Musandam: no pictures

So I finally go down to musandam, but unfortunately didnt get any pictures, mishu went back to qatar, and his pics are down on deeperblue.

Go there before you die... Its that beautiful.

Turtles, coral of every type. And thats a bad day.

Unfortunately now there is red tide... "the sea is bleeding" or so the rough translation from arabic is... Imagine two bodies of water, one green, one a dark red right in front of you.

Under the green part imagine corals, and marine life like in all those deep sea films. But under the green part imagine pitch black, something straight out of our holy books.... and a frigid cold.

quite scary. But dont let that deter you.

nonetheless, eels, blacktip reefsharks, mahi mahi, queenfish, jash of all kinds, baby rainbow runner, kingfish, and a fish called ?craga? in arabic... the few linked pictures do no justice

The real pictures are in my memories.

Spearfishing Legality

So, being an avid spearfisher, you have to wonder about the legality of things sometimes. Especially when a police boat starts getting a bit nosy... Which happens alot in the UAE.

So is it legal?

Contrary to popular perception, the answer lies not in the UAE maritime law handbook, but rather since the law is based on "qararat" or instances, the place to enquire would be the ports authority of the respective state you plan on spearfishing.

These are not my words, but rather those of a lawyer I have asked to explain to me the situation here.

In Dubai, it is generally allowed offshore, in Abu Dhabi it is not (at all), in fuijarah, the fishermen are up in arms against the thought (apparently).

Thats basically a rundown, more information as I get caught :-)

Sealine, Qatar 22-7-2008

Ok, while the greater majority of qatar's population was slaving away behind their desks, doing the 9-6 daily grind that is work, Bobby, two others, and myself were out slaying fish. i say slaying because there is no other way to describe it.
our day started at 6:30am, where we met up in what was once nothing but a small pearl-diving village that has grown to city of sorts. we met at 6:30 infront of the local Hardee's (yummy ) and i put my gear in his Suburban, as we needed to do a little off-roading to get to our spot.

at around 8:00 we were parking on a beach, and by 8:15 the four of us were in the water.
the first thing that hit me was a wave of HOT water. its was 33celcius, and except for the occasional cold current, it stayed that way.
the viz was about 30m. at certain points i could see the fish on the bottom perfectly from the surface, a good 10meters above.
the swim out was not very pleasant, and by the second reef, my ankles were already skinned. but the fish, oh my god the fish had no fear, and their size was way beyond my expectations as im used to having to shoot small half kg specimens like the ones that you commonly encounter in Dubai.

but i guess that being forced to shoot small fish from a shore dive makes you aim better, and im happy to say that i missed only twice, with one of those misses being a good shot that didnt have the required penetration because i was 30cm too far away.

overall, we swam about 8 kilometers, and my legs still ache, but i would do it again, busted ankles and everything

Pics of the new baby

and i shall name thee psycho...

the flip flop is there for size reference. im a size 42...

Addition to the Family

Ok. its interesting how i always start off with "ok"
anyways..
i bought a new speargun. Ali, doesnt approve. in typical ali fashion, when he tries something new, and because its new to him, and he isnt used to it, there is always "something wrong", according to him.

now me, i dont care if there is something wrong. on the contrary, something wrong gives me something to do with my spare time, such as tinker with the gun, which i shall indeed do.

so, as i was saying, i bought a new gun. Its a FreeDivers 130cm with integrated rail (yupeee). it was advertised as coming with 20mm bands, but instead it came with 16mm. no problem, because at 750dhs i can buy the gun, and extra bands, and perharps a spare shaft, and still pay less than 50% of an Omer gun of the similar size and specifications.

so i will be making modifications tomorow, at which point i will post pictures as well.
stay tuned

The Timeout article

I seriously wish there were more people into this stuff its kinda odd diving without mishu now (I heart u mishuuu) BUT other than people the sites have been getting iffy. Read this weeks timeout magazine and theres an article on how Dubai's projects have been good for the fish. The only reliable negative comment in there was about the sailfish disappearing, a comment I have heard from more experienced fishermen, and can vouch for: the last sailfish I saw brought in was in 2004 by some private British fishermen at Mina Siyahi. Note that 2004 was the year before the palm was started, as noted in the article. Kind of sad really. I dived the palm this week, the visibility is mostly bad, but the odd thing is that there IS fish mostly concentrated by the breakwater. So some good is being done, but at what cost? Ive seen seabream, Hammour, and small jacks, in a spot were trawling for BIG (open water) fish used to be common place. Im not an expert by any means, but Ive been out at sea on and off since I was a child, and Im 20 now, and I can definitely vouch for that anonymous fisherman.

Team Weirdo

Ok. so my dive partner calls me today, like 5 minutes ago, and calls me an asshole and all that and since there was bad signal, i didnt know if he meant it in a good way or a bad way. so anyways it turns out that he likes my blog idea. so as soon as i figure out how, i will have him co-author the blog, as long as he promises not to go into complicating details, which he has a knack for.

Weirdo's Beardo's Spearfishing Extravaganza volume 1

Here you have it

The Weirdo's

and there you have them

Recent activity

blah blah blah

we the skin divers

Recent shenanigans

A fresh start

Ok. New blog. same old story. kill fish, get the girl, save the world. :D