• 2011

SpearBlog 2011

Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2011
Mon3Jan2011

Foreword 2011

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Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2011 | January 03, 2011 | Print
foreword

Once again, another year has gone by altogether too quickly. Unfortunately for me, I didn't get an opportunity to dive in December before the grouper closure on January 1. The winds picked up the week before Christmas and didn't let up (actually haven't let up) so December came and went and January showed up without my being able to bag that last grouper of the winter. I guess I'm just going to have to wait until May 1st to land that next big one! I only hope that I am able to dive a little later this winter and get to see the benefits of this second annual closure even if I don't get to take any of them home with me.

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Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2011
Tue22Feb2011

Barren Winter for me so far

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Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2011 | February 22, 2011 | Print

Even though I have had a few chances to take the boat out this winter, my spearfishing frustrations continue. The past couple of weekends have given me a chance to take the family out for wonderful days out on the boat, but being the only spearfisherman on the boat presents constant challenges. I did dive this past weekend, but there wasn't much to be seen and when I started to scout for some new locations (since I never dive in Miami and fishermen hoard their spots like women hoard pairs of shoes) I had some problems being the driver, navigator and spotter.

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Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2011
Sun8May2011

May 7, 2011 - One last attempt in Miami

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Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2011 | May 08, 2011 | Print
2011, Miami

This past Saturday we decided to take the boat out one last time in Miami before the summer started (and along with it my main diving season in the Keys). My nephew decided to come along with us for his first ride on the boat so I figured we might be able to get in a dive along with another family day at Boca Chita. My nephew had never been to this nice island in the middle of Biscayne Bay (I confess, I hadn't been there before this past winter either) so it was nice to have him experience it for the first time as it's a relaxing place to spend the afternoon where you can hang out, camp out (which we did a few weeks ago), cook out and generally enjoy the great Florida outdoors at a place that feels like your miles from anywhere (which I guess technically, you are).

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Written by: Bob Diaz
Category: SpearBlog 2011
Tue24May2011

May 21-22, 2011 - Finally!

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Bob Diaz | SpearBlog 2011 | May 24, 2011 | Print
Seas: 2-4 feet Winds: 10-15 S/SW Viz:  30 feet Temp: 79 F

SUMMER IS FINALLY HERE! Finally a weekend that wasn't under the guise of some kind of work, whether paycheck related or otherwise. Of course it wasn't all honeymoon for me either, at least not at the start. I get a call from a friend Friday afternoon who asks me why we aren't down in the keys shooting fish when we're getting MMS messages from my brother in law with pictures of his 16lb Black Grouper while we're both at work (way to rub it in bro). And while I didn't have a really good answer (mostly because I agreed with him), all we could do was bide our time and hope the weather would hold up for us to get down there too. So I picked up my nephew on my way home from work to bring him down with us this weekend and haul a$$ home to get started loading up and hooking up everything I had to drag down there so my diving season could finally begin. You see in my house, "The Boys of Summer" has nothing to do with baseball.

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Bob Diaz - Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:50

This review is actually long overdue as I've had this mask for well over a year now and I honestly don't know why I hadn't done it before now. After trying multiple masks over several years (and several hundred dollars), some were good (Mystic, Star, Nano), and some were bad (Zero Cubed). Before this, I had actually decided upon the Cressi Nano as "the one". I thoroughly enjoyed the fit and volume of the Nano, but there were a couple of VERY minor issues with the fit. I'm convinced that the...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Tuesday, 06 May 2014 02:55

After trying and being disappointed by the Omer Zero Cubed mask last year, I picked up a couple of other masks ( Mares Star and Sporasub Mystic ) that fit fairly well and did not disappoint, but were not the perfect fit I've been looking for in a low volume freediving mask so I didn't feel overly compelled to write a spearview about them. In defense of these masks, they are both low volume masks that are relatively inexpensive so for the money they are great purchases. Of these two, the...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Thursday, 11 February 2010 20:57

Believe it or not my latest addition to my spearguns is not one for shooting fish (well at least not shooting to kill them). But it hopefully will help others watch online what I love to do underwater. I have made a camera mount for my Riffe Euro guns. This mount will fit on any Euro that has the reel inserts (basically all of them). It was terribly simple to make. The only fairly tricky part was putting together the actual mount screw for the camera tripod mount itself.

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Saturday, 28 September 2013 18:22

The summer had been busier than I would have liked this year and I honestly hadn't had as many opportunities to post much less given much thought to writing a new SpearView, but after having time to really reconsider, I realized that I had actually had multiple opportunities to try out new equipment this year (not all of it successfully). Further to that point, when I took the PFI Freediver course back in March I had decided to invest in a new mask and ended up deciding on the Omer Zero Cubed...

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Saturday, 30 January 2010 08:18

I finally bit the bullet and decided to sell my No-Ka-Oi. It had gotten next to no use in the time I had owned it and it seemed a shame to have it just sit there so I Ebay'd it. With the funds from that sale, I invested in a gun that is a little more multi-purpose (at least that is how I convinced myself to get it :). I was extremely torn among 3 choices. I was considering the Euro 120, 120x and 130. After a couple of weeks of deliberation and a lot of flip-flopping, I decided on the Euro 120....

SpearViews

Bob Diaz - Monday, 07 June 2010 08:53

This past weekend, I finally got to go to The Blue Wild dive expo. After 3 years of everybody telling me about it and not being around to get to go to it, the stars finally aligned and I was able to check it out. Unfortunately, it meant missing out on 5-10mph winds and less than 1' seas inside the reef, but there were other reasons I couldn't get out this weekend, so I figured I would take advantage to check it out and possibly win something from the raffle to boot (I won't keep you in...

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SpearBlog 2014

Bob Diaz - Tuesday, 25 March 2014 14:11

Wind Seas Viz Temp NW 5-10mph 1-2' 20-25' 75F It seems like once you break the ice of making it out the first time, all your subsequent attempts at getting out on the water just seem to come a little easier. So with another good weather forecast on the horizon this week, I started the calls on Wednesday to see who might be interested in another outing this weekend. After connecting with the usual suspects, my brother in law and I decided to go out on Sunday as the forecast was just a little...

SpearBlog 2006

Bob Diaz - Monday, 28 August 2006 15:15

Unbenknownst to us, this would be our final weekend in the keys for this summer! Saturday allowed us to pick up quite a few bugs to stock our freezers, and it was a good thing too, because Hurricane (at least it was at that time) Ernesto had other things in mind for us. Once we got back from gathering yet a few more bugs on Sunday, we got the word about Hurricane Ernesto. After the two storms we experienced last year we decided to turn tail and get the heck out of Dodge. We made the decision...

SpearBlog 2008

Bob Diaz - Monday, 26 May 2008 01:10

Winds: 5-10 SSE Seas: 1-2 feet Surf Temp: +/- 82F Viz: 20-25 feet The first full weekend of diving for the summer finally arrived and I was raring to go. We still had a little setup to do, but not enough to keep us from catching high tide. Unfortunately, while we were ready, the tide was not. The full moon (or waning full moon) was still wreaking havoc with the tide and its duration. We arrived at what we thought was the right time for the high tide only to end up swimming for an extra hour...

SpearBlog 2004

Bob Diaz - Monday, 31 May 2004 15:00

Winds: 5-10 variable (except for Monday) Seas: 1-2 feet Surf Temp: +/- 85F Viz: 15-25 feet Definitely better than our typical Memorial Day weekend weather. While Memorial Day is usually a pretty rainy weekend, this year the rainfall was confined to inland showers, and left us pretty much alone. The viz wasn't what we would have liked, but at least the weather was agreeable.

SpearBlog 2009

Bob Diaz - Monday, 29 June 2009 01:00

Seas: 2-3 feet Winds: 5-10 SW Temp: 82 F Viz: 10-15 feet This was a real good news/bad news weekend which sort of makes it a fitting sequel to last weekend. Fact is, the viz was even worse this weekend and it got worse from Saturday to Sunday as well. We headed out Saturday for a late morning patch reef dive so we could kill time until the 4:30p high slack tide, hoping it would be clean. We headed to a spot that had been productive recently in about 30 feet of water. Upon getting there we...

SpearBlog 2009

Bob Diaz - Sunday, 15 February 2009 00:00

Unfortunately, I have gotten a late start on the winter diving this year. I had two earlier opportunities to go diving this winter, but both were undermined by work responsibilities. What can I say, it pays the bills. Finally this past weekend (2/15/09), I was able to get out on a decent weather day to do some diving and (I thought) some spearfishing. Unfortunately we didn't have much luck this day (as evidenced by the total lack of pictures for this trip's catch. The day started out great...