Bluewater Spearfishing Oahu
OAHU VACATION – We had this vacation planned for quite a while and even then it was able to sneak up on me. I didn’t make all the calls or connections to go spearfishing while I was in Oahu but decided to bring all my spearfishing gear just in case. I borrowed a hard travel case that fit all my spearfishing gear and even my 120 speargun. We stayed in Waikiki and had a blast.
HOW I MET DARYL WONG – The friend that let me borrow the travel case mentioned Daryl was on Oahu and that I should call him up. I laughed and joked
“Yeah, I’ll call him up and say what’s up? Wanna go spearfishing?”
We arrived on Saturday and I thought about calling Daryl but couldn’t come up with the words. I sent Daryl an email after chickening out on calling him. He replied back with his number. I called him up and he invited me to go bluewater hunting depending on the weather that Wednesday. Tuesday came around and he gave me a call that went something like this.
“Be at my house at [8:00]am. I have guns, just bring your dive gear….”
I could hardly contain my excitement. I felt like the kid that is going to Disneyland for the first time. Too excited to sleep.
BLUEWATER HUNTING – My wife dropped me off at Daryl’s place and I meet Pete. Pete has about 30 years of diving experience and a thick accent. He gets Daryl and we start loading gear in to the boat. We are later joined by Phil and head to the boat ramp.
The weather report was good but it got rough fast. We dove on a more than a few spots. At the first spot we were approached by a sea turtle the Daryl referred to as Chomper. It came right up to me and I was able to get him on video.
When I hit below about 10 feet on my first decent into the beautiful clear blue water I think I hear something. Yes, I can hear whales calling. It’s not loud but it is clear. I can hear the high pitched and low pitched calls. I stop my decent at about 20 feet and float there suspended for the rest of my breath hold to take in the sound and fully realize what I am experiencing at that moment. I can hear the whales with my ears. It’s not a recording. It’s real. Direct from the whale to me. I feel a connection. This is already the best dive.
We move to the last spot of the day and I jump in with just the video camera this time and follow Daryl around. I realized after jumping in that I forgot to put on my weight belt so after some filming, I make my way back to the boat. I was on the boat talking with Pete for a few minutes when I hear either Phil or Daryl say
“Hey Roman, do you want to film a tiger?”
Awesome. I put my weight belt on, grab the camera, and Velcro on the Shark Shield Freedom 7 for a real test. Check out the video and you tell me if you think it was effective.
I jump in, swim towards Daryl and he points to the Tiger Shark. The tiger is about 8-9 feet long and when I first looked over it was heading right at me. I could see both eyes and the pectoral and dorsal fins made it look like an arrowhead. I am surprised and in awe. I am afraid but I want to get closer. I make my way to Daryl and film him keeping the tiger at bay like a tiger tamer with a chair and whip.
It’s going to be hard to top this experience.
ROOTBEERS – We hung out at Daryl’s and talked about the dive, the shark, and spearfishing, over root beers, chips, and ABC Store sandwiches.
THANK YOU – Big thank you to my wife Lan for supporting my Spearfishing passion.
VIDEO – Summary of the dives from this day including Chomper and Daryl interacting with a Tiger Shark
