Loading a speargun can be a difficult task when you're just starting out, and it is only hindered by the fact that many spearguns are sold with quite short rubbers. Here's a few things you can do to make loading your speargun easier:

1. Lengthen the rubbers: often with a new speargun the bands can be quite short. You may need to get some slightly longer rubbers which will make loading the speargun a bit easier, and less painful. Once you have the technique of loading your speargun mastered you can then replace the rubbers with the original shorter ones. You can buy new rubbers for your speargun online.

2. Buy a hip loader: some spearos will start off with a hip loader, which can easily be attached to your weight belt. The butt of the speargun then sits in the hip loader which can make it easier to load as the speargun can't slip around. You can buy a hip loader online for just $19.95.

3. Buy a chest loading pad: if your wetsuit doesn't have a thick piece of foam or neoprene at the chest then you will need to buy a loading pad. This makes it much easier to load your speargun on your chest as it takes away almost all of the pain and won't leave you with painful blisters and welts.

Loading your speargun is mostly about technique. Some people choose to load to their hip to start with, but most will progress to loading from their chest.

When loading from your chest:

1. Place one hand (if you're right-handed it will be your left hand) on the butt of the gun. Make sure you have an open palm at the butt of your speargun with one hand. Don't have your thumb or fingers wrapped around the handle as you could make your gun fire accidentally, and it is difficult to get your fingers out from under the gun once on your chest. Below, we show you the right and wrong ways to do

RIGHT:

RIGHT: Open palm, fingers away from trigger. If you are right handed, your left hand will be on the butt of the gun.

WRONG:

WRONG: Hand is closed around the handle which can cause the gun to accidentally be fired. It also makes it harder to get the hand away from the gun when you need to use it to grab the other side of the rubber.

2. With your other hand, grab one side of your rubber, close to the bridle.

3. Push your speargun into your chest while pulling the rubber back with the other hand. Once the speargun is on your chest, use the free hand to grab the other side of the rubber, and pull the rubber back to the desired notch on the shaft.

There are some good videos on YouTube that show how to load your speargun. When the weather improves we'll do one of our own, so stay tuned!