para advice

[brudive]

need a bit of advice from anyone in the know on pneumatic spearguns,im paralysed from the waist down,live on a yacht in indonesia and freedive,spearfish a lot,problem is i use a rubber sling gun and had to lengthen the rubbers as couldnt load the gun due to no leg power and hence flapping about and swallowing a lot of water plus then going hungry that evening,before i was paralysed i had no probs loading any gun,im still fit and strong in the upper body,but not having the use of the legs makes a big difference whenloading in the water,and tired of watching my spear being laughed at by my fish dinner.anyone know of an easy to load powerful pneumatic speargun,that doesnt take 2 people to load....any advice much appreciated...send to bruhan2001@yahoo.com

[trux]

Not being a spearo I won't help you with the gun, but maybe the BCD freediving belt would be quite useful for you, because to certain extent it eliminates the need for leg propulsion, and helps you staying quite buoyant on the surface, while allowing for easy effortless descents and ascents. Having good buoyancy on the surface might help you with the loading too.

Check it out in this thread: http://forums.deeperblue.net/general...reedivers.html

BTW, I admire your courage, and wish you successful and safe hunting!

[Marwan]

well guns aside, i think you should be a role model for us here,you define passion for the sport.... happy hunting for you sir...
on topic, pneumatics might work if its a shorter gun, maybe a 50 gun could be loaded with one hand if you could support the gun on your waist/hip...
it seems you dive without a suit, am i correct, maybe you could keep using the same gun you are used to with shorter bands if you could stay afloat without having to paddle with your hands you could then load easily on the surface, breath through a snorkel. In your case maybe ballast diving could be advised... basically attach the weight to a buoy instead of on your belt, then after you load the gun on the surface where you will be floating(as you will be wearing a wetsuit with little weights, the rest will be on the belt attached to the float) hold on the weight and go down, leave the weight on the bottom to ascend easily, you wont loose it as it is tied to the float... maybe that could help... needless to say its a dangerous technique, so start shallow and gradually work up your depth comfort zone.
I would always recommend that you never go alone too, has nothing to do with your condition, none of us dive alone, thats the basic rule, so in that case you could also have your buddy load the gun for you...you would be taking a big risk in my opinion if you go alone...
happy hunting

[brudive]

thanx marwan.thing is im often on the boat alone and so spend a lot of time diving alone,ive lived on a yacht most of my life and nowbeen injured 8 yrs,im more at home in the water than on land especially with no leg power,but now keen to try technology,so im after that pneumatic speargunto help keep this belly full,plus im hopeless on the internet,im used to the coconut wireless..cheers

[Marwan]

you know on that tehnology aspect, maybe an underwater scooter could be considered

[foxfish]

Hi brudive, fantastic to here you are keeping up your diving. I use air guns but I cant see how you could load the models I use because you need to brace the handle on your foot while ramming the spear in the barrel. A short air gun with low pressure would be fairly easy to load but obviously would not have much power. One ansaw might be a roller gun, this type of gun is shorter for the same power than a conventional gun. You may have to get it custom built though because I dont think there are any in current production?
I built one last summer here is a pic to help you understand the principle.