Diver Profile - Dean Thorburn (Adventurer and Marine Biologist)

Dean's passion for the out doors and the ocean is quickly evident. With a PhD in Marine Biology and a specialisation in the endangered Freshwater and Dwarf Sawfish, Dean has both a deep scientific and personal bond with the aquatic environment. Coupled with a great sense of adventure he and Paul McKeown, give us a fantastic insight through their photography and literary skill into the West Coast of this great country.

Name: Dean Thorburn

Home Town: Perth

Diving For (Years): Skin diving since very young, but spearfishing seriously for 6 years.  

Passions: The water and everything in it, my family and friends.  

Occupation: Marine and aquatic biologist

Family: Beautiful wife Marianne and black labrador Karri

Favourite Locations + Why

The south coast of WA is a real favourite. It doesn’t have the fish of Exmouth or Shark Bay but the water and coastline are magnificent.  I travel south a fair bit as its very easy to find a beautiful beach or granite headland without another person in sight. 

Favourite Fish + why

While larger pelagics including Spanish Mackerel and Yellow Tail Kingfish  always get my heart going (definitely a bit of a sweet spot for these two), I equally enjoy chasing smaller reef species as they can be challenging to follow and ambush and being small targets require a greater accuracy of shots. But then again, if a West Australian Dhufish pops up, you can keep your other reefies!

• 5 Best Fish
• My first Spanish Mackerel, Jurien Bay, WA. Not my biggest by a long shot at about 12 kg, but definitely one of the best moments ever. To say I was stoked would be an understatement.
• +20 kg Yellow Tail King, Margaret River, WA. This is one of my favourite species to hunt and it took a long time to break the 20 kg hoodoo. Their power never ceases to amaze me.
• 7.5 kg (x2) Coral Trout, Abrolhos Islands, WA. I like hunting the reef and it took me close to an hour to lure these fish in by grinding coral, flicking sand and breaking urchins.  They don’t get much bigger in those waters.
• 12 kg Gold-spot Trevally, Steep Point, WA. Again no record by any standard but I managed a stoning shot as a pair of 150 kg Queensland Groper were bearing down on me.
• 14 kg West Australian Dhufish, Margaret River, WA. This species is a real icon in the West. They are magnificent to see underwater and I’m not expecting to see a bigger one any time soon.

I was 6 months old when i first stayed on my grandfather’s boat at Rottnest Island, a summer stomping ground of most Perthites in their youth. I would spend as much time on the island as I could, every school holiday and long weekend, and was even lucky enough to skive off from school early in the summer on occasion. From the beginning my grandfather instilled a very strong respect of the sea and all that laid within, so I guess it was inevitable that I’d end up working in and on the water.  Days on the island consisted of fishing and snorkelling. I would steal my father’s mask and fins, and although neither were even close to fitting, I’d hold the mask tight to my face so I could see below the surface for a bit before it would fill with water and I’d slip out of the oversized foot pockets.  It wasn’t long before I got my own. 

Although I always owned gidgies and basic wooden guns, spearing took a back seat to line fishing for many years.  However, it was the infectious enthusiasm of a very good mate, Paul McKeown, who I met while working as a filleter to pay for uni, which soon had me preferring to be in the water with a gun rather than on it with a line.  Paul helped me build my first ‘real’ gun from Tassie oak, a long open muzzle number, with homemade spring steel spears that would rust as soon as you exited the water.  That gun was eventually superseded by refined European and South African guns, but that old Tassie oak gun still catches my eye every time I walk in the shed.     

Freedive spearfishing has subsequently become one of the most rewarding parts of my life.  I have been lucky enough to dive in some fantastic locations and land some great fish, but in saying that it is the sharing of the experience or location with likeminded mates that tops it off.
In reality, I have nowhere near the depth ability of Tim, nor landed the trophies of Cameron or Brett, or have anywhere near the years of experience of Glenn, but I certainly do love the sport and can think of no better way to spend time.

I will confess to being a bit of a gun collector and have used Cressi, Picasso, Beuchat, Rob Allen and Edge and modified and mixed up parts to make all sorts of mongrels to suit a specific purpose.   In general, handles, muzzles and barrels (be it 28 or 32 mm) irrespective of brand can be interchanged (with minor modifications) and I have found that often the only thing that distinguishes several brands from each other is their cosmetics.  This is where I think Riffe differs.  The Riffe Euro, for example, is certainly wider and heavier than the pipe and rail guns I was used to.  However, looking closely at it I realised there is craftsmanship in the product and a quality that a number of brands simply do not have.  It sounds somewhat clichéd, but most of us grew up with solid reliable Australian wooden guns made by Undersea and Sea Hornet and to put it frankly, they work.  Although a US company, the Riffe reminds me of those fantastically reliable Australian guns, but they have refined the product to create a range that sets them apart.  They are definitely a higher end product, accurate and hard hitting, but I think there’s still something grass roots about them in their infallible reliability and feel.    

In relation to wetsuits, I’ve worn through a few including Seasuit, Picasso and Spetton.  All of these brands are durable and perform well, but again Riffe have created a product that sets them apart.  The Cryptic range of wetsuits are slick.  I’m not talking in terms of Friday nights at the nightclub slick, but in terms of their internal and external linings.  I hate nothing more than having to soap up on a freezing morning to get into my suit.  As far as I’m concerned it should be used as a form of torture.  I have found the Riffe Cryptic not to require soaping up which is unusual for a lining of this type.  I was also able to drop lead from my belt when first using the suit.  Lets be honest, when we read 3 mm on a suit they rarely are.  They refer more to a warmth (or season) rating and I was very surprised to drop lead when first using the Cryptic as its thickness and the smoothness of the external layer provided less resistance on descents than any other suit I’ve owned.