On this week’s episode of E.D...we go to some local reports on spearfishing and conditions to more in-depth ideas and preventative measures involving our diving gear and how to keep it lasting longer and working better...We will go to the inner sanctum of both these worlds and hopefully represent some great ideas and info to the best of my ability with you all...hopefully some common sense words of wisdom (right or wrong...I am human) that we all can use and understand... sometimes that is hard to do.

I have recently stumbled onto a television program that has retained my utmost attention (just after televised poker tournaments and Fox news)...yes I think on both sides of the street... (Ya’ll should try it)... and that program is “Tapout"...channel 37 locally...one of the ESPN channels...this may be hard to explain, but here we go...why I am going here? I will do my best to make sense. Somehow I have made a connection with these 3 goofballs that do this program (many critics call them freaks) but if you watch the program and have the ability (which most people don't ) to filter out, or like some of... the sophomoric hyjinx, bad social behavior, and some foul language, combined with some outlandish but somehow weirdly appealing body garb (but not gay)...Skrape I wonder about from time to time...then maybe this will make some sense...

I have on unorthodox way about me...that to most is a little different and hard to understand...but I speak from the heart and in the most honest way I can...what I have to say from my experiences is probably not how " they " would write things up in a traditional text book in the area of my expertise. I like to tell it like it should be without all the politically correct bulls###t. What I may say might not correlate with traditional textbooks...simply the truth as I see it...These 3 knuckleheads at Tapout, now the largest clothing designer for the mega sport of mixed martial arts, (and a T.V. series) have hit the nail on the head...doing things their way, contrary to the status quo, and just being themselves...pass or fail...they have passed in my view. They stand up for, are loyal to, and back up the common man and the underdog (in their case up and coming MMA fighters)...not the fake, so called pro wrestlers and their choreographed pre determined bouts...but the real thing.

I think I have gotten myself a little too deep here and may have lost some of you...but read on, since I write this article I would like you to understand where I come from. As I stated in my very first article...I am a common man with meager means and do what I can (as the Tapout crew did when they started) with what I have to enjoy the water world...most articles deal with water world superstars, mega bucks, and talents that rival God...I write for the rest of us...the common man and his honesty... To "Punkass", "Sky Skrape" and their leader, "Mask"...my hat is off to you all for being yourselves, honest, charismatic, and above all being successful without being arrogant and self important....just telling it like it is with a little flare....and sticken' up for the little guy...you really need to see the show and have the ability to read between the lines for any of this to make any sense...give it a chance and watch the Tapout crew...they are smarter than their first impression may portray beside their wild and crazy behavior...if your favorite magazine is "G.Q." and your favorite T.V. show is "Friends" and you drink coffee or tea with your pinky outstretched or you never throw you clothes on the floor...then just don't bother...skip that channel.

I better get off that story line real quick...and get to something more important...like spearfishing!...For a few weeks know it seems that all I have heard is..."where did everything go"...but here in the last week or so the divers have been slamming 'em!...Butch Waters whom is a local diving pro (collector and commercial fisherman) on one of his many spot's (shallow) smacked 2 large black's and 2 big mutton, along with bagging 25 lobster...yes there are some left after the onslaught of mini season and the first month of regular season...you just need to know were to go like Butch does...I can't tell you because he would kill me...just keep looking!...My landlord Ron, just 2 day's ago caught a 20 inch hawg on fresh ballyhoo in 8 feet of water!...seems like "shallow" is the word at the moment.....and with all this calm weather, you best get out there!  Speaking of looking...look at this picture of Captain Pete Schumann...one the managers of Tilden's Scuba Center Marathon and his sweet grouper (pushing 30 lbs.) taken awhile back while spearfishing off Marathon in 80 feet of water...unfortunately I was not there for the kill...but that fish did produce a memorable evening...after slapping the huge slabs of fresh meat on the grill...as a few friends and neighbors collected, brandishing a variety foods, fine cigars, and spirits...the evening progressed into a fine gathering. By the time that beautiful meat was gone and happily digesting in our fat bellies...the Cuban cigars were ignited and a luscious dessert of "Nassau Royal" was passed around (a wonderful liquor...a favorite of our friends in the islands to the East) and gobbled up shot by shot...the food was great, the smoke was good, and the company was fine...and the bigger the lies got directly corresponded to the growingly smaller amounts of "Nassau Royal" in that bottle...go figure...all that from spearfishing...it is more than just killing...

As I mentioned in my opening statement about dive gear maintenance...well, I have only so much room here in this paper for this article... and besides I need to get some facts straight before I go mouthing off on a particular subject...as only I can do so well...and that subject next week will be...SCUBA TANKS...what I have to say on that subject as far as care and maintenance of tanks allot you of may already know...but what you do not know...well how should I say this...I will enlighten you on a few things in my own energetic way that may surprise some people...As the Tapout crew would do...honest and in your face truth...the real truth about tanks that the textbooks and some scuba shop's don't tell you...this should be a hoot next week.....until then...