To enjoy your time in the water you need good, well fitting kit. We recommend that you start with your wet suit and build around that. Go for a suit with no zips and an intergrated hood. If your doing a course with us think about 4-6 hours in the water on both days so being cold 20min into the first dive is no fun for anybody.

You are looking for a two piece wet suit with a thickness of neoprene suited to the water that you dive most, for UK work a 5mm is good enough for all but the coldest of days, any more and you are looking at a lot of weight on your belt and potential problems at depth. As you descend your suit and your air spaces are compressed by the weight of water and the lead on your belt starts to have more affect on your buoyancy. The aim is to be neutrally buoyant at about 10-15m while freediving and 6-10m when spearfishing, depending on the depth of water you are hunting in.

For freediving you need a smooth skin suit as they are much more hydrodynamic but easy to rip and tear, Elios do some good suits and we recommend them. Click on the Elios link and it will take you to a web site that sells all sorts of good freediving and spearfishing gear including made to measure wetsuits.

This is good gear at the right price. We use Beuchat and have never had any problems with it. And my gear has a hard life!

For Spearo you need a tough suit that can stand up to rocks and sharp edges, Beuchat, Cressi sub and Omer do a very good range of spearo products with the basic apnea suit's being almost ideal for UK spearo as long as it fits you! Getting a handmade suit is cheaper than you would think and if you are a non standard shape this is definitely the way to go. Expect to pay from £170+ for a made to measure depending on the quality and grade of neoprene.

The properties you are looking for in a suit are a nice tight fit so the water does not flush through, ease of movement around the arms and legs and easy on get on and off. Good stitching away from the joints is a good sign of quality. Camouflage may be usefull for hunting but your mates will take the piss every time they dive with you...

A drinks bottle with a soapywater mix will help with getting it on and getting them off. just pour some of the mix inside the arms and legs around the suit. This should give you a nice easy entry and stop you from loosing hair! Getting out of the suit is easiest in a shower if you can but failing that undo your crutch strap roll the bottom of the suit up your back until you can reach the strap from by your shoulders and then peel your self out! Suffocation on a beach taking a wet suit off is not something you want so practice first ( And trim your fingernails too )

 Beuchat gear is durable and accurate even after the abuse that it get's from me!

For freediving and spearo you want a low volume mask. That means that you need to waste as little air as possible equalising it as you descend. A good field of vision is needed for spearo but not so much for freediving as you are trying to move your head as little as possible ( Ropes are boring to look at! )

Fins need to be comfortable, have a long blade and be strong! For the deeper people carbon is recommended but just for shooting fish and fun freediving Cressi HF3000 ( or similar ) are perfect

A rubber weight belt is a total must. There are various types of clasps avaliable. As you descend the water pressure crushes you and all you air spaces making you thinner ( It all returns as you ascend! ) If you use a normal belt it will simply fall off! As mentioned your weight at depth is very important, too much and you will struggle to get off the bottom, too little and you will burn too much oxygen getting down.

Its very important to carry a knife when in the sea, a short blade with a net hook and a serrated edge is fine. A good sharp point is good for killing fish but less so for looking around rocks. Choose your knife to suit.

A surface marker buoy is always a good idea, you can hang spare guns and rubbers on them, keep your catch on and rest on it when you are tired. Thin rubber tubing sealed at both ends is the best to use to attach the smb to yourself ( to the belt normally ) as it floats and is hard to tangle. It does snag as you work your way around rocks and weed but then we have the.. 

Hand anchors are also a great idea allowing you to mark a point and hunt the area. Just tie one end to your SMB and keep the anchor in your belt until you find a nice patch. Drop it down and hunt away.

First things first. A big gun does not make you a better spearo. Having the most powerfull gun does not make you the best spearo. Having a gun suited to the area that you are hunting and using it properly makes you a spearo with a good chance. Strong rubber and a light straight shaft are the key points..!

For most people starting to learn how to shoot we would recommend that you stick to the 50-75cm gun size as this gives you the best combination of power and ease of movement in the water. The guns are loaded by pulling back the two rubber bands until they locate with the spearshaft. Most of the world champions still use rubber so there must to something to it. Gun sizes can go up to 180cm+ but they are for blue water pelagic such as blue and yellow fin tuna..and the odd tiger shark. Not really UK stuff.

We like pneumatic guns at the PSA, they are easy to load and have good safety catches. They do make more noise than rubber and are a lot harder to fix when they go wrong but offer a clean line in the water and very good accuracy. Contrary to poplar belief pneumatic guns do not need to be re charged after every shot, you have at least 100 full power shots before you notice any difference. Then you just pump them up again with the pump provided. Asso and Cressi both do very good robust guns at good prices.

You want short guns for in and around rocks so you can manovere them and you want longer more powerfull guns for open water work where you need the extra range. We cover all aspects of gun choice on the spearo course. For more info or help choosing the right kit for you email: info@portlandspraroacademy.co.uk

NEVER DIVE ALONE AND TELL SOMEBODY ELSE WHERE YOU ARE GOING.