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This is a story of a trip that was not an easy one, but a few friends committed to making the most of it, while diving into two different realities, in less than ideal conditions.
This is the beginning of a fun adventure in the middle of the Atlantic, spearfishing Portugal and The Azores with David Ochoa.
Portugal's mainland is not your typical go-to destination for a spearfishing trip. Don’t get me wrong, this is where I grew up and I absolutely love diving here. But rough seas, bad vis, cold waters and just being hard to get - what some might consider small fish - are just some of the reasons why this might not be a good bet if you're traveling for spearfishing. However, I do believe it's good to get out of your comfort zone and so does Fawaz, a good buddy who joined me for a few days of what would end up being one of the most fun trips I've had this year.
Even though our main goal was to explore the beautiful Azores, Fawaz decided to give it a shot at experiencing the mainland where I grew up spearfishing. I was actually pretty stoked to show our beautiful coastline but I'm not gonna lie, spearfishing in Portugal is not easy. That is also why I believe this is a great place to improve your skills in different areas and just become an overall better hunter. A one-kilo sea bream here is considered a nice fish and sometimes if you're lucky, you might get a nice sea bass, which is one of the most iconic species in these waters. I just had a couple of awesome days with Rui, one of my best friends who tagged along, so we were stoked to go out with Fawaz, but as usual, the west coast did not cooperate, and a strong north wind along with some swell made our options scarce. So while it was fun to drive along the coastline, we eventually had to make the call and go for a sheltered place, and the conditions were far from ideal.
So we checked the shallows and a few holes but the lack of fish made us focus on just getting lobster. I believe we have some of the best seafood in the world and the structures alone make for a fun dive in my opinion. I just love how eerie some of these caves are and inside them, you can find a unique delicacy. We call them brushes in Portuguese and they are one of the most appreciated seafood in our waters. They also live in very specific places, so it was fun to show Fawaz how to find and get them. We did a few more dives here and there, got a couple of new species and the day was done. We spent the next couple of days enjoying ourselves around Lisbon, but we could only think about what was next, to be honest. The main goal for this trip, the Azores. It was time to go.
So after a couple of flights, we were finally on the islands. We drove around only to find out the conditions were not great, but still good enough to go for a shore dive on a little secret spot I have. This rock usually is full of island groupers, it’s common to see lots of small fish, and sometimes a bit deeper there are some monster ones, like this one that is well over 7 kilos. There is one reason why this spot has so much fish, I don't hit it often and when I do, I only allow myself or my friends to take one fish max. Most times we just come here to film and interact with them, if we feel like it we'll take one for dinner but not more.
There's no legislation in Portugal regarding the use of scooters while spearfishing, this is something I never do but Fawaz wanted to try it out here to warm up. This is almost like a different sport and he agreed to only get a couple of fish while using it It's pretty cool when you can see this kind of stuff on a short dive and this is one of the reasons I love it here. You're constantly seeing a lot of life and you never really know what can swim by. We then decided to do a few deeper dives on the drop-off looking for something different. It was fun to work as a team using the scooter, you really need to know your body and have a good understanding of each other's skills and behavior. In my case, I would wait for Fawaz to dive, and then I would get a ride holding onto his leg. This was something quite new to me. I was pretty stoked to see this perfect eating size white trevally coming in, and below 30 meters it was nice to have a ride on the way up. With this we had a great dinner sorted and Fawaz decided to do just one last dive before we would swim back to shore.