in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
🏆 2024 South Australia State Spearfishing Championships 🏆
What a surreal experience it has been diving in some of the most challenging conditions, I still can't believe it happened! 🥇 The past three weeks have been an absolute whirlwind of emotions. I was recently involved in a pretty serious car accident that left me debilitated and out of action for the two weeks leading up to the competition. So to still be able to dive and compete is truly a miracle that I will forever thank God for 🙌 Words cannot describe how humbling it is to have my name alongside some of SA’s best divers!
To no surprise, none of this would have been possible without Rob Torelli and his invaluable wealth of knowledge that he has so willingly shared with me. Congratulation Rob on your podium finish too, very well deserved given the lack of spearfishing you’ve done in the past 12 months. Thank you for continuously pushing me to be a better diver, if it weren't for you there would have been no way I would have even competed. So… you could've potentially won Rob 😂
A big thank you to Paul and Margie from Torelli Spearfishing for continuously providing me with the highest quality dive gear. I can say for a fact that you won't find any better Australian-made equipment 🤿
Shout out to the Gulf Skindivers team and all they have done for Spearfishing in South Australia. Joining the club is one of the best decisions I ever made when it has come to spearfishing 💪
Anyway, I've received a lot of messages from people eager to see the YouTube video of this competition. Unfortunately, I didn't film a second of footage, as I made the decision going in that I wanted to take it serious and knew that filming was just going to distract me. So the best I can give you guys is a summary, so here goes… 😅
The days leading up to the comp I was still very unsure whether I would compete due to my physical condition and what the advice the doctors had given me from the car accident. I was also very cautious and wary about making things worse, as I was returning to work the following week and I couldn't afford any setback that might hinder my ability to dive. It wasn’t until 2 days before the competition where Rob sat me down one night and gave me a pep talk, well actually it was more of an ultimatum about competing 😂 I knew then that I pretty much had to compete and in hindsight obviously I’m glad he did what he did 🙂
Day 1 - The competition started with high vibes and equally high winds as we arrived to the dive location. Surprisingly, I wasn't feeling nervous at all despite having one of the worst sleeps of my life. As I organised my gear, the realisation hit me… I had left my mask and snorkel back at the house due to taking it out of my tub the day before due to a very spontaneous tuna mission. Fortunately I was able to scrounge up a spare mask and snorkel, which wasn’t ideal but I certainly couldn’t complain 😂 At 8 am, the horn sounded, and all 32 competitors were off. I got off to a rough start, missing my first shots on a good size trevally and whiting. Frustration set in, but I reminded myself it was a marathon, not a sprint. As the morning progressed, I began picking up a few fish. The morning's current was absolutely ripping and at one point pulled me pretty far offshore in some deep and very sketchy water, which turned out to be more of a blessing, as I drifted over some very fishy ground. I finished the day with 15 species (Squid, Estuary Catfish, Blue Morwong, Harlequin Fish, Pike, Boarfish, Nannygai, Sea Sweep, King George Whiting, Swallowtail, Trevally, Horseshoe Leatherjacket, Deep Bodied Leatherjacket, Sixspine Leatherjacket and a Spiny Tail Leatherjacket), however unfortunately only 11 species ended up weighing, which was still enough to secure me the top spot for day 1, putting me in front of second place by 5%.
I was absolutely stoked, now realising I actually had a good chance of winning. Because honestly, initially I wasn't very confident, considering the caliber of the other divers I was up against. I knew that tomorrow would be an even bigger day given the spot we were diving, and I needed to recover and get a good night's sleep if I wanted to secure a win. However, that night it was blowing an absolute gale and it almost felt at some points that the cabin I was in would fly into the air at any moment. To make things worse, I woke up in the middle of the night to a huntsman crawling up my leg 🕷️
Day 2 - The pressure was on and I knew I needed to perform if I wanted to win the title! The area I had decided to dive was roughly 2km from the starting location. My plan? A full out RUN with all my gear along the beach, hoping to get in the water ahead of everyone else. The horn sounded, and off I went, starting strong and pulling ahead. But, alas, no more than 20 seconds into my run, I had to stop and walk. Gasping for air and already exhausted, everyone started overtaking me. I stupid, but couldn't help laughing at my ambitious plan, considering I hadn't done any land cardio for the past few months – I could count the times on one hand in the past 12 months! Even Rob overtook me at one point 😂 About half an hour later, I reached my desired spot, jumped in the water, and was back in my element. Everything was going according to plan and I was slowly ticking off new species until... about half way into the 6 hour comp, I knew I needed a squid so ventured to an area where I thought they would be. I managed to track down a big school, but missed my first 2 shots due to the school swimming away from me as I didn’t want to hit it in the head and risk it coming off, so was I trying to go for a body shot, which resulted in both shots going too high. I was starting to get frustrated as the current was ripping at the time and I was already having to kick as hard as I could to keep up with them. I reloaded though and went down, they were still swimming away from me and at the time I just wanted to hit one so shot it and hit it straight in the head… to no surprise it exploded and got separated from its body. In the spur of the moment I let go of my gun in 8m of water and chased after the squids body. After securing the squid I looked around for my pranger gun however it was no where to be seen 😭 I spent a good 30 minutes swimming around looking for it, but in the end I had to make the difficult call to give up the search and continue the search for fish instead. For the next couple hours all I was able to get was one more fish, as my spare gun had a straight point spear and I couldn’t hit a whiting or snook to save my life, I was absolutely fuming that I had lost my gun and was really hoping that this wasn’t going to cost me the competition… 🤦🏻♂️ With 6 hours almost up and still a fair distance from the sign off, I made the call to ditch all my gear to clamber over some boulders and make the 2km trek making it back just in the nick of time with 2 minutes to spare. I finished the second day with 12 species (Squid, Blue Morwong, Banded Morwong, Pike, Rock Ling, Boarfish, Nannygai, Sea Sweep, Horseshoe Leatherjacket, Deep Bodied Leatherjacket, and a Blue Tail Leatherjacket), however unfortunately only 9 species ended up weighing, which put me in second place for the day with Rob beating me by 0.01% (I had to let Rob beat me at something 😉, otherwise he would’ve probably left me on the island 😂)
In the end, I was very fortunate that everything worked out perfectly, resulting in me taking home the title! See you all next year, already looking forward to it! 🏆
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🔥 SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT 🔥
After over 3 years in the making and a lot of requests I have finally gotten around to finalising some new EJC merch 🦞
I’ve purposely chosen to go with a very basic minimalist design, so that hopefully it can be worn anywhere you go 😂 Both the shirt and hoodie are premium quality and I guarantee you won’t be disappointed 😉 The EJC on the front is embroidered and the lobster on the back screen printed 👍
The shirts will be $30 and the hoodies $60 and I’ll be making an order in exactly a week from today, so if you’d like a shirt or hoodie please let me know ASAP and I’ll put your name down! I’ll also be back in Adelaide very shortly so will be more than happy to personally deliver them to you, otherwise postage Australia wide will be $10 and if you’re overseas we can work something out 😊
I just want to say a BIG thank you to those who have supported me in helping my dream slowly become a reality. I really appreciate you all ❤️
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Crazy new video dropping in 24 hours 💣 Been working on it for almost a year now and it will easily be hands down my best video yet! For reference the tuna head alone weighed 12kg!!! Stayed tuned for tomorrow 🔥
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Been unbelievably busy lately with my final year of university! But I finally got around to finishing up a video I've been working on for a few months, I hope you enjoy it ❤️
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Had heaps of fun filming and editing this one! Let me know if you guys wanna see more videos like this 😄
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My name is Ethan Yeo and I'm absolutely in love with the ocean and what lies beneath! Come join me on my various underwater adventures, whilst I try my best to be as sustainable as possible. I hope you are all entertained and educated in the process too 🙂