Hawaii Skin Diver The Breath of Freedivers

New thread for divers that want to participat and enjoy a fun & competitive HSD Toau/Taape Challenge!

Will there be heckling...Yes that is part of the competition.
Will there be betting....No only cheering or razzing who will win or loose (I do like the sig line idea)
Will there be inter island challenge? I don't know... sounds fun.

I'll open this thread up to the competitors to post here on their opinion on the rules and we will discuss this as we hear what divers want to do.

You no want to participate, cheer, heckle or post good ideas for this fun challenge then keep your trap shut.

Enough said......Now post up opinions on rules for this event.

I think that it should be an open category to three-prongs and guns. Personal preference by the diver to use the weapon that they can clear out the most invasives with. Also, I would like to suggest make it a "most pieces" competition so that the diver's aren't selective and only shoot the big ones, but all of them. If that change is made though, I would suggest still keeping a "biggest" toau/taape category as a honorable mention or something.

Good input.

I like the idea of most pieces and having another category for biggest and smallest.

Don't agree with the open weapon category just yet but I understand the spirit of it and would go with what the majority of the divers want to do.

I get it Toau/Ta'ape challenge, but can this more specific to Record fish? This will allow guys to use either gun or 3prongs. If using 3prong I suggest nothing over 9' with an exception for roikiller with his 10' spear. What, for this challenge is a reasonable size gun? I've seen pictures of guys using 120 & 130 cm guns on roi toau and uhu's, thats a bit too much.

Good point. And I would bet most divers that own a blue water gun have a small reef gun in their quiver.

I think that it depends on whether people want to dive relatively conservatively (record) or if they want to go all out (most pieces). Like I said, I would go with most pieces with a honorary mention/second category for the biggest and so that way you can still hit your record fish while you're trying to take them all out.

no inter island stuff...We all in this invasive predicament together no matter what island.....and for these snappers...they are challenging enuff as it is...so IMO, no matter the weapon, just gotta land them the best way you can...main point is to kill them...diz not one competition...its a challenge...so keep things loose so its more fun.....only "big ones" that count is the one that will win Roikillers contest....other than that, it should be just most pieces....cause pieces is what counts in the end......

maybe though we should track how many dives we do vs. how much snappers we get?

If people would agree to send me the info, I can try and keep a running tally on amount of pieces being brought in and an estimated catch weight.

I'm in for 3prong invasives record category. I'd hate to take the young bucks Roi record but it's gotta be done. I'll be using a 7' kawabunga. Fins are you going guns or prongs? I dare you to go prongs.

i'll try to go 3prong.

as darrell said, it's about pieces. i know that one beach in kauai had like 100s of toaus 5-7 inches in 2ft water. just get rid of them.

Aight.. everything is cool me and K1 are straight via PM.

I wanna do this and have fun. The trash talking, as long as isnt too personal in my opinion is cool. Just gotta be respectful to one another and realize this isn't about WHO is best @ 3prong/gun/toothpick/bandwhip. I'm a newb, i wanna learn from this.. i'm sure others feel the same way.

The original challenge @ hand was RK throwing up money for the record size invasive by year end. we kinda got a side challenge going on.

I honestly think weapon used should be like what Koriko said, personal preference. The removal of invasives such as Roi should be conducted no matter what weapon you got. People that dive with me know that when I see a roi, i'll dive bomb him for an hour till i get him. same with To'au and Taape. I dont own anything bigger than a 100 but if i got a 120 in my hands and a to'au comes into view I'm gonna shoot em, not wait and switch to a smaller gun or 3prong because of competition. Once again, its about removal of invasive #'s for the reef, not competition. The competition is second and just to get our hearts pumping and motivated and have a little fun. Look, RK is even motivated to get back in the water!

That being said I'm gonna start bringing my 3prong out again. Got a new rubber for it last night and I wanna get better at it.

How are the partners/teams gonna be figured out?

Ahem....don't get your hopes up....he's just "motivated"....next thing you know he'll be posting his painting that Kimi made for him and asking us if it counts

I think Kikkomon, Koriko and Jrs got it right...this not really a competition...we already get plenty of those....this is a CHALLENGE....part of this is to challenge yourselves first, to land these pesky little snappers..and whoever comes out on top will win admiration...mostly cause he get the most fried fish to eat. ....

Taapes and Toaus are not rubbish, they are dinner...good to eat...so....once in a while in this whole thing we should post pics of the dishes we make with what we shoot....try be creative...because the idea behind all this is to raise awareness....so if somebody can make some kind of awesome looking dish....it may encourage others to shoot more taape and toau for food.

As far as partners...you must have one or don't bother posting. Just keep track of what you shoot as an individual..since most of us dive with different partners all the time. what you guys think?

i don't think partners should be an issue. i mean, dive with your normal partner. but just tally your own catch specifically. shouldn't impose the challenge on your partner if he/she no like or gotta catch something else for dinner. you know what i mean?

i still get left over money from last year's

since fins was the guy to start the thread, can make him organizer?!

just pm him or something and he can add your name to the first thread msg, then tally up the number of toau/taape (we doing roi too?) and then fins can tally based on the number of fish in the pic. that way can get some pics on the board.

no retroactive postings. just from today onward.

just a thought so long as fins is amenable to the idea of being score keeper.

Koriko volunteered to be score keeper.

when all this is settled, Koriko should start a new thread for the scoring...IMO

what kind time line we looking at??