2017 Key West Wahoo Shootout

[castronova]

Early Registration now open!!!!

http://www.kwwahooshootout.com



Early registration ends January 2nd. Early entrees will get $20 off per diver. Tournament January 13 -15th.
***This year there is also a Team Registration. You can find the team registration under the registration tab on the site. Those who register a team of 3 or 4 divers during early registration will receive another $20 per diver for a team savings up to $160.***

Prize Places

Open Class 1st - 5th place
Junior Class 1st - 2nd place with a minimum of 8 divers
Women's Class 1st with minimum of 4 divers
Mutton Snapper 1st (all entrants can win)
Captains Prize (pay to play)
Team Prize (not finalized)

Notable prizes....

Sea Sniper 67" Pro Custom worth ~$3000 for first place open.
Sea Sniper 110 - 130cm Rear Handles
Sea Sniper 3mm wetsuits (4)
Amadeo Bachar original Artwork
Speared Apparel gear all places
Woodroze Sunglasses all places
Red Tide Reels, Knives
Gannet Floats - Floatlines
Caleb Goins Metal Trophies/Sculptures
Sea Deck Helm Pads and Accessories
... and growing!!!

More info on specific prizes places and the charity raffle will be posted later.

[castronova]

Here is last years 67" Sea Sniper Pro Custom. First place took this gun, a Sea Sniper 3mm wetsuit, a giant Liquid Ambition custom made fish bag, a Gannet Float, some cigars, a bottle of rum, an Aussie Reel, Seadek helm pad, and a pair of Woodroze sunglasses. I'm not sure what all that is worth exactly but I think it's close to $5,000.

[John Hughes]

that sounds like a sick tournament JP. I hope things blow up for you guys this year and it goes better than expected.

[castronova]

Thanks John. This thing seems to be really blowing up this year.

Since this post we have added Formula Freediving as a sponsor who's given a Level 1 free dive class, Divers Direct will be giving us $1,000 in gear, Koah has given us a gear bag for the charity raffle, Speared Gear is putting gear in every prize package and a wetsuit to the charity raffle, E-Sea Rider has donated a boat bean bag for the charity raffle as well. I've having trouble keeping up, haha. This is awesome!

[castronova]

Started putting up flyers around town today(below). The shirts and hats have been ordered and all the prize packages are mostly complete.

The Charity raffle will be held at the awards ceremony on Sunday night. We expect about $5,000 worth of raffle prizes comprised of spearfishing and boating gear and local gift certificates as well. We're still working on it.

There will be a captains prize worth $3,500 that will include an Amadeo Bachar Original (wahoo themed) painted just for the tournament, a Seadek helm station pad, and a Fusion 500 watt marine amp. Captains prize is $40 to register.

We have a team prize as well this year. We will announce how the team and captains prizes will be won in the next week or two. The team prize is 50% off up to 4 divers for a 5 day, 3 day spearfishing trip to Sea Sniper Baja to dive Cerralvo Island. All boats can register for this by giving a boat name and list of up to 4 divers.

We also extended the Open Category from 3 to 5 places this year. We have now also created 1st and 2nd for Mutton Snapper category.

1st Place Open is valued at ~$4,600
2nd Place Open is valued at ~$1,600
3rd Place Open is valued at ~$900
4th Place Open is valued at ~$300
5th Place Open is valued at ~$150

1st Place Junior is valued at ~$1,300
2nd Place Junior is valued at ~$700

1st Place Mutton Snapper is valued at ~$450
2nd Place Mutton Snapper is valued at ~$275

We are still trying to add more prizes as can get them.

Notable charity raffle prizes that we have so far (this raffle is open to everyone):

Sea Sniper DiveR Blades
Koah Fin/Gear Bag
E-Sea Rider Bean Bag
Red Tide Weigh Scale and Pelican Case
Sport Tube
Speared Gear Nova Suit
Woodroze Sunglasses
Spearingmagazin Subscription, Hat, and shirt
FII level 1 class from Formula Freediving
Bluetec Flame Blades
Magna Gas Grill
Farout Fishing half day charter
Amadeo Bachar Large Wahoo over the Keys Framed print
Amadeo Bachar Medium Hogfish over the Keys Framed Print
Riffe Utility backpack

All this is subject to availability and can change but 95% of it has been set in stone.

[Trace]

So how did it go?

[castronova]

Hey Trace, I've had a busy week and haven't been able to update every thread, my apologies.

The tournament went great, what a fun event. There was only 1 wahoo shot (on day one) but I believe there was 6 King Mackerel, and about a dozen Amberjack weighed along with 7 mutton snappers. This was an aggregate points tournament with mutton snapper a separate category. Wahoo was worth 1 point per pound and king mackerel, cobia, amberjack, and african pompano are worth .5 points per pound.

The standings were very close at the end of day one with a 25# wahoo being landed but 3 other guys had Amberjack from 38 to 41 pounds only trailing by a few points.

Day 2 came with 30 knot winds and narly seas! Only those in contention braved the 6' seas and all went to a wreck right off Key West to target Amberjack for points. In the end the winner ended up being Cole Harrison who shot 41 and 38 pound AJ's to win out by 4 points. Aaron Young who shot the tournaments only wahoo brought in a 22# AJ but it was only enough for 2nd place. GR Tarr, Juan Carbello, and Sixto Lima rounded out 3rd, 4th, and 5th places.

Junior Joey Eppy won the mutton snapper category with a 15.4# snapper and took home nearly $1,000 in prizes. GR Tarr won second place mutton with a 12.4# fish.

Captain Chris Mendola who was chartered by GR Tarr and crew won the Captains Prize that included an Amadeo Bachar original painting and a Fusion 500 watt marine amp from West Marine and they also won the Team Prize which was half off a 3 dive day trip to Sea Sniper Baja for the 4 of them.

We had a pretty big charity raffle after the awards which brought over 100 people into the Brewery on the Sunday night. We gave away a ton of big prizes including but definitely not limited to 4 huge liquor baskets, a stainless Magna marine grill, Riffe utility pack, Koah gear bag, E-Sea rider bean bag, FII level one course, Half Day charter from Chris Mendola, Bluetec CF blades, Red Tide Pelican Case with certified weigh scale, 3 Woodroze Wood Watches, Speared Nova Wetsuit, a 5' original Yellowfin tuna painting from Campo Gallery, etc. etc. etc.

All in all we gave away close to $30k in prizes and raised $2,000 for two charities we chose that support funds in the memory of 2 young locals who died spearfishing as teenagers.

And of course the focal point is always the Sea Sniper 67" Pro Custom that Chris and Bryan sponsor us with each year for 1st place (along with a 130 rh and 3 wetsuits). Prize packages also included bluewater float and line from Gannet Dive which is awesome, Speared Gear, Red Tide Spearfishing, and Woodroze Sunglasses for every prize package, Trophies from Caleb Goins and Amadeo Bachar, and $2k worth of gear from Divers Direct and West Marine. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone but I'm just rambling from memory here. I'll check back later with the list.

[Trace]

Sounds like you guys had a great time JP. Good of you to put this on and to raise money for those charity's.

Trace

[castronova]

Thanks Trace. It was a blast to put on. We acquired so many prizes it just made sense to use it to make money for good causes.

[John Hughes]

great job JP, congrats on another successful tourney!

[Red Tide]

JP ran a great tournament. First class everything!! We were a day late on the weather but everybody made the best of it. Super competitive group of guys doing what they love. Definitely looking forward to next years Shootout.

Cheers,

G.R.

[Bill McIntyre]

This sounds like my kind of tournament. All I have to do to win something is show up.