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Suits, masks, fins and cutting tools

Tackle · Last reviewed 2026-08-10

The kit that keeps a diver warm, able to see, able to move — and able to cut themselves free.

Safety

Entanglement — Can cause serious injury or death

Entanglement on a breath-hold is a time-limited emergency. A cutting tool that is blunt, corroded into its sheath, or mounted where the diver cannot reach it with the free hand is equivalent to not carrying one.

What reduces it: Mount the tool where BOTH hands can reach it and practise drawing it blind. Check it draws cleanly before every dive. Keep it sharp. Carry line-cutting shears in addition where discarded braid and netting are likely.

Hypothermia — Can cause injury needing treatment

Cold accumulates through a session, degrades judgement before it produces obvious symptoms, and is worst at the end when the difficult exit or the long swim back has to be made.

What reduces it: Suit for the water and the technique rather than the air temperature. Set a session limit before entering. Treat the first shiver as the end of the dive, not a milestone.

Precautions that always apply here

  • Never spearfish or freedive alone.
  • Dive one up, one down: one diver down, one on the surface actively watching, every single dive.

Four categories of personal equipment, grouped because they are chosen together and because three of them are comfort and the fourth is not.

A WETSUIT for spearfishing is typically two-piece with an open-cell inner that seals against the skin, which is warmer than a conventional suit of the same thickness. Thickness is chosen for the water and for how long you will be still in it — aspetto generates no heat, so a diver who waits needs more suit than one who swims.

A MASK for freediving is LOW VOLUME, meaning it has a small internal air space. That matters because the air in a mask compresses with depth and has to be replenished from the lungs; a smaller volume costs less air. Fit matters more than any feature.

FINS are long and relatively soft, which is efficient at the slow, sustained kick cycle a breath-hold diver uses. They are not scuba fins and do not behave like them.

And a CUTTING TOOL is safety equipment. It is not for dispatching fish; it is for entanglement, and it belongs somewhere reachable with either hand, by feel, without looking.

Category
Spearfishing equipment

What it does

Maintains core temperature for long enough to dive safely; provides an air space that lets the eyes focus underwater at the lowest possible air cost; converts leg movement into propulsion efficiently at low cadence; and provides the means to cut free of an entanglement without surfacing.

How to choose one

  • Suit for the water temperature AND the technique — waiting needs more thermal protection than swimming.
  • Mask: low volume and a good seal. Nothing else about a mask matters as much as those two.
  • Fins long and soft enough for a sustained, unhurried kick; stiff blades cost oxygen.
  • A cutting tool goes where BOTH hands can reach it, and it stays sharp. On the belt is common; on the calf is not, if the calf is behind you.
  • Gloves and socks are thermal and abrasion protection, and on rock and reef they are also what lets you hold on.

What the numbers mean

SUIT THICKNESS in millimetres — typically 3 mm for warm water up to 7 mm or more for cold — with open-cell interiors warmer than lined ones at the same thickness. MASK VOLUME is rarely quoted numerically; 'low volume' is the term to look for, and the practical test is how little air it takes to equalise. FIN BLADE material (plastic, fibreglass, carbon) and stiffness are the variables; carbon is more efficient and more fragile. KNIFE or SHEARS: blade length is less important than reachability and sharpness, and line-cutting shears outperform a knife on modern braided line.

Care, and how it fails

Open-cell suits tear if pulled on dry — use lubricant, and repair small tears before they become large ones. Rinse everything in fresh water, dry out of sunlight, and store a suit on a wide hanger rather than folded. Masks perish at the skirt. Fin footpockets split. And a knife rusts into its sheath, which is the failure that matters: check it comes out cleanly every session, because discovering it does not while entangled is the worst possible moment.

Two jobs that share a bag: staying warm, and being seen

This record covers a category that is usually split across a suit page and a float page, and putting them together is deliberate: they are the two things in the bag whose failure is measured in what happens to the person rather than to the fishing.

THE EXPOSURE HALF IS ABOUT JUDGEMENT, NOT COMFORT. A suit is normally chosen for how cold the water feels. The reason it matters is that cold degrades decision-making before it produces symptoms a diver recognises, and every decision a breath-hold diver makes — how long to stay, whether to go again, whether to take this shot — is safety-critical. A diver who is merely uncomfortable may already be choosing worse. That is why suit damage in cold water ends a session rather than being endured, and why the first shiver is a stopping point rather than a milestone.

THE SUIT IS ALSO BUOYANCY, WHICH IS THE PART PEOPLE FORGET. Neoprene compresses with depth and loses buoyancy with age, and the weighting that was correct for a new suit is over-weighted for the same suit two seasons later. Weighting, suit and quick release are one system, and changing any of them changes the others.

THE VISIBILITY HALF IS ABOUT SOMEBODY ELSE'S EYES. A diver at or just below the surface is close to invisible from a vessel, and a boat travelling at speed cannot stop in the distance available once a diver is seen. A marked float on a line, kept CLOSE rather than trailing far behind, is the whole answer, and the 'close' matters: a float fifty metres away marks a piece of empty water.

IT IS ALSO WHAT A RESCUE LOOKS FOR. A float is what somebody searching finds, it is what an unconscious diver can be supported on, and it is what a buddy holds while getting somebody out of a suit. That is three safety functions from one item that most people buy to hang fish on.

AND THE DIVE FLAG IS A LEGAL QUESTION AS WELL AS A PRACTICAL ONE. Requirements for flags, their design and the distances vessels must keep vary by jurisdiction and are enforced in some. Establishing what is required where you dive is part of the preparation rather than an afterthought.

Spearfishing is regulated differently in every jurisdiction and frequently differently within one — on equipment, on areas, on seasons, on species, on minimum sizes, on the use of any breathing apparatus and on who may do it at all. Those rules change. Check the current rules with the authority for the water you are diving before you go.

Authoritative guidance

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

  • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety practice: hypoxic blackout, its absence of warning symptoms, the ascent as the highest-risk phase, and the surface supervision that addresses it.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Water safety guidance for coastal entry, exit, cold water immersion and the means of summoning help.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Technical and sporting standards for underwater activities, including spearfishing conduct, technique convention and the safety expectations set by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Where to go next

Where it is used

What these connections rest on (1)

Practitioner consensus — 1 connection

Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.

  • Shore diving

    A practitioner equipment claim with a clear mechanical basis.

    • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Thermal protection requirements for prolonged immersion.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Widely restated practitioner guidance on wetsuit selection for shore diving.Citation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

What it works with

What these connections rest on (1)

Practitioner consensus — 1 connection

Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.

  • Weighting and quick release

    A dependency between equipment, recorded because choosing one of these constrains the other. Convention, recorded as convention.

    • DAN guidance on freediving safety, hypoxia and shallow-water blackout — Divers Alert Network (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving safety guidance including weighting, positive buoyancy at the surface, the buddy system and the management of entanglement and equipment failure.States this directlyPassage read and verified
    • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold diving safety practice and equipment expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Understanding it

What these connections rest on (4)

Authoritative guidance — 1 connection

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

  • Boat traffic, and being seen from the surface

    The equipment answer to a detection problem.

    • BSAC diving safety guidance and annual incident report — British Sub-Aqua Club (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Diving safety guidance on surface marking, dive flags and vessel traffic.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Practitioner consensus — 3 connections

Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.

  • Long fins, and what blade stiffness does

    An explainer carrying a mechanism the equipment record depends on.

    • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing equipment and practice: gun, shaft, tip and rigging choice, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Low-volume masks, and why volume matters

    An explainer carrying a mechanism the equipment record depends on.

    • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing equipment and practice: gun, shaft, tip and rigging choice, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

  • Spearfishing wetsuits: open cell and closed cell

    An explainer carrying a mechanism the equipment record depends on.

    • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing equipment and practice: gun, shaft, tip and rigging choice, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Instead of this

What these connections rest on (1)

Authoritative guidance — 1 connection

Stated by a fisheries authority, scientific institute or recognised angling body. Authoritative, but summarising rather than demonstrating.

  • Snorkels, gloves, socks and hoods

    The small items decide how long a session can safely last.

    • AIDA International freediving education and safety standards — AIDA International (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Freediving equipment standards including snorkel practice and thermal protection.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly

Practitioner consensus — 1 connection

Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.

  • Snorkels, gloves, socks and hoods

    An explainer carrying a mechanism the equipment record depends on.

    • CMAS technical and sporting standards for underwater activities — Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (Standards body)Relied on for: Breath-hold spearfishing practice, equipment convention and the safety expectations set out by the international underwater federation.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
    • BlueWater Hunting and Freediving — BlueWater Freedivers, Ventura, California, 1995 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: Spearfishing equipment and practice: gun, shaft, tip and rigging choice, and the handling of a shot fish, from a practitioner tradition distinct from the European one.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
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