NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell

NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell

by | Aug 24, 2026 | Noob Spearo Podcast

What if becoming a better spearo had less to do with diving deeper or buying better gear—and more to do with learning how to actually see what’s happening around you?

In this episode, Shrek sits down with commercial fisherman, spearo, hunter and lifelong observer of the natural world Johnny Mitchell, with Johnny’s longtime mate Tim McDonald joining the conversation.

Johnny has spent decades living, fishing, hunting and observing in the bush and on the water. From commercially chasing Spanish mackerel and mud crabs to living out of a swag, caretaking Cape Capricorn lighthouse and spending countless hours simply watching animals behave, he has developed an extraordinary ability to recognise patterns in the natural world.

The conversation explores awareness, natural intelligence, tides, weather, animal behaviour, sensory awareness and pattern recognition—and why asking simplistic questions like “Is the full moon better?” or “Does falling barometric pressure make fish bite?” can actually hold back your learning.

Johnny explains why every productive fishing or spearfishing location has its own combination of features and conditions, and why the better question is often:

Why were the fish here today—and why weren’t they here yesterday?

Tim also shares how Johnny’s influence has completely changed the way he approaches spearfishing: shooting fewer fish, observing more, recognising short feeding windows and learning to know where to be, when to be there and why.

This one goes well beyond spearfishing. It’s a conversation about reconnecting with the natural world, waking up dulled senses and becoming less dependent on apps, assumptions and handed-down rules.

Johnny Mitchell Spearfishing Gallery

NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell
NSP:320 Decoding the Wild with Johnny Mitchell

Important Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction to Johnny Mitchell
03:00 – Johnny joins Shrek and Tim McDonald
04:00 – Johnny’s background: fishing, hunting and living wild
06:00 – Your subconscious is collecting more information than you realise
07:00 – Awareness: the foundation of everything
09:00 – Living at Cape Capricorn lighthouse
11:00 – Why good experiences lead to better questions
12:00 – Hunting versus simply observing animals
15:00 – Watching fish footage 100 times
17:00 – How Johnny changed Tim McDonald’s approach to hunting
18:00 – Pattern recognition and exponential learning
19:00 – The most important question: Why?
20:00 – Observational intelligence versus handed-down knowledge
23:00 – Nature is multidimensional: beware single-variable thinking
29:00 – New moon vs full moon: are we asking the wrong questions?
31:00 – Understanding the specific tide window for a spot
34:00 – Johnny’s “Zoom Out” technique
36:00 – Using landscape, wind and Google Earth to understand a fishing location
38:00 – How modern life dulls our senses
40:00 – “Unbroken connection” with the natural world
44:00 – How disconnected have we become?
46:00 – From awareness to recognising patterns and predicting opportunities
48:00 – Knowledge removes scarcity and makes you a more generous diver
52:00 – Making more space in your life for the outdoors
54:00 – You can start reconnecting with nature in ten minutes
58:00 – Why understanding fisheries can become extremely complicated
1:00:00 – Observing more and killing less
1:04:00 – Spearfishing has to become about more than killing fish
1:06:00 – Old-school dogtooth tuna and spearfishing stories
1:09:00 – You don’t need a $100,000 boat
1:10:00 – Why most fishermen don’t actually understand weather
1:12:00 – From reading conditions to predicting a 130 cm barramundi
1:14:00 – Johnny’s Break Free three-day program
1:16:00 – Becoming a better spearo by becoming a better person
1:18:00 – Psychology, learning and actually applying knowledge
1:22:00 – Everything Johnny teaches can begin at a duck pond
1:24:00 – Throw the barometer question in the bin
1:28:00 – Testing theories instead of turning observations into rules
1:31:00 – What does Break Free actually mean?
1:32:00 – Johnny’s links and wrap-up

Links Mentioned, Partner Deals and Discounts + Froth

Johnny Mitchell / Wild Adventures JM
wildadventuresjm.com.au

Fishes One Hook
fishesonehook.com
Check out their free Speargun Band Size Calculator.

Spearo.app
Free spearfishing-specific forecasting tool.

Noob Spearo Patreon
patreon.com/noobspearo

🤿 NOOB SPEARO

🌊 Courses, retreats and charters: https://spearfishingcourses.com.au

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noobspearo/

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📱 YouTube: @noobspearo

🌊 Instagram: @noobspearo

🤿Spearfishing Courses, Retreats, Charters and Adventures (with Noob Spearo)

50+ Patrons are powering the Noob Spearo Monthly – find out more HERE

3000+ frothers are subscribed to the Floater Email Newsletter – find out more HERE

Audio Engineering by Nick Santalucia

NSP:319 The Unknown World Record Dogtooth Tuna Story | Jean Napier-Hattingh

NSP:319 The Unknown World Record Dogtooth Tuna Story | Jean Napier-Hattingh

by | Aug 9, 2026 | Noob Spearo Podcast

In 1989 a young South African woman hung mid-water off a reef 20km out from the Mozambique coast, held out a 1 metre gun, and whacked a fish the same size as she was. It dragged her across the reef until her mask and snorkel came off, they had to cut it into four pieces to weigh it on a 20kg scale, and nobody on the boat could tell her what it was — 52 kilos of dogtooth tuna, an unknowing men’s world record that got broken by an Aussie three days later and still stands as the women’s international bluewater freediving record today. Jean Napier-Hattingh spent a year in hospital as a seven-year-old being told she might not walk again, decided right there she’d have the most adventurous life on earth, and has spent the 40 years since backing that up — a 138kg marlin on a 1.2m Cape gun with a rusty spear, a 26kg barracuda world record in Sierra Leone she also didn’t know about, and a nickname (Parrot Queen) she earned before she could shoot anything else. She’s also the woman who accidentally invented the flasher, using a wrist full of silver bangles worn on the outside of her wetsuit to out-shoot every bloke on her brother’s boat. Whether you’re a woman wondering if there’s a place for you in this sport, a game fish hunter after species-specific tactics, or anyone who reckons you need a big gun to shoot big fish — Jean will straighten you out.

Jean Napier-Hattingh @spearfisherlady Spearfishing Gallery

Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing
Jean Napier-Hattingh spearfishing

Important Timestamps

  • 00:01:00 — Shrek sets up the chat: a South African spearo holding records from before women’s records even existed, and why her book Against the Tide is worth your time
  • 00:01:20 — Listener Sam Livings’ voice message: a 15kg kingfish, a perfect head shot, and a completely seized flopper. Check. Your. Gear.
  • 00:03:30 — Trip news: 1770 Retreat (two spots, September), the final ever Sail x Spear trips out of the Whitsundays, and PNG with Tim McDonald and Ben Rennie
  • 00:06:00 — The “queppilat” (quince stick) above the pelmet, a farm childhood, and the year in hospital at age seven that made Jean decide she’d live the most adventurous life on Earth
  • 00:07:30 — Why water felt safe when her legs didn’t work, swimming from age four, and how underwater hockey at UCT built the breath hold and stamina base for spearfishing
  • 00:09:30 — Learning in the Western Cape (deep, icy, reef fish, head-in-caves) versus life now in Natal chasing pelagics in warm water — and why the transition was easy
  • 00:10:30 — Marine parks north of Durban, why pelagic-only rules keep reefs alive, and the difference between poaching and subsistence fishing in Mozambique
  • 00:11:00 — The weirdest intro to spearfishing going: scuba instructors ditching tanks, planting a loaded gun outside a cave, and sending Jean down the float line to shoot the fish
  • 00:12:30 — How deep, how long: 25m these days, a lockdown breath hold app that got her to five minutes, and “I hold it for as long as I need to shoot a fish”
  • 00:13:30 — “Girls do not do this sport” — getting knocked back off boats, entering comps because comps had to give her a boat spot, and slowly forcing the blokes to take notice
  • 00:14:30 — The 52kg dogtooth. Baixo Danae reef, a 1 metre gun, a fish the same size as her, 30m of float line, mask and snorkel gone, water-skiing, and a 40kg potato bass turning up to help
  • 00:18:00 — Cut into four pieces to weigh it on a 20kg scale. A men’s world record for three days, and a women’s record that still stands 35+ years later
  • 00:19:00 — Why the lateral line shot was the only thing that saved it, and what she actually felt when she realised the size — “I just thought, well, that’s another fish, let’s get in and find another one”
  • 00:21:00 — Two great white encounters at four-and-a-half to five metres, having to pull her gun back so she didn’t touch one, and why she didn’t move
  • 00:22:00 — Five whale sharks and five manta rays in four metres of crystal water, with Jean in the middle of them
  • 00:22:30 — Jean on Australian sharks: “the sharks in Australia have gone rogue.” Shark Shields on every diver on her Aussie boat, none in South Africa, and her overfishing theory
  • 00:28:00 — Earning the Parrot Queen nickname on Natal knifejaw in Port Elizabeth — the friendly fish that come and sit on the end of your spear
  • 00:29:30 — Strength versus patience. Weak arms mean sneaking closer, half your spears don’t pass through, and the boat can wait an hour while you bring the fish up gently
  • 00:31:00 — The 138kg marlin. A 1.2m Cape gun, a rusty spear, an hour-plus swim, borrowing two mates’ float lines to reach 90 metres, and the first spear falling out at the surface
  • 00:34:00 — Jean’s speargun setup: conventional Rob Allen 1.4m pipe gun, twin 14mm rubbers, load assist, 30m float line, big orange foam-filled float. “No fancy reels. Old-fashioned and it works”
  • 00:36:30 — The silver bangles. A wrist full of glitter worn outside the wetsuit, worn every dive, and how Jean reckons she invented the flasher years before flashers existed
  • 00:38:00 — Making provincial teams in Eastern Province and the Transvaal, organising comps, and the state of South African spearfishing clubs today
  • 00:40:00 — Funny one: forgetting her husband’s boardies on a month-long Mozambique trip. He dived in her spare bikini bottoms with her wetsuit flapping around his waist — and out-shot her
  • 00:41:00 — Doing everything together: a three-month drive right through Africa, bird watching, photography, and why she reckons she got lucky
  • 00:42:00 — Arrested in the Trevi Fountain. Hot, huge backpacks, dusk, and a police interrogation in Italian they pretended not to understand
  • 00:44:00 — Writing Against the Tide: lockdown alone in Stellenbosch, an online creative writing course, a 12-woman writers group who’d never dived, and one hunt per chapter
  • 00:46:30 — The records she never claimed: at least seven world records, ~50 South African records, plus the 10 Australian records she does hold
  • 00:47:30 — Why spearfishing is “good for the soul” and Jean’s pitch to any woman on the fence — the sport that’s not actually about shooting fish
  • 00:49:00 — What’s changed since ’87: abalone poaching syndicates, crayfish next, dead dynamited reefs in Zanzibar, foreign trawlers, and reserves nobody can afford to police
  • 00:52:00 — WA closing demersals indefinitely, the illegal abalone trade in NSW, and why spearos are the most environmentally conscious fishers going
  • 00:54:00 — The rest of the gear bag: Freedivers fins, a Rabitech gun, leg knife, and tailor-made wetsuits by Sergio at the Rob Allen factory for 30-odd years
  • 00:56:00 — Underrated African destinations: Latham Island in November chasing big doggies, and four and a half years in Sierra Leone diving off dugout canoes into water absolutely teeming with fish
  • 00:57:30 — The 26kg Sierra Leone barracuda — another men’s world record she didn’t know she’d broken
  • 00:59:00 — Game fish tactics, species by species: chase cooter (Spanish mackerel) flat out until they tire, dive to your flasher and wait for kingfish, and dive away from a wahoo and pretend you can’t see it
  • 01:00:30 — Shrek explains throw flashers to Jean, and how they bring spooked wahoo straight back in
  • 01:02:00 — “Age is a number.” Why Jean’s diving until she’s 90, the Load-EZ ratchet loader idea that might buy her another decade, and starting weights to keep her arms strong
  • 01:05:30 — Jean’s parting shot to women everywhere: “grab life with both hands and just go for it”

Links Mentioned, Partner Deals and Discounts + Froth

🤿 NOOB SPEARO

🌊 Courses, retreats and charters: https://spearfishingcourses.com.au

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noobspearo/

💻 Website: https://www.noobspearo.com

📧 Newsletter: https://noob-spearo.kit.com/floater

📱 YouTube: @noobspearo

🌊 Instagram: @noobspearo

🤿Spearfishing Courses, Retreats, Charters and Adventures (with Noob Spearo)

50+ Patrons are powering the Noob Spearo Monthly – find out more HERE

3000+ frothers are subscribed to the Floater Email Newsletter – find out more HERE

Audio Engineering by Nick Santalucia

Why I signed up as a Patron

Why I signed up as a Patron

by | Jul 16, 2026 | The Vault

Hey Shrek

I gratefully signed up as a patron this week to help support you to keep creating purposeful content and courses

In a social media focused, technology driven western world people are becoming increasingly disconnected to nature, disconnected from real people, real community and losing the essential humanistic behaviours and skills like hunting for our own food.

As a farm girl who grew up to make a career out of advising farmers on synthetic nutrients and pesticides to grow profitable crops and live stock. I’ve unfortunately seen some of the ugly reality of modern food production, and that’s driven me to keep hunting fresh organic produce in a sustainable way to nourish my own body and those I get to share my catch with. There’s no better feeling.

Your noob spearo podcast helped inspired me to move states buy a speargun and teach my self how to spearfish.

The 1770 course gave me the skills and confidence to go from spearing coral trout and stripeys to Spanish Mac, tuskys and jacks. The instructors on the course were legends in the purest form.

The sail and spear trip last year was a once in a lifetime experience I lost my voice from laughing on day 1 and I made friends for life. My most memorable moment from that trip wasn’t the awesome fish we speared but was waking up before the sun laying on deck of the sail boat on the Great Barrier Reef star gazing and chatting to other spearos.

It’s so rare as an adult to have the opportunity to unwind in healthy way. your pods, courses and retreats brings out the inner kid in all of us and they’ve helped me to grow as a spearo and as a person.

I’m still a very average spearo paying my dues and get so much from your podcasts and the people I’ve met through you so I hope you keep them coming in the future because I still have a bloody long way to go as a spearo .

I often think about how if all of us loyal listeners who have listened to 100s of your pods like me chipped in a few dollars a month, how many more courses retreats you could run connecting more good people together .. and even more importantly, helping to connect us back to natures wild elements and our food.

Gratefully. Liv
NSP:318 5 spearos finish instructors course in Bali + spearfishing Rumpongs

NSP:318 5 spearos finish instructors course in Bali + spearfishing Rumpongs

by | Jul 8, 2026 | Noob Spearo Podcast

Blood noses at 32 metres, nappies floating past mid-breathe-up, and a bloke sprinting freestyle across the open ocean after a borrowed Kraken roller gun — part two of the Bali crew’s adventure has the lot. Matty, Liv, Noffs, Rhys (No Viz) and Chiz wrap up their freediving instructors course with Adam Sellars and The Pressure Project, battling flu, an LMC scare and one heartbreaking dynamic apnea before every single one of them gets it done. Then it’s a few hours up the coast to Singaraja to spear the rumpongs — Bali’s handmade floating FADs — with the experienced local guides at Spearo Co, where triple tail come in like chickens of the ocean and the mahi mahi turn up in numbers. Liv’s redemption dynamic after four failed attempts is worth the listen alone, and Helios from Spearo Co jumps on at the end to talk Kraken Spearguns and fad season. If you’ve ever thought about doing your freediving instructors, or spearing Bali’s blue water on a budget, this one’s for you.

Matty, Liv, Noffs, Rhys @novizadventures and Chiz Spearfishing Gallery

Important Timestamps

  • 00:00:45 — Shrek’s intro: part two of the Bali crew adventure — instructors course wrap-up, then spearfishing the rumpongs
  • 00:02:18 — The crew debriefs the final days of the freediving instructors course, including the 30-minute oral presentation requirement nobody saw coming
  • 00:03:31 — Liv wakes up crook on day three — fevers, blocked sinuses and Bali Codral cold & flu with the course requirements still to get
  • 00:05:58 — Noffs and Chiz hit their 32m dives — including another participant getting 31.2 and having it not count
  • 00:08:23 — Noffs pushes through a stuck left ear for the requirement and surfaces with a blood nose while everyone stares
  • 00:09:38 — Adam’s trick for diving with blocked sinuses: feet-first pulls down the line to drain everything out
  • 00:10:58 — Liv’s comeback: first-ever mouth fill at the 20m mark and a 32m dive after two days out sick
  • 00:13:23 — Rhys’s LMC scare at 25m — why he called it and waited instead of pushing for the 32
  • 00:16:45 — Adam’s biggest lesson: you don’t need that almighty pre-dive breath to dive 30–40m — Liv hit 32 on half a lungful
  • 00:17:44 — Mouth fill demystified: watch alarms at 15/20/30/32, charging at free fall, and why it’s simpler than it sounds
  • 00:19:47 — Rhys throws nappies and drags a tree away from another diver’s breathe-up as a river of rubbish floats through the dive site
  • 00:20:52 — Pool day: Matty cruises his 75m dynamic, Chiz sprints the last 25 (“they say you can’t muscle through freediving — lies”)
  • 00:23:47 — Noffs’s three-attempt static at Adam’s villa at 7am — saved by Matty barking “you got the dog in you” from the balcony
  • 00:27:44 — Liv hits the wall: four attempts stuck at 50m with jelly legs and tears in her goggles
  • 00:30:31 — The redemption protocol: a massive feed, sleep, leg activations, Laird Hamilton breathing, borrowed DiveR fins and a one-shot dynamic coached by instructor Elle
  • 00:36:06 — Matty’s tribute to Liv’s rollercoaster week + the crew’s shout-out to “support crew Matty”
  • 00:37:46 — The charter breakdown: $625 each for transfers, accommodation, own rooms and two days on the boat
  • 00:39:07 — Freediving takeaways: listen to your body, slower is faster, and spearfishing is one of the most unforgiving sports
  • 00:40:30 — Rumpong time: two days spearing Bali’s floating FADs in 500m of water — triple tail, rainbow runner and first-ever dolphin fish
  • 00:43:39 — Matty shoots a big bull mahi on the guide’s Kraken roller, the reel jams, and he does “an Ian Thorpe” sprinting after it
  • 00:50:36 — Chiz’s redemption dolly after two heartbreakers — flopper failures, a Hail Mary and a stone shot from Noffs
  • 00:51:38 — The swim cap game: best fish on the fad wears the beautiful white cap
  • 00:52:52 — Bali key takeaways: who you know matters, get away from the main areas, flasher tactics for mahi vs wahoo, and bring Crocs
  • 00:59:05 — Noffs’s gear lesson: always inspect your equipment — his gun failures cost him the biggest fish of the trip
  • 01:00:02 — Helios from Spearo Co on Kraken Spearguns (the Katana rail gun that doesn’t flex), exposing local Indonesian guide talent, and fad season running April to December
  • 01:03:53 — Shrek’s outro: register interest for future Noob Spearo Bali trips at spearfishingcourses.com.au

Links Mentioned, Partner Deals and Discounts + Froth

The crew:

Mentioned in the episode:

🤿 NOOB SPEARO

🌊 Courses, retreats and charters: https://spearfishingcourses.com.au

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noobspearo/

💻 Website: https://www.noobspearo.com

📧 Newsletter: https://noob-spearo.kit.com/floater

📱 YouTube: @noobspearo

🌊 Instagram: @noobspearo

🤿 Sail x Spear Charter Information and Booking

50+ Patrons are powering the Noob Spearo Monthly – find out more HERE

4000+ frothers are subscribed to the Floater Email Newsletter – find out more HERE

Audio Engineering by James Paterson

NSP:317 5 spearos learning to be freediving instructors in Ahmed, Bali | Matty and Liv, Noffs, Rhys (No Viz) and Chiz

NSP:317 5 spearos learning to be freediving instructors in Ahmed, Bali | Matty and Liv, Noffs, Rhys (No Viz) and Chiz

by | Jun 26, 2026 | Noob Spearo Podcast

A false-positive drug swab on the podcast recorder, a speargun declared at the airport, a phone lost forever somewhere up a Balinese hill — and that’s all before anyone gets wet. This one’s a proper fly-on-the-wall: no Shrek behind the desk, just five of the Noob Spearo crew — Matty, Liv, Noffs, Rhys (No Viz Adventures) and Chiz — handing the mic around in Amed while they work through their freediving instructor course with Adam Sellars at The Pressure Project. You’ll hear Rhys talk through his first-ever LMC on day one (and why his ego put him there), the mouthfill “great mystery” that throws every spearo sideways at 15 metres, Adam’s nana-voice-and-poo-emoji trick for shutting up the negative voice on a breathe-up, and the quietly massive idea of diving with no plan B. It’s Full Froth, No Ego in the flesh — blokes and a legend coming up short, laughing about it, and getting better the next day. If you’ve ever wondered what actually happens on an instructor course, or you’ve thought about crossing from spearo into proper freediving, this is your backstage pass. (Quick caveat, straight from Shrek: these guys are learning in live time, so take the technical stuff with a grain of salt.)

Matty, Liv, Noffs, Rhys @novizadventures and Chiz Spearfishing Gallery

Important Timestamps

  • 00:00:50 — Shrek sets the scene: five spearos off to Amed to become freediving instructors with Adam Sellars, and why this one’s a fly-on-the-wall.
  • 00:01:00 — A heavy shout-out: three Australian spearos lost to sharks in recent months, and a hint that future shark episodes are coming.
  • 00:01:40 — Happier news — Shrek and Krystal welcome Grace Evelyn, their first girl after four boys.
  • 00:04:40 — The travel saga begins: Liv’s “just checking in” phone call the night before saves Noffs’s whole trip.
  • 00:06:00 — How an auto-generated “Ryan James James Noffke” nearly stopped Noffs boarding before he even left Mackay.
  • 00:06:30 — The golden rule of flying with a speargun (never say the G-word) — and how Noffs couldn’t lie to the officer and ended up declaring it.
  • 00:08:00 — The podcast recorder gets swabbed and lights up positive — a full security debacle that turned out to be a false positive.
  • 00:09:30 — Rhys loses his phone somewhere on the drive up and never sees it again.
  • 00:13:00 — The big one: Rhys walks through his first-ever LMC during a static, including the strange out-of-body feeling.
  • 00:17:30 — “You don’t rise to the occasion, you fall to the levels of your training” — why drilling recovery breaths matters.
  • 00:18:00 — Rhys on ego vs froth, and knowing when to push mentally and when to stop physically.
  • 00:23:30 — The instructor requirements laid out: 3:30 static, 75m dynamic, 32–40m on the line, plus an assignment and a 30-minute presentation.
  • 00:36:00 — Adam’s mental tricks for intrusive thoughts on a breathe-up: the nana voice and the poo emoji.
  • 00:37:30 — Depth contractions explained — why they’re not the CO2 contractions you think they are.
  • 00:39:30 — Rhys’s streamlining tip: hands up on the ascent, then ride the buoyancy.
  • 00:43:30 — Mouthfill, explained from scratch by people who’d never heard of it 48 hours earlier — the M-sound, the glottis lock, and why it throws everyone off.
  • 00:48:00 — Adam’s breathe-up routine that gave Noffs his most comfortable diving in ages.
  • 00:51:00 — The two keys to freediving, per Adam: equalisation and relaxation.
  • 00:53:00 — Adam’s three-day silent retreat story, and the roommate made physically sick by his own thoughts.
  • 00:55:00 — Diving with “no plan B” — the most hard-hitting idea of the trip, and how it bumps against listening to your body.
  • 00:57:30 — Why free immersion “feels like cheating” to a spearo (and why a bunch of them PB’d it anyway).
  • 01:00:00 — Instructor lessons learned: don’t be afraid to speak up and tell people what they need to do to pass.
  • 01:02:00 — Honest Amed travel advice: arrive 3–4 days early, and the night noises (geckos, dog fights, roosters, prayers over the speakers).
  • 01:09:00 — Why Liv and Matty did a CPR, first aid and oxygen course — including the mate who put a dive knife into an artery.
  • 01:10:30 — Oxygen tickets, the green whistle and restocking the first aid kit for remote trips.
  • 01:13:00 — Shrek’s outro: these legends are teaching and assisting on Noob Spearo courses, and a tease for the next episode out on the rumpongs.

Links Mentioned, Partner Deals and Discounts + Froth

The crew:

Mentioned in the episode:

🤿 NOOB SPEARO

🌊 Courses, retreats and charters: https://spearfishingcourses.com.au

📱 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noobspearo/

💻 Website: https://www.noobspearo.com

📧 Newsletter: https://noob-spearo.kit.com/floater

📱 YouTube: @noobspearo

🌊 Instagram: @noobspearo

🤿 Sail x Spear Charter Information and Booking

50 Patrons are powering the Noob Spearo Monthly – find out more HERE

4000+ frothers are subscribed to the Floater Email Newsletter – find out more HERE

Audio Engineering by James Paterson