First Coast Freedivers Spearfishing Club

[SUPspearo]

Hey guys,
I have recently moved back to my hometown Jacksonville, Fl where the spearo community is small to nonexistent. I would like to change that and give us a place to meet(between Jax and Auggie)and discuss spearfishing/freediving and all the aspects that come with these sports. So I came up with idea to start First Coast Freedivers spearfishing club(I am aware that this idea has been tried and I have attempted to reach out to Ryan who had the same idea, if anyone knows more on that please share I don't wish to step on any toes). If you're in the area and this sounds like something you would be interested in then join the Facebook page and lets get this thing rolling. Feel free to message me with any questions, pointers, or anything in general.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/firstcoastfreedivers/

Happy hunting!

Brandon Ingalls

[Wrighton]

As you probably have seen, Jax is a tough place to freedive and consequently it is a tough place to start a Freedive spearfishing club. Even scuba spearing clubs around here have failed as soon as the original organizer(s) time and energy wore thin.

However, times change-even if conditions around here for freediving won't. As Troutdiggler's Lionfish tourney has shown, there are plenty of spearos in town. Combine that with the popularity of Freediving classes and its promised improvement in hunting depths, and who knows? Maybe more folks around here will be receptive to the idea of a freedive spearfish club. If you can enlist some guys willing to share the work, you can get it going.

UNF has a small Spearfishing club, so those guys might be interested in joining an active local club.

Finally, something else know already is that November is a tough time to generate interest, but it is a good time to lay groundwork, so keep pushing.


Good luck.

[SUPspearo]

Originally Posted by Wrighton

As you probably have seen, Jax is a tough place to freedive and consequently it is a tough place to start a Freedive spearfishing club. Even scuba spearing clubs around here have failed as soon as the original organizer(s) time and energy wore thin.

However, times change-even if conditions around here for freediving won't. As Troutdiggler's Lionfish tourney has shown, there are plenty of spearos in town. Combine that with the popularity of Freediving classes and its promised improvement in hunting depths, and who knows? Maybe more folks around here will be receptive to the idea of a freedive spearfish club. If you can enlist some guys willing to share the work, you can get it going.

UNF has a small Spearfishing club, so those guys might be interested in joining an active local club.

Finally, something else know already is that November is a tough time to generate interest, but it is a good time to lay groundwork, so keep pushing.


Good luck.

Hey man thank you for the response and information! I am well aware of the perception of freediving being near impossible here and I would love to change that. I have had 30+ft of vis on some shallower reefs -60ft. I have plenty of friends in south Florida who regularly hunt deeper, and with practice theres no reason we cannot do the same.
I will contact the UNF club as well thanks for that info I was not aware. If you're interested in joining please don't hesitate to join the FB group if you have one(if I start seeing that fb is not a good platform I will work on finding another), as I will try to keep everyone updated on the current status through there. I am friends with a fii freediving instructor who lives in Tallahassee and we're working on having him teaching on the first coast frequently(we already have a class happening in December. Were just trying to find like minded people who want to meet share experiences, plan trips, and learn more about the sport. If we can't have our first meeting in December we will shoot for January.

Thanks,

Brandon Ingalls

[qzone83]

I'd be interested, but most around here aren't too interested due to the depth and lack of vis. Keep us posted

[ameliahunter]

I know free divers and scuba spearos are a different breed but a club that welcomes both might bring in more people. I am not sure you will get enough active members for free diving to make a club. I think having a club that mirrors some fishing clubs that have monthly fish contests and cook outs might be interesting.

[riplipper]

Originally Posted by ameliahunter

I know free divers and scuba spearos are a different breed but a club that welcomes both might bring in more people. I am not sure you will get enough active members for free diving to make a club. I think having a club that mirrors some fishing clubs that have monthly fish contests and cook outs might be interesting.

ditto, we had a club start a while back...7-8 years ago but seemed to stall out. Great meetings though..beer and bar-b-q