My Foldspear lost its virginity in Jupiter yesterday...
Other thoughts on the Foldspear after first use (by someone who has never used any kind of underwater hunting equipment before... ever):
1) The Foldspear really does auto-assemble itself better underwater than on the surface.
2) For lionfish killing, however, the Foldspear is probably twice the length it needs to be.
3) I got the "lionfish tip" for mine, which is a single, thick point. But I'm thinking something with two or three narrower tines might be better. Dunno.
4) Trying to kill a lionfish with my short, flat-tipped dive knife was an exercise in futility. I need something long and pointy!
5) Lionfish really don't expect anything to go after them, so they make for easy targets. However, if you actually manage to MISS the sitting ducks because you're a total noob, then the lionfish get very quick and defensive and will scurry into parts of the reef you cannot reach.
6) When you fold up the spear and stick it in the pouch, make sure the segment with the tip goes in pointy-end first. Really struggled trying to extricate the Foldspear when I had it the other way and the point decided to go through the pouch wall sideways upon attempted extraction.
7) Speaking of which, both the waist strap and leg strap on the Foldspear pouch are woefully underdesigned. The adjustment buckles DO NOT HOLD underwater and will quickly slip and expand to maximum diameter - this left me struggling to drag the damned thing flopping around on my leg until the surface interval, where I was able to re-adjust and tie knots around the adjustment buckles. Worked fine after that, but still - VERY poor design!!!
Other lessons from yesterday's dives:
1) That old OW lesson about holding your mask to your face upon water entry? Saved my mask during one back-entry when the force of entry completely removed the strap from the back of my head.
2) Speaking of mask straps, for the first time ever I had to deploy my backup mask when the (brand new) strap on my primary broke, and I was very glad I had one handy. However, never having been used before, it was at the bottom of the pocket, the extrication of which (not being able to see, obviously), resulting in practically all the other contents of the pocket dumping onto the seafloor. Luckily I was kneeling on the sand at the time and everything was easily retrieved afterwards, but still, lesson (re-)learned: attach everything, even inside your pockets!
3) The
Dive-Rite LED 700 is a perfect light for my style of diving, converting from a flashlight always carried in its waist pouch into a Goodman-style "canister" for night dives, recreational wrecks, and caverns. Not a full caver-style primary, but the adaptability makes it a great general-purpose light for rec divers. I've had it for a couple years now (actually an LED 500 that Dive-Rite upgraded for me) and am still more than satisfied.
4) Rigged for solo with a pony and carrying a spare everything, plus being a good reef visitor and carting up beer cans (two on this trip) in one
expandable Zeagle pouch I got specifically for trash purposes, and using a
Foldspear for lionfish control, and sending up stray anchors using my sausage (a task I did not complete this time only because I saw it had a very heavy-looking chain attached, but I carefully extricated the chain from the reef and left it all in the sand), AND doing what I enjoy to begin with - which is taking pictures with a (now) rather bulky arm & strobe... all means futzing with a LOT of gear!!!
5) A good strobe does not make up for a crappy camera. :frown:
6)
Jupiter Dive Center really is a first-class dive op.
7) Reef diving totally rocks.
Viz was iffy yesterday, some sites had LOTS of seaweed, making it something like diving in a salad bowl. Current was brisk and not ideal for photography (had to frame & shoot VERY fast!). But still, four good dives including my first Jupiter twilight and night dives, the first use of my new strobe, and first lionfish termination, all made for a great day of diving.
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