Just got the tournament report in from last weekends Clearwater Classic which was held to raise money for the American Cancer Society. Its good to see a tourney that benefits a great cause and kudos to Conner Erwin for putting it all together. I hope in the future more Divers will look to put some like this together for us all to enjoy. Here’s what Conner wrote:
Cameron,
I hope all is well.
If you didn’t hear, going into the middle of last week we had our fair share of bad weather here in the greater Tampa area with tornadoes, 35 mph winds and 5-7ft seas. Thankfully and god willing, the clouds parted Thursday, wind slacked off Thursday night & Friday and Saturday we were left with sunny skies w/ 80 degrees & 2ft seas for the day of our charity spearfishing tournament benefiting the American Cancer Society. We had a total of 64 participants, many of whom were under 18 and had never competed in a spearfishing tournament before. The vis due to the recent blow was less than ideal, but still very shootable even in the shallow 30ft stuff with 8-10 ft of vis. All of our tournament costs were covered by our sponsors and one generous donor which allowed us to give every dollar from registration and raffle sales to ACS while providing our shooters with T-shirts, Trophies, Great Food and all you can drink beer. In total we had over 200 at the weight in and ended up raising just over $5,000 for American Cancer Society.
Of the highlights of the day, 2 stick out to me:
1. 12 year old Skyler Phillipoff shot a 11.4 pound gag in 36 ft of water (skyler weighs maybe 60lbs soaking wet) then won the 50″ Hatch Custom Midhandle in the raffle
2. Presenting the check to the american cancer society rep for $5,000 (every participant signed the check)
Top Shooters:
Overall:
G.R. Tarr
Campbell Small (1st time competitor)
Hogfish Champion: Billy Parker
Snapper Champion: GR Tarr
Sheepshead Champion: Bill Vandeman
Grouper Champion: Jackie Vaseline
Mackrel Champion: Jackie Vaseline
AJ / Cobia / Barracuda: Dean Young
1st timer overall:
1. Campbell Small
2. John Oneill
3. William Mcwhorter
Sasa Bratic and GR Tarr Carb loading after the event
