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Sharks
Training and Weight belts this is what I have learnt
in the last 6 months!
Sharks
I have not encountered any big sharks yet ( thank goodness),
but I have had some fish swiped lately by the "Tax
Man".
If you want to prevent sharks eating your fish there
are two things you can do, that will help.
Firstly, get out of the water. Now I haven't shot a
Snoek YET. When I do, If it is a a far out reef that
I enjoy diving, I will stringer it and then immediately
head for the beach. Keeping the fish held in my right
hand, my fist berried in the gills.My thinking being,
this will be my first game fish and nothing will steal
it. Gary and I did this with our Geelbeck and definitely
saved them from the dolphins that were very keen on
our catch.
If you find this a little extreme you can apply the
second option.
Secondly, If you don't want to vacate the water for
whatever reason ( and there could be many) it is a good
idea to keep your catch very close to you as you dive.
Coil your dive rope and hold it in your left hand, keeping
your catch as close as possible to you as is comfortable.Not
too close as it is no fun hitting your fish with your
fins as you swim.
If a shark tries to take your fish, hit it, shout at
it or shoot it. Luckily, most the time it will be a
little shark like a grey. If It's a 6metre Great White.
It can have the fish!
While we are here talking about sharks I would like
to know if any of you guys out there have good stories
or tips about sharks?
email to mjwayela@mewb.co.za
Next Tip
Cross Train
This time of the year seems to have allot of dirty water
and wind .
Weeks and months can go by and then suddenly....you
are fat and unfit.
And just to make matters worse the fish are thick!
You have to keep fit in the tough times.
What I do, and find very helpful is cross train. I run
6ks Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Once a week or so I also go to the tidal pool to do
a 1km swim with flippers. This has saved my butt in
two ways. Weight and fitness. I don't run fast, or push
it much, just a slow jog. It takes me 40min.
When the water cleans up and I have to swim out 600
to the drop off, I can!
Weight belts
Simple simple tip. Backline in shallow water, add a
weight. Nothing worse than trying to lie on the sand
in 2m of water waiting for a Garrick when all your chest
wants to do is float like a cork. NB remove the weight
after your dive as to not be too heavy on your next
dive when your out 800m to sea.
When I dive a local reef which is very far, out I actually
dive "light". No cray bag, just a net. 1 less
belt and only 1 gun.
Remember everything you wear must be dragged through
the water. Less drag, less weight. Less weight less
energy expelled to drag the weight. If you have been
diving for 6 years this probably wont worry you, but
it gives me an extra 20 min in the water before I fall
over exhausted.
Also when I swim far out, it's typically a little deeper
so I don't need as much weight to keep me down, compared
to a backline dive.
This really is the feel approach to weighting. I have
read though, that technically the correct weightage
is achieved when negative buoyancy kicks in at 5m. In
other words below 5m you sink. Above 5m you'll slowly
rise. With the dangers of Shallow water blackout this
5m rule becomes more important.
I use 5 weights at backline and 4 weights for 10m or
deeper.
Also with my super dooper keep the cold out suit, which
is a thick as biltong I use 6 weight belts.
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