Sharing a passion for spearfishing with a friend is quite common. Sharing this passion with a life partner is much rarer, but not impossible. This is the case of Francesco Rossi and Sandra Osorio: from Lazio and recent qualifier for the 2025 Absolute Italian Championships, him; Spanish and Team Mares Spain athlete, her. Francesco and Sandra are a couple in life and a couple in their spearfishing trips. We interviewed them to get to know them better.
Apnea Passion Magazine: Sandra tell us, in the meantime, how you met.
Sandra Osorio: Well, like all good spearos, we met talking about fishing. The truth is that when you share the same passion, it is easy to connect and it is even easier when you find that you share more aspects of life. We talked for months until finally we really met and once we got to that point there was no turning back, and although the distance was significant we overcame it and so far we have overcome obstacles and grown together. Right now we have many plans in hand: we bought a boat that we are refurbishing and, thanks to Francesco’s skill, I believe that, in this 2025, it will be our “tank” on the water. We hope to make great catches together. Also, Francesco is a passionate dreamer like me and we have new projects that we are proposing in the club and we hope to realize them, even if it will take some time.
Apnea Passion Magazine: Francesco, is it easier to play the sport with a life partner who shares the same passion? Tell us the pros and cons (if any).
Francesco Rossi: Absolutely, yes. At least for our case. Then it depends we cannot know everything about everyone or everyone has their own way of experiencing things however, for me for Sandra, it is very easy. The only thing that divides us is a little bit the work schedule: she has a job with set hours I on the other hand am a small business owner so I can manage my time. I am always more available than she is and fit my time in with her availability.
I have to say that we always organize ourselves in detail so that we can go to sea together: there are those who prepare lunch or dinner according to the time we come back and eat out; those who prepare the dinghy, those who prepare the fishing stuff, those who fetch the other. In short, we divide the tasks to be able to have as much time as possible to be together and go out to sea. I must say that this summer, when Sandra arrived here in Italy, we really went to the sea many many times, after her work often, thanks to the fact that the sun keeps light until late in the evening. We had some wonderful calasole fishing and that in short we will never forget.
AP: Francesco, tell us what fishing technique you prefer and what prey you prefer to catch.
FR: Actually, I don’t have one technique that I prefer: I like all of them and I am a big fan of waiting fishing, ambush fishing and as well as den fishing. So much so that, often and often, during my fishing trips, my way of fishing is quite dynamic. Maybe I’ll go down with the with the 75, or with a 90 with the tahitian, start with an aspect, but then maybe there’s a part that I’m interested in and I can get there by doing a little ambush and then look into a burrow. Or it might happen that I start with a four-prong, with a rhythm fishing and then I end up doing the aspetto, again with the four-prong, in front of a small passage or a perch. The absolute thing I like, most of all, is depth. Applying these techniques in depth as well: that’s one thing I absolutely love. At the same time, then, I like to practice fishing in the foam, in 1.5 m of water. So, if I really have to say, there is no one technique I prefer but I prefer let’s say the context: either a lot of depth or very shallow water.
AP: Sandra, same question for you:
SO: The truth is that I am not very good at looking, but I am good at looking for or approaching fish. In Galicia, for example, I really like to fish in the burrow or in the kelp, where you can find very interesting fish. However, here in Italy, at least in my area, there are not as tall and thick seaweeds as ours, so I practice more ambush and den fishing. I don’t have a favorite prey, although I always prefer to fish what I most like to eat. Certainly a prey is all the more satisfying to fish for the greater the difficulty involved in catching it. If I had to say it, I would say croakers. They are delicious and every time I find them they teach me something new and force me to perfect my technique if I want to get a good catch.
AP: Sandra you have practiced spearfishing in Spain. There, the women’s movement is very developed. In Italy, Martinelli is working excellently to grow this movement. What do you think Italy needs to do to promote, even more, this women’s sport?
SO: In my experience I would say that what helps most to increase participation is to support and encourage each other. In Galicia it was just me and today there are 4 of us competing in the national competition. Tiziana, in my opinion, is doing really well. She has created a group that is fostering the relationship between us, helping us to connect and, most importantly, also helping us to improve as anglers and athletes. He always has an encouraging word and a smile, which, although it may seem trivial, is actually very important. Also, I find the internships he organizes to be great. The only point I see that could be improved is the lack of financial aid in these things. In Spain, for example, we do training camps, courses and activities that are subsidized to increase participation, because the sport is quite expensive and not all the world can afford it. But overall I think Italy is going in the right direction and with Tiziana leading the women’s team, the situation will only get better.
AP: Francesco, you and Sandra are both Apnea Team Roma athletes. An environment that is certainly full of good freedivers. Who have been your references over the years in the association and, in general in the Lazio spearfishing environment?
FR: It’s just three years that I’ve been wearing mask, fins, snorkel and rifle, so I don’t feel like I can say in these years as if it’s been who knows how long. However, my references are, first of all, Guido Quaglia, who welcomed me into Apnea Team Roma, just like a son, and took me with him, already after a few days of my membership, and taught me how to use short rifles, how to spearfishing. I would watch him and try to understand what he was doing. He would explain to me what to do, the timing, and everything. After that, after we went fishing together a couple of times, he took me fishing with Andrea Petrucci, who is our technical commissioner, who really weaned me off him. It made me dream to see him in action-something incredible! He looked like a feather inside the water, and I first gasped and said, “I want to be like him!”
Then there is Roberto Praiola, who is basically my trusted confessor on the phone. We have very long phone calls, and he is always very helpful, and he is always ready, both with the joke and in instilling courage and grit in me; to tell me, “Come on, don’t give up! Come on, come on! I’m convinced you can do it!”
And I end with Giulio Cavaliere who, as well as being like a brother, both he and Alessandro Colonna, have taken me and really followed me step by step, in everything, from the beginning to the end, until today .
With Giulio we have already shared – it sounds crazy – two championships, in which I participated as his boatman. In his Second, and, then, in the First, and it was an experience that really changed me so much. Then he came instead with me to do the second category in Trapani. He is my fishing partner and my reference as an angler in Lazio. Besides the Apnea Team friends, I also want to mention Emanuele Verri, who is a friend and is always very nice to me. I always bombard him with calls and questions about instrumentation, fishing and many other things, but we have nice chats on the phone with him as well.
AP: Sandra, you are a Team Mares athlete, and you participated in the Lazio selective competitions. Can we foresee you participating in the Italian Absolute Championships?
SO: Well, I had talked to Tiziana, and my fishing partner Chiara, about participating this year. It sounds like a very enriching experience and I would love to be a part of it. I’m sure it would help me learn even more. But unfortunately this year and dates of the Italian and Spanish national championships coincide, so I can only go to one of them, and my heart is still Spanish. So this year I will only be able to do the selective competitions, but of course, if I have the opportunity next year, I will go.
AP: Francesco, with two very regular days, last September you conquered the transition to the 2025 1° category absolute championship. June is not so far away, how do you plan to organize your training and preparation for the Puglia Championships?
FR: This question is very difficult because it has been a very busy end of the year. I’m restoring my dinghy, I’m preparing it for the championship, so I’m accomplishing everything I need to be ready, and especially accurate, during such an important race. It’s my first experience at an absolute and, therefore, I have to say that I don’t expect anything, but I will give it my all and to the end without giving up. It will definitely be a great experience. I’m looking forward to it, I’m not looking forward to it.
As for training, I’m varying, with a fairly intense preparation that started a few weeks ago, with some aerobic free-body workouts, with some static and going, above all, a lot to the sea. I’ve been out of the water for about a month, precisely to restore this dinghy, but now I’m back to get back into the swing of things.
As for the race course in Puglia, having never fished there, I’m trying to gather all the information I can from friends and people close to me.
Basically, when I put my head underwater, I’ll try to create a good strategy to counter the immense prowess of the athletes who always make up that hard core, up there. Scary holy monsters that I hope to live up to. I also hope to have fun – and this is the most important thing – without thinking then about who knows what result. The important thing is above all this: having fun and living it in the spirit of a passion and not an obsession.
