Acknowledgments
Thank you to all the divers who contributed to individual chapters. Told with candor, not all stories glorified you; some reveal your mistakes and misjudgments. I am confident that your honesty will help aspiring bluewater hunters develop their skills more rapidly, and hopefully save them from injury or death.
One of the most stimulating and gratifying things about writing this book was the unselfish and enthusiastic help I received from respected freediving experts. Hearing about the project, professionals and amateurs generously contributed their stories, pictures and editing skills. Thank you to those of you whose assistance spanned two or more chapters: Howard Benedict, Fred Biller, Tom Blandford, Tommy Botha, Bill Boyce, Carl Butler, Cuan Cronje, Darrell Hattingh, Skip Hellen, Terry Lentz, Gerald Lim, Milton Love, Jim Mabry, Ron Merker, Ian McGonagle, Peter McGonagle, Tom Millington, Greg Pickering, Jack Prodonavich, Wally Potts, Dave Reid, René Rojas, Rick Rosenthal, Andy Ruddock, Linda Schneppershoff-McWhorter, Al Schneppershoff Jr., Terry Schuller, Dave Sipperly, Adam Smith, Mark Steele, Robert Torelli and James D. Watt.
My special thanks:
To women bluewater hunters, your accomplishments speak for themselves as the following pages reveal. In addition, as organizers and record-keepers, women like Jessica Jones of South Africa and Carol Rose of the United States have given decades of unselfish service to their respective country’ s spearfishing communities. Readers, please note: for simplicity, I use the masculine gender throughout this book. Where you see“ he,” please read he / she, and where you find“ spearfishermen” read spearfishermen and spearfisherwomen.
To Milton Love, Ph. D., author of Probably More Than You Want to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast, for his assistance in developing the natural history of many of the bluewater species profiled.
To bluewater hunter, marine journalist, and artist Darrell Hattingh. His beautiful line drawings illustrate most of the bluewater species, sharks
4 and the flasher. Darrell was instrumental in developing and coordinating information from his South African countrymen. His work is available through BlueWater Freedivers.
To Australian Rob Torelli, who assisted me with personal introductions to the finest bluewater hunters in his country. Many in the freediving world appreciate his ground-breaking work with the Australian Spearfishing and Freediving News.
To bluewater hunter and Long Beach Neptune Wes Morrissey, for his assistance in providing most of the black and white photographs used to illustrate the sections on gear and photography.
To the medical professionals who reviewed my sections on shallow-water blackout: tuna hunter and physician, Andreas Agathos; Frank Farm, director of the Hyperbaric Treatment Center, University of Hawaii School of Medicine; William Hurford, M. D.; and Tom Millington, M. D.
To the major color photograph contributors; Howard Benedict, William Boyce, Bob Caruso, Greg Pickering, Rick Rosenthal, Robert Torelli and James D. Watt.
To the three major Southern California spearfishing clubs whose members have given support and valuable contributions: my own club, the Long Beach Neptunes; our sister club, the Los Angeles Fathomiers; and the grand members of the San Diego Bottom Scratchers.
To the record-keepers of the major English-speaking bluewater hunting countries: Mel Brown of the Australian Underwater Federation; Jessica Jones of the South African Spearfishing Federation; Carol Rose and Dan Mosier of the Underwater Society of America.
To Harry Davis for his friendship, his bluewater hunting experience and his scientific approach.
For this 2017 edition, special thanks to the beautiful artistry of Amadeo Bachar whose images adorn each fish chapter. To Bill McIntyre who proofed this edition for typos and currency.