Beach Feb 2016

A
different
world
True progress in spearfishing comes
when you are able to get past the
physical and mental barriers
by Ryan McDonald
Photos by Paul Batcheller
Teddy Stavropoulous had lain in wait. He had stretched his lungs and bided his time.
The 13-year-old Manhattan Beach resident was learning the ropes of freediving and
spearfishing. A reward for his patience arrived in the form of a sheephead, a carnivorous
fish native to California that can live up to 20 years. Stavropoulous speared the
fish and made it to the surface. Pleased with himself, he thought the hard part was over.
Stavropoulous hadn’t counted on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“We got a nice talking-to from the game warden,” he said. “I found out that sheephead
have to be 12 inches, and this one was like 11. Luckily he didn’t give me a ticket.”
It’s all part of the learning process for Billy Atkinson, Tanner Batcheller, Hudson Fredericksz,
Alex Iantuano, Sam Roskin, Luke Snyder, and Stavropoulous, a crew of friends
from Manhattan Beach Middle School who scour South Bay waters in search of the exotic
and the tasty.
Ocean-minded
The ocean was already a second home for the surf-obsessed teens. All are members of
the MBMS surf team and compete in the South Bay Boardriders contests.
“During the summertime, we go to the beach all day,” Roskin said.
But even the most stalwart ocean-goers can occasionally become numbed to its charm.
Until, that is, something forces them to reconsider all the gifts the sea provides.
“It’s just right there, but if you go away from it you get so sad,” Atkinson said. “You don’t
realize how nice it is to have the beach nearby, and you kind of realize how lucky you
are.”
Batcheller was the first of the group to channel the nervous energy of a teenager underwater,
exploring the waters off Maui while on vacation two summers ago. The trip was
not necessarily the best preparation for diving in the cold, murky waters off California.
Hawaii also has fewer limits on what freedivers can catch.
“Tanner spent a week in Maui with a cheap mask, fins, and a spear,” said his father Paul
Batcheller. “He found out pretty quickly that Hawaii is a very cool place to fish.”
Returning to Southern California, Batcheller was excited to try out his new hobby in his
old stomping grounds and tried to convert some of his friends.
The extent of their collective experience came from line fishing in lakes. They tried
doing the same from beach, with mixed results.
“It never really worked out. All we learned was, don’t get the orange one, because it’s
the state fish,” Roskin said of Garibaldi.
The boys were going to need help. Batcheller’s father had some experience in ocean
fishing, but it wasn’t the right kind.
“I’ve been lobster diving before,” Paul said. “But spearfishing, that’s all new to me.”
Luke Snyder at the Redondo Breakwater.
20 Easy Reader / Beach magazine • February 11, 2016