Dive Pacific 175 Dec2020 Jan 2021

Start of Day 1
tions: you have no one to blame
but yourself… plus there’s still
another day of competition to
try again. One pair was caught
burleying so they were disqualified…if
you break any rules,
especially safety rules, your day
gets disqualified.
Dwane Herbert and John
Anderson cleaned up on the day
and did extremely well for fish
diversity, 11, well ahead of the
competition and very difficult
to catch. Dwane had flown up
Jackie Edwards - Women’s
biggest snapper
…Dwane Herbert and John Anderson cleaned up on the day
and did extremely well for fish diversity, 11, …Dwane had
flown up from Bluff to compete and is New Zealand’s top
rated spearo…
like snapper in abundance
though they were moving
around midwater making them
difficult to approach. Without
burley, apart from kina, which
the snapper were not feeding
on, we were not good enough
that day. It was hard not to
be disappointed but that’s the
great thing about these competi-
from Bluff to compete and is New
Zealand’s top rated spearo.
Second for the day with nine
fish were Dave Mullins and
Chris Marshall. Dave was 2019
New Zealand champion, one of
New Zealand’s top free divers;
they had both come up from
Wellington. Then Paul and I were
trailing too far back with seven
fish.
Swimming race, with
dolphins
The last thing you want to do is
be caught in a big swim race after
six hours diving the previous day.
Then half way to the desired spot
a pod of big dolphins swam right
up amongst us all - very cool!
They made appearances all day
too, and I even witnessed them
chasing kingfish and school fish.
After my poor effort not spearing
a snapper the day before I
Sophie Hamilton - 1st Women’s
Day Two
With everyone enjoying their
day at the Mokohinaus it was
established Day Two should
also be there with great weather
forecast once again, but this time
on the South side of Fanal Island
including Navire rock.
Conditions were again fantastic
with clear water and flat seas.
All three top pairs headed off in
the same direction, not ideal as
we were likely to be targeting the
same fish as all are very capable
divers. A 1.3km straight swim
race was on. Some chose to put
their spear guns on their float
boat and over arm. Others kept
up though, keeping guns in hand
ready to spear fish.
Tyler Maugham - 1st Junior’s
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