Every spring, like clockwork, our customers dig through their dive bags, garages, boat lockers and closets trying to piece together their arsenal for the upcoming summer months. Their gear was usually put away hastily after their last trip. A little bit of salt water still saturating all the tiny little crevices and threaded connections and the power bands left exposed to air for the past 6 months. And in their scramble to pack for their first trip of the season they often overlook some key preventative maintenance that can be the difference between a successful first trip and gear failure. So in this article I am going to discuss the problems we see the most and the best ways to overcome them.
This means you should disassemble your gear, rinse it, then put it away dry. Especially if it's going to sit for extended periods.
I know this sounds obvious. But let me explain we we think this is such an important step. Every year, starting in April, we have customers come in with broken injector rods and dry rotted power bands. The rods are broken off at the base of the threads. Upon examination, each and every one of these spears has a solid ball of rust down in the spear. It looks like the injector rod just rusted in half. Well, in a way it did. Now I am going to get Nerdy. 17-4 PH Stainless Steel is an aerospace grade material that exhibits superior strength and hardness as well as good corrosion resistance. This makes it ideal for spear shafts and tips. But 17-4 PH Can be susceptible to "stress corrosion cracking" in sea water. This is not a big deal for everyday use. But if seawater is left trapped for 6 months in the area at the base of your injector rod, the base of the injector rod can begin to exhibit stress corrosion cracks. Then, when you go to use your spear again the following year the injector rod snaps in half down in the threaded base. (we have not noticed a marked improvement with the use of TefGel either)We get a handful of these every spring and believe it or not, we see this happen more in predators than in nomads. We believe this is due to the fact that people generally remove the injectors from the nomads, but they never remove it from the predator because the rear section is already so much longer. As a result, more predator spears are left to corrode. The bottom line is, at the end of a trip, take your spears apart and wash them with fresh water and let them dry.
As for the bands, they are fairly easy to put away for the season. Latex rubber has a few main enemies. Heat, UV exposure and Ozone. Keep the bands out of the sun and, ideally, in the dark, when they aren't being used. Also, don't leave your roller bands stretched out, let them relax when being stored. As for ozone, there is some in the air at all times, but certain electronics like motors and circuit boards can also generate small amounts of ozone. So its best to store your bands away from refridgerators, electric motors, and other electronics. Keeping your bands inside the air conditioning will help them last until the next season, but even under the best of circumstances your bands will last a year max. After that they might look ok but they will have less power and could break. We recommend getting a new band every year and keeping the old one as a spare.
Generally there are only a few things to look over on your spear. Check these before your trip so that you have time to get your spear rigged properly. 9 times out of 10 these items need to be address after the spears have sat in the garage for a while. We promise this will make a big difference. A list of replacement and maintenance parts can be found here.
After a day of diving, here are a few basic steps you can take to keep your gear in good shape.
Roller spears like their maintenance a little more than a standard polespear does. Here are a few pointers:
We have tried to make it as simple as possible to maintain your Headhunter equipment. You can find replacement parts here.
Do you think you need to get your spear serviced? Send us an email with some photos of what you think is wrong and we will walk you through any simple repairs or have you send the spear back to us for more in depth repairs. You can also swing by our factory in Fort Lauderdale(Oakland Park), Florida.
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This is a quick demonstration of how we recommend attaching various floatlines to any Headhunter Spearfishing Roller Polespears.
Featured Products:
Nomad Roller Polespear
Predator Roller Polespear
Floatline Rigging for Standard Polespears:
Predator Big Game Band w/ dacron core
Nomad Big Game Band w/ dacron core
]]>Today we explain the difference between the two types polespears and help answer any questions before you make a purchase.
]]>Check out the latest Headhunter Spearfishing video where Bradley Thornbrough describes his personal pole spear setup.
The Nomad is the perfect all around spear designed for hunting reef fish as well as Pelagics. It has a proven track record and has landed numerous world records. One of the most well known is Luke Maillis's 130lb Cubera Snapper.
Since the Nomad is built on the same platform, all parts are interchangeable. You can swap out the rear section to feature the Roller as well as add or remove mid sections to customize the length of the spear.
Featured Products:
]]>Find yourself having trouble setting up your new polespear? Watch now for detailed steps on how to rig the Headhunter Spearfishing Showstopper Slip Tip on your Nomad or Predator Polespear. These steps can also be used for the Headhunter 6mm and Riffe Tip Kit.
]]>Looking to add a grip to your polespear? Watch now to view how we install the Headhunter Kung Fu Grip Kit on the Predator Polespear.
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