Spearfishing Tournament Score!!

This past month, I had the opportunity to dive with one of Hawaii’s top spear fishermen, David Sakoda. We partnered up for the Triple Crown of Spearfishing tournament located on Oahu. Conditions were not favorable in Wai’alai beach park, though that didn’t stop the 17 teams from rushing out into the water at 8:00 in the rain! Many of the top teams headed out into the deep, looking to score some bigger game, while David’s knowledge of the area took us into shallower water. We found plenty of quality fish, though many were just under the minimum size requirements for the tournament.

Not long into the dive, I sat and waited for some Mu in the distance, with little hope as they managed to stay at least 50′ from me for the duration of the dive. After about a minute of waiting, I turn around to see what else may be lurking, and to my surprise a near-25 lb. Ulua came right up behind me! I managed to hit a paralyzing shot behind its eye and quickly secure it. After that, we continued to look around and struggled to find the species of fish we were looking for. About 2 hours later David takes a drop on a 30 lb. free swimming Ulua. Somehow the Ulua was interested enough to double back and give David a long shot, he capitalized on it and we secured another awesome game fish!

The fish unfortunately didn’t add up to the points needed to take the win, but in my opinion, we did manage to nab the “cool” catch of the day. We took fourth place, met a lot of great divers, and had an amazing time. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back out there! It’s great to take a break from the lessons at Maui Spearfishing Academy from time to time and really get into some great competition!