b'two-piece, specialised suits are extra Feature The use of berley to draw inflexible and warm, making them ideal snapper is key over wintertimefor spearfishing. I dive in a 5mm suit; and use cover to stalk closer.however, if you are prone to feeling the cold, a 7mm or even a 9mm suit in some locations are great options.A hood, gloves and socks are a must. Almost all spearfishing suits these days come with hoods and for good reason. Warmth escapes from your head and toes first so its important to cover these up the best you can. If your wetsuit does not have a hood, I would highly recommend getting one. They will keep you a lot warmer and extend your dives.With more rubber comes more lead, so a weight vest combined with a weight belt is a good way to spread the weight and prevent back problems.Our next winter dilemma is the weather. As we all know, weather is unpredictable at the best of times. In winter, however, this is even more true and diving conditions can go from incredible to terrible in just a day. Thanks to the cold water, the As mentioned earlier, there is anCramps are a common occurrencealgae that creates our warm green increased risk with spearfishing inin winter too as our muscles areseas in summer are all but gone, winter. Hypothermia is when themore tense. When we begin toleaving crisp clear underwater body temperature drops belowshiver, our muscle activity increasesconditions for much of the season. what is required for our metabolismproducing heat, but unfortunatelyBut that is only until the rain starts to function normallywhich on adue to our restricted blood vessels,and the onshore winds blow. If normal day is around 37 degrees.our circulation is already reduced sothis happens, anywhere near a Heat is lost from our core as soonthis extra stress added to our alreadyriver, harbour, or estuary will have as we submerge ourselves in waterfatigued muscles leads to painful andhorrendous diving for anywhere up to and as we begin to cool, it becomesat times dangerous cramps. a week. Rivers can take a long time to increasingly difficult to get back toThe effects of diving in cold waterdrain and all the runoff, mud silt and our baseline temperature. Whencan be felt almost immediately. Asdebris will then need time to settle.this occurs, we begin to shiverwe begin to chill, our fingers and toes and our breathing becomes quickbecome numb and our movementsSMALLER GUNand shallow, which is not ideal forsluggish, decision making can be slow,If you are knowledgeable enough freediving. Shivering is part of ourand some tasks may not be able toto find a few spots that are slightly bodys way of warming us up as itbe completed. sheltered, then youre in luck. In creates eighteen times as much heatwinter, I dont bother diving with a as normal activity. This rapid shakingQUALITY GEAR gun bigger than 110cm. I am targeting and contracting of the muscles areTo combat all this, you need qualitysnapper, and the visibility doesnt no use to free divers, however, andequipment. Of most importance isusually warrant a bigger gun. If I am instead just uses up vital oxygena good spearfishing wetsuit. Goneexpecting the viz to be bad and am supplies, depletes our bottomare the days of woolly jumpers andheading out for a few snapper, I take times and makes us fatigued at athick uncomfortable scuba suits.out a 90cm-1m gun for close range faster rate. Made of open cell neoprene, thesespearing, which can be a lot of fun.44FISHING IN GODZONE MAGAZINE'