Who we are
(home of are those my fingers in front of my mask)
I started snorkeling in 1966 at age 9. I watched Sea Hunt and fell in love with the idea from the start. My mom thought I would out grow it.
Boy was she ever wrong!
I found a couple of guys diving off Manhattan beach a few years later and I followed them out to a reef that they would catch Lobsters at (Maine lobsters "the one's with the claws").
They thought I was a joke but they soon found out I was tough enough to
keep up with them free diving. (waters were a bit cold at 34 degrees and no
wetsuit)
George told me half joking how they started with tee shirts and sweat shirts
rubbed down with Vaseline to water proof them and to hold in the warmth,
what little it held.
One day in late January I was diving and ran into him
swimming back the 300 yards to shore.
George got a little upset but told me if I wanted to dive with them I had to
get certified.
I was 12 1/2 years old and got my mom involved and she found
the Aqualung School of Diving in Manhattan, so off to school I went to get
certified in 1970.
I was taught by Fran Garr with her assistant Stan Waterman.
(Man who love's sharks)
Fran as rumor would have it was the second lady to have been certified
(the first was a lady named Zale Gray).
I got my first wetsuit at age 13 and I was off to seek my fortune shooting
fish and catching lobster. Got well known for catch large fish and lobster. I
got tired of no Visibility (6 inch to 2 feet) and had an offer of a job in
sunny Florida so south I went. That was hot for a while but I wasn't home
yet.
Came out to California from Florida to speed things up a bit in 1980.
Starting diving with Stephen Alford a year later.
We won the Dive and Surf Lobster mobster contest that year and have
won it about 9 times since.
Alford taught me about spear fishing with a pole spear (Charlie Sturgel
was the first guy to make this style of pole spear). Spent thousands of
hours diving catching Halibut, Ling Cod, Black fish, Rock cod and more.
Then one day that came to a halt when I lost the pole spear in the heavy surf one day.
We checked to see if Charlie was still around but he had retired.
That is who made the pole spear Stephen Alford had given me.
Along came a guy named Riedel and his copy of the same pole spear...
So I coughed up a lot off dough and replaced it. We have since bought about
10 Riedel pole spears and tips since then. They seem to get lost or missed
placed in someone else's truck now and then.
(ouch ouch ouch) Now Riedel has quit
making them for the last 3 years or so, So I guess it is up to me!
I have the talent and mechanical ability to do it right.
Found out it wasn't cheap doing this, I apologize Right here and now for
what I thought about you Mr. Riedel they do cost a lot to make.
This is now being done for the love of the sport not to make money "to the
frown of my wife".
Spent about 3 grand plus getting it right and now I am ready to sell what "I deem to be the best pole spear of this style ever made"!!!
Stephen Speregen