Author: hayden

Pool training is starting up on Monday with everyone being run through the safety induction again. If you have already done one then you would have been inducted by one of our ocean snorkelling coaches or a more senior member of the club. This time however we have a real professional who has volunteered to do this for us as well as review our induction materials. So a BIG thanks to Matt for doing this.

For those of you who don’t know Matt he is a certified freediving instructor who…. well I’ll let Matt speak for himself…

“I discovered freediving on a surfing trip to Indonesia in 2015. I really enjoyed freediving right from the beginning and did the ssi level 1 & 2 courses back to back. It was the next year that my obsession for freediving started to grow substantially. In 2016 did a master course and a level 3 course in Koh Tao. From this point my life very quickly started to become just all about freediving. I had found my passion! A couple of years later I had some good instructing experience under my belt and had done a pb dive of 81m in competition at the end of 2018. In the year leading up to covid(2019), I had further increased my instructing and diving skills. Plus I did an Australian National record dive to 81m with bifins.” – Matt Anderson

So be sure to take advantage of this opportunity and book in now

Good news – we’ll be restarting the pool training sessions. All details below, hope to see you all! You must be a member of Geelong Freedivers to attend.

When: Every Monday, 7pm. Starting on February 1st

Where: Geelong Aquatic Centre (https://g.page/GeelongAquaticCentre?share)

How to join: Please book here: https://geelongfreedivers.org.au/pool-training/

Why: Pool training is mainly about improving your freediving technique – breath hold, finning, relaxation. It’s a great way to improve your skills – whether for freediving or spearfishing – and hangout with your amazing club colleagues

Note: We normally require everyone coming in for the first time to do a safety induction. But since we haven’t had the sessions in over a year, we’ll be doing a safety induction for everyone this first session. Probably a shorter refresher for old members and a full session for new ones. Many thanks to everyone who put their hand up to help!

Happy new year fellow spearos! In the closing moments of 2020 GFD held our AGM/Xmas party.

I would to thank our sponsors, your continued support of the club is greatly appreciated and allows us to run such a variety of events. Thanks to:
Geelong Dive Centre
Ninepin Wetsuits
Continuum fins
Ironbark Logistics
Sir Charles Hotham Hotel

I would like to thank our committee members for the 2019/20 season for all your hard work in keeping the club running:
President: Hayden McFadyen
Vice President: Gerard Saunders
Secretary: Russell O’Flynn
Treasurer: Peter Field
Membership Secretary: Russell O’Flynn
Safety and training officer: Danny Hurst
Weighmaster: Julian Kenny
Events coordinator: Richard Just
VSC liaison: Nam Luong

For the new season we decided to take a more relaxed approach to the committee and have the positions required by government and then to have just generic “committee member” positions. And so I would like to welcome our new committee for the 2020/21 season. The new committee consists of:
President: Hayden McFadyen
Vice President: Gerard Saunders
Secretary: Russell O’Flynn
Treasurer: Peter Field
VSC liaison: Nam Luong
Committee Member: Catherine Birch
Committee Member: Louis Attard
Committee Member: Richard Just
Committee Member: Ivan Galic

Its great to see some of our newer members step up, having members willing to work on the committee will ensure the longevity of the club.

Whilst we had cancelled our competition series due to COVID there was still plenty of swag up for grabs. Apologies, in the excitement of actually seeing people again I forgot to take any photos! We had prizes for club records, door prizes and even a fun competition where people made spearguns out of rubber bands and paddle pop sticks.

It was a great night and so good to see so many of you after so long. I’m looking forward to the new season and all its challenges and getting in the water with you all!

Regards
Hayden McFadyen
President Geelong Freedivers

due to having our AGM on the 19th we wont be having our regular monthly club meeting tomorrow (9th Dec)

With restrictions eased we can now hold our AGM, complete some paperwork and vote in the new committee but most of all get together and have a good social event. As usual we will be at the Sir Charles Hotham hotel and we will have enough finger food to feed everyone to go along with our share of Carlton from the “love your local” campaign.

WHEN: 6:30 on the 19th Dec
WHERE: Sir Charles Hotham Hotel
1 Gheringhap st
Geelong

Looking forward to seeing you there

so far ew have completed 2 of the month long showdowns, squid and snapper and now that we are in December we are in the cray comp! So when you go out to collect your Chrissy crays, pop them on a scale, take a photo and submit it

Due to metro lockdown the committee has decided to extend the squid comp for another month. Several members have been getting onto the squid in the past week and the action is just going to get better!

November also sees the snapper comp start up, heaviest snapper submitted wins the comp.

Remember to sign up for each of the showdown comps by the monthly club meeting. Signup can be found here.

And as usual, the species comp is still running so don’t forget those entries too.

October see the first of the Species Showdown competitions, Southern Calamari.

The squid have started to come in to breed with several being taken on line over the past few weeks but none taken on spear as of yet (that I’m aware of anyway).

Enter now at competition-entry so that you can have the whole month to submit as many entries as possible.

Due to the ongoing uncertainty with COVID and having cancelled our last seasons competition series the GFD committee have decided to change things up for this season. We have put on hold the Surf Coast Cup and the Underwater Photography Challenge but we are still keeping the Club Spearfishing Championship and adding a new series called the Species Showdown.

The species showdown is a new competition series with month long individual competitions targeting a specific species.

Whilst similar to the CSC there are differences, CSC runs all season long and competitors can submit fish anytime and have a maximum of 2 entries per species and points are awarded for the biggest fish down and the person with the most points at the end of the season wins.

The Species Showdown is actually 7 individual competitions, each comp targeting a specific species and lasting just a month with the exception of Tuna and Kingfish which runs for 2 months concurrently. Each competition will have just a single winner who is the person who submitted the heaviest fish. There is no limit to the number of entries in each comp, so feel free to keep upgrading! Competitors can submit fish from any dive they have during the target species month. And finally, competitors must sign up for each comp at a cost of $8 per competition and must sign on by the date of the club meeting for that month. For more information check the website.

Species Showdown Target Species/Month

• October – Southern Calamari
• November – Snapper
• December – Southern Rock Lobster
• January – Flathead
• February – King George Whiting
• March and April – Kingfish
• March and April – Tuna

We have our monthly club meeting scheduled for this Wednesday and unlike the last couple of months let/s not Zoom, let/s meet up in person! Our sponsor Sir Charles Hotham Hotel are able to host us again so lets rally behind them and meet up in person whilst ordering a drink (or two) and a meal. There is a size limit of 20 people and social distancing rules apply.

Date: 8th July
Time: 6:30 pm
Location: Sir Charles Hotham Hotel