what is the technical difference between a polespear and a hawaiian sling?

Not quite sure what you mean by 'technical difference', but here's the difference. A pole spear is a shaft, usually fiberglass, aluminum or a combination of the two, with a removable tip on one end and a band connected to the other.

A Hawaiian sling is a straight shaft with a sharpened end and the non sharpened end is inserted into a wooden or plastic handle with a band connected to it and the band has a holder that the shaft sits into and you stretch the band by holding the handle and the little holder.

if you do a Google search for the two and look at the images you will see the difference. Hope this helps and is what your looking for, if not explain what you mean by technical difference.

Besides what Mikey111k said - In most cases the "Hawaiian sling's" shaft is let go of completely...There is no line attached to the shaft. And a fish can in-fact swim away with your shaft if it is fairly big and or you don't get a killing or debilitating hit on the fish.

With a polespear the shaft "in most cases" never completely is freed from your "grip" or hand.

I have on a few occasions seen Hawaiian slings rigged up with a "shooting line"...And I myself on a few occasions have "free-shafted" a fish with my polespear when they were slightly out of range. :awink: So there you have it!