Gear Maintenance

Introduction

Spearfishing gear is subject to salt, sand and other elements of nature, proper maintenance is needed if you want to keep it functioning optimally for a long time. One of the main two culprits to watch out for is salt and direct sunlight, it will kill some of your gear in a matter of weeks or months if you do not remove all traces of salt from your gear and keep it out of direct sunlight. 

The most important thing to do after after each time you use is to rinse your gear thoroughly with fresh water. This can be done with a garden hose, in the shower (using a removable shower head) or in the bathtub. If I am going out again next day I usually just rinse it real well with the hose/shower head and let it dry (out of the sunlight). If I will not use it for a while, I do as described above and then I fill the bathtub with lots of fresh water and put in all items that sink and let them soak well for several hours (changing the water at least once). It is important to make sure the gear is well dried before long storage.

I will go through the list of gear most spearfishermen have and share what I do to keep it in a good shape.

Speargun

The speargun is the most complex gear you own, it is also the most important item (you can get away with not having anything else if the need be). Spearguns can oxidize due to salt and air (or even simply the contact of some of the metals that they are made of (e.g. aluminium + stainless steel), the mechanisms can lock up due to oxidization or sand, wooden spearguns can warp, bands/slings can degrade, etc. As mentioned in the introduction the most important thing to do after a hunting session is done is to rinse it well. Special care must be given to the mechanisms (trigger, line release, reel), I try to inject as mush water inside it via the multiple openings as I can. If you put it in the bathtub make sure the spear is on the speargun so it sinks and I let it soak well for several hours. I also make sure I rinse in between where the slings are in contact with anything to remove anything that could help to degrade them during storage. Also important is to make sure it is thoroughly dried to reduce any oxidization. It is also a good idea to take the spears out of the mechanism for longer term storage. Once in a while (I do this every two or three years) you can clean/oil the trigger and line release mechanisms. If you are not comfortable taking apart your speargun then just inject some WD-40 (not too much!) inside the mechanism using the "straw"). Be very careful not to get any on the bands/slings as it eats/degrades rubber (think of what you learned in sex-ed about Vaseline and condoms, same issue!).

Slings/Bands

I have pretty much summed it up on these in the post above (speargun), but I would also add that sunlight is very bad for rubber. It is recommended to store them in a cool dry place out of light. Some people use silicon grease to keep them supple and others go as fare as putting them in a zip-lock bag (make sure there is not humidity inside) and store them in the refrigerator. Some say that the ideal temperature is between 10°C and 25°C and should be stable. Ozone is also bad for the rubber so watch out for this, ozone more prevalent in hot & sunny periods and in smog.

Shaft/Spear/Points

Cheap shafts & tips are made with "standard" stainless steel. This is great for oxidization but not so good for hardness (they deform/warp easily). The good ones are made of a different type of stainless steel, often 17-4PH hardened stainless steel (or something similar). This type of steel resembles SAE 304 in terms of corrosion resistance, which means it is not as "rust proof " as the cheaper stuff. A thin layer of oxidization can form on it but it should not corrode like non-stainless steal. To keep it rust free I do the following:

1. Rinse it well with fresh water
2. Dry it well
3. Put some WD-40 on a rag or paper towel and rub it well against the metal

The idea with step 4 is to deposit a thin layer of WD-40 on the metal to protect it. WD-40 also removes any oxidization that could have already started. When I get ready to use it I rub the metal with a clean rag or paper towel to remove it. As mentioned in the speargun section of this post I recommend storing the shaft off the speargun so any oxidization from either does not contaminate the other.

Reel

If you have a reel make sure you rinse it well. I like to let it soak in the tub so the salt leaves the mechanism and the line. I also inject water where there are small spaces. Let it dry thoroughly, this can take a while with braided line.

Knife

The knife, if not made from Titanium, can rust also. Some knives have a layer of Teflon on most of the blade to prevent oxidization but in some places such as the cutting edge or the region where the blade goes in the handle, rust can form. As with all the gear rinse and dry well, but also use some silicon grease to protect the blade when you are not using it.

Mask

The mask sounds like a no-maintenance item and it mostly is, you can just rinse it well. I like to clean the inside with some toothpaste as mentioned in my "Mask fogging up?" post. I usually let the toothpaste dry so it protects the inside from any oils and when I want to use it I just let it soak in the water a bit and shake the toothpaste out.

Neoprene (wetsuit, socks, gloves, etc)

The wetsuit requires special care too. I rinse it very well and let it dry out of sunlight. UV light degrades rubbers and Neoprene is essentially rubber with nitrogen bubbles in it. It is important to dry it inside and out; if you do not mold could settle in and this is very hard to remove (and it stinks!). I have read that you can wash a wetsuit if it starts to smell (mine never have). Some people just use a little laundry detergent (the kind you use to hand wash wool/silk) mixed with water in a tub. Just rub the neoprene well, let it soak some, rinse well and dry. I have even read some people sick it in the washing machine on the delicate cycle (the one for wool) and let it run (using the same type of laundry detergent). I am not sure I would try, I guess it depends on if the first method failed, but if you do try make sure the temperature and the spin is low (it should be if you have a dedicated wool cycle). Never, I repeat, never use the drying machine! To store a wetsuit is is best to lay it out flat in a cool dry place out of light. You could also try one of those wetsuit hangers but since apnea wetsuits are more elastic than scuba wesuits you could get some deformation from the pull of gravity. If you have an open-cell wetsuit, try to keep the rubber from touching itself to prevent it from sticking. You could for example stuff it with cloth.

The rest of the gear

The rest of the gear is essentially minimal maintenance, just rinse & dry well and store in a dry dark place.

Conclusion

If you rinse your gear well after every use and store it correctly it should last you much longer than if you do not. As with everything is is a question of inverting time to care about your investment but sometimes circumstances make it harder to do it well. In this case just stick to the minimal maintenance which is: rinse & dry well and keep out of sunlight.

As with all my posts, if you have questions or comments please don't hesitate to write below in the comments section!

Spearfishing safety

Introduction

In this post I will speak of spearfishing safety. I will mention safety guidelines towards others and for yourself.

Safety Issues

First and foremost, you should never spearfish alone, you need to find a dive buddy with whom you feel safe, both of you need to know what to do in the event of a problem. The types of problems you can encounter are (in no particular order, there are others):

• Shallow Water Blackout (SWB): this is were your body no longer has enough oxygen, you blackout usually swimming back up to the surface or even after you have reached the surface and breathed fresh air. This is IMO the most dangerous thing that can happen because it gives no warning at all, your body doesn't react to not having enough oxygen but instead reacts to having too much carbon dioxide (this is what triggers the urge to breath) and you never realize you don' t have enough.
• Getting tangled in some sort of net, line, etc: this is another way to drown, it can easily be avoided though if you carry a knife or scissors.
• Getting stuck in an underwater cave: this can be avoided also by simply not going into caves, if a big fish swam inside then too bad, you weren't fast enough and it won, get over it.
• Strong underwater current: this is harder to avoid since you cannot see it before swimming into it. If you get caught in one try to swim up quickly and beware of rocks.
• Sharks: these are a problem in certain parts of the world (mostly tropical and sub-tropical).
• Getting bashed on rocks: this can usually be avoided by not going in rough water, it is a bit trickier when you get swept up by a strong current.
• Boats: in most places you have the obligation to have a buoy with a dive flag, this warns boats you are in the water, the boats should stay more than 50m from a buoy. This is the nice and dandy theory, unfortunately some boat captains either don't see the buoy or don't care. If you encounter those then if you can take a picture of their identification number and report them to the authorities. I am not saying this to be mean, but this is dangerous for you and they will remember to look (and respect the distance) when confronted by the authorities, I know, it sounds lame, but this is your and other spearfishermens' lives in danger and as a captain they are required to respect this, just like a car driver has to look out for motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians.
• Your dive buddy: this may surprise you (or not), but many accidents involve your buddy shooting you. As a general rule you should never point your speargun towards a human being, you should always have the safety one until the last possible moment (before you shoot, this is easier with some spearguns than others, see my speargun post's section on different speargun brands' safety mechanisms) and you should never have a loaded gun outside of the water (this is often by law). It is also recommended that you hunt with one gun and take turns, when one is below the other observes him/her. This has the added safety that you rest and get your oxygen levels up again (to help prevent SWB) and you can react if your buddy gets in trouble. Some people hunt one in from of the other with a big distance in between each other, others hunt in parallel also with lots of distance. When the water is murky it becomes more difficult. You should use the same safety rules as you would when using a firearm.
• Hypothermia: this is a problem mostly in cold waters and when you don't wear the correct wetsuit. In reality it can happen even in tropical waters if you stay long enough, the water is colder than your body temperature and has higher thermal conductivity than air so it will literally suck the heat out of you. Most of the time you can be safe by not going in in cold water without the proper equipment and by not staying longer than you should.
• Cramps: this can be a problem if you are under water. There is no sure way to prevent this or know it is coming, you can only eat potassium and magnesium regularly to help guard from it but that is all. I read of a person who had this happen to his legs and he used his DSMB to get back to the surface.

Safety equipment & guidelines

There are some guidelines and equipment you can have to make spearfishing safer (by problem):

General

• Quick release weight belt: this is a good idea to have, most weight belts are like this. It means that if you have an issue and you have to swim up as fast as possible, you can quickly drop your weight belt. For this reason I would not up anything expensive on the weight belt, some people put their dive knife on it but they could hesitate to drop the belt because if that. YOUR LIFE COMES FIRST, your dead body has no use for a dive knife. Here are examples of a SCUBA type belt (left) and a spearfishing (Marseillaise) belt (right):
  

Shallow Water Blackout (SWB)

• Freedivers Recovery Vest (FRV): this is an inflatable life vest that is triggered by either going too deep, staying too long under or not confirming you are conscious after reaching the surface. It is a bit pricey but worth it, especially if you are a bad boy and dive alone. It will bring you back to the surface and flip you on your back, see here for more info, have a look at these pictures:
  
• Dive computer: a dive watch with depth alarms, dive time alarms and surface recovery alarms; these are different from SCUBA dive computers. Some SCUBA dive computers that are wrist watches have some of these functions, like the Suunto D4i. Other dive computers are specifically made for freediving, like the Aeris F10v2, Aeris F11, Beuchat Mundial 2, Mares Nemo Apneist, Sporasub SP1 Freediving, Sporasub SP2 Freediving and Cressi Edy II. The alarms allow you to understand where you are in regards to know your depth (how long it will take you to swim back up), time under (an idea of how much oxygen you have left), surface recovery time (how long you have to wait until your next dive to be fully oxygenated).

Sharks

• Using a buoy with a stringer: this keeps your catch away from you, the best is to have two buoys, one for the catch and one for yourself. If you have you catch in the water, they will go after it, this is why YOU SHOULD NEVER CARRY YOUR CATCH ON YOU. If you can, always keep your catch out of the water in places that have lots of sharks.
• Stay calm, if you are agitated and move in a distressed manner they will be attracted to you. They are curious animals so just because you see one doesn't mean they want to eat you; most of the time they scope you out and leave.
• I don't recommend trying to stab, shoot or spike the shark unless it is of last resort, sharks are curious animals and will swim close to you to check you out. If they come too close, you can prod them with the metal tip but not stab them, stabbing or shooting them will only make them mad. Usually the contact with something metallic will make them less curious.
• Having a metal spike attached to the gun's muzzle can help you detour them, some spearguns have this by default. This is useful because if the spear is not on the speargun and a shark shows up you have the spike to help keep the shark away. I would use a line setup that allows you to keep the gun once you have shot a fish, either with a reel (and lots of line) or a breakaway setup. A good example of a shark safe gun is the Speardiver Carbon Elite Speargun (no longer available):
  
  Shark spikes can cause other issues though, they are dangerous. For example if you shot a powerful fish and you are handling it via the shooting line and it darts off, the line will slide through your hands and the speargun could stab you in the back, legs or even head. A safer solution would be a retractable shark spike, see here for a discussion concerning this.
• You can have powerheads for last resort if you get a shark that does not get the point, these are essentially aluminium cylinder that fire on the point of your speargun and have a bullet at the end. The spear point acts like the firing pin and will detonate on impact with the shark. There are reusable types and one use types. The one use types are supposed to be less prone to misfiring since the bullet is fully encased/watertight (they are anyways a last resort safety feature, a bit like an airbag in a car). Reusable types allow you to use them several times as the name implies but you should use a new bullet each new hunting session to be sure your bullet will work when needed. Here is a good example of one-use powerheads (Speardiver Quick Slip-on Powerhead) with a convenient pouch (Speardiver Powerhead Belt Pouch):
   
  and also Neptonic's new newly designed reusable K.O. Powerhead with has a dual safety design: 
  

• Having a knife: don't get excited, this will almost never be of any use, sharks are too fast and you are safer further away from them, but push comes to shove...as a last resort.
• Boat/shore: yep, get out of the water but do not turn your back to the shark.

Boats

• Buoy, flag & floatline: this can be attached to yourself or to your speargun. If you attach it to yourself be careful about becoming tangled/attached to something. If you attach it to your speargun it helps you from losing it in case you shoot a big fish but you could become separated from the buoy in this case, both have pros and cons. either way the boats can see you are around and steer clear. See here for more info.

Tangled

• Knife or scissors: in case you get caught up in something you can cut your way out. See the info about the quick release weight belt above and look here for more info about knives.

Hypothermia

• Wetsuit: an adapted wetsuit will guard against this, you will still be limited on how long you can stay in the water depending on the quality of the suit, its fit, the thickness, the density of the neoprene, the type/cut, dry/semi-dry/wet, etc. Beware of overheating however! See here for more info on wetsuits.
• Boat/shore: get out of the water, if your wetsuit is lined you will lose more heat with the wind so either wear a wind breaker, get out of the wetsuit and into cloths or go inside.

Cramps

• Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB): aka CO2 inflatable safety sausage, this can be useful to go back to the surface in case you have a cramp or if you have to bring your buddy up fast. See here for more info. Here is an example:
  
• Freedivers Recovery Vest: (see Shallow Water Blackout above), it has a manual inflation latch:
  

I hope this information is helpful to someone, please correct me (add a comment) if you see something wrong and add comments or extra info.

Traveling with your gear

Introduction

Some spearos are lucky and live close to the ocean, for some however this is not the case so they have to travel with their gear to go spearfishing. Even the ones that live close to the water may want to travel to somewhere else from time to time so this article also applies to them. Traveling by car is not an issue as you have the leisure to pack your gear as you want, traveling by bus, train or plane is however a bit more tricky. I will mostly focus on air travel as this is the most restrictive; most of the info given is valid for other types of travel. On a side note you can also air mail your equipment, for this you should usually pack it like air travel, make sure it arrives before you do, make sure the destination knows it is for you and pay the often expensive rate. For some this may be the best and less stressful means of traveling but you could end up with your gear arriving late.

Before I start with air travel, here are some non plane friendly bags but that are useful for foot travel to remote sites:

• Beuchat Mundial Backpack: Main compartment with drain for fins, mask, etc. Secondary compartment is a full length cooler, quick-stow bungee on the outside for a towel or jacket, compression side straps for reducing the size, Guns can be attached to the designated external gun holders on both sides of the pack.
  
• Sporasub Zaino Dry Backpack: a large TPU dry backpack with padded back. It only has one compartment but it can hold lots of gear including full freediving fins. See my review for more information.
  
• Salvimar Drybackpack 60: a large PVC dry backpack with removable straps. It can also be carried like a buffle bag. The old version is not tall enough for freediving fins, the new version is supposed to be able to handle them. The issue is that they use the same name and model number for the old and new versions so be careful not to order one from an old stock.
  

Air travel has gotten more and more complicated, restrictive and expensive. You can't carry any sharp or pointy objects in the cabin, so you have to check your gear in. There are different ways to check in your gear:

• As oversized luggage
• As extra luggage if it is less or equal to 158 linear centimeters (l+w+d)
• As normal checked luggage (in your free allowance) if it is less or equal to 158 linear centimeters (l+w+d)
• As sports equipment. Some companies have sub categories by size others by equipment type, etc.

On top of that there are different types of luggage you can choose from: soft or hard. This is an important question since it will determine if it gets to your destination in one piece. Something else to take into consideration, the customs/border control. In some countries it is illegal to own a speargun, even if you are passing through (Singapore & Hong Kong for example). Other countries have dishonest employees which could steal your gear or parts of it. Lastly some countries such as the USA don't have international zones in their airports so their customs are very aggressive, over worked, etc (since they have to check a lot of luggage since they have no international zone). They may thus damage your gear when inspecting it, not pack it up correctly after inspecting it (thus is can get damaged in subsequent travel), "forget" to re-pack parts of your gear or not close the luggage correctly thus it could open up in subsequent travel. I have had some of these things happen to me when traveling back to the US and good luck trying to get your "forgotten to to be re-packed" gear back or the damaged gear reimbursed. To be fair this could happen at any customs in any country, but most countries have international zones in airports so they usually don't bother checking luggage in transit, unless they have very strict laws regarding weapons, drugs, etc, in which case they may check (as is the case in Singapore and Hong Kong). I will describe different types of luggage you can use later on.

Ways to check your gear in

Checking your gear in as oversized luggage

This is the simplest way to do it, it is also the most expensive. If money so no object than do this, no questions asked, you just pay. Most spearos will not do it this way though as it can easily cost $200 each way. This method though may allow you to have heavier luggage and less size restrictions.

Checking your gear in as extra luggage

This is almost as simple as the previous method but can cost almost the same but is usually less. For this though you have the same restrictions as your free checked in allowance, usually 23kg and it must be >= 158 linear centimeters. I will explain later on ways to find luggage of those dimensions.

Checking your gear in as normal checked luggage

If you travel light, this is the way to go, you can pack all your clothes and non lethal gear in your carry-on and check only one luggage in containing your gear. You have the same size and weight restrictions as above obviously. If you can fit it all in the above restrictions, then this is the cheapest way to travel.

Checking your gear in as sports equipment

This is the way most people travel, it is also the most complicated; each airline has its own rules. You may do (or have to do) this if you already have used your free allowance for checked in luggage limit or if your luggage is bigger than the allowed 158 linear centimeters. Some airlines are sports equipment friendly and allow you to check extra luggage in for free as long as it fits in your free allowance, for example most companies allow one 23kg checked in luggage so if you have sports equipment in another bag and the sum of those two is under or equal to 23kg you are fine, if you only have the sports equipment and it is under or equal to 23kg you are fine, etc. Some even allow you to pool your luggage allowance if you are several traveling, so if for example two people are traveling you get a total of 46kg to split as you wish. Most however are not so nice, they charge you extra regardless on if you have "left over" weight allowance. Those airlines usually have a list of prices per type of sports equipment and spearfishing isn't on the list. The closest is fishing, but often they list the allowed items in this category and spearguns are not in the list. This is fine in most cases, you stick it in luggage that can be used for fishing equipment and say it is fishing equipment (leaving out the terms "spear" and "gun"), which it is, no questions asked and off you go. Sometimes your gear does not fit in fishing luggage, this prompts you to try to camouflage your gear as another accepted type of sports equipment such as:

• Snow sports gear (Skis, Snowboard, etc)
• Water sports gear (Surfboard, Wakeboard, Kiteboard, etc)
• Golfing gear

What you choose depends on the price as not all sports equipment is equal in the eyes of airline companies, they charge different prices for different gear and it is not always logical in a weight/space occupied way. Also, if you have a snowboard case and you are traveling to a tropical region with no snowy mountains they may find that suspicious, some don't care though. Also, if you have "golf equipment" and you are dressed like a beach hobo you may make them suspicious too, so mind your appearance. You should also use special wording when checking in, for example don't say you have golf clubs, say you have a golf bag; if they ask if you have golf clubs keep saying this is your golf bag, this way if they later ask for it to be opened you don't have any explaining to do, you never said you had golf clubs, only a golf bag. These last three points are especially important for some airline companies as some companies ask to see the gear because you have it in a non conventional bag for the specified equipment type or because they have rules that state if you store anything else/extra in your sports gear bag you will be charged as extra non sports (normal or oversized) luggage which is quite expensive. I will describe different types of bags/luggage later on.

Luggage type

As mentioned in the introduction, you have different types of bags at your disposal. I will separate them by soft/hard and then by type.

Soft bags

These are easy to find, can accommodate various shapes and sizes and are cheap. The downside is that you gear is not protected (or less protected since some bags have padded walls). You can partly get around this by padding your gear with clothes and towels, although this doesn't protect as well as a hard case. Another way to protect is to put a hard case around your gear, such as a PVC pipe and put your spears/shafts inside one and your speargun inside another, this adds extra weight however. Some soft bags I have looked at (I only purchased a SporTube series 2 so far), the width in the dimensions (l x w x d) are of the widest part as measured by airline companies:

Imitation Golf bags

• F-One Manera Golf Travel Bag: this bag is well made, looks like a real golf bag, it is made for kiteboarding originally. The fact that is looks like a golf bag and has a big golf label on it means you can't say it is anything else. The external dimensions are 137cm x 52cm x 27cm and the internal dimensions are 135 x 49 x 19cm, it weighs 3.2kg, it has top, middle and bottom handles, 5mm padding, waterproof external material and has wheels.
  
• NSI Pro Golf Bag "The Deceiver": Couldn't find a real website, only an amazon page so not sure of the quality. It is made for kiteboarding originally. Has a big "NSI Golf" label to say it is a golf bag (but looks less like one than the F-One Manera). Having a big label on this bag can be good and bad, good if you want to say it is a golf bag but bad if you want to say it is another type of bag. The outer dimensions are 150cm x 34.3cm x 38.1cm, the internal dimensions are 147cm x ?cm x ?cm, the weight is unknown (shipping weight is 20.73kg), it has middle and bottom handles (no mention of a top one and pictures don show this), padding of unknown thickness, waterproof external material and has wheels.
  
• Surreal World Tour "Golf" Wheelie Kiteboard Bag: Couldn't find a real website, only an amazon page so not sure of the quality. It is made for kiteboarding originally. Has a small "Surreal Golf Tours" label to say it is a golf bag (but looks less like one than the F-One Manera). Having a small golf label is good and bad, it is good because you can say it is something else and they may not notice the label but bad if you want to insist it is a golf bag, even though once they see it it should be fine. The outer dimensions are 135cm/140cm/148cm/166cm (fixed length) x 28cm x 15.2cm, the internal dimensions are unknown, the weight is 5.44kg, it has middle and bottom handles (no mention of a top one and pictures don show this), 10mm padding, waterproof external material and has wheels.
  

Real Golf bags

• Bag Boy T-2000: The external and internal dimensions are unknown, it weighs 3.95kg, it has top, middle and bottom handles, padding of unknown thickness and has wheels.
  

Speargun Bags

• Mares Attack Gun Bag: external dimensions 175cm x 20cm (diameter), large enough for a large rigid tube, center handle, no wheels.
  
• Riffe Large Speargun Travel Case: external dimensions 160cm/185cm (fixed length) x ?cm x ?cm, center handle, no wheels.
  
• Sporasub Speargun Bag: external dimensions 170cm x 20cm (diameter), large enough for a large rigid tube, center handle, padded ends, no wheels.
  

and many other types...

Rigid luggage

These are harder to find and are more expensive. The upside is they protect your gear really well, the downside is they are heavier and being rigid can't contain strange shapes (not much of a problem IMO).

Real Golf luggage

• Cargo Golf Pro Series 500 Golf Travel Bag: The external?/internal? dimensions are 126.12cm x 23.18cm x 23.18cm, it weighs 4.31kg, it has top and middle handles and has wheels.
  
• ClubGlider Tour Series: unknown dimensions and weight, it has top and middle handles and has wheels plus another pair of fold out wheels for stability.
  
• Trav-A-Lite Ultima II: 127cm x 19.05 (diameter), 2.54kg, it has top and middle handles and has wheels.
  

Fishing tubes

• Flambeau Bazuka Rod Case: 160cm-220cm (telescopic) x ?cm (diameter), has middle handles, unknown weight, no wheels.
  
• Plano Airliner Telescoping Rod Case: 119.34cm-223.52cm (telescopic) x 12.7cm (diameter), has middle handles, unknown weight, no wheels.
  
• Flambeau Standard Telescoping Rod Case: 96.52cm-182.88cm (telescopic) x 7.62cm (diameter), has no handles, unknown weight, no wheels.
  

Ski/Snowboard luggage

• Sportube series 1: external dimensions 122cm-212cm (telescopic) x 16.8cm x 14cm, internal dimensions unknown, weighs 3.63kg, padded ends, two middle handles and one top handle, has wheels.
  
• Sportube series 2: external dimensions 122cm-212cm (telescopic) x 28cm x 15.2cm, internal dimensions unknown, weighs 5.44kg, padded ends, two middle handles and one top handle, has wheels. This is what I own.
  
  
• Sportube series 3: external dimensions 107cm-183cm (telescopic) x 36.8cm x 20cm, internal dimensions unknown, weighs 6.35kg, padded ends, two middle handles and one top handle, has wheels.
  

Rifle luggage

• Pelican 1750 Waterproof Rifle Case: external dimensions 134.6cm x 40.6cm x 15.5cm, internal dimensions 128.2cm x 34.3cm x 13.3cm, weighs 10.7kg without foam (11.6kg with), is waterproof, middle handle and has wheels.
  
• Pelican 1770 Waterproof Rifle Case: external dimensions 145.8cm x 46.9cm x 28.5cm, internal dimensions 138.6cm x 39.6cm x 21.9cm, weighs 13.15kg without foam (16.33kg with), is waterproof, middle handle and has wheels.
  
• Gun Rifle Shotgun Long Aluminum Locking Carrying Case: unknown external dimensions, internal dimensions 134.62cm x 27.94cm x 10.48cm, weighs 10.7kg, middle handle and no wheels.
  

and many other types...

Finding a 158 linear centimeter bag/luggage

If you want to get your gear in as normal surplus luggage or as the main (free) checked luggage you need it to be no bigger than 158 linear centimeters and no heavier than the authorized weight (usually 23kg). The weight aspect is easy to manage but finding airline friendly dimensions is not easy to say the least. To check if luggage is the correct size, just add up the l + w + d (double the diameter if it is a tube). However, it is not easy finding something tall/long enough to fit a spear/shaft (longest part). You can put the shaft in diagonally to gain lower the overall height to fit in the required dimensions. You can use the following formula to calculate the minimum hight of your luggage (for a spear in diagonal) to see if it works for you:

     l = sqrt(s² - (w² + d²))

where:

• l is the minimum hight
• s is the spear/shaft length
• w is the width
• d is the depth

and then use the obtained length in the l + w + d <= 158 and see if this is true. I found that most rigid fishing tubes and the SportTube series 2 has to be shortened to at least 114.8cm (total outer length) to fit in 158 linear centimeters, this means a 110cm would fit or a 115cm spear (75cm speargun) would fit fine diagonally. The SporTube series 3 can be shortened to 101.7 to fit a 110cm spear in diagonal although this would technically make the luggage 158.5 linear centimeters, but it should slide. The default series 3 is too big even in it's minimal size, although it would fit a 115cm spear that would make it 163.8 which I am not sure you can argue with them about. The SporTube series 1 can be set to 127.2cm (outer length) and fit in the 158cm limit; this should allow you to fit up to a 129cm spear. Good luck!

Mask fogging up?

Some of you may have issues with your mask fogging up. This is usually due to some sort of greasy residue on the inside of the glass (I'm supposing you have tempered glass). If the mask is new this is often caused by the manufacturing process; if it is not new this is often due to you touching the inside of the glass with a greasy finger (e.g. with sunscreen, body oil, sweat). A foggy mask can ruin a dive. I have tried using spit, this worked ok but not as well as I expected. I tried special sprays, this didn't work as expected. I found this tip and have used it successfully ever since, after a dive:

1. Rinse the mask well with fresh water; this removes the salt.
2. Clean the inside with liquid dish detergent (the kind used hand wash dishes); this removes the grease. You can skip this step if you don't have any, it should be ok.
3. Once dry, spread (using clean fingers) toothpaste on the inside glass and let it dry; this cleans any hard to remove residue without scratching the glass and protects it while in storage.
4. When you want to use it just submerge it in water and shake it around; the toothpaste will go away (it may take a minute or two).
5. Do not ever touch it with greasy fingers!

I hope this helps someone.