Beuchat Arka Competition 750

I have had this gun for about 6 months and its the first euro style gun I have owned. I got it for about $75 online. . I always tend to buy a cheaper version of something, then, if I like the style and other characteristics I then buy nicer. I have read of over-powering the trigger mechanism on this speargun by using two bands. This is probably because someone wanted more distance on their shots without getting a bigger gun and longer spear. With the wishbone in the second notch on the spear there is a lot of power and I haven't had any problem on penetration or hitting fish accurately at 3 meters. The other gun I own is a AB Biller 32" mahogany. One of the first problems I had with this gun was penetration. It came with kinda weak bands which I upgraded on and a huge double flopper tip. On some relatively close shots the spear wouldn't go past the floppers and I'd have to trap the fish onto the spear with my hand. Not what I was expecting. Anyway, I really like the tip on the tahitian spear, single flopper on a 6.5 mm spear. It has held up against lingcod without damage. The gun tracks sideways quickly underwater and feels balanced in your hand. I haven't used any other euro guns, but I'm sure that the carbon ones feel incredibly light in your hands and are easy to maneuver in the water.

So the goal of this site is to share my experiences diving in California. There are some great sites out there with excellent reviews of diving spots up and down the coast. One is shorediving.com. Check it out.
First, a bit about myself. I started off abalone diving off of the Sonoma coast, then from there took up spearfishing. I also started scuba diving about a year ago. Spearfishing has probably become my favorite activity, but I just got the housing for my digital camera and have started making short movie clips. So I plan to cover a wide range of topics, gear, locations and techniques.
My wife and I just spent some time in Los Angeles visiting some friends and we took a day and went to Palos Verdes. We stopped first at the veranda at Malaga Cove, which didn't look great for diving. The water looked very dirty and brown and there seemed to be a bit of the Northwest swell rolling onto the beach and rocks. We talked to a few guys there in the veranda and ended up driving to Vicente Pt. The access is well marked off of Palos Verdes Dr. S. The conditions were a lot better in the cover there and we suited up. I was blown away by the water temperature. It felt great compared to the shock of getting in up north. I planned on spearfishing, but had heard that PV contained mostly perch. We saw a few small calicos but nothing worth shooting, a lot of wrasse and silver baitfish. There was a layer of sediment that made the vis pretty bad starting at about 15' down, so once I got to the bottom, seeing anything around me was mostly impossible. Without fish to shoot, I decided to take some short clips of diving through what little kelp there was. Check it out on youtube.