The higher end of the sling spearguns on the power and performance, but also complexity side, is definitely the Roller-Inverter-Vela category. The finalists have been three great products such as the Picasso Magnum BW Carbon Invert Roller, the Sigalsub Nemesis HT and the Salvimar Tomahawk. Among these three top quality products the winner of the Best Choice by Apneapassion in the Invert-Roller category is the Sigalsub Nemesis HT. Let’s see why.
Sigalsub Nemesis HT strenghts
The Sigalsub Nemesis HT puts together the great qualities of the Nemesis, great grip and release mechanism, fantastic swing, with a very well developed and efficient Invert-Roller system. The latter, tested by the Apneapassion International Team, has proven to have great power with incredibly reduced recoil. This means that the Sigalsub Nemesis HT is a very overall solution, which permits great performance and, even with a complex and important elastic bands system, good ease in the swing of the speargun. Additionally, the low recoil generated by the Invert-Roller system permits to have a structure of the speargun which is not too big. The improvement of the system is that the loading can be a little bit complex to deal with. Still, it does not need an accessory, which is a thing less one can forget or lose. The price of a 104 solution is indicatively around 300 €, very competitive.
The other two contenders
Salvimar Tomahawk
The Salvimar Tomahawk has all the amazing technology in it of the Hero, and an incredibly efficient power system, with zero recoil, probably the least of the three finalists, also due to the important dimensions and additional weight of the really tough elliptical section barrel. The release mechanism, the Salvimar Heavy Duty 350, is one of the best and toughest on the market. Honestly this amazing speargun by the Italian Company has the greatest power potential of the whole lot of finalists, but the setup was not utilizing all of such potential.
The greater weight and barrel section make the Salvimar Tomahawk more difficult to move and swing, and so, as for the Hero, more specific for Blue Water and Aspetto techniques. In such situations, probably the Salvimar Tomahawk would be the winner, but for a more general use, the Sigalsub Nemesis HT is ahead. The loading system is easier to handle than the one fo the Nemesis HT, but need an additional accessory. The price of the 105 cm is around 340 €, a competitive price for so much high quality technology.
Picasso Magnum BW Carbon Invert Roller
The Picasso Magnum BW Carbon Invert Roller is definitely the most beautiful speargun of the finalists, with its carbon fiber preformed barrel. The power and the recoil are excellent, and the swing also extremely good, comparable if not better than the Nemesis HT. The issue with the Picasso has been the lateral line release lever, too small to hold properly more passages of the monofilament, which are needed to support very long shots generated by the Inverter solution. A pity, but an issue easily improvable by Picasso. Of course also the price, even though totally justified by the carbon fiber preformed barrel, is evidently higher than the other two competitors, and around 430 € for the 105 cm version.
The Best Choice by Apneapassion prize evaluation
“Apneapassion underlines that the Best Choice is a fully independent prize, assigned after deep testing by the 9 athletes of the Apneapassion International Official team. The result of the Best Choice does not want to be an indisputable opinion, as personal preferences and adaptations to each product can determine different opinions and likes. Still, the use of a large number of independent athletes (who’s sponsor is only Apneapassion) permits to give spearfishing and freediving enthusiasts our best possible evaluation of each winner. We are open to any company who would want to participate with its most competitive products to the Best Choice by Apneapassion yearly prize. For any additional information contact carlo.forni@apneapassion.com.“
