Spearfishing

Hold your breath, stalk the reef or the open blue, and take a single clean shot, the oldest hunt on Earth done on lungs alone.

Gold credential: CMAS Spearfishing grades / national federation licence + freediving certification · CMAS (spearfishing commission) / national federations

Ranked by community strength — not by who pays

Where the community gathers

Strong living community

Kona, Big Island, United States

Learn bluewater hunting where the drop-off into deep blue is minutes from shore.

●●●●○ Thriving living community · Season: Apr-Oct · Beginner -> Advanced

Deep blue water and a steep drop-off minutes from shore make Kona one of the world's classrooms for bluewater pelagic hunting.

Living sceneMecca

Taster — a weekend

The full sheet on Kona, Big Island →All 3 schools and the course and what it costs.

★ Best place to go
Birthplace of the discipline

Côte d'Azur (Cassis to Antibes), France

Learn on the coast where sport spearfishing began in the 1920s, and the mask and fins were born with it.

●●●○○ Strong living community · Season: May-Oct · Beginner -> Competition

Modern sport spearfishing was invented on this French-Italian Mediterranean coast in the 1920s, and the mask, fins and snorkel were all born here from the hunt.

BirthplaceHeritage

Mastery track — months–years

The full sheet on Côte d'Azur (Cassis to Antibes) →All 3 schools and the course and what it costs.

Strong living community

Cabo San Lucas / Sea of Cortez, Mexico

Learn to hunt wahoo, tuna and dorado in the warm blue of the Marlin Capital of the World.

●●●○○ Strong living community · Season: May-Nov · Intermediate -> Advanced

The 'Marlin Capital of the World' opens onto wahoo, tuna and dorado in warm blue water, a proving ground for serious bluewater hunters.

Living scene

Deep-dive — 2–4 weeks

The full sheet on Cabo San Lucas / Sea of Cortez →The school and the course and what it costs.

Spearfishing pulls you? Leave an email — we'll introduce you to the right place and the right people as the map grows.

Prices are a verified starting point — no checkout, no hard sell. We introduce; you decide.

If this one pulls you

Close to this on the map

Grouped by hand, not by an algorithm — same hands, same instinct, a different craft.

Freediving
Under water · Dahab (Red Sea), Egypt
Cave & Technical Diving
Under water · High Springs (Cave Country, North Florida), United States · not open yet
Scuba Diving
Under water · Koh Tao, Thailand · not open yet
Why you can trust this map

What we check before we send you anywhere

This Atlas exists because there is a real difference between a school that teaches you and a good-looking website — and too much of the internet is the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what we'll tell you straight when it doesn't.

Before you trust any school — mine or anyone else's — ask these five things
  1. Who actually teaches it? Can you find them by name, with a track record you can check yourself?
  2. Is the craft alive in that place, or is the school the only thing there? A real scene has more than one good option.
  3. What exactly do you walk away with — a recognised qualification, or a certificate they printed themselves? Ask which.
  4. Can you speak to someone who did the course? A real person, not a testimonial on their own page.
  5. What happens on a bad day — weather, an injury, a teacher who doesn't show? A serious place has an honest answer.

If a place dodges these, that's your answer. It costs you nothing to ask, and it tells you everything.

This is the short version. The full method is here — the six questions, in order, for any craft anywhere.