TEST: GFT CARBONIO AGGUATO

BY ANDREA SETTIMI TEAM LEROI DESIGN MEMBER

Andrea Settimi, a very experienced spearo that has recently gained the bronze medal in the difficult waters of Bosa at the 2010 italian spearfishing championship, will tell us about the GFT carbon blades, the only ones in the world built with aerospace technology ...

I have been testing the GFT Agguato M carbon blades, (provided by Federico Sensi from InDive shop), for a long period, about 30 days of fishing because you need to get used to a new piece of equipment, especially about fins that are our propellers, in order to give a proper judgement.

At first, after wearing them, I felt a sensation of absolute comfort thanks to Salvimar very soft and wrapping foot pockets. The blades are not at all heavy but extremely light and provide you with a fluid thrust that turns the descent to the bottom into something very simple.

This is something that people used to techno polymer fins cannot do without. I have tested this model also during the summertime to a maximum depth of about 27metres and they did great.
 

I only have some concerns about two points:

1) the height of the side-member, on one hand works great avoiding fins to skid, on the other hand tires the ankles during the glides to explore the bottom.
 

2) The second point is in fact an aesthetic opinion regarding the little space left after mounting the blades in the foot pockets.

However this could be solved by filling the space with a bit of black silicone, and in no case it affects the blade performance.
At the end this is surely an excellent product made 100% with carbon providing divers with best performance and HIGH SAFETY.

 Andrea Settimi

RAILGUN TEST:

ROB ALLEN SHANTI 90

I had the pleasure to test a speargun from Rob Allen, a South African company well known in many countries with a long spearfishing tradition like USA, Australia and Portugal.
It was established over 20 years ago by the two founders Rob Allen and Jeremy Williams and with its products it has supported a lot of champions while catching their world record preys all over the world.
The railgun I have tested is the “Shanti”, a 90cm ocean mimetic carbon gear.

THE BARREL
Lightweight and extremely handy it allows you to easily aim the fishes and to shoot instinctively. It is provided with an integral rail guiding out the 6.6mm spear the gear is equipped with.
The barrel is available with green or blue water camouflage or without any so carbon coloured.

THE MUZZLE
The plastic muzzle allows to put in place a circular band although it is a “closed” one. The gear is provided with a 16mm blue coloured circular band with line ogive, however the muzzle allows you to mount an extra circular band on.

THE SPEAR
The spear the gear is originally equipped with has two main features that are not so common among local products: the tip and the notches.

The spear tip is a tri-cut one that ensures its integrity and penetration power even after hitting several times the rocks. In regards to the notches this spear has just one of them near the shank in order to eliminate a weakness point.

THE SETTINGS
The setting of this gear is clearly destined to a different conception of spearfishing, more oriented to big the tropical preys.
This is far evident in the spear features as in the bungee and the big snapclip with swivel to link the spear to the buoy.
However this difference does not represent a problem but a proof this railgun was designed to endure a greater stress and that is destined to have a great success in our waters where there are very few 50kilos monsters.

EURO SETTINGS
Before use you need to make a few modifications that are even suggested by the Rob Allen Portuguese website.
First of all you need to drill twice the barrel near the handle in order to screw the reel mounting part in. Then you have to drill the muzzle to screw in an inox ring or eyelet to pass the mono line through.
Just to find myself at my ease I removed the snapclip and the bungee as its function was performed by the reel. At the end my opinion about this railgun is definitely positive.

LEROI DESIGN: TRICK POWER

THE REVOLUTIONARY VEST

Leroi design, a company with over 20 years of experience in manufacturing high quality made to measure wetsuits has lately broke into the market with a sensational weight system destined to change the actual way of spearfishing.

During the wintertime the vest is an essential instrument especially when we dive in shallow waters but very often we have to face the following problems:

1. The vest slides towards the head
2. The stripes on the shoulders constrain and obstacle movements
3. The sliding of the vest make noises that alert the fishes

Thanks to the simple idea of my friend Toni Piscitelli this is all history! He patented the “TRICK POWER” a vest without stripes that you can attach directly on the wetsuit through a Velcro system.

The jacket is made with a neoprene inset already covered in velcro that goes from the base of the hood to the shoulders and it ends up on the upper part of the back.

This way you just need to put on the “TRICK POWER” vest previously filled with the belt weights up to 4kg and that’s it.!

This reduced dimensions system ensures a firm hold and a fast assembly and it is further provided with the same camouflage of the suit you order!

If all this did not convince you all you have to do is to watch the video below to see it in action! For further info click on WWW.LEROIDESIGN.IT

ERMES SUB:

THE SPEARFISHING REVOLUTION

In the last few years through its innovative ideas Ermes Sub has revolutionized the concept itself of arbalete, hitting the market with solutions never conceived before.

When everybody thought the variables to take into account to improve the gun performances were the well-known ones like the barrel (lighter, tapered, wooden or in aluminium) or the bands (single or multiples) here this little Apulia company comes to shuffle the cards bringing a new release mechanism able to enhance the gun propelling capacity to spear fishers knowledge.

It’s called “Innovation” and it mainly has three advantages: increase the stroke of the bands, ensure a more fluid thrust to the spear and neutralize its weak points. How all this could ever be possible?

It’s simple! You need to use a modified spear (as in the picture below) allowing the ogive to hook it right from the back with no tension until the trigger get pulled. In fact until that moment the bands are hooked right on the mechanism and once it gets released thrusts the spear more fluidly and with a more linear trajectory.

This way a 110cm barrel gains 10cm in length for the bands to exploit and this turns your spear gun in a more powerful weapon ensuring an higher percentage of catches since the spear has no more notches.

In the last few months the company designer has projected two new products solving other two problems in creating an arbalete: a traditional rear mechanism and an horizontal professional reel.

BACK 

The main feature of the new release mechanism “Back” designed for traditional spears is the position of the cog situated behind the trigger. This allows to rear spear hooking point without compromise the room destined to the handle. A simple idea allowing the spear fisher to exploit the barrel to the max.

FALCO

The other remarkable brand new product is the “Falco” reel with horizontal spool. In opposition to the others available in the market, this reel is designed with a U-shaped stirrup rather than with an L-shaped one, ensuring increate robustness. In addition it is provided with a spring clutch and with an handle well separated from the reel. It is designed to be mounted on all kinds of spearguns.