The Beginning: Flat Surf and a New Obsession
Rhys Clay grew up with an awesome water lifestyle, thanks to a father who was ocean-crazy. Snorkeling and occasional handspearing were part of his childhood, but surfing was his real passionâuntil the inevitable happened.
“The surf would be flat and it would drive me absolutely crazy,” Rhys remembers. “I was like, I’ve gotta do something else.”
He started getting interested in spearfishing around 2018, though the first decade was more snorkeling than actual hunting. He’d give it a crack here and there, spear a few fish, but never felt confident. Never really got into it properly.
Then came the trip that changed everything: Fiji.
Rhys with a Redthroat Emperor
The Fiji Moment
The surf was firing. Perfect conditions. But his mates insisted on going spearfishing instead.
“I was like, but the surf’s awesome. And they’re like, yeah, but spearfishing is more fun. And I was like, whoa, there’s gotta be something to this spearfishing.”
Rhys went surfing that day while his mate went diving. When the guy came back to the boat saying it wasn’t that good of a dive, Rhys watched him casually start putting parrotfish, coral trout, and trevally into the boatâfish that would be considered a legendary day of line fishing back home.
“My eyes were just like… if you came home with one of those fish line fishing, that’d be a good day. And this guy’s just saying it’s a bad day.”
They went back to their accommodation, cooked those fish, and that was it. Rhys was hooked.
The Learning Phase: Blind Leading the Blind
Back in Australia, Rhys and his brother dove headfirst into spearfishing. Perfect timing, tooâa friend lent them a boat for a couple of months, and it was August, when the weather on the Sunshine Coast is mint for diving.
“Every weekend was just glass flat, no swell. We went out on the boat for like a month continuously.”
But there was a problem: they had zero formal training. No freediving background. Just surfing and fishing experience.
“It was just me and my brother. We wouldn’t have known about one up, one down if it wasn’t for Noob Spearo. I think we probably intuitively would’ve just gone, you go that way, you go that way, and we’ll yell out if we find something.”
His brother discovered the Noob Spearo podcast around this time, and Rhys became obsessed.
“I went from episode number one right to the end,” he says. “I learned probably the most over the years from that podcast. That first Wayne Judge episode was really helpful because I had zero background in freediving. That was really the basis of my freediving knowledge to begin with.”
Other episodes became study materialâTim McDonald’s interviews, Trevor Ketchion, Dan Mans. Rhys listened to them over and over, piecing together knowledge that would’ve taken years to acquire otherwise.
“I didn’t know what shallow water blackout was. I didn’t know about any of that stuff.”
The Shift: From Student to Teacher
A few years into his spearfishing journey, Rhys had two really good dive buddies. They’d go out every chance they could, progressing together. Then they leftâmoved on to different things in life.
“I was sort of at a bit of a loss because I’d lost these people that I trust really well and we’d progressed really well, and I’m kind of having to go back to square one.”
Around the same time, a young guy named Luke joined the Sunshine Coast Skindivers club. Super keen, super nice guy. Rhys started taking him diving.
“Initially it was just kind of a, ‘I’m gonna go diving, I’ll help you out, but like, this is not a lesson, so to speak.’ And then I started going, oh, this is actually really enjoyable.”
Rhys started getting more out of helping and teaching than he expected. It snowballed from there.
Within six months, Lukeâwho started as a capable 15-meter diverâwas exceeding Rhys’s abilities. He became lethal.
“I’d drive the boat, pull up on the spot, Luke’s the first one in. He’d be like, ‘yeah, it’s a good spot,’ or ‘it’s a bad spot.’ And if there was a fish there worth taking, that fish was gone.”
That transformation gave Rhys confidence: “I’m doing something right.”
Rhys teaching species ID during our 1770 Beginner Spearfishing Retreat
Building Community: The Club Revival
Through the Noob Spearo community Facebook group, Rhys connected with Kyle. They started diving together, brought their buddies, formed a crew, and eventually thought: “We should start a spearfishing club.”
They relaunched the old Sunshine Coast Skindivers, advertising initially through Noob Spearo. A mix of old members and new blood joined. The club became a hub for mentorship and progression.
Rhys didn’t set out to become presidentâ“it was not something I set out to do”âbut like many who step into leadership, he saw a need and wanted good things for his community.
“You want to help. You see a need for it. Regardless of the fact that you don’t have the time and energy, you kind of end up stepping into it.”
The Sunshine Coast club became blessed with experienced, ego-free mentors like Ben Thompson (multiple Australian title winner) who took people out without the superiority complex common in the sport.
“It is rare,” Rhys admits. “There’s a lot of good spearos and some people that are good teachers. But seldomly do you find them in the overlap.”
Formal Training: From Assistant to Instructor
When Rhys heard about Noob Spearo’s beginner retreats through the podcast, he reached out. He was stepping into a mentoring role in the club and wanted to get involved.
“Before you know it, I’m on the first course assisting, but also doing my level one freediving, which is really cool because I had no formal qualifications in freediving.”
He’s since completed level two and is working toward level three and instructor qualifications for early 2026. He’s been involved as an assistant on every Noob Spearo course this yearâguiding, assisting, doing support, whatever’s needed.
“I see myself in the future being an instructor and potentially running some of the retreats.”
But the journey hasn’t been without self-doubt.
“Imposter syndrome, definitely,” Rhys admits. “Initially it was a bit like, who am I to tell people what to do? I’m still learning myself.”
His perspective shifted: “We’re all learning. It doesn’t, that never stops. And if it does stop, then you’re probably doing the wrong thing if you think you know it all already.”
Rhys teaching up a storm
The Teaching Revelation
What surprised Rhys most about formal teaching was how much it improved his own diving.
“Something amazing happens when you become a teacherâyou become so much better at something. I think it’s because you start to connect the dots on how to learn something and you also see what other people are doing wrong. And then you go, ‘oh, actually I do that sometimes.'”
He started recognizing his own bad habits by watching students make the same mistakes: swimming straight at fish, showing nervous energy, rushing shots when he hadn’t been in the water for a while.
“Sometimes I do swim straight at fish rather than trying to come at them from a different angle.”
The classroom sessions, combined with in-water demonstrations, created breakthroughs he never expected. Teaching the bomb dive in the classroom is one thing, but showing it in actionâgetting vertical on a parrotfish that normally wouldn’t be approachableâmade it click for students instantly.
“That’s where practical knowledge meets the classroom thing.”
One of his students on the 1770 spearfishing retreatâone of the “Weasley twins” as they’re knownâexecuted a dusting technique perfectly after watching Rhys demonstrate it in a cave full of tropical snappers.
“It was amazing to see. Sometimes you’ll just go and throw sand and there’s no fish around. You’re like, ‘this doesn’t work.’ But nice to get immediate ratification reward for a technique.”
Impact Beyond the Surface
Rhys’s influence extends beyond just teaching techniques. One of his mentees, Erdie, had a background diving in the MediterraneanâCyprus, where conditions are generally pristine with 20+ meter visibility and calm seas.
Australian conditions? Not so forgiving.
Erdie shared: “Rhys has made me feel more confident diving and hunting in ocean conditions I would’ve previously avoided. Resulting in more successful dives and finding more enjoyment year-round and not just in perfect conditions.”
That’s the real transformationânot just catching more fish, but expanding comfort zones and making the sport accessible even when conditions aren’t perfect.
The Hard Calls
Leading isn’t always about saying yes. On the last Stradbroke course, with everyone enthusiastic and keen, Rhys and the team had to make the call not to dive.
“That’s a really hard call to make,” Rhys admits. “We had a thunderstorm rolling in and surface conditions were deteriorating. We had swell on the side of the island that doesn’t normally have swell. But we made the call. Everyone was safe and stoked, and we still managed to get through a lot of what we needed to get through.”
Safety first. Always.
His Advice to Aspiring Mentors
For experienced spearos who want to mentor but haven’t found a sustainable way to do it:
“Just do it. Don’t let anything hold you back. Just become a mentor. Don’t think like, ‘I’m not experienced enough’ or ‘I don’t know enough’ or anything like that. If there’s an opportunity to help someone out, just do it.”
“Try to link up with other people who are mentors in your community or even the wider community.”
And most importantly: “If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably not super egotistical.” The self-awareness to seek learning and the willingness to roll up your sleeves are what matter.
Looking Forward
Rhys is working toward his instructor qualifications and coxswain’s license. He’s planning to run retreats and continue building the Sunshine Coast spearfishing community. His YouTube channel, No Viz Adventures, documents his underwater journeysâraw, authentic, and family-friendly (mostly).
He’s also blessed with what he calls a “spectrum superpower”âan encyclopedic knowledge of fish species and behavior. Want to target mackerel, coral trout, emperor, or crayfish? Rhys can make a plan to get your first.
But beyond the skills and qualifications, what defines Rhys is his approach: full froth, no ego, rolling up sleeves, and making sure the next generation of spearos has it better than he did.
“Enjoy the journey,” he saysâthe advice he’d give his younger self.
Tom Smyth and Rhys Clay with Redthroat Emperor taken aboard 1770 Beginner Spearfishing Retreat
Rhys’s journey from self-taught spearo consuming podcast episodes to community president and instructor shows what’s possible when you combine genuine froth, a willingness to learn, and a commitment to lifting others up. The sport needs more people like him.