Based around Ulladulla in 2009, the event is run over two days to decide the best spearfishermen for NSW. The format is a shore dive, meaning all fishing is done by leaving the shore and swimming to find fish – no boats allowed! Its a very challenging event, and removes boats and GPS from the equation. Similar to the National Titles, its normal to swim over 4 kilometres each day.
Saturday was held at Berara, close to Sussex Inlet. The day started well, and I had a few good fish in the first half of the allowed time, but I spent the last half looking for fish and only getting two more. I didn't leave much time to get back, and swam very hard pulling all my fish to the shore and scurrying up the beach and path to reach the finish.
My result for Saturday was 68.8% of the best score of the day, Garth Byron on 579 points.
Sunday stayed close, and was held at the Ulladulla boat ramp. I and a few other guys decided to run north over the headland, avoiding some of the swim from the boat ramp out to the main fishing grounds. My fish shot was into a cave to spear a Ling, but the spear bent and jammed! Thankfully the bend wasn't too severe and did not break. I think that managed to get all my bad luck out of the way early, and I speared my first ever Zebra Fish soon after that.
Sunday's result was 61.4%, with an Intermediate age group diver with the best score, Jack Lavender on 820 points.
That put me in 14th place overall, on 130.2%.
Even though I was diving well after South Africa, I was not feeling well from lack of sleep. There were at least a few species each day that I should have had in my catch. Another factor that certainly made things more difficult is having not previously dived in the area, let alone knowing any "spots" for the competition areas. At least in South Africa we had a chance to scout the area, and Graham had a few spots for us to target. There's always next year.
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