The SA team comprising of Angelo, Gletwyn, Gyula and Mark traveled to Rota, Cadiz with the aim of ensuring that SA qualified for the upcoming World championships in 2008.

We arrived in Rota on the 11^th of July and immediately arranged our accommodation and boat hire. The 12^th saw us all scouting on one small 4,3m Semi Rigid with a 40Hp engine. The water conditions where fairly good with visibility ranging from 2m to 8m depending on where you dived. We found some good fish which included rubberlips, zebras, Wrasse, Englishmen and a cave with about 50 large blacktails all between 500g and 2Kg.( To Gyula’s excitement)

The next 7 days say us scouting the 2 areas on 2 boats which allowed us to cover more area at a quicker rate. We basically found the same fish and some small 2Kg tropical’s as well. We did however discover that the visibility and current changed throughout the day and also from day to day. We also discovered that the fish moved and an area that had fish had nothing the next day.

Many teams where out scouting which made it quite tricky as we did not want to be jumped on the spots that we found. The same went for the other teams with the result that Portugal rammed Gyula and Angelo’s boat and threatened to hang the two “pirates”, even though Portugal where in the wrong. The aggression from Portugal obviously indicated that no teams where taking this event likely.

The “bad” wind began to blow after the first 2 days of scouting and the visibility began to drop with places going down to 1m visibility which made it very difficult to scout in. We also had the fortune of purchasing 5 GPS marks from a local diver which where considered to be exceptional areas but unfortunately the visibility allowed us not to see too much.

Most of our reefs where about 3-4 Km off shore which tested our land marking skills as no GPS or Echo sounder was allowed to be used in the competition. We had to take cameras out to sea and photograph the marks with the cameras on full zoom. We then had to re-zoom them once on shore and then draw the specific marks for us to be able to find our “hot” spots.

The 19^th was considered a no dive day with all teams registering and the captains and managers being involved in meetings to ensure that all parties new what was happening with all the rules being discussed. We also found our way to the official competition hotel where all the teams where staying.

The 20^th  saw us having the official opening ceremony with the raising of the competition and federation flags followed by the preset ion through the streets while making our way to “the castle”. We where welcomed by the major of Rota as well as various delegates and heads of various underwater federations including CMAS. Light finger snacks and team socializing was the order of the day after all the formalities.

The 21^st was competition day with all divers arriving at the port at 7:45. Boat where assigned to all divers with the outboard motors being marked with a sticker of each diver and country. I was SUD 3, with a 4.3m semi rigid and a 40HP outboard. We thought we were lucky with the rest of the SA team getting larger semi-rigid with 60hp outboards. Our luck was short lived when we saw the liked of Spain, Portugal and some other divers with motors up to 150Hp and Semi Rigid of 6,5m long. These large boats where not only quick but allowed divers to take between 1 to 2 helpers to sea to help with the land marks and other issues.  We all had to meet in the port and once all the boat had arrived we followed the official’s boats for about 10Km to the area that was selected for day 1. We all gathered in the middle of the area, 2km off shore whereby all the team members where accounted for and the rules for the day where announced. The officials announced very bad visibility and selected a 5 hour competition day with a 10m radius rule around each diver. This rule ensured that no diver would be speared by another as the visibility was no more than 2,5m at best but went down to 1,5m depending on where you dived. I opted to dive a small ledge I had found while scouting and Gyula and Gletwyn went to a very good spot slightly deeper out. It took me about 15 minutes to find my exact spot only to find the fish extremely spooky. I promptly received a call from Gyula to say that there spot had no fish and wanted to know if I had found, which I had. They promptly arrived and we all started looking along the ledge where most of our fish came from and where most of the competition time was spent. The other spots we dived did not hold much fish with Gletwyn shooting a blacktail in a cave and pulling the spear out with another one on the spear. We did not realize how such luck could help us out. We shot fish such as wrasse, rubberlips, zebra, blacktails and even a mullet. The average weight of the fish where in the region of 800g.

The weigh in left SA in seventh position with Gyula in 13^th position, Mark in 19^th and Gletwyn in 22^nd. Our spirits where up as we had beaten France and where only 3 points behind Italy with all our divers beating some French and Italian divers and obviously various other countries.

We did however see that many divers and teams that had beaten us had only shot mullets. We had better quality fish but less weigh and weigh is what counts at the end of the day.  We were very confidant that we had a good platform in place to secure a top 5 position amongst the countries.

The 22^nd was once again competition day with all boat once again meeting in the port and moving into the middle of the area. The same rules where implemented as the conditions where quite a bit worse than day 1 with the visibility ranging from half a meter up to a very bad 2m at best, if you where lucky. We had some very good spots in this area so our confidence was high. When the competition began we saw the majority of the boats heading in the same direction as us but we where at the back end of the race due to the sizes of their boats and motors. When we arrived on “our” spots we realized that we could not even get into the water as there where so many divers that the 10m rule made it impossible to find a spot on the reef. In dismay Gletwyn and I changed our game plan and rushed off to another area just to find the same setup but not as bad. We jumped in on the side of the reef and slowly muscled our way into the area. Shooting proved very difficult as the fish where extremely difficult to see let alone shoot.

Gyula had the same problem with the Italian team sitting on the spot that he wanted to dive. We then started moving into deeper water but without much success at all. A Croatian diver started diving about 60m away from Gletwyn and soon found some fantastic fish. The Croatian soon notified his team mates that moved into the area to ensure that Gletwyn was not able to move close enough to get his share. An extremely good plan from their team! I also had my portion of frustration when a 20Kg Dagga swam past me while I had a 60cm pop gun in my hand, unfortunately I new that the visibility and the fish would only give me one chance and I had used up that chance.

We new that we had been beaten fairly and squarely on day 2 and that our chances of beating the likes of Italy where gone.

The weigh in proved to be an eye opener with many divers not shooting a fish at all but other divers bagging a good catch. The Croatian diver that was diving near Gletwyn ended up winning the day and the overall title with about 13 weighers which included a 8kg tassel and a 4Kg Englishmen just to mention a few. The Spanish team had 4 weighers each which meant that it would be a close placing for first place amongst the countries.

The evening was a grand affair with the organizers going all out to ensure a great ending to a great competition.

The final result showed that Spain where the champs with Croatia coming in at close second and Portugal third.

The Croatian took the individual honors with Gyula taking 21^st position,  Mark in 27^th and Gletwyn in 29^th overall.

The competition was a great success with a great team spirit amongst the SA team and other competitors alike. It was fantastic to see the passion in the sport and the various countries with all divers applauding and really appreciating the various catches even if a diver was not able to bag a fish for the day.

The following 2 days saw the team head further down the coast towards Trafalgar where the cleaner water was. We where able to bag some good fish which included a 7,2Kg yellowbelly by Angelo, a 19Kg tropical by Gletwyn, a 5Kg Urta by Mark and some nice rubberlips by Gyula. Other fish speared where some Sea bass, Zebra, Gilt Head Bream and a type of banded Blacktail. Most fish where speared at great depths, 25m to 35m with dives up to 36m or so.

In conclusion, the event was extremely well organized and run. The diving was extremely competitive with conditions being very difficult throughout. It was a great experience with more learnt in 2 weeks than I have leant in at least the last 5 years of diving locally. A must for any diver who gets the opportunity!!

The great new is that SA qualified!!