Every year after, divers would lament about its passing. Many wanted to bring it back but the rigors of putting on a spearfishing event required lots of work, mostly volunteers which are hard to come by in this ever increasing fast paced society.

In 2003, the Alabama Spearfishing Association was born to assist with events of this nature thus the Orange Beach Tournament was the number one priority and picked up where the last tournament left off with the 10th Annual.

Stickmen Mike Wade, Jack deVilliers, Don Cooley, Matt Rytting, Marcel Garsaud, Mike Freeman, Les Sage, Sid Smith and Ashton Blessey would be competing in the resurrected competition held on September 19-20, 2003 at Tacky Jack's Marina in Orange Beach, Alabama.

This is our report.

While preparations are made weeks in advance, the business begins on Wednesday prior to the event at the Blue Gill Restaurant on Battleship Parkway in Mobile, Alabama. This is where the final registration and Safety Meeting take place. Most contestants wait until this night to register to better gauge the weather. It is also a nice sociable evening among divers as we lay our competitiveness aside for a few hours.

Thursday arrives and the Stickmen from out of town show up in force. Charlie Carr brings his boat the "Sheneeda".  Everyone stows their gear and we order up some chow.   The next brief hours are spent getting our gear loaded into vehicles and boats, scooping ice into sea chests and trying our best to get in the rack as early as possible.   The latter was not accomplished but we made do.

The plan for Friday was for Don, Les and Sid to go out with Captain Charlie on his boat. Marcel and Mike Freeman would be diving out of Biloxi, Mississippi on Mike's boat and Captain Bob Kelley would take Jack, Matt and myself on his boat named "Out of the Blue".

While each boat crew made their own plans, the "Out of the Blue" would be at the dock on Dauphin Island waiting on her crew at 0430, in order to be on the first dive spot by 0500 when the tournament officially began.

0300 hours came much to early but the excitement woke us right up. "Matt" I whispered as I passed him on the sofa on my way to the kitchen, trying not to disturb the other three divers crashed out at our house. He bounced right up as I knew he would. We grabbed lunches and a few last minute items and we were off.

Jack met us on the Island and we met Bob on schedule. We boarded the boat with gear and eased out of the launch.

Our first dive would be around the Sand Island Lighthouse, southeast of the Island. A picture of the lighthouse can be found at the following link.  Coastal landmarks

This location is well known for lots of shark activity but we did not discuss it and felt that a good sized flounder would easily be found there. It was an eerie feeling as we motored slowly towards the lighthouse in pitch dark. There is not a single warning light on it, making it difficult to find in the night. Bob pulled the boat as close as he thought was safe but still left us 100 feet or more to swim to the structure.  We based our decision to go here on the high tide, hoping to have good visibility but that too would not be the case.  Visibility was no more than a foot or two at the most. Diving was difficult and unsafe around the rocks. I was surfacing from one dark and dirty dive when I came upon a big boulder and had to swim around it to the surface. Even still we managed to completely cover the area. We saw many trophy sheepshead and lots of bait fish but nobody found a flounder.   A prized category for the Stickmen. Jack shot three sheepshead and we returned to the boat.

We requested to be taken to the next structure, a rig within site of where we were. Captain Bob obliged and soon the three of us were diving down the pilings. It was a beautiful night and the seas were flat. Stars were out in numbers and just being the there in the pre dawn hours was such a peaceful and serene feeling.

The visibility here was surprisingly much better. I'd estimate 20 feet on bottom. Jack, Matt and myself all took different pilings to dive on but could not find a flattie. We worked our way closer and finally to the rig itself. I swam into Matt and we took turns diving down to the bottom. I finally see a flounder and promptly dispatch it. Matt follows suit and we return to the boat as the light creeps over the horizon to the east.

"Where to?" Bob asked. "South" we reply and off we went. The farther we got out, the more blue the water became. The seas were almost flat so we made good time to our next dive spot.

We stop along the way to dive a weed line. I jump over with Matt and we boat a couple of tripletail but don't see any dolphin.

After about 30 miles of smooth sailing and day light arrived we pulled up to a gas rig and all got in.

I saw between 8 and 12 barracuda right away. Excitedly, I fire at the biggest I see and miss. Jack shoots soon after and hits his 1st Place fish. I follow with another nice "cuda". Matt is hunting deeper for snapper and a big one pulls off.

We hang around for a while then move on. Our next spot held more fish. More barracuda, snapper, small triggerfish, mackerel, and Matt sees a rainbow runner. Matt shoots a barracuda, category filled. I shoot a couple of mangrove snapper and land a shot on a big barracuda that nearly dislocates my wrist. He pulls off just about as quick.   Little did I know that my wrist will be sore for days to come.

We make several more stops and dive like crazy. By this time we have many more fish boated and Jack gets an amberjack, while Matt gets a bigger "cuda".

As the day wears on so do I. I'm getting too old to climb over the side of the boat to get in and would prefer a ladder but Jack won't have any part of it and makes me act like the skinny guys. I climb in again, again and again. At one point I'm at the back of the boat giving Jack a "look" as I'm about to scoot in. Matt comes swimming up and bounces right into the boat. I grunt and slip onto the transom. Jack pushes me back in the water. "You mother... ",
I don't finish the sentence as usual and we all get a good laugh. I kick back in over the side with a grumble. I remove one fin and then the next.   As I'm pulling off the second fin, it slips out of my hand back into the water. It's back in again to rescue the fin. I'm finally shown mercy and the ladder is extended. "Much better" I exclaim with a grin.

We continue to dive more spots and more fish are shot and boated.  Matt being the heavy hitter is relentless. He dives one spot after another. Finally the water is too murky, making visibility bad so we head to the dock.

After loading the boat, we all meet at my house to unload fish and clean up the boat a bit before making the drive to Tacky Jack's in Orange Beach to weigh in some fish.

We make the board on the first day with Jack's barracuda, my barracuda and my tripletail. No other Stickmen make it to the scales in time. We return home late Friday evening and have little time to socialize.

It seems that Charlie's boat has some problems and won't be available for the following day. Jack and I decide to let Matt, Les and Sid take our spot on Ashton's boat for the next day. We invite Don to go on a night dive early Saturday morning. Exhausted from the days events,  Don declines but I don't tell Jack for fear that he will back out on our plan.

0300 hours arrives and I'm standing in my driveway waiting for Jack.  I can hear him coming down my street with the rock-n-roll blasting.  "Turn it down a little" I request. "People are still sleeping". He complies.  Jack throws his gear in my van and it's off to the Orange Beach jetties.

We down a giant cup of coffee as we motor down the highway and in 90 minutes we a sitting at our dive location. We observe another diver in the parking lot as we are gauging water conditions. A closer look revealed it to be an old dive associate of ours, David Overstreet. "Hey David, how long has it been?" "Ten years at least" he replied. "Ready
to go diving?" we asked. "Yep" he replied. We suited up and headed down the seawall. Since we were in a tournament and David wasn't, he yielded the honey hole to us, while he dived another spot.

Jack and I got in the water and had to literally watch out for sting rays and skates. They were everywhere. Before long we came upon some flatties and quickly loaded them on our fish clips. We took turns as usual going in and out of the rocks until we were in deeper water and there was plenty of room to move about.

I didn't relay to Jack a conversation I had with a mutual friend, Rick Pinegar, a couple of weeks earlier about a 10 foot hammerhead that has been spotted along the jetties. I keep things like that to myself to avoid bad karma but it did play on my mind when I encountered a 3 foot remora out near the channel. "Don't think about it", I kept
telling myself and kept hunting flounders. There was so much sea life here tonight. It almost seemed like the rays, skates, crabs and flounders were competing for territory. It was truly a mystical morning.

As we were completing our dive, I was swimming over a small skate and get Jacks attention. "Pet it!" I yell to Jack. "No" came his reply.  "Come on, chicken". I gently rubbed my fingers over the skates back and just as planned got a quick jolt. "Yeeooow!" I laughed. "That's why" Jack says. "How many flounders did you get?" Jack asked.
Without counting, I reply "The same as you". We count our fish and just as always, we have shot the exact amount. I call that evenly matched and that is probably why we dive together so well.

By now the sun is coming up in the east and so ends another beautiful pre dawn dive like so many others made here. David is already back and changed into street clothes. Jack and I walk up and flop down our fish. "What do you think David?" "Nice shooting, lets go eat some breakfast" David suggest. We get changed and meet up at the nearest Waffle House where we catch up on old times and promise to get together again.

I can barely hold my eyes open as I drive us back to Mobile. This is where the conversations get crazy and go on non stop just to keep us awake. Jack talks endlessly about any and everything while I fuel the conversation with contradictions and opposing points of view. Anyone who knows us, can imagine how it goes.

We arrive back at my house to find Don cleaning fish and gear. I am exhausted and opt out for a nap. The awards will be later today and I need to be somewhat rested to perform tournament duties. I sleep for another three or four hours and awake to the sound of the rest of the gang as they return from their dive.

Everyone loads up selected fish to be weighed in and gets cleaned up to make the drive back down to the weigh station at Tacky Jack's.

Les Sage weighs in a 15.55 lb. tripletail and takes 1st place bluewater and sets a pending International Underwater Spearfishing Association (IUSA) record.

Jack deVilliers wins 1st place with his 43.50 lb. barracuda and Mike Freeman takes 2nd place barracuda with his 35.25 lb. fish.  I am bumped completely off the board and we miss taking team by 2 points.

The complete results can be seen by clicking on Orange Beach Results .

A special thank you to all the the Stickmen that competed in this event and we are looking forward to a more productive next time.

Some tournament pictures can be found by clicking  here.

Mike Wade
Stickmen Freedivers
Mobile, Alabama