We had last week's meeting at Gator's on John's Pass where the Southern Open will be this June 21......the place is Bad-Azz for the tournament. :chuck:

Bitchin (I'm 53 years old, muthafka, get off me :D) stuff for our East Coast Brahhhhhzzzz:

1) Signup and Diver's meeting on Friday night in St Augustine area, location to be determined. We did this last year and it helped assure an even start for everyone and made it lots easier on the shooters.

2) Flounder will be in the tourney to balance things out with the Gulf Hogfish. Either fish must be a min of 14" long.

:toast:

sounds good.
thanks for looking out for us!

Yeah, the idea to add flounder for the East coast spearos who don't get the Hogs like the one that the West Coasters get was brought up by Screen Name at the meeting and everyone thought it was a good idea (thanks John). The thought to raise the minimum for Hogfish and (the new fish category) Flounder of 14 inches was also voted "in", to try to get divers away from shooting the barely legal fish. We really wanted to send out a message of "lets let them have a chance to get in a breeding cycle or two and it keeps some divers from showing up in the weigh-in line with fish that are right at the minimum legal size and are even questionable at that.
That never looks good for any of us in the sport.
SO, HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE AT THE SOUTHERN OPEN...THE VENUE IS GREAT...THE BIKINI CONTEST FOLLOWING THE EVENT IS AWESOME....IT'S THE STATE CHAMPIOPNSHIP....AND BEST OF ALL - ALLLLLLLLLL, THE PROCEEDS GO BACK TO SUPPORTING YOUR RIGHTS TO DIVE AND SPEARFISH....EVERY PENNY!

Can I go with you John??? :)

Can I go with you John??? :)

If you promise to only say flattering things about me for the rest of 2008, and kick anybody's azz that gives me a hard time, and bring me a new bikini girl every week, I'll think about it. :D If the bikini girls are good enough, your best friend Emo can go too. :biggrinangelA:

Deal!

Emo Spearo has already sent in his registration. He took last years registration form and changed all the dates and moved the minimum sizes up to three times the legal minimum size. I just worry about the waiver, because on the witness line he typed in the word: MOM. Yeah, now that's a hot to trot ready to kill spearo, with MOM on his side.

new to this tourney thing. Is this event like SBO where we can hunt our local water and go to weigh-in the next day? if so I guess someone will post when/where the sign-up will be in st augustine right?

thanks for the help:confused:

Jason,

The Southern Open Florida State Spearfishing and Underwater Photography Championship has been organized and run by the FSDA Clubs for 45 years. There is also a photography competition that runs the full week before the actual spearfishing competition. This tournament has always been a fun, easy, tournament that one could do well by shooting inshore or offshore.

Last year changes were made to the tournament in order to accommodate shooters from the east coast. I know Benjie was a huge asset with assisting with that task and I'm not sure if he is still planning to follow up with that this year or not. Regarding the spearfishing competition (isn't that what we're here for? :D), last year there was an east coast Friday night Captain's meeting held at Cracker's BBQ in St. Augustine where at LEAST one member from each team MUST attend. There were registration forms, rules, and weigh-in cards there as well.

I'm sure the FSDA President Bill Hardman (Capt. Bill) will chime in here soon and cover more regarding the east coast side of things and additional items. I hope that helps for the time being :beer:

Edit: To answer your real question though yes, you will be allowed to shoot your home waters but you must make the deadline for the weigh-in on the west coast on Sunday at Gator's in Treasure Island.

http://www.yagottagotogators.com/

Bryan

Brian thanks for getting out most of the info. The photo tournament section is two weeks long.
The east coast registration is actually the brain child of Screen Name (John Schmidt, Past FSDA Pres.). He knows some well respected and trustworthy divers on the East Coast that helped us do this last year, and we are trying to work out the same arrangements this year.
I will soon know if it is going to happen (East Coast Divers/Capt. Meeting) when I get the word from John. Knowing John, he probably has it already arranged and he's just waiting for me to call him and distribute the info.
We really want the East Coasters to have a chance to shoot in the State Championship, on their own turf, and really make it a more well-rounded "State Championship." First and foremost, we really want to make sure (as sure as we can try to be) that we don't open it up too much, because that will make many question the honesty of the tournamant. With the recent events, you probably know what we are and have been concerned about since this idea was put in place last year. However, last year seemed to work great. John and Benji did a great job and we hope to follow their pattern from last year. We are open to any ideas and maybe even an East Coast Capt/Divers Meeting on the mid to southside of the state. I will get on the ball with this and let eveyone know as soon as possible.

He knows some well respected and trustworthy divers on the East Coast that helped us do this last year, and we are trying to work out the same arrangements this year.

We ARE going to have a signup and Diver's meeting in the St Augustine area on Friday June, 20. We are working on the precise location, and we'll let everyone know well before the 20th.

Thanks for asking! :toast:

Registration Forms along with the Rules for the 2008 Southern Open are on the FSDA website and ready for you to download. Go to www.fsdadive.com and download the rules and registration form from the download button on the main page of the website. Early Registration for spearing ends June 13th, so get them sent in as soon as you can.

By the way, the FSDA just made a pretty nice donation to the FRA.

The FRA is having Dr. Kenchington review the South Atlantic fisheries data, just like he is doing for the Gulf. :toast:

Great news John! :smthumbup:

Benji Bates is going to run the St Auggie Signup & Diver's Meeting on Friday, June 20. :smthumbup:

The location will be at:

Cracker's Barbeque
525 State Road 16 # 123
St Augustine, FL 32084

(904) 825-1115‎

Thanks, Benjie! :smnotworthy:

Thanks Benji :toast: Best of luck to all you east coast shooters http://www.spearfishingplanet.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

I had a typo on the registration and rules website. The correct site address is www.divefsda.com (not fsdadive.com). We have already started to receive many early registrations. This is gearing up to be a pretty big and fun tourney. It will be good to see many of those that only show up for big events to see their friends from diff. areas all in one place. SEE YA AT GATORS.

I was wondering if a Warsaw could be included as one of the three in the grouper catagory...didn't see it listed and wanted to double check.

There are no excluded Grouper species, as long as they can be legally taken. This tournemant has trophies for largest fish species (including Grouper). But the tournament is more of an aggregate tournament. The "State Champion Diver" is the one with the most aggregate points and he/she also wins the largest trophy. Please note: Last year we added the 50/15 Rule. This rule basically gives each diver up to 50 points for only ONE fish and the remainder maximum score for weight is only 15 points. A nice size Warsaw would easily fill that 50 point entry.
I hope you decide to join the tournament, we will all have a good time, win some prizes (due to skill and/or luck) and at the same time ALL proceeds we contribute to enter and any shirt sales will go back to support the sport we love.
If you have any more questions, you can post them here, but if you want, you can also call me at (727) 656-9714 (my personal cell).

There are no excluded Grouper species

Sweeet...I think Emo might be showing up with a Jewfish. :D

Marcus,
Emo PMed me about turning in a Nassau Grouper. I had to remind him that the second part of the quote stated "as long as they can be legally taken." You gotta give credit to wild and crazy Emo, he's always looking for loopholes in any tourney rules when glass is up for grabs.

Benji Bates is going to run the St Auggie Signup & Diver's Meeting on Friday, June 20. :smthumbup:

The location will be at:

Cracker's Barbeque
525 State Road 16 # 123
St Augustine, FL 32084

(904) 825-1115‎

Thanks, Benjie! :smnotworthy:

WHAT TIME???????? OR DID I MISS IT SOMEWHERE ELSE???????? THANKS!

7 PM to 8:30 PM. http://www.spearfishingplanet.com/showthread.php?t=7257

The diver's meeting is at 8:15 PM. Be sure & be there because they WILL change a rule at the meeting. This is a way to assure that at least one rep from every boat is at the meeting, so everyone has an equal start.

Good luck, have fun, and we'll see you at the weigh in! :toast: