Solo Freediving and Spearfishing off a kayak (Catching my own food) living from the Ocean NZ 

Hey mate. I really appreciate the awesome feedback. I really do rate diving off a kayak, it gives you do much options and it doesn't put you off going diving like a boat can with all the hassle of it all vs just chucking it on the roof of car and off you go! Glad you are enjoying the vids, good luck out there 👍

Thanks bro!

Thanks mate! Will do, plenty of missions to come over summer!

Haha been there many times myself

Cheers Jason, I've been close mate! Hope you've been getting into some action yourself!

Cheer Rob 🙏

Cheers Gary!

Cheers Kerry, not a bad fish, but I need to make my way up North your ways to get onto some real fish!

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit yeah mate, anytime you want to come up and colab I'm down!

Thanks 🙏

Thanks Deb 👍

Thanks bro! Get into it!

Thnaks Craig, appreciate it

That's awesome mate rip into it!

Easy bro, cheers for the great feedback!

Cheers Mitchell, hope you're getting some diving in yourself!

Cheers bro 🤙

Thanks bro, I agree, Ive travelled a fair bit around the world and we really are lucky what we have on our doorstep!

Haha I've heard.. I also dive out west its pretty bad. Looked worse from the surface than it was! Cheers mate.

Hey mate cheers! Yeah I'll get one done soon its on the list! Stay tuned!

Thanks! Actually the water has cleared up, we get the best vis in winter! Currently it's 15-20m in places, just cold 😅 what's red tide? Some sort of Algae?

Ollie Craig - Reef Hunter -- wow- that is super interesting that y’all get clearer water in winter, and not in summer. It’s the opposite over here in the northern hemisphere. I guess I should not be shocked as we are opposite on a lot of things mate- not only time zones! Red tides= yes- bingo, we get Red Algae that blooms and causes the water to be a dense dark red. In Florida it kills a lot of fish East year when it happens- not so much here in California. Bro- your MAYO comment cracked me up!! Great stuff man!! 🤣🤣. From googling your regional weather systems- I’ve gathered that there is really never a time of year that diving without a wetsuit is really feasible- unless you are a Eskimo/Scandinavian? Is this a fair assessment of your water temps over there??

@@syexplorarconmigo8853 oh wow, we don't get red tide but in spring when the water temp starts to rise we get a big alga bloom basically just really green water with lots of particles in the water, by summer it clears right up though. Yeah mate, you are correct about the wetsuits, basically on monthd where people go down to a 3mm is Jan/Feb otherwise its 5mm all year round, or 7mm in South Island winter! Would love to go over and dive the California kelp forests one day tick off some other species!

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit --- hey, anytime you want to come on out man--- let me know, I'll try and get you hooked up. We shore/rock dive here as well as we have similar rocky cliffs as you do... Honestly speaking-- if you cross the pond--- bring some $$ for a few charters. The big boys are mostly offshore here in Cali. Channel Islands + Coronados are EPIC game changers for your bucket list-- anyone that has dove them would probably agree... Don't get me wrong--- you can still get some good fish near shore-- but it's nothing like the pelagics in deeper sharky water. I'd highly recommend a Shark deterrent. Ocean Guardian Freedom 7--- seems to be the best bet these days--- debatable effectiveness on Bronzies as I am sure you are aware-- but still the best for other predatory sharks that bite first and taste later... I am sure you get crap loads of flack for diving solo-- so won't go there-- but shark deterrent? hhmmm... Life is too short bro-- stay safe...

Don't push yourself.

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit Oh yea never mind i didn't freedive alone. In my years of freediving i barely ever did that

@@truthfighterEB99 what I meant was if you get into giving alone, do all the same stuff just never push yourself too hard

Haha good guess mate. Enjoy! 🤙

Haha guttered no butter fish in the end?? All good 🤙🏾😂

@@tuteremoetaua5681 yeah no luck! Was super guttered! Not many butters around Auckland!

Thnaks for the feedback Santiago. Will look into that option!

Cheers mate, yeah I agree the crackling is annoying. I'll try and ace it on the next vid!

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit you can improve it in post by using a 'high pass filter eq' on your audio track. Set it to around 100Hz and you will get rid of most of the low rumble from the camera mic being handled. Apart from that agree, loving the vids dude, epic stuff!

@@StuartHarwood cheers Stu, I'll try that on the next one!

Cheers!

I will put it on the list!

It's a nice stable kayak for starters. Not sure just get used to it? I've never had any issues

Hey mate, Easy as to get on and off in my opinion.. longer the better (around 4m if can) otherwise any will do for shorter trips. Ive got Viking 440 they are built tough and very practical.

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit thanks mate...got one at the in laws up at waiomu bay coromandel to start using

Hey mate cheers. It always been my standard setup for the 120cm, only had it changed to a roller in summer in hope to go for a marlin but didn't get the chance. As for the little gun, I'm just giving it another try as standard setup, I like the faster reload with traditional setup. May switch back to roller yet,I'm 50/50 and just playing around

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit I hear you with the longer gun. I just like the fact that my 80 now has the power of a 100 in the shorter package. I use a load assist (Rob Allen) and I can load it pretty quick. For the 80 as a standard band gun it just didn't have the steam when the visibility was over 15' as the fish would stay further away. I am getting solid placement shots with it as a roller that I could never pull off with the 2-band setup. Thanks for the reply! Also, glad to see you got a paddle leash LOL!!!

Haha I’m more scared driving to my dive spot with all the crazy drivers on the road!

Hahaha 👍👍👍

Cheers 🤙

Cheers Stewart, nah not at all. I always take it easy never doing big deep drops etc. I'm more worried about otherthings in life like the terrible Auckland drivers, much more risk there in my opinion. Can't live life in fear, just enjoy it. Solo diving isn't for everyone though

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit I've had 6 freedives were i thought it wasn't solo, but i guess it was.

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit what's a deep drop? I dive alone a far bit but always stay pretty shallow

@@sambrookes3514 Everyone has their own definition, but I basically never go much past 15m if i'm by myself. or if I do, it's straight down and up with minimal hang time.

Hey bro. Medium. I'm 84ish kg and it's perfect for me

Ollie Craig - Reef Hunter Cheers bro, did you find them stiffer to fin with then plastics?

@@nzadventures7807 Yep a bit stiffer on the surface, mostly all plastics are quite soft. when the current starts to push they really start to be useful and of course diving down and back up a breeze.

North Island, New Zealand.

Hey mate I'm no expert so don't want to put up info which could be wrong and cause harm. Best to book into a good breath hold course/freediving course and get taught all the proper techniques. Your Breathold will also increase natural over time as your body builds tolerance to c02

Hi Gary cheers for the feedback. I have done a few different freediving courses and it's always been taught to take the snorkel out of the mouth before diving down which is for numerous reasons. If you keep it in and you black out with the snorkel still in your mouth, water will gush straight into your mouth and down into your airways, not ideal. When I am surfacing I want to be able to take a big gasp of air straight away without anything slowing down the process. If you black out the jaw can also tighten shut and prevent your dive buddy or anyone removing the snorkel from mouth to try open up the airways/get oxygen to you. Also, I remove the snorkel at surface to fill with water so it's not bubbling away making noise as I descend which will scare fish away like Snapper. As for the double rubbers, Yes it might be overkill some of the time but I like the option of having two so I can load only one if shooting small reef fish with rocks behind so not to damage spear. If I need to power up I Load two. My 120 has 2x 14mm bands. This is super accurate, heaps of power and very easy to load.. Great option in my opinion. No, I'm not expecting to see a 50kg Tuna swim pass, but there is a chance of a 50kg Kingi passing by, which are very wide bodied fish at that size and especially if you hit through the hill plate or spine I would like to know I have enough power. In summer, I basically see Kingfish on every dive so you want to know you have plenty of power not to have the spear rip out and injure the fish.. Only 3 weeks ago a 42kg Kingi was shot off the beach, so big fish are not uncommon here in NZ

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit doesn't really matter if your diving with snorkel in or out while you diving by yourself. if you black out alone your dead anyway

@@TheClimber111 Yes, I'm aware of that. It's still good practice, and a habit is formed so no reason to change technique on a day out by myself as I'm not always diving alone. It also doesn't bubble and make noises as I go down, scaring away Snapper. There are more reasons to take it out than leave it in the mouth.

@@olliecraig-primalpursuit fuck bro, really sucks that you have to try and justify what you do in your videos, I literally came here to see how you deal with "negativity" as I've been combating some of the same shit on my small channel. Awesome to see you keep it professional, can't wait for your next upload brother🤘

@@kaidownunder7870 Hey bro yeah it’s mad. Main thing I have learnt so far is not to engage in any negative feedback. I’m all for constructive criticisms and opinions as I encourage healthy debate but when it’s blatant negativity or trolling do not engages as you give them what they want. Let your followers back you up as it’s only a very small minority of negative people out there. It is so easy to focus on the negative comments but just remember to shift your focus to the positive as it’s abundant! Online and offline! Good luck out there mate