Diving For A Cause is a team of divers committed to supporting local communities through their passion for spearfishing: https://www.divingforacause.org/about-us.html
Take a globe in your hands and you will see we couldn't go farther than we did: New Zealand. It was my third trip with DFAC and the very first one for my friend Roberto. We used to go fishing together here in Italy. I had told him so much about my amazing trips to Greece and Mexico that he simply couldn't resist. He's got the right spirit and decided to collect some money with his company, “Undertraining”, to buy sport supplies for the local kids.
We didn't mind spending 30 hours on a plane and then 3 hours in a van, but we were happy we were not supposed to dive the day after our arrival. We went to the marae, where the local community welcomed us so kindly and warmly that our motivation increased and we wanted to work even harder to give them back as many fishes as we could.
Roberto and I were excited to get in the water! We soon noticed how rough the ocean can be in New Zealand. For the five days of fishing Roberto and I were always fishing partners; fighting together with the strong currents and the big waves, and struggling together with our broken English to catch the precious tips Joe Burke (the captain of the MUSA) and Ray Powell tried to give us. After four days of fishing, the Italians landed three yellowtail kingfish and some other beautiful fish, including yellow trevally, parore, blue moki and more. We were happy, but we knew we could do more. Day by day we learned more about the behavior of the kingfish. Each day, we felt better, could dive deeper, hold our breath longer and kick stronger. After a day off we were ready for the fifth and last day of fishing. While the boat was shaken by big waves under a cloudy sky, the rain started to fall. Is this summertime!? We laughed about it and started to sing summer songs, trying to dispel the bad luck. In the murky water I soon understood it could be a good day regardless of the conditions, and I decided to save my first shot for a big kingfish.
I patiently waited for the right moment, and the moment came. Roberto spotted them first, and I was ready to go! I had to dive only 25 feet deep and had time enough to aim at the biggest of five huge kingfish. I pulled the trigger, and in a few seconds I was back on the surface fighting with this monster that was trying to pull me towards the deep. After a 20-minute fight, Roberto placed a second shot on the fish, and we boated it easily. On the boat the scale said 41 kg (more than 91 lbs)! It was the biggest kingfish ever boated on the MUSA in seven years of running charters!
The Italian team work had great success, but all the divers of DFAC worked together as a team to make it possible. I'm so proud of my catch, but I'm mostly proud to have been, once again, on a trip with these amazing people, helping a local community by providing food, playing with kids with the balls Roberto bought, and meeting new friends even in the farthest corner of the world.
See you next trip!
Nicola Manfredi
Ho scoperto l'apnea per caso, nel 2001, in seguito ad un infortunio che mi ha costretto ad abbandonare le piste da sci alpino. Da allora non sono più riuscito a farne a meno. Pratico questa disciplina ovunque vi sia uno specchio d'acqua: piscine, laghi, mare, oceano. Ho viaggiato in giro per il mondo per praticare la pesca subacquea collaborando con l'associazione Diving For A Cause per promuovere attività umanitarie a sostegno delle comunità locali abbinate ad un concetto di pesca sostenibile e responsabile. Ho partecipato a numerose competizioni agonistiche di apnea, sia indoor che outdoor, più per sfidare me stesso che per ambizione di primeggiare sugli avversari e nel 2015 mi sono laureato campione italiano di apnea in assetto costante senza attrezzi. Ho sempre avuto il desiderio di trasmettere agli altri le mie conoscenze e la mia passione per l'apnea e nel 2016 ho conseguito il brevetto di Istruttore Freediving SSI di secondo livello entrando a far parte del Team Moving Limits.
