Interview with Deryck Tan

Today’s interview is with Deryck Tan from WA. An Equine Dental and Veterinary Surgeon by day, mad spearo/gyotaku/cooking seafood chef type dude by… I suppose day too! He is an extremely talented artist specializing in the art of Gyotaku – making fish prints! What started as an interest quickly became an obsession, from experimenting with his first fish to now taking commissions. Have a listen to some of Deryck’s funny stories and lessons he has learned along the way and get some tips to get into doing your own gyotaku! Deryck is also great in the kitchen and is passionate about seafood, in particular the underrated species. Learn about tempra vs tempura, alternative fish species and get some insight into abalone and urchin cooking.

Have you also been inspired to make your own gyotaku? Tag Noob Spearo in your posts, we’d love to see!

Important times:

00:13 Intro
04:45 Welcome Deryck!
05:40 Tell us about yourself!
06:35 Cooking inspiration
07:05 Where did your passion for gyotaku come from?
10:45 Why are Dhue fish so hard to shoot?

12:56 Meeting Bert from Old Man Blue for his cray loop
14:20 How did you start spearfishing?
16:45 Spearfishing course and diving deeper
19:53 What skills did you get out of your spearfishing course?
21:42 Tell us about your gyotaku! Tell us about the stamps
25:25 Who buys your artwork?

27:55 What materials are you using?
30:35 How to gyotaku: Thaw and clean fish, pat dry, use scrap rice paper to remove all the moisture especially around the eyes, dilute ink, paint fish with ink but NOT the eyes, get rid of excess ink (use cotton or material), Circle piece of paper to keep the eye protected. Put paper over fish and push it in. Pull it off, add details to the eye, add your stamp.
35:45 Difficult to gyotaku: crustaceans. How long do they take?
38:00 Do I lose the meat if I gyotaku a fish?

39:18 Gyotaku mural
40:00 Where do you get your inspiration from? @gyotakunaokistyle and @fishingforgyotaku
41:45 Tips for trying gyotaku for the first time
42:45 Spangled Emperor and tempra vs tempura
43:55 How do you make a tempra sauce?
48:55 What do you like to drink with your fish?

50:00 99 Spearo Recipes
52:20 Urchin/uni
57:45 Walk us through the journey of getting and building your speargun
01:00:30 Diving in current and caves with a reel
01:05:15 What is your favourite species to hunt in your area?
01:09:10 Tell us about your zen mode
01:09:50 Diving with buddies or alone?
01:14:45 Funny stories!
01:18:45 What else is in your dive bag? Old Man Blue Cray Loop!
01:22:35 Favourite sustainable fish
01:25:15 Spearo Q&A

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