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Interview with Matthew Novakovich

Today’s interview is with Matthew Novakovich, the man behind Ocean State Spearguns! Born out of seeing a need that he could fulfill, Ocean State Spearguns are hand-crafted timber spearguns that can be customized to your liking! Want a big mid-handle 5 band blue water speargun? Or how about a short speargun for low viz diving and shooting in caves? Matthew has you covered! Starting as a small hobby, he gave Cameron Kirkconnell one of his spearguns to test and he’s been making more ever since! Doing most of his diving in the usually dirty and cold Atlantic, he has learned a thing or two about making robust spearguns that work well and look good while doing it. Check out OceanStateSpearguns.com to see what he’s doing!

He has some great insights into barotrauma and has a story about how it almost ended his diving career but more importantly – how he responded. If you have a barotrauma and are being told you’ll never dive again then give the Divers Alert Network (DAN) a call! Visit their website Dan.org and view all of their medical info here! Not all injuries are permanent!

OSS logoraw timber speargun

 

Important times:

  • 00:13 Intro
  • 02:30 Hello and welcome Matthew!
  • 03:55 You have some nice fish over there like Tautog
  • 05:00 David Hochman @SpearItCharters
  • 05:55 Tell us about Ocean State Spearguns
  • 11:15 How do you make your spearguns?
  • 12:40 How many spearguns are you making? Are you making spearguns full time?
  • 15:00 So you started spearfishing again after 15 years!
  • 16:15 What are your diving conditions like?
  • 18:00 Did you just shoredive? What type of diving are you doing?

OSS speargun on beach

  • 19:50 What was a memorable fish to hunt?
  • 21:22 Colour grading your footage
  • 23:25 Striped bass?
  • 26:30 Biggest obstacles you faced starting again
  • 30:40 How much time did your efforts take to benefit your diving?
  • 31:30 Did your dive buddies progress with you or were some more experienced?
  • 35:00 Is your dad spearfishing now too?
  • 36:55 Scary stuff: Barotrauma
  • 40:00 Pin holes in wetsuit ears
  • 41:00 What did the doctor say? You can never dive again!
  • 42:00 What did the DAN doctors say? Yes you probably can! Dive medicine is sometimes more specialized than most doctors have experience with
  • 49:30 What’s next with Ocean State Spearguns? Rollers?
  • 52:30 Social media
  • 54:20 Componants
  • 57:05 Shafts

OSS gun next to water

  • 57:50 Do you any do any off-shore bluewater diving?
  • 58:40 Do you get a guide when traveling?
  • 59:40 Travel speargun?
  • 01:01:40 Funny stuff
  • 01:04:50 What gear is in your dive bag? Mako and Salvimar wetsuit
  • 01:06:00 Mako fiberglass fins
  • 01:07:10 How long is your ‘warm’ season?

OSS speargun

  • 01:08:15 Spearo Q&A
  • 01:10:00 The speargun building community is great! Where should people look to find out more?
  • 01:11:00 Thank you for being on the show!
  • 01:11:45 Outro

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