving time plus ½ hour travel time each way

• Location: Noyo Harbor Beach (north side of north harbor jetty), Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, California

• Schedule of Events:

Monday, August 6, 2007 Competitors’ Mandatory Briefing

Thursday, August 9, 2007 National Championships

7:30 a.m. Roll call, assembly and sign in
8:00 a.m. Competitors briefing
8:30 a.m. Tournament starts (1/2 hour of travel time)
9:00 a.m. Divers can enter water
3:00 p.m. Divers are done hunting. Travel time begins
3:30 p.m. Divers must be through staging buoys
4:00 p.m. Divers must be on beach
4:30 p.m. Weigh-in begins

Friday, August 10, 2007 Banquet of Champions Dinner

• Event Headquarters: Group campsite to be specified on CenCal website

• Entry Deadline: July 31, 2007 Men’s Teams, Mixed Teams *, Women’s Teams*
*(For these 2 divisions, we ask competitors to contact Mike Gower with their intentions by May 31, 2007, so Mike can determine whether these divisions meet minimum participation requirements.)

• Registration Fees: $390 ** for men’s teams (3 persons)
$260 ** for mixed and women’s teams (2 persons)

** (There is a $30 per diver fee included in the team fee that goes to support the 2007/2008 U.S. World Spearfishing Teams.)

• Diving Conditions:
Visibility 3-30 feet: 6-15 feet normal
Water temperature 52-56 degree F
Depth 5 to 60 feet: 18 to 30 feet normal
Surf 3 to 12 feet
Current 0 to 2 knots, very slight
Tides 4 to 6 feet between high and low
Bottom Rocky to sandy

• Fish Species:
Rockfish (Blue, Black, Vermilion, Olive, Kelp, Copper, Grass, etc)
Lingcod, Cabezon, Kelp Greenling, Halibut
Perch (Pile, Rubberlip, Striped, etc)
No shark, ray, skate, mola mola, eels, finless fish (eels)
Minimum length: 14 inches or DFG rules if longer.

• Paddleboards/Kayaks:
Paddleboards/kayaks or float propulsion shall be powered by manual methods only. This includes hand paddling, kicking (foot fins) and paddles. No mechanized or other means of non-manual propulsion is allowed.

• Miscellaneous Rules:
A) There shall be no chumming. Chumming includes willfully breaking up the bottom and removing or damaging any shellfish or fin fish in order to attract other fish. No feeding (chumming) of fish in the tournament area 30 days prior to or during competition.
B) Divers may assist respective team members but may not assist divers of another team except in cases of emergency. Assisting or receiving assistance from another diver would include the following: sending signals, lending equipment and/or resting on another diver’s float. Divers must take their own fish; no trading or giving of fish to other divers is allowed.
C) No artificial breathing apparatus may be used.
D) Violation of any California Fish and Game rules will result in disqualification; divers must have current California fishing license.
E) No use of alcohol or rough play.

• Diving Areas:
A) The tournament boundaries will be marked by north and south buoys. The northern tournament boundary is a line from N39 degrees 27.300 W123 degrees 49.286 which is in roughly 60 feet of water to a point on shore at N39 degrees 27.210 w 123 degrees 48.848 which has a true course of 285 degrees when you look seaward. The southern tournament boundary is a line from N39 degrees 24.247 W123 degrees 49.600 which is in roughly 60 feet of water to a point on shore at N39 degrees 24.184 w 123 degrees 49.294 which has a true course of 285 degrees when you look seaward. Each boundary is approximately 1.78 miles either north or south from the main Noyo harbor buoy.
B) Competitors must enter and exit the water from the staging area only.
C) Competitors may only leave the diving (meet) area during competition with permission from a judge – except in an emergency
D) No fish may be taken in the meet area for one month prior to the meet date.
E) No competitor may possess a speargun or polespear in the meet area for one month prior to the meet date.
F) No competitor’s catch may leave the staging area until s/he has weighed his/her catch.
G) Buoys will clearly mark the water start and stop line and shall be supervised at the end of the meet to identify stragglers.
H) Competitors may dive in the meet area up to the day before the competition when, at 5:00 p.m., they must be out of the tournament area. Divers shall not re-enter the water in the meet area on the day of the meet prior to its start.

• Awards:
The following awards are the minimum planned. More than likely, the final number will be greater than shown:

Men’s “Team” trophies (based on total team points) - places 1-3 (9 total trophies)
Women’s and/or Mixed “Team” trophies: places 1-3 (6 total trophies) per division
Men’s Individual High Aggregate score trophies – places 1-5
Women’s Individual High Aggregate score – places 1-3
Men’s Large Fish
Women’s Large Fish
Men’s Novice Diver of Tournament
Women’s Novice Diver of Tournament

• Publicity:
Cen Cal will make every effort to see that the National Spearfishing Championships receives the recognition and status that it deserves.

• Sponsorship:
Cen Cal will work with manufacturers and sponsors of various diving equipment in an effort to best reflect our sport. We feel this National event is an excellent opportunity to better promote our joint interests.

• Accommodations:
A detailed packet of available hotels, rental, campsites, and campgrounds will be provided with maps, charts and points of interest. Each club/council will be sent this information as well as any other information we feel is necessary to keep everyone informed as to new developments. We plan to post all this information to a Nationals 2007 website and the website address will be given to all clubs/councils.

[SpearMax]

Sounds great Dave! I really enjoyed the Nationals in Ft. Lauderdale last year. Fantastic event!

[westpalmspearo]

see ya there

[Bucket One]

Originally Posted by Dave Edlund

Fish Species:
Rockfish (Blue, Black, Vermilion, Olive, Kelp, Copper, Grass, etc)
Lingcod, Cabezon, Kelp Greenling, Halibut
Perch (Pile, Rubberlip, Striped, etc)
No shark, ray, skate, mola mola, eels, finless fish (eels)
Minimum length: 14 inches or DFG rules if longer.

Hey Dave,

Just looking for some clarification on the rockfish and perch. What does etc mean? Are there other rockfish and perch not named? If so what are they?

Thanks

[Mark Weitz]

All legal rockfish (which is most of them) and perch. There are a bunch. the DFG regs will give you a list of them, but you really need to know how to ID a rockfish, and then not shoot the ones that you aren't allowed to.

Mark

[Dave Edlund]

Hi Ritchie ( I think that you, right?),

I will respond to your eligible fish question. There are no games being played here. All the "sebastes" family rockfish will be allowed, but some are rare. Same thing goes with the perch. There are some very rare perch that could show up like black perch, but my personal recommendation is not to waste your time looking for them. All the fish that the top divers are going to shoot are already on that list. The most desirable fish being the lingcod as if can grow to 20 pounds plus. Of the rockfish, the three most popular will be blues, blacks and reds (vermillion). The others are really not that significant. Folks will shoot all three of those perch in decent numbers. There is a rare chance to find a black perch, but its like finding a 10 inch abalone. Look forward to seeing you in Fort Bragg! I understand you are the new FSDA Competition chair. Send me your e-mail address and telephone number privately if you would.

[jorbar1551]

why is it so expensive to join the competition?

[Dave Edlund]

Relative to the cost of training and preparing for these events, the $130 is the small investment required to particapate. The average diver attending, if it is not there home area, may invest $2,000 or more in travel, boats and other equipment, In places like Florida, the cost for out of town divers is even higher as you need to rent powerboats to train and compete. The best divers from this competition will go to the World Championships and the cost, well they are even higher. The U.S. team typically spends $20,000 -35,000 preparing for the Worlds which sounds like a lot. But other countries, spend hundreds of thousand of dollars and maybe in access of $1 million.

The $130 that each participating diver spends specifically goes for things like awards, support $ for the U.S. World team, weigh-in equipment, social functions and it goes on and on. There is no free lunch.

[FishNFool]

God I would LOVE to get involved but it sounds like I need to find a local club thats into it. *cough dave cough* WOuld you know of a person to contact or web site etc...meeting..somthing?
THanks for your time!!

[Dave Edlund]

Hi Fish N Foe,

Call me and we can hook up and I can tell you about National and regional Tournaments. Come dive with me locally. We have a lot ofl spearfishing divers in the greater S.F. Bay area and many gather once a month to dive together. I will be posting our 2007 tournaments on Spearboard in a week and I would welcome you to any or all of them.

Dave Edlund
408-314-2124

[KELPHUNTER]

Dave, I Had Heard That You Had To Quilify In Other Tournaments To Sign Up For The Finals. Is This True Or Can Anybody Compete. If So My Friends And I Are Thinking About Signing.

John

[Dave Edlund]

Hi John,

Any dive club that is recognized by the Underwater Society of America can send three men's teams to the annual Spearfishing Nationals. Men's teams are teams of three divers and mixed or women's teams are made ot two divers each. If you belong to a dive club that is not a member of USOA, call me and I will help you with the details. Basically, USOA is looking for your club to have at least 10 USOA members ($15 per member annually) and also get a copy of your club charter and by-laws. USOA is looking for clubs that don't decriminate,etc.

Call me at 408-356-4622 home or 408-314-2124 cell.

Thanks for your question.

Dave Edlund

[Dave Edlund]

I'm going to attach the registration forms for the 2007 Spearfishing Nationals here. I have sent them today to all the USOA clubs to the tournament chairs.

[Dave Edlund]

Here are the next set of registration forms.

[Dave Edlund]

The only two forms I could not attach over Spearboard (excel spreadsheets)were the kayak rental and accomodations forms. If you need those, send me an e-mail at Edlunds123@comcast.net and I will send them to you directly.

See ya in the water!