Graham Carlile and myself were all set to leave ,when Graham was told his leave was cancelled due to work. That was 2 days before I was due to fly out. Not a good start. However when I contacted the organizers they quickly had a solution. I was to dive with a guy from Malta. My first stop was in England to visit Paul Maxwell. He had arranged a trip for us heading south.

Diving in England does not sound like fun, however when you go with Paul its a different story. He is a master when it comes to spots there. He did not disappoint. Even with the foul weather that had been around we managed to get very nice clean water and some great fish. The main target is the sea bass. They are preparing to migrate and tend to congregate in groups before the disappear for the winter. To only who knows where, cos I don't.

So after that and a few good ole English ales I headed to Greece.What a contrast, warm sunny crystal clear waters...I hired a car and headed to see a friend so that I could at least get some deeper diving.Next day we were out on his boat. Off to the closest big island. Greece has thousands of islands, some big some small enough to walk across in 5 min!!!

Needless to say with such good conditions there are MANY spearfishermen. The fish are well aware of this fact too.You either have to dive deeper than the average diver or you have to dive the shallows.Either way the fish are few and extremely wise most having university degrees in spearfisherman avoidance.The Greeks shoot anything compared to us here in South Africa. I managed to see a few fish which was a good start.Next few days I went shore diving and the greatest pleasure was to be able to leave your car at the side of the road and still find it untouched when you get back.

The Greeks are known for their hospitality and good food. I enjoyed lots of both.Heading out to the Island of Leros I chose a ferry. A 10 hour trip.On arrival we were met by our hosts who had a bus waiting for us.Our hotel was a 4 star and the best on the island. They arrange special prices for the team members. So it cost 21 euro per night. That's less than R200..!! which included breakfast.every nite we were taken to restaurants to eat and drink as we pleased at no cost to us!!!

Rules of the comp say that only 2 days scouting are allowed followed by 2 days comp. First day was a bit of a disaster for us as we got the dummy boat and skipper. It was virtually impossible for us to scout properly.Second day was better as we swapped boats. We found a lot of fish, Dentex ,in the deep (30 ish meters) but so did others.First day of the comp we did ok to come 9th. There was a total of 29 teams 13 countries and about 79 divers in total.

You are allowed 2 or 3 per team. Only 3 big yellow belly rockcod were caught. One at 36 and the other at 42 meters by the Croatian team.The second day was in the area where we did little or no scouting. Needless to say we did not get too much there. The top Italians did very well there. They were somewhere in the shallow water.They did not get enough to get past the Croatians who won. We managed to hang in there at 10 th position.

It is a very enjoyable comp as you get to meet the top divers from round the world on a more social level. In fact that the emphasis is more on that rather on who wins. 

You also get to see the latest equipment as well cos a lot of guys are fully sponsored. I bought a pair of fins which are probably the best I have ever used. Hopefully they will be imported by Rob Allen shortly. They will be allowing GPS and Echo sounders as from next year too.

any one wanting more info on diving the med can contact me at jgirzda@eject.co.za

Just as a matter of interest. The price of fish there is about 30 euro per kilo. If you eat at a taverna you will pay about 50 to 60 per kilo for your fish. Food in Greece is relatively cheap to eat out.

There are a couple of I will attach photos

Regards

John