I just got off the phone with Pantoja, he was on his way to the hospital. His Riffe C3X went off accidentally and the spear hit him in the head. The spear was deflected by the cranium and did not penetrate, I believe he's going to be alright. Full details coming up.

SHIT!!, I hope he is OK. Why the hell did it go off and why was it pointed at his head?

WTF!??? OMG...I'd call him right now, but obviously the last thing he needs is a flood of phone calls....please give us reports as you get them.

Holy sh!t ,
Hope he is ok

Chris

IDK, it's always nice to see that people care, call him.

I'm a very precise person when it comes to descriptions and I think Pantoja was bored during the ride to the hospital, therefore willing to answer many repetitive questions so I think I have the story straight.

After changing the oil on his boat engine today he took the boat out for a quick test run with his brother and of course while out there did some fishing. He got a hog so the gun was fired once and then loaded in the water. The gun was only purchased 3 weeks ago BTW. For a reason unknown to me (I forgot to ask) he got on the boat with the gun loaded, I've never seen him do this before, if I did I would have said something. The gun has 2 standard length 5/8 bands and a single flopper 57" 9/32 shaft. Pantoja sat on the rear gunwale and proceeded to unload the gun.

He put the butt on his hip, grabbed the first band to unload it and the gun fired. As we all know due to the length of the C3X the point of the spear is much further than the head of the person loading therefore it's impossible to shoot oneself in the head. Quite different than a pneumatic speargun where if one does not pay attention the point can end up exactly under the jaw as it's reaching loaded position.

The spear hit the end of the mono and ricochet point first to his head. The spear entered at the hairline, was deflected by the cranium, exited under the eye brow passing over the eye and entered again above the cheek (I don't remember if it was the left or the right eye). In the shock of the moment Pantoja didn't know what happened but he said that when he opened his eye he could see the shaft directly in front of it. His brother ran over and grabbed the shaft so the weight of it would not tear the skin. Upon inspection the flopper did not completely pass under the skin and Pantoja decided to pull the spear out on the spot.

There was a lot of bleeding and I think he used a rag to put pressure on the wound while his brother drove the boat home. When I spoke to him he was just getting underway to the hospital.

Holy *&%$*&%$*&%$*&%$ !!!!!!!!! Wish you the best good luck bro

bizarre story, hope he is okay.

holy crap. that almost sounds like a urban myth. hope he is alright and heals fast.

jeep

lol...just last week he was opening a beer with his knife and sliced off a piece of his finger...it was f*cking gross...there was a piece of his flesh on the cooler it was disgusting lol...

He does have some bad luck at times....

From the sound of it, it looks as if he's ok, but I'd still like to hear confirmation whenever you get any other news

I've made a joking remark previously that Pantoja, while being a very safe diver, is a glutton for punishmet, his diving day is not complete without some kind of cut or bruise, but this is more than anything I would have imagined. I've been using the Riffe mechs for years without a problem and Pantoja is a very experienced spearfisher, all these years with the poorly made pneumatics of Cuba and never getting hurt says something. It's ironic that after switching to a band gun only 3 weeks ago this happens.

What is also strange is that the momentum of the shaft did not break the mono, I'm sure that if it was a 5/16 shaft it would have. What is bizarre is that the shaft came back point first. I don't think that the ricochet would have been strong enough to penetrate the cranium deeply but definitely strong enough to take out an eye. I am very glad that my friend is OK.

damn that sucks,..and will suck even worse tomorrow,...hope hes ok

damn...close call.....get pics????

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad he didn't loose an eye and everything will work out as long as he keeps it clean.

damn...close call.....get pics????



I agree pics are a must!!!! I just got off the phone with him, he's ok(first words out of his mouth were asking me if he did the oil change correct:rofl:)just went to the hospital to get everything checked out.

A line gun shaft will spring back and come back at you point first everytime. Got a hole in my leg to prove it. Glad to hear this wasnt more serious.

That's bad news, I hope his recovery is quick and full. Dan, let me know if there's anything I can do.

OH GOD! AFTER TALKING TO YOU I DIDN'T THOUGHT THAT SOMETHING LIKE THAT COULD HAPPENED I'M VERY SHOKED. HOPE YOU BROTHER GETS BETTER I'LL CALL YOUR CELL LATER. TAKE CARE.

My god, glad he is OK and retains his sight.He may wanna post this up in the safety section once he's properly rested and recovered.

A mobile phone pic of the entry wound, looks worse than what I imagined. Pantoja is just leaving the hospital now to go home, what a PITA to be there all night. The wounds were stitched up and he got some antibiotics and cream to put on the wound to lessen the consequent scarring.

I'm just glad he's ok.
What a scare !
I guess this is one of those rare times it's good to be hard headed :smthumbup:

Let it heal so we can go slaughter some fish soon !

Rinaldo

Wow, sounds like a very close call indeed. Im glad to hear hes going to be alright.

My brother typing for me , I'm not home yet.
I just got out of the hospital , I don't know how many stiches I got but I think they were like 10 or so. The upper wound 7 , 2 on the upper lid and one on the lower. God , I'm ugly and swolen. I never got this beat up even in a fight.... well yeah once but no stiches.
It was stupid of me to bring the gun on the boat loaded, Even though I still don't get how it went off.
Idon't know how many times I was told in the hospital how lucky I was , but that is questionable, it depends how you look at it.
I didn't have a camara , shame A pic of me with the shaft stuck there would have been a hit. Anyways The surgeon who treated me took some pics , I'll try to get some after tuesday. He even put a couple wooden sticks in to show the tunel from the forehead to the eye. I apreciate the concern of all of you guys , it makes my day a lot better.

Glad you're alright man. If it's cool with you I may post this in another forum as a safety reminder.

I'm home , this is me typing now. yeah , man , you can post it no problem. I think I'll go to bed in a bit to rest , 'cause last night I had none.

F********CK! That's nuts, glad to hear he's OK!!

Pantoja, be careful asere. Glad to hear you are ok chief. Be safe and I hope you are back in the water soon doing what you do best. Take care.

thanx. I'm really swelling right now, it sucks.

Makes my face hurt to even think about it. Glad you are alive. :absolut:

Damn Pantoja, try to stay in one piece hermano.

Speedy recovery to you.

Gerald

Best wishes for a fast recovery.

Kolt

Glad you are OK. That shit is scary. No more unloading out of the water or loaded guns in the boat for me.

Glad you are OK. That shit is scary. No more unloading out of the water or loaded guns in the boat for me.

I agree. I'd let it slide...NOT any more.

Man, get well.

I agree. I'd let it slide...NOT any more.You guys don't listen to me and think I complain when I try to tell you what can go wrong. I'm meticulous about having no loaded guns in the boat, anyone who knows a little about how trigger mechs function on any style gun can appreciate that. I talked about the importance of a float line, Oscar didn't listen. I always say how important it is to have a dive flag on the float even when diving from a boat cause you can easily get separated from the boat and lost.

Other than that, I don't care if you wear a D3 :D

I agree completely, I don't like carrying loaded guns on a boat...theres too much knocking around when driving and anything could cause the gun to fire. Safety should always be the priority, sadly I had to learn that the hard way...but thats how we learn.

My father use to say there're three kinds of people. First the smart ones that learn from their mistakes, second the stupid ones who don't learn and reapeat the same mistakes, third and the smartest are the ones who learn from other peoples mistakes. I would really like to be one of the latter but mostly I settle for learning from my own mistakes. Experience is knowing what not to do.

I was alone with my brother, and I jumped in for a couple minutes only , so I didn't even bother to grab the float line. I was feeling so confident that when I got on the boat I did it with the gun loaded , and then , there you go, punishment from above. Ive always been against loaded guns on the boat , and have always used the float line , I don't really know what was in me that day. From now on , no exeptions.
I learned something else too. How it feels to be shot in the face. It ain't that bad , pain really comes 20 hours later, so, won't feel that bad about the fish, cause 20 hours later they are already cooked.

so, won't feel that bad about the fish, cause 20 hours later they are already cooked.

:lol:

I learned something else too. How it feels to be shot in the face. It ain't that bad , pain really comes 20 hours later, so, won't feel that bad about the fish, cause 20 hours later they are already cooked.:eek: You told me you never feel bad for the fish!

Well.... that depends if I fought with my wife the day before or not.

20 hours later:BoomSmilie_anim::BoomSmilie_anim::BoomSmilie _anim:

Wow, just found this post, so I'm late, but I'm glad to here he's going to be alright. That is some seriously scary stuff and a very close call.

I'm relatively new to the spearfishing scene, so for sure, absolutely no loaded guns on the boat.

Get well soon.

OMG!..he's one lucky .well maybe unlucky guy! THAT was a CLOSE call!
Glad to hear he'll be ok...

It's been 11 days now since the accident and I saw Pantoja today. The wounds are healing very well. The two bottom puncture wounds are not even visible. The top one which was the largest still has stitches but looks to be healing well too. Lets hope it doesn't leave Pantoja too marked up, he needs all the help he can get :D

One thing that caught my eye as I was handling the culprit speargun, taking the trigger mech out of the gun to send to Riffe, was the condition of the spear. I must say that Pantoja has a flair for the dramatic as he did not bother to clean it since the accident, it's either that or some kind of Cuban juju..

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s170/da4095/BloodySpear.jpg

Doesn't look very sharp at all...thank goodness :pray: