New gun, bad luck turned good

Went out yesterday to one of our favorite spots with my brand new D Wong super magnum. Tried dropping a flasher and some chum but we were limited because my friend who drives the boat while we drift couldn't come. So we anchored.
Anyway, I go down and spot a nice black grouper (33 lbs) and nailed it, exactly where I was aiming. I was stoked. Nice gun.
But the fish tried to get in a hole and somewhere between there and getting it in the boat, the spear shaft bent. Couldn't straighten it and had no spare on board. Bummer. I had two more easy shots on a cobia and a dog snapper and missed wildly left.

Now comes the point of the story. So, I left my gun on board and was just free diving near my buddy, watching him like we always do. I hadn't done this without a gun in my hand for about 5 years. And I noticed right away I was getting down about 15-20 feet deeper and staying maybe 20 seconds longer than I do with a gun.
Also was getting right up to this big school of dog snappers, who also had a nice black grouper hanging with them...I think he was hiding and trying to ambush the creole wrasses. But it was an eye opener. Made me think of the free dive courses. It's one thing to get down deep with out a gun. But put a blue water gun and a 100 foot floatline on and...well...little more O2 demand. I think without a gun I could get to 80-90 feet no problem.
But I had a great time among all those fish with no gun. Learned a lot.

Nice I liked the story, yeah without a gun is much different, what class did you take "performance freedivers"?

Thanks.
I want to take one of the courses but haven't yet. I've been in touch with the group, Performance Freediving, who are on here (very nice people) and Dr Wong in Hawaii. Hard to coordinate it living here and I'd have a time convincing my wife to take off a week, spend for airfare, lodging and the course...just to hold my breath for another 45 seconds? She'd give me that Honduranian farm girl, "gringo loco" look for sure.
I made a reference to the course because from the pics I see, they're just free diving with nothing in their hands and I hear of huge inprovements in bottom time, which I fully believe. I just keep asking myself, "what's the secret"? I can hold for 4 minutes lying on my couch...but not even close to that with a gun in my hand while hunting.