2016 Polespear Tournament Rules 1. Contest to be held at Phil Foster Park in Jupiter, January 7, 2016. A captains meeting and safety briefing will be held at 7:30 AM, please have your waivers signed and entry fee ($40) paid prior to the captains meeting. Waivers will be available at the tournament. Depart from the docks at 8:00 AM and boats must be within sight of the park docks no later than 2:00 PM. All fish must be landed within this time period. All persons (contestants, drivers, passengers, etc) on any boat must sign a liability waiver. The entry fee is not refundable in the event of a disqualification. 2. Divers must agree to compete in buddy teams of at least two divers and agree to dive in a safe manner by maintaining a reasonably close distance from the active diver to be able to provide rescue if necessary. Any contestant observed to be solo freediving will be disqualified. 3. Please be aware of the significant weekend boat traffic in the Palm Beach area, make use of a diver down flag and keep the attending dive boat within the appropriate distance of the divers to render support and provide notice to other boats that freedivers are in the proximity. 4. This is a strictly freediving event. No scuba gear is to be used. A pony bottle is allowed on board in case of emergency or to recover lost gear. Any fish landed with the use of a pony bottle are not allowed to be entered. 5. This is a polespear or Hawaiian sling only tournament. The use of spearguns or devices with triggers is prohibited and will result in disqualification from the event. 6. Use of flashers is allowed. The use of chum is allowed. Trolling and fishing gear are strictly forbidden. 7. A contestant may spear a fish with a backup polespear or sling if necessary to land the fish. 8. Sharing or trading of fish is strictly forbidden. 9. It is the contestant's responsibility to observe all fishing regulations, including but not limited to licenses, size and bag limits, restricted areas, etc. 10. Fish must be kept in good condition on ice and may not be mutilated. 11. The rules are deliberately kept to a minimum. If you think something probably isn't allowed, it probably isn't. If in doubt, ask the contest director. Contestants may be disqualified at the discretion of the contest director for any reason, including but not limited to unsportsmanlike behavior or violation of the rules, either expressed or implied. 12. Decision of the weigh-master is final with regard to fish entered into the tournament. Decision of the contest director is final in all matters. Scoring and Prizes 1 point will be awarded for each fish and 1 point will be awarded per pound, with a maximum of 21 points per fish. 1 fish per type/category is allowed to be weighed. This means 1 snapper, 1 grouper, 1 jack and so on, not one mutton snapper and one grey snapper. Anything legal and edible is allowed to be weighed, but we reserve the right to enforce the edibility clause. The contestants with the 3 highest scores will awarded with the first picks at the prize table, in sequential order (highest score first, second highest second, third highest third). The first place contestant will receive a trophy as well as the first pick at the prize table. All other contestants will be awarded a chance at the prize table by a random drawing until the prizes are gone. You do not need to weigh a fish to be eligible for a random drawing prize. Staging Area and Picnic The contest will be staged at the main boat ramps. This is also the return point. After the tournament, we will start the weigh in at 2:30, so you should have enough time to pull your boat and park. A picnic style lunch will be provided for contestants and guests during the weigh-in and prize ceremony. We will be supplying the food including an assortment of non-alcoholic beverages. Please plan to stick around a little bit after the weigh in to mingle with the other divers; we usually wrap it up by 4:00. Weather The tournament will be held if NOAA calls for 2-4 ft seas or less. This is a general guideline and it is up to the discretion of the contest director (Andy Steiner) to make the final call. I will post the final decision on Spearboard (East Coast Section) around 5:00 PM Friday night after I review the latest weather forecast. .