Interview with Pat Swanson

Should I try diving for a job? I love the water and I think could spend all day in it so why not make it my job? This is a thought Ive had and in this chat with veteran spearo and ex-commercial diver Pat Swanson we dig right into whether its a good idea or not. Pat’s a three time New Zealand spearfishing champion and a resident of Taranaki, New Zealand. This is where I grew up so I was pretty stoked to catch up with Pat in his New Plymouth home. In this interview Pat also lays out some practical tips and ideas for scouting a potential area and we dig into some of the key considerations for assessing its dive-worthiness. Listen into our chat here.

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Pat Swanson Interview Time Stamps

3:00 Pat Swanson introduction and background + Pat’s insights into a dive with Shrek

8:00 Influential Books mentioned

• Hanz Haas – Dive to Adventure
• Dive New Zealand – Wade

10:00 What were your biggest obstacles starting spearfishing?

12:00 Commercial Diving for Spearos

• What has been your experience and background commercial diving?
• What advice would you give to spearos wanting to try commercial diving?
• What is required of commercial divers?

19:00 Most memorable fish – New Zealand Hapuka

Pat Swanson with New Zealand’s prized Hapuka

24:00 What is your favorite spearfishing hunting technique and how do you apply it effectively?

30:00 What is one of the toughest situations you’ve had in the ocean? What happened and what did you learn from it?

34:00 Veterans Vault – Reconnaissance 101 for shore dive spearfishing

• How do you assess an area?
• What do you look for?
• What are your biggest tips for finding spearfishing spots?

1. Shore Dive Spearfishing Guide – Part 1
2. Shore Dive Spearfishing Guide – Part 2
3. 3 Online Tools To Find Spearfishing Locations

42:00 What has been your funniest moment spearfishing?

45:00 What spearfishing equipment do you use?

50:00 Spearo Q&A

• What is the single best piece of advice you have received for spearfishing?
• What does the spearfishing experience means to you?
• Who has been the most influential person to you in your spearfishing and why?
• If you started spearfishing all over again, what would you do differently?
• During your 30+ years of spearfishing, what is one of the biggest lessons you have learned?
• What current challenges do you face in your spearfishing and how do you approach them?

Pat Swanson with NZ Snapper record spearfishing catch

Mentioned

• New Zealand Spearfishing Association
• Lake Taupo Catfish Cull Challenge
• Isaac ‘Shrek’ Daly’s article about Pat on stuff.co.nz
• 99 Tips to Improve Your Spearfishing

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