The Last Day of Summer

Yesterday, Wednesday the 25th, was the last day of summer vacation for us UCSB kids so we knew we had to do something AWESOME. We turned down hiking, and going everywhere else, so the day was turning out to be a day full of nothing until frank mentioned he wanted to go swimming at the RecCen. But then I told him it was super packed cause everyone just got back, and there were freshmen for days all up in it, but then i mentioned lets just go swimming in the ocean. AND WE WERE DOWN. Next up was deciding where. Sands? no. How about *******?? YESSSS! Should we bring the spears?? WHY NOT?!?! And then we were off. It was late in the day, so we weren't expecting much, but we just wanted to get WET, and enjoy the last day of summer. As we were walking to the spot, I was looking at the water to get a gauge on how clear it may be and I had this feeling it was gonna be amazing.

Ben and Alina had to run back home to grab some gear so Frank and I just started the mission alone. We geared up and started the backwards walk. We left the GoPro with our gear just because we didn't want to carry it. (MISTAKE). Before we even put our masks on, we look down at the water and we can see our feet from chest high surf, then we put them on and dunk our heads.... BOOM. Poseidon was smiling down on the Warriors of the Sea because the vis was absolutely amazing. It was the best I had ever seen away from the islands. It was honestly like diving in the tropics. Frank and I immediately started shouting and celebrating through our snorkels! In about 10 feet of water I already started seeing calico bass! Frank dove with his pole spear and sleighed his first one!

We swam out a little deeper, and started cruising around the kelp. I was looking for flats and big calico, but I kept missing high with my shots... idk why. Started searching in the rocks for cabs and lings but instead of those I just see bugs for days! they were just chillin like nothing was going on! Two more days Two more days...

We go a bit further to a depth around 40 ft or so (can still see the bottom) to look for bigger fish. I pop up out of the water, and I hear Ben shouting my name. "Doug! I need the Stringer!" I look over, and he's holding this massive Megalodon of a lingcod above his head. YEAHHH!! We string up the blue beauty and then he tells me where they're at. A couple dives later I see this beautifully patterned brown ling chillin right under me, I chase her for a sec and then BOOM! HEADSHOT! It was great. But then, as I was stringing her up, I managed to drop my spear tip and shaft... Soo if anyone finds a tip.. pm me. =] I did get the shaft back.

WOTS OUT

 Frizzle Frank

 Big Ben

 Douggie B

WOTS CREW

First Post

I've been meaning to document my adventures through the Kingdom of the Fish for sometime now, but now I finally have a bit of time to do it. I got into the whole diving and spearfishing thing at the beginning of the summer after consistent badgering from my roommate Ben, but I immediately fell in love after i speared my first fish. 

Living in Santa Barbara is amazing. I get to dive everyday I want and then go to school later if I have some time. Just kidding, but seriously.. 

The Story of my first fish isn't very exciting at all, but it is what began the journey of the Warriors of the Sea. I had gone diving a few times but never fished or really got into it, but then early this summer I went with my best bud Ben and it changed my life. I picked up a 4 ft JBL pole spear with a paralyzer tip for 30 bucks from a buddy who was moving back to New Mexico and swam out to a nice kelpy area north of Santa Barbara. I was using an old U.S. Divers snorkel, mask and fin set that my mom bought me a costco a while back, but i didn't care because I could breathe and swim. The vis was about 15ft, so it was nice for my first dive. I dove down a few times and realized I couldn't hold my breath nearly as long as expected, but took some looks anyways. After about a half hour I saw my first rock fish, it looked big enough, so I pulled the band back, pointed, and let go. My spear went straight through the body and I heard a sound I can never forget. I was stoked! I swam back up and yelled through my snorkel and almost let the fish wiggle off. But i stabbed it in the head and bagged it, and I was on my way to Glory!!!!

My first two:

YEEEEEE!!!!!