The Spear: Spearfishing | Freediving | Apnea | Fishing

Interview with PFI Instructor Andrew Miramontes

On this episode I interview Andrew a newly certified PFI Freediving Instructor. His spearfishing journey helped him discover his passion for the deep. Andrew has reached depths of 140feet and is constantly improving by safely pushing his limits a little at at time.

So let’s dive into Andrew’s searfishing journey and learn a little more about safety.

Have a listen and enjoy.

How to contact Andrew

You can reach Andrew via Instagram. His username is andrew.miramontes

Do Me A Favor

An iTunes or Stitcher review would be SO appreciated!

Here is a Step-by-Step guide for an iTunes Review

Question of the Week

The question this week is again What do you want to know about spearfishing?

Thanks for Listening!

I’m excited about the show. Remember to leave a comment below.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for listening! See you next week!

Interview with San Diego Spearo Volker Hoehne

On this episode I interview a spearo who started in the 70’s when he was 10 years old. He has years of experience, tons of great stories, and some of the best insights so far.

I consider Volker one of my mentors and really appreciate the advice and stories he has shared with me over the years.

So let’s dive into Volker’s epic spearfishing journey.

Have a listen and enjoy.

Summary In Short Phrases

* 1975

* “Mom, Look I want a polespear…”

* No YouTube

* Blasting and Eating

* Death Grip

* The Cure for Oversleeping

* Hypothermia?

* Conspiracy to stop Spearfishing

* The mentorship he wished he hadn’t passed on

* Brothers

* Evolution in isolation

* Santa Cruz

* Overcoming fears

* Abalone, rock fish, and Great White Sharks

* Spearfishing a Surf Competition

* Otter Pucks

* Cook the fish

* When I almost died – Triple Fail

* The Wetsuit Story (Awesome)

* Corn Starch

* Channel Islands

* “What’s a Freediver…”

* “I looked like an antique to them..”

* Getting Schooled

* “…Like putting on Jello.”

* Rollerguns

* Breaking through limits

* Spearfishing gone mainstream

* Ambassadors

* Search Image

* Getting past the Blast Phase

* Teriyaki It

* Hunting White Sea Bass

* THE TRIDENT

* 100ft Dive

* Sevengill Sharks

* And More…

Do Me A Favor

An iTunes or Stitcher review would be SO appreciated!

Here is a Step-by-Step guide for an iTunes Review

Question of the Week

The question this week is What do you want to know about spearfishing?

Thanks for Listening!

I’m excited about the show. Remember to leave a comment below.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for listening! See you next week!

Interview with San Diego Spearo Arno Chrispeels

On this episode I interview a fellow San Diego Freediver.

Fun Fact: Arno is the husband of the midwife that helped birth our first boy Aaron and literally caught our second boy Julian. I had no idea until the day I returned a speargun Arno lent me. His wife was standing on his lawn. It’s funny that I met them each in totally different parts of my life and I got a kick out of that connection. Small world.

Arno joins us to share what he has learned so far on his spearfishing journey. So have a listen and enjoy

Get International Health Insurance For Your Next Trip

You can contact Arno before your next trip to get International Health Insurance at HealthIsInternational.com. Rates are very reasonable. For about cost of one dinner you will get coverage for a week.  It is easy to sign up. It doesn’t require underwriting. You can even call the day before and download/print your Internatioinal Health Insurance card.

Float Lines

Contact Josh over at Dogtooth Spearfishing for a killer deal on float lines. You can reach him via CraigFloatlines.com. Let him know Roman said “Hello” and that you heard about him on THE SPEAR.

Do Me A Favor

An iTunes or Stitcher review would be SO appreciated!

Here is a Step-by-Step guide for an iTunes Review

Question of the Week

I’m trying to get to know you all better and what kind of hunters you are. The question this week is What is your average bottom time while spearfishing? Leave your answer in the comments below.

Thanks for Listening!

I’m excited about the show. Remember to leave a comment below.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for listening! See you next week!

Interview with San Diego Spearo Anthony Putrino

On this episode I interview a fellow San Diego Freediver.

Anthony is part of the new generation of spearos. He joins us to share what he has learned so far on his spearfishing journey. So have a listen and Enjoy

Interview Summary

Here is a quick summary of what we covered in this episode.

* The path that lead him to discover spearfishing

* The pros and cons of taking a freediving class too soon

* Starting with a polespear

* Choosing his first speargun

* First fish

* The story of his personal best Calico (7lbs)

* San Diego Freedivers – Blue Water Meet

* Managing fear of Sharks and dive anxiety

* Finding mentors

* First Blue Water trip

* Spearfishing Dorado (Mahi Mahi)

* Blue Water Spearfishing advice

* Reverse Fish Psychology

* Deep Spearfishing

* Tips for new spearos

* And more

Contact Anthony

Anthony can be reached via Anthony Putrino Creative Studio. His design business website is AnthonyPutrino.com

Do Me A Favor

An iTunes or Stitcher review would be SO appreciated!

Here is a Step-by-Step guide for an iTunes Review

Question of the Week

I’m trying to get to know you all better and what kind of hunters you are. The question this week is How many fish did you take last year? I have a theory that the numbers are much lower than we think. Leave your answer in the comments below.

Thanks for Listening!

I’m excited about the show. Remember to leave a comment below.

Have a great weekend! Thanks for listening! See you next week!

Interview with San Diego Spearo Justin Schleafli

Justin shares some great stories including how he was introduced to spearfishing and how he overcame the beginner hurdles.

This was a fun interview for me since I consider Justin one of my spearfishing mentors. I’ve learned a lot from him in and out of the water.

Here is a quick summary of what we covered in this episode.

* First time spearfishing

* First fish

* AIDA Freediving Class

* Breaking into the San Diego Spearfishing community

* Mentors

* Respecting the Elders and the History of Spearfishing

* Waterman’s Alliance – Old School Meet

* Most memorable trip

* White Seabass Hunting

* Gear Advice

* Fish mind games

* Fishing Resources and the importance of checking conditions

* Closure to Closure dive using currents

* Spearfishing charter with SpearfishingToday.com

* Three tips for new spearos

* Dive boat guest and secret spot etiquette

The Spear Episode 4 Transcript

Hey this is Roman Castro from SpearoNation.com and this is Episode 4.

Welcome back to the spear, the spear fishing podcast that helps you step up your game and keeps you company on your commute to work. Thanks for listening and welcome to the tribe. Alright guys I got some great feedback last week, I noticed that some of you guys are listening to the podcast on the website, It’s cool you can do that but it’s really difficult to go back to your spot if you accidentally close the app or whatever, so what I recommend you do is you listen to it on your iphone with the podcast app or on your android phone with stitcher app. I went ahead and create a little section on each of the show notes pages and also on the main page for the spear you can get to it by going to SpearfishingPodcast.com. Once you’re on there, scroll down to the questions and you’ll see a little drop down box that says “click here to see how to listen on your iphone or android device”. Once you click that you’ll see two tabs, one tab will have a video showing you how to setup on your iphone and the other tab will have a video that showing you how to set up on your android device. Yeah, so go check that out it’ll be a much better listening experience and you’ll be able to listen to it in your car while you commute. Also, please scroll a little bit down on that page there’s a section asking you for your reviews on itunes it would be awesome if you would can give me an itune review there’s a big button in there that says “how to write an itunes review” click on that and it will guide you step by step on where to lead the review and how to do it. If you could do that it will be awesome. Thanks!

RC: On today’s episode we’re gonna interview Justin Schlaefli.

J: You say you’re new to this, but you have here is a very professional set up here..

RC: Gonna make up for the voice. Alright, here we go. Today we have Justin Schlaefli from San Diego joining us today. I met Justin when I was first starting out in spearfishing, I met him at James and Joseph’s spearfishing I was in there trying to do, basically asking questions like Robert and other guys worked to the shop and then Justin walked in there and say “Hey check out the San Diego freedivers” so long story short this is the guy that I had my first shark encounter with. We might go over that story again but let see where it goes.

RC: Anyway, Justin he’s been a San Diego freediver president for 2012-2103 he’s currently the access coordinator for the watermen’s alliance and also the captain of the San Diego freedivers team. Hey Justin, welcome to the show.

J: Thanks for having me Roman I’m thrilled to be here on your wonderful plush couch,

The Spear – A Spearfishing Podcast where you can get your spearfishing fix when you are stuck on land

Original Format

We go with the original interview format I intended back when I released Episode 000.

THE SPEAR will be a Weekly Show

I’m going all in. I plan to put out an episode of THE SPEAR once a week. So from this day forth look for new episodes on THURSDAYS.

Interview with Ryan Sweeney Including Spearfishing Cortez Banks with Terry Maas

Ryan shares his spearfishing journey with us and gives some great advice for the new guys out there.

* How he got into spearfishing

* What roadblocks he hit and how he overcame them

* Launching your Kayak in the surf

* Dealing with Sea Sickness

* Key factors to becoming a better spearfisher

* Choosing the right Spearfishing gear

* Breaking in to the spearfishing community

* White Sea Bass Hunting Tips

* Talks about how he met Terry Maas their epic trip to go Spearfishing Cortez Banks last year

* Spearfishing Tuna

* Whistles

* Spearfishing Cortez Banks again on The Sand Dollar

* Hammerhead Shark encounter

* Flashers

* Spearfishing Tips for new guys

* Rocks, Rips, and Reefs 3Rs

* and more

You can contact Ryan via Facebook. Ryan is working on getting the new website up so for now here is a link to Ryan’s Facebook Profile.

Episode 003 Transcription

Hey this is Roman Castro from spearoblog.com and this is the spear episode 3 now check out my intro music.

This is the spear the podcast where you can get your spearfishing fixed even though you’re stuck on land, coming at you from our home studio and sunny San Diego California, thanks for listening and welcome to the tribe.

Alright, so today’s episode is an interview this is the original format I wanted when I first set up the spear. I have done now I think four interviews, this is the first of four I had a couple more scheduled and we come to do interviews and I really enjoyed them I think I’m learning a lot and been able to share this conversation with you guys is very valuable to you. Besides interviewing all this great people I’m really enjoying the process of learning how to interview somebody and just getting used to how my voice sounds like on my headset. It’s a big learning here so bare with me and I’ll try to improve every episode also I wanted to announce that I’m just gonna go for it and make the spear a weekly podcast so I’ll be playing new episode every Thursday going forward. Right now I’m thinking mostly of the interviews but I might throw in like an audio blog that goes here and there to spice things up.

RC: Hey guys today we have Ryan Sweeney he has 14 years of experience in motorsports industry. Ryan is an entrepreneur who is combining his passions for product design and adventure sport into his new endeavour called bricksadventure.com you can see it at brickadventure without an s. Ryan was also the president of San Diego freedivers for 2014 he served on the board since 2011. You might recognized Ryan from his other products he started pdp which is precision dive products and came out of one of the first backpack specifically designed for spearfishing which called the spearo backpack. Alright, Hello Ryan and welcome to the spear, how’s it going?

R: Thanks for having me it’s a pleasure to be here.

RC: Awesome, awesome so I wanna thank you for coming to the show and we go right into our first question and feel free to elaborate as much as you want where did...

Finally, the long awaited Part 2 of the presentation by Rob Allen and Jeremy Williams. In this episode you will hear more great stories and get an insider view of the Rob Allen Spearguns product development cycle.

In case you missed it here is a link to Part 1

Part 2 of presentation by Rob Allen and Jeremy Williams of Rob Allen Spearguns.

Here is a quick summary of what is talked about in this part of the presentation

* Product development cycle

* Prototyping, testing, and constant improvements

* New products coming soon

* Alternative band/speargun setups

* Detailed information on the carbon fiber gun manufacturing process

* A new way of looking at wetsuit camouflage pattern

What To Do Next

Make sure you subscribe to The Spear on iTunes so you don’t miss episode 3 – In episode 3 I’m going to change it up and do an interview style episode.

If you find this podcast informative do me a favor and tell your friends about The Spear podcast.

Thanks Alex Davis

Thanks for your comments Alex. I hope you enjoy Episode 2 as much as Episode 1

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Welcome back!

Part 1 of the presentation by Rob Allen and Jeremy Williams of Rob Allen Spearguns. In this episode you will hear some great stories, insights, and might pick up a tip or two.

A few weeks ago I received an invitation to an event being put on by James and Joseph Spearfishing. A great exclusively spearfishing and freediving shop in San Diego. I highly recommend it if you are in town. It’s an impressive 2,500Sq ft of floor to ceiling Spearfishing awesomeness.

The event was a meet/greet and presentation by Rob Allen and Jeremy Williams of Rob Allen Spearguns.

Long story short I had my audio recorder with me to make sure I didn’t miss anything I could use later to write a post or two. I got permission to record and I am glad I did. There was too much info to type on my phone.

There is a lot to be learned here so instead of cutting it up and inadvertently changing the context, I decided to play it for you in its entirety. It will be split across two episodes. Let me warn you, the audio is not great. I was planning on using it as reference notes only. I cleaned it up a little and took out long pauses. Have a listen, the next 23 minutes are full of great stories, insight, and tips.

Here is a quick summary of what is talked about in this part of the presentation

* Brief history of South African Spearfishing

* Evolution of the Rob Allen Spearguns

* Len and Jessica Jones – 1960’s Diver, Author of Guides on fishing salt and fresh water, and spearfishing

* Crocodiles in South Africa – Quiver’s Crocodile

* Rough Surf

* No SCUBA Spearfishing

* Wahoo, Sailfish, King Mackerel, Dogger Salmon, Poenskop (Musselcracker), Garrick

* “I spearfish to hunt fish – not to shot them” – Jeremy Williams

* You can kill a Marlin with a straight shaft with flopper

* Straight shaft with flopper is more accurate

* 200+ Lbs Dogtooth Tune with a double flopper – No slip tip

* SA Spearos, like US spearos, are cheapskates 🙂

* 398k(811.3Lbs) Black Marlin with Rob Allen 1300 (130mm gun)

* Maneuvering and aiming a long gun

* Tip to get the fish to come in closer

What To Do Next

Make sure you subscribe to The Spear on iTunes so you don’t miss episode 2 – where we will hear the rest of the presentation

Did you learn anything from what you just heard? Tell me what you learned in the comments.

Big Thank You

Big thank you to Damien over at J&J for putting on this event and big thank you to Rob and Jeremy for so generously sharing their knowledge and stories with us.

Here we go! I've been thinking about starting a Spearfishing podcast for quite some time now. The past month spent on research and preparation culminate today with the launch of my first podcast...

The Spear.The Spearfishing Podcast where spearos share stories, insights, and tips to help YOU on YOUR spearfishing journey. Welcome to the tribe! If you want a spearfishing education during your drive to work, while you workout or while you walk your dog, this podcast is for you. I am your host Roman Castro and this is our inaugural episode... Please subscribe