About Top Shot Spearfishing
Learn about the Best Spearfishing Adventures in Hawaii
Top Shot Spearfishing was born out of the highly focused passion of founder and spearo, Jeremy Selg. Jeremy started his spearfishing and freediving career in 1993 when the waves went flat during surfing trips to the costal regions of the Pacific Northwest. It was during this time when he and his friends were looking for something to fill in downtime between swells, that they found the sport of spearfishing. Since his first breath hold and shot on a surf perch he has been hooked. Always seeking to master his endeavors, Jeremy started to seek out a mentor or some type of training format for his new found passion, with no avail. In 1993 freediving and spearfishing was pretty much unheard of in the Pacific Northwest. With cold murky waters, this was the sport for the few and the brave, not to mention the cold! After stumbling through the sport for a few years he met some local guys that had just moved from the Big Island in search of a new adventure in the Pacific Northwest. When he started diving and surfing with his new found cohorts he started to figure out the true essence of the sport of freediving and spearfishing.
After moving to Oahu in 2005 Jeremy started to hone his hunting and stalking techniques for Hawaiian waters while living on the Northshore of Oahu. The next few years he worked on the diving form, breathing techniques, fish identification, fish behavior and skills that it takes to hunt the elusive and well educated fish we find here in Hawaiian waters. During this time on Oahu he started to notice something about the sport of spearfishing, it was growing and people were becoming more and more interested in the sport that had consumed all of his free time. He also noticed that there was a lack of professional training available to the people who were new to the sport or interested in learning the sport. This is when the concept of a comprehensive introduction to spearfishing and freediving was born.
Fast forward to 2009. Top Shot Spearfishing is born on the island of Maui! With an undying passion for the sport of spearfishing, relentless search for perfection, an unyielding foundation of safety, a strong commitment to the ethics and responsible ocean use, Jeremy clearly lead the way and developed a format that has proven to be the most successful introduction to spearfishing in the world. We are truly honored to introduce you to the wonderful and amazing sport of spearfishing, and we are proud to introduce you to Top Shot Spearfishing! After 5 years of growth on Maui Jeremy made the jump to Big Island to start a second location for Top Shot Spearfishing. We now offer our lessons and guiding on Maui and Big Island, Hawaii.
Intro to Spearfishing
We begin our adventure with the classroom portion of the day. Our classrooms are open air style, designed to immediately engage you with the elements of our beautiful Hawaiian Islands. Our guides will introduce themselves and tell you a bit about how they became involved in the spearfishing lifestyle.
We have developed a spearfishing training system that focuses on 3 core elements of spearfishing, spear and gear, breathing and relaxing and finally hunting and stalking theory.
The Spear
In this section our professional guides train how to safely handle the 3 Prong Polespear or Speargun. You'll learn to properly load and operate your 3 Prong Polespear or Speargun and how to practice the most important principal of spearfishing, muzzle control - where the 3 Prong Polespear or speargun is pointed. You will gain hands-on experience on how to aim, how to fire, how to reload your spear and how to safely engage your carefully selected target species. When we are finished with this section you will be completely comfortable handling your own speargun from this point forward. Safety is our #1 priority, we've trained over 10,000 guests and remain 100% accident free. We supply each of our guests with their own speargun and the proper training to use the gun safely, so you don't have to share a speargun as with other companies that offer spearfishing tours.
Breathing and Relaxing
"Float, relax and breathe," is the mantra of this section. We will learn a breathing technique called
diaphragmatic or belly breathing. This technique is nothing new or revolutionary, it's been used throughout history in meditation, yoga, competitive shooting and archery, singing, cycling and other applications. We will learn how to apply this breathing technique to help you safely and comfortably extend your breath hold and dive deeper. We will also cover equalization, a critical part of being able to dive and hunt deeper.
Hunting and Stalking Theory
This section contains the "golden nuggets" that will allow you to put your skills to the test and actually learn how to hunt and stalk fish, not only here in Hawaii, but around the world. We teach you to "think like a fish" and how to gently lay in wait on the bottom, coaxing the fish to come ever so closer to you. This technique differs from the "dive bomb" method that is taught with other spearfishing companies. This is the true foundation of successful reef hunting and the building blocks of bluewater hunting.
Head to the dive location
Now we gear up! All the gear you'll need to safely and comfortably learn spearfishing is provided on ALL of our dives, you don't have to rent anything additional. Mask, snorkel, fins, 3mm Camouflage full wetsuit, marseilles style weight belt, 90cm Aimrite speargun with active safety assist, it's all there and properly sized and meticulously maintained. We take the time to explain and answer any questions you may have about gear, from why we wear a wetsuit, to how to select and fit a mask. Once we have everyone geared up we will have you follow us down to the dive site. Our dive sites are selected on a daily basis, taking into account the wind, swell and visibility of our ever changing ocean conditions. Our guides have years of local knowledge and thankfully these days "apps" that allow us to quickly hone in on the best place to dive for the day. We will gear up onshore and after a quick safety briefing we make entry via the coastline. We do not use a boat, as 100% of the Hawaiian reef system is accessible by shoreline diving.
Spearfishing
We will be out spearfishing for about 2.5 hours. We start by practicing floating, relaxing and breathing in shallow water. We will walk you thru a series of 4-5 dives where our guide will teach you a skill, demonstrate that skill and then have you practice that skill. Each skill will build towards the next and by the 4th or 5th dive we will start to develop your hunting and stalking ability. Next we will take a practice shot with the speargun, so you can "feel" what is feels like to take a shot, with your own speargun, in the water. Now we start hunting! You'll stick close to your guide to help build your "target species catalog," we focus heavily on invasive species, but you'll also be allowed to very selectively target some of the tasty fish our Hawaiian reefs have to offer.
Wrap Up
After 2.5 hours of spearfishing we will head back to shore as a group, get the gear off and start the wrap up. We do a quick re-cap of the day, open forum style, encouraging guests to ask questions. We will offer up any helpful tips or suggestions, then clean and bag any fish we've harvested and offer up a great recipe on how to cook them! We typically wrap up the day around 12-12:30PM. Thanks so much for joining us and we look forward to spearfishing with you again soon!
Private Spearfishing Adventures
When you book a Private dive its just you or your party for the day! This allows us to completely custom tailor the entire experience to you!
If you are new to the sport of spearfishing, we will follow a similar format as our intro dive, however, we are able to move thru the classroom session at your exact pace, as fast or as slowly as you like, allowing more time in the water. We hand pick the dive site based solely on your comfort level and what is most convenient for you.
If you have spearfishing experience, this is a great dive for you! We are able to quickly and accurately assess your skills and start to improve upon those skills if desired. The private format allows us to breeze thru any classroom session and then gear up and extend our time spearfishing! Again, we hand pick the dive site based solely on your comfort level and what is most convenient for you.
Have any questions?