5 Books Every Learner Spearo Should Read

Most people think being an effective spearo is all about just going spearfishing.

But in my experience, KNOWLEDGE you attain will make your experience of spearfishing richer.

And what better place to find information than books? In this blog post I’m going to share 5 books that will change your spearfishing….forever!

1. Explore Spearfishing: A Comprehensive Beginners Guide by Eckart Rasson

43 pages of just straight practical teaching on the basics of spearfishing. If you are brand new to spearfishing, this is the book I’d start with. Eckart is a South African freediving and spearfishing Instructor who now lives and operates out of Melbourne, Australia. This book is the foundational material for the courses he has been teaching for more than a decade. 

2. Blue Water Hunting by Terry Maas

No matter how much experience and knowledge you have gathered, Blue Water Hunting will get you rethinking situations, inspire your next big trip and make you feel more connected with underwater hunters from all over the world. The good news is that you don’t even have to be a‘blue water hunter’! This book is full of stories, tips and info about physiology, sharks, survival, gear, species and of course….hunting. 

3. Underwater Foraging by Ian Donald

This book is little known outside the UK and I’m not sure why. I think the title doesn’t give you an adequate insight into what the book is actually about. ‘Underwater Foraging’ reads more like a comprehensive guide to spearfishing with a chapter or two about actual foraging (which is more interesting than it sounds). Visually stunning with really good information from an experienced spearfishing instructor, this spearfishing book is awesome BUT there is a downside; it is a wee bit expensive to get down under. 

4. 99 Tips to Get Better at Spearfishing by Isaac Daly and Levi Brown

Actionable information from more than 40 bloody good spearos! 

AND 

you can buy it right from an Adreno store countertop or on theironline store here. 

If you get to pick up a copy and look through, you'll see actionable tips to improve your hunting technique, breath-hold, as well as find locations to go and meet people to buddy up with. This is a shameless plug for my own book but it was purposefully created to make you a better spearo!

5. Longer and Deeper by Jaap Verbaas

This book challenges old ideas about freediving and freedive training. The focus is on making sure you choose the right cross-training exercises to actually improve specific aspects of your freediving performance. Jaap breaks a dive down into phases and helps you isolate which phase of your dive is lagging behind and then gives you practical exercises to help you improve and maximise your own freediving & spearfishing performance. If you want to learn more about it, listen to Jaap’s interview on theNoob Spearo Podcast here.

*Bonus Reading: 6.Deep by James Nestor

James starts off the book knowing almost nothing about freediving but he is sent to cover a story about the freediving world championship in Greece. 

He is shocked by what he sees.

The book goes on to follow his journey into freediving, the oceans (and just how crazy life beneath is) as well as renegade marine science. If you love the underwater world, this is a fantastic book. 

There you have it! 6 bloody awesome reads for spearos. I’d love to know what books you would've included in this list and why! Let me know in the comments or reach out to me in theNoob Spearo Community Group on Facebook.

• Isaac ‘Shrek’ Daly fromthe Noob Spearo Podcast