GFT CARBON KNIFE

CARBON: DESIGN AND FUNCTIONALITY FOR TODAY SPEAROS

Very often we hear about an increasing male vanity that nowadays is tied to women’s one or even greater. As we all know women pay an accurate attention to accessories but what’s wrong if a spearo  surrenders to the temptation of buying a little something in which merge both design and functionality?

The GFT carbon knife is the latest innovation of the Italian company that once again remarks its intention  to design high quality products aimed to cuddle today’s speros. On the internet this product has become already famous thanks to the several bloggers who have written reviews stressing on the amazing design but you should also know that this knife is not only design as it is very practical and functional too. First of all the knife itself is created with a single piece of stainless steel, 18cm long, with an handle covered in 2x2 twill prepreg carbon. This allows to avoid the scenario in which you get the blade and the handle split in two separate parts when you force a little bit on something. There is only one sharp side although the tip of the blade is sharpened on both sides for a couple of centimeters. In the centre of the blade there is a 7mm hole very useful to get afloat or to straighten the shafts.

Another special feature of this product is represented by its case that from my point of view it is far more important than the knife itself. The case is rigid and entirely made with carbon sheets. Conceptually it does not bring anything new to spearos in comparison to the other “arm knives” in the market but its points of strength are mainly represented by a design with no equals and a very efficient hold/release mechanism. In the picture you can see that by pressing on a tab the knife gets released. Check out the video for a practical demonstration. What’s left to say, GFT has once again realized a products that makes you say “I got it, what about you?”

Technical features:

total lenght: 18cm

thickness: 3mm

weight: 82gr total;   66gr (knife)+16gr (case)

ROLLEI ACTION CAM 100:

THE NEW UNDERWATER ACTION CAM

COMPARISON WITH MIDLAND XTC 200

A brand new HD underwater action cam produced in Germany has recently broke into the market and it is called Rollei ActionCam 100. 

Available in tre colours (black, red and yellow) it appears to be a good one for our sport as its weight (75gr without battery) and even its size are really minimum, only 90mm x 41mm x 36mm! It is also provided with a 120° wideangle, a very important feature that all spearos do know very well as the smallest it is the best shooting you get. Furthermore it has an HD resolution lens (1280x720pixel) able to film at 30fps or to take pictures through a 5 megapixel CMOS sensor.

This action cam has a very light and simple design and all its functions are controlled by only 3 buttons located on top of it. The first is an on/off one, the second is the rec button (and also the one to take pictures), the third one controls the two lighting systems. Yes, this videocamera is also equipped with a 4 leds set producing a 1lux cold light and a 4 infrared leds set to shoot in the dark. It can save data on a SDHC card up to 32giga in AVI format (or jpg for pictures) and it is provided with a lithium battery pack that the Rollei ensures to last up to three hours,however according to the opinions of the spearos who have used it, it appears that the battery lifetime is not suitable with the standard spearfishing time.

Another aspect to bear in mind is that the Rollei sells this product ensuring that it is waterproof up to 20mt but unfortunately in several audio video products websites and also in some spearfishing blogs it is described as waterproof up to 30mt. Among the accessories provided with the cam further to the AV cable and the usb one to download the files there are some attachments to mount it on helmets and bikes that can be easily converted to our scopes. According to the opinions of the spearos who have tested the cam, it seems very difficult that the recent successful union of midland xtc200 and spearos could be broken, by the way it cannot be denied that it has several nice features. You can find below some videos recorded with both cams and a comparative table of both technical features.

SIGALSUB: EVOLUTION PRO SHAFTS 

AND ENERGY WISHBONES

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCES

Sigal shafts are already well-known in the market for materials high quality and for the accurate production processes but with the 2011 product series the company made the difference. I had the pleasure to test a 130cm evolution pro shaft that in term of quality and technology has no equal on the market.

One of the main features of this series is represented by the position of the hooking points. The first is placed 65mm from the very bottom of the shaft and the second one 40mm from the first.

This might not ring any bell but try to think that in most of the cases the release mechanism box and the first hooking point are only one thumb width away from each other! Furthermore the shortest shafts have a third hooking point to make loading easier instead from the measure 140cm on they are provided with four of them.

Another important feature characterizing these shafts is represented by the introduction of the new diameter 6.75mm produced as well as the other classic diameters. This intermediate measure represents a good compromise between strength and easy handling that allowed me, together with the special position of the tips, to increase the power of the bands providing then a very powerful and precise shoot with a 95cm wooden railgun and no effect on the brandish.

With Evolution shafts, at first sight, it is possible to note there is like a light grey coating. That is the outcome of a thermal process making the Sandvik steel 10% stronger than before, getting a 52/53hrc hardness level! 

In addition new 1.2mm steel barbs, edges and holes smoothed and hydrodynamic lowered tips would already make this product outstanding but for Simone Gallini this was not enough and together with BLUWORLD technicians designed and created a new tri-cut tip.

The EVOLUTION PRO series is in fact provided with a tricuspid tip where each cut is concave and it ends with a little tab on top. It looks like a screwdriver but it ensures a high penetration performance when it hits the fish as the tip goes through the flesh with no friction thanks right to its concave surfaces and its very sharp edges…just like some Japanese knives where the food does not adhere to.

The shaft well endures the impact with rocks (better avoiding it anyway) and in most of the cases it only loses the little tab on the top. Thanks to its stiffness and its spring backup the shaft trajectory is linear with no flickering. They are not really cheap but the higher price can be reasonably compared to the higher quality as they cannot be considered a common product. 

Among the other accessories presented this year by SIGAL and that deserve a special mention there is the ENERGY wishbone series. Three models XL, Jewel and Wire are all made in titanium.

The main advantage of the use of this material is represented by the reduced weight. By taking a look at the table below you can note that the standard wishbone weight gets about 50% reduced, a very important feature in relation to the general arrangement of the railgun.

Furthermore, all the weight subtracted to the wishbones turns into a greater power on the shaft and produces les noise. By testing these wishbones I could agree with the producers who suggest the combined use of XL and JEWEL on a double band railguns as mine.

At first I was doubtful since I am used to dyneema wishbones but then I realized that thanks to the different width (4cm for XL and 3.2 for Jewel) the bands stay parallel with no narrowings like when you use dyneema wishbones and in my opinion the shot is more fluid.

Then the only fault these products have is that you get addicted to them and when you use other ones you see the difference!