Beach Feb 2016

Alex Iantuano admires his freshly speared catch.
your breath, slow down your heartbeat. When you are calm, then you can
start hunting.”
The boys’ weapon of choice is a tension-loaded speargun, which relies
on rubber tubing to fire a spear, with a line for retrieval. It resembles a
crossbow and requires a lot of force to prepare.
“Loading these things is not easy, even for me,” Paul said.
The kids began diving in their surf wetsuits. That Kwak said, is a common
mistake.
“It’s not good enough,” Kwak said, noting that surf wetsuits are not designed
for prolonged submersion and that water can easily seep into them.
“If you lose 10 percent of your body heat, that’s serious hypothermia.”
Taste of something new
As the boys got better at spearfishing, they began to learn more about the
underwater world they encountered.
“I honestly didn’t know anything when I started,” Snyder said. “There
are different kinds of fish, different kinds of seaweed, different kinds of
conditions to think about.”
Diving has also made the kids more aware of environmental issues. Trash
and debris in the ocean become especially grating, they say, when encountered
while coming up for air. And following the encounter with the game
warden, the kids are starting to see the wisdom in regulations governing
catch-sizes.
“Under 10 inches, you’re going to want to let it go,” Roskin said. “It’s not
worth shooting those. You can barely get any meat off of them.”
As their skills developed, each plunge became less of a struggle and they
became more selective in their kills. They can identify a wide range of fish
on sight and know which ones taste best.
“At first, you want to catch anything that moves,” said Stavropoulous. “But
eventually, you narrow it down to the fish you like to eat.”
The crew’s catches have included white sea bass, ling cod and wahoo.
They have gotten to the point where not just taste, but the difficulty in capturing
a fish motivates their hunt.
Some fish, like calico, are known for their craftiness. Others not so much.
“Rockfish are good eating, but they’re kind of stupid,” Batcheller said.
In a rare moment of agreement for middle-schoolers, all thought yellowtail
represented the pinnacle.
“We’ve got a little card from Dive N’ Surf with all different kinds of fish,”
Atkinson said. “Yellowtail, that’s the Holy Grail.”
A lifestyle not a sport
Getting involved in spearfishing has been relatively frictionless for the
crew of friends. They don’t even need to apply for a state fishing license
until they turn 16. And it has begun to shape the part of their lives without
a spear in hand.
During school, the kids will hold their breath and look at the classroom
clock, seeing how long they can last.
“You get better at holding your breath,” Roskin said. “And it helps with
surfing, because you get more comfortable with holddowns.”
Hawaii, Mexico and exotic coral reefs beckon. There is also the challenge
of spearing fish that have eluded them so far.
“I shot at a pack of barracudas once,” Batcheller said. “I barely missed,
but they’re hard to hit.”
Spearfishing and freediving have become more popular in the South Bay
in recent years, Kwak said. Although the Internet has made equipment
widely available, people still come by his store for advice that can only
come from a lifetime of dedication.
Kwak thinks of spearfishing as more of a lifestyle than a sport. He has
arranged his life in such a way that he can frequently close up shop and
head out to Palos Verdes to dive.
“It’s a very small community,” he said. “It might be growing, but it’s still
not a very good business.”
In that sense, Kwak may have taught the kids more than he realized. The
true draw of spearfishing, both said, is the sense of escape from the ordinary.
“You don’t have to worry about school or anything,” Snyder said. “It’s just
being in a different environment, a different world.” B
The master
Harry Kwak is the manager of Freedive and
Spear on Aviation Boulevard in Hermosa Beach.
He hails from a South Korean island, where custom
dictates that women are the ones who dive.
Kwak fell in love with spearfishing, anyway. He
learned the sport from his brother, and began diving
for Opal Eye and black perch when he was
the same age as the MBMS kids who came to him
for instruction.
But Kwak was reluctant to take on the young
students when their parents brought them in his
shop.
“It’s a killing sport. You are carrying a killing
machine,” Kwak said. “If the kids aren’t fully
grown, I will turn them away. You have to be mature
enough to kill something.”
The eager youth were initially turned off by
Kwak’s demeanor.
“The kids called him ‘Grumpy,’” Paul said.
“He’s just very passionate about spearfishing, and
he wants everyone to take it seriously.”
Kwak said he is more likely to take on kids with
ocean-going backgrounds and that surfing is good
preparation. But his reluctance to take just anyone
out diving goes beyond concern about physical
ability.
Kicking strength and lung stamina are essential
to becoming a competent free diver. But it also requires
the maturity to be aware of everything occurring
down below. Impulsive behavior
common in teenagers, Kwak said, can make them
unable to assess the difficulty of what they’re
doing.
Tanner Batcheller displays fresh-caught Half Moons
and Opal Eye.
“You can get tangled in kelp in deep water and
you can get in very deep trouble,” he said. “You’re
more interested in getting a fish, and your ego ignores
common-sense safety.”
But Kwak eventually relented to the kids’ requests
for guidance.
The waiting game
The boys began with dives near the Redondo
Breakwall before heading out to the deeper waters
off Palos Verdes.
Acclimating to deep water is a critical part of
spearfishing, Kwak said.
“If you’re inexperienced and you go out diving
with me, you’re going to throw up,” he said.
Kwak’s message of patience and gradual
progress was tough to take at first, but the kids
gradually came to recognize the wisdom he offered.
“He’s a zen-master,” Atkinson said. “You’ll go
into his shop and he’ll tell you something like,
‘Nature is the greatest teacher.’”
The crew also took lessons from Al Schneppershoff,
a professional diver at Dive N’ Surf in Redondo
Beach. Schneppershoff’s father was killed
years ago by a great white shark during a dive off
Baja.
True progress in spearfishing comes when you
are able to get past the physical and mental barriers,
Kwak said. Only then are you able to think
strategically, as you would while hunting on land,
using rocks and kelp to hide yourself from your
prey.
“You have to be in a calm state,” he said. “Hold
The crew emerges from the deep onto the Bear Flag, owned by Jamie Meistrell of Dive N’ Surf.
22 Easy Reader / Beach magazine • February 11, 2016