Morito Asai, owner of Aquasmith Dive Shop in Garapan, says a dive computer is an important part of freediving equipment.
MORITO Asai, the owner of Garapan-based Aquasmith Dive Shop, is a veteran freediver and spearfisherman with around 30 years of experience in the sport.
He said when it comes to local freediving and spearfishing, an area of growth for the CNMI involves the use of dive computers, which record vital data in real time that could save a spearfisherman’s life.
“Nobody uses dive computers [locally],” Asai said in an interview on Thursday. “They don’t know the [physical] condition of the day. They [can’t] follow the numbers. They just follow their ‘feelings.’ ”
Asai said freediving computers, which are similar to, but distinct from scuba dive computers, can tell freedivers their dive depth, dive times, and the surface interval resting time.
He said this information can help prevent shallow water blackout, which occurs when a diver faints from the lack of oxygen caused by extended breath holds. Although the term is called “shallow water” blackout, it can occur after a diver resurfaces, Asai said.
“I [experienced] shallow water blackout once,” he added.
Asai said on Saipan, while fishing with a partner in the past, he was able to shoot a mamulan or giant trevally with his speargun. The fish swam toward a reef wall, taking Asai’s speargun with it. The gun was trapped under a challenging depth of water, and Asai experienced enough current to make it difficult to retrieve the gun.
“I felt bad for my partner because it took 40 minutes and he couldn’t fish, so I pushed myself to grab my speargun and the fish. Then on the way back I was knocked out after I reached the surface,” he said. “I don’t remember what happened. When I woke up, my dive partner was holding my arm. I said ‘what happened?’ I didn’t know why he was holding me.”
Asai said a dive computer records real-time information that shows a diver’s physical abilities on a particular dive that day.
“People can die from shallow water blackout,” Asai said. “But indirectly that comes from not watching [your buddy] and not watching your dive time and the dive conditions of the day. I can monitor that [on a dive computer]. I can see it in the numbers.”
Asai said there are freediving computers available on island and online. They range in price between $200 and $300 on the low end, he said.
Asai said unlike scuba diving, which requires certification to undertake recreationally, spearfishing has no certifying classes for novices.
“Anyone can join [spearfishing], anyone can go, but [spearfishermen here] sometimes go without basic knowledge of shallow water blackout, what the pressure does, what a dive computer does,” Asai said.
Prior to the pandemic, Asai offered diving safety classes.
Asai said part of the classes involved retrieving a buddy from the seafloor, practicing safety breaths, getting the buddy to the shore, and more.
He said with training, a spearfisherman can understand the difficulty associated with rescuing a buddy in need, which can help divers decide whether to dive in a particular area or conditions.
“After the rescue training, you might say ‘hmmm I don’t think I can help my buddy if something happens to him in this condition. Let’s change the spot or cancel.’ Please don’t hesitate to cancel,” Asai said.
He is currently in talks with government officials to begin a new round of classes on Saipan.
