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Comments like these are why I keep coming back to Swaylocks! Classic!
I second that. I just had an uncle pass away at 91, one of the original Dana point guys from way way back. We had a memorial a few weeks back and I heard stories that I had never heard! My uncle was a man of very few words, but tons of action. surfing, skiing, built a baja house, football at USC, officer in WWII, one of the first guys to get aqua lung …etc.
So I’d love to hear bills stories about La Jolla. I only know one other La Jolla old guy still around from Bill Ts Circle, ?..Dave, tall,skinny kid still,surfing with us…he ran with del cannon, diff, Pat C… Maybe Bill should write a book and capture all these other stories?
Hmmmm. Dave, tall an’ skinny? Sounds like Dave Rearwin. Do I win a Kewpie Doll?
correct
Bumping this up, TO EXPLORE THE INTEREST expressed in making the Hawaiian Sling, mentioned on page two of this thread. Perhaps a ‘‘how to workshop’’ on the subject? Or an all encompassing discussion on ‘‘Being a Waterman’’, in the old school sense? What say you?
Bill, I’d be interested. My only concern is will the Hawaiian Sling work in NJ?
And points in between?
Regardless of location I would still follow along with a Hawaiian sling tutorial.
@Surfifty&Jrandy,
If the water is clear enough to see the fish, you’ll have no problem landing Striped Bass or Drum, in the 10 to 15 pound range. Most of the fish I’ve taken were in the one pound to seven pound range, in both Ca. and Hawaii. My favorites in Ca. are Sheepshead, Pargo, and Halibut. In Hawaii, Menpachi, Aweoweo, small Parrotfish. Kumu, and Weki. Always important to make head or spine shots, on the larger fish.
I would love to see a thread on how to build a sling, including your take on a spear. I don’t dive anymore, but my 30yr old son does and it would make a great present. He is third generation surfer/waterman and he takes after my dad more than me. My dad passed a couple of years back, but he passed on his waterman experiences to my son. My dad surfed and dove up and down the coast before he went in the Navy in 1942 and used a sling. As a child of the 60’s, I wanted the newest/latest so never used his and it has been lost to time. My best shot was a 28 lb. halibut off the LB breakwater and my sons best has been a 40+ lb white sea bass off the north end of Catalina. Would love to build a sling!!!
The ones I make are made with 5/8th inch OD, 60/61 T-6 aluminum tubing, with a .065 inch wall thickness. Made one for a friend that speared a 40 pound Halibut off Pt. Loma, here in San Diego. I preferred a spear with a 7 foot tube, and a 12 inch steel shaft, for a total length of 8 feet. Buzzy Trent preferred a 6 foot tube, with a 12 inch steel shaft tip. The early spears were made with 1/2 inch OD tube. I later went to 5/8th inch OD tubes, for greater stiffness, and a larger captive airspace, for better neutral buoyancy. The devil is in the details, on how you put it all together.
I’d love a tutorial, too. Mike
Yeah you’ve got something going here Bill. Run with it. SD repairmans Fish Fry would be a good time and spot.
great thread, brings back memories…would have starved on lower Baja trips without my sling…once had a half filled trailing catch bag ripped apart by a smaller hammerhead…from than on banged them one at a time, flung them on the beach, and then went back on the hunt…
A piece of ‘‘water wisdom’’ passed on to me by Buzzy Trent, was to use a plastic milk jug, or Purex jug, with a bag attached, on a length of weighted line, to keep the speared fish removed from your body. That, from the first time he invited me to go diving with him in the early '60’s. To this day, if I go diving, I use a milk jug stringer on a twenty foot line. Even in California waters. I’ve had ‘‘shark encounters’’ in both Ca. and Hawaii.