“The Juventus of spearfishing”
Nicola Riolo, born in Palermo in 1963, needs little introduction. His achievements speak for him: six Italian national titles, numerous international victories, three World Championships as part of a team, as many European titles, and six individual European Cups. Added to this are the innovations he introduced not only in spearfishing equipment, but also in surface fishing gear.
Let’s begin, Nicola. Would you like to give an introduction or a premise?
Good morning everyone.
It’s a pleasure for me to tell my story and, above all, to share some history of freediving spearfishing with younger generations. I don’t feel like Juventus, but certainly like a national team that has “never” played.
Tell us how you started spearfishing, and above all your best memory from when you were a beginner (if you ever were one, laughs ndr)?
Mine is a rather unusual story. I was the worst kid of all at swimming, diving and, obviously, going underwater. My father practiced spearfishing and I followed him from the rocks below our house down to the sea. At that time, night fishing was not forbidden, and I was literally mesmerized by the beam of his underwater torch cutting through the darkness. He caught mullet, sea bass, white seabream and other fish, and I dreamed. I felt strongly that one day I too would catch those fish.
Just a few meters from our home in Solanto there was the tuna fishery of the Princess of San Vincenzo, and its sailors and the Rais told me stories of the sea and fishing. They took me under their experienced wings, and from them I learned many rules and some essential secrets for anyone who wishes to sail the seas with the curiosity and ambition of an explorer.
You are the only athlete to have won 6 national titles, and also the only one to have done so under 3 different rule systems, even becoming Italian vice-champion in 2022 with the introduction of variable ballast. We could almost say “4 different rule systems”…
This is what makes me most proud of my competitive career of spearfishing. I believe that among these “four”, one in particular best explains the talent and tactical intelligence of an athlete.
1983, Marina di Noto: three competition days, no electronics, competing against some of the greatest champions ever (Molteni, Lo Baido, Martinuzzi, Toschi, Jurincic, Testai, Berardinone, the Bacci brothers and many others). I had never seen that competition field. I knew only one thing: I could not prepare or fish like the others.
I had spent many hours in the water with the great champions Sicily produced in those years, and I understood very clearly that if I prepared and fished according to their standards, I would be crushed. So I focused on what I already knew how to do quite well: optimizing the space–time ratio from the very first day across those vast competition areas.
That clear victory, over three days and with no catch limits, showed everyone that the music had changed. For me, it was confirmation that I truly possessed the talent I had always believed I had. From that moment on, it became easier to cultivate it. That day I understood that I could, and should, win more than anyone else.
In this sense, it was stimulating and almost natural to keep winning in the following years: in two-day competitions, with GPS, swimming-only, with species limits, and finally with variable ballast. I must say that this type of fishing (which I firmly condemn for many reasons) was perfectly suited to my status and skills, so much so that even this year, at the Master 50+ World Championship of spearfishing, it proved to be one of the decisive weapons in winning the title.
When you possess proven talent, strong technical and tactical skills, specific motivation and almost monstrous experience, and you are given a system that allows you to express all of this even more deeply, you remain the athlete to beat for a long time.
Why did you stop right at that moment then?
After winning silver at the 2022 Italian Absolute Championship, I clearly understood that a potentially new era had begun for me. I felt that I could start winning again, adding a missing piece to my skill set.
However, I set two fundamental limits for myself:
- The many deep white groupers I found during that championship had never seen a human being. In fact, I filmed some of them to show how easily they could be approached, without any sign of distrust. This made me reflect deeply on the ethics of this kind of fishing, on the edge of “sacred” places and often breeding grounds.
- By analyzing my performance and the public’s enthusiasm at seeing a 60-year-old on the second step of the podium, I realized that a dangerous message was being sent to young athletes, and a distorted one compared to what had always been my idea of spearfishing: competing on equal terms with the fish and always in safety.
I could not continue. I assure you I could have won again, but it was too far from my idea of sport. I still strongly believe that the equipment and methods used can quite calmly be defined as “doping”.
What pushed you to start competing, and what still motivates you today to take part in competitions as World Champion 50+?
My story is truly particular. My father had a disability (very similar to that of the great José Amengual), and that was one of the reasons why he carried an extraordinary competitive and motivational drive within him. In my early years of spearfishing, with my first fishing partners and more experienced spearfishers who occasionally took me out to sea, I already felt that competitive impulse (today they call it “obsession”) that pushed me to explore far and wide, not only the most diverse fishing areas of Sicily, but above all to understand some fundamental rules for catching all the types of fish I knew.
Nicola Riolo and Raffaele Loprete, World Champions 50+ in Palma de Mallorca.
Let’s get to the point: can you tell us, with some technical and tactical anecdotes, about an Italian Absolute Championship you won, and perhaps the most recent one where you finished second?
Each national title I have won is full of anecdotes and details I will never forget. Certainly the first one, at 20 years old, over three days, against the greatest champions ever, with no catch limits and a gap twice as large as the second-place finisher, is something a young athlete will hardly ever be able to replicate.
Staying with more recent times, in 2022 I found 14 white groupers while preparing for the Absolute Championship in Trapani, while all the other athletes (except two of them) did not find a single one. This gave me enormous satisfaction, especially since my search was done swimming and with a very basic echo sounder.
The anecdote concerns the start of the second competition day. I simply had to choose which grouper to start on. I decided not to start on the first two I had found, which weighed between 15 and 18 kilos, because it was thanks to them that I understood how to search for and find all the others. I spared them. I chose to start on a smaller one, and perhaps that’s where I lost the championship. On the very first dive of the second day, a huge brown meagre was covering the vital part of the fish’s head. Fearing it might escape deep into the muddy hole, I decided to shoot. As expected, I failed to stone it and lost 40 precious minutes for the rest of the competition.
Let’s talk about the spearfishing national team par excellence: you, Mazzari and Molteni, with Cottu as the official reserve. Can you share an unpublished anecdote and some insight into the dynamics within such a diverse group of champions?
That was the ultimate team. Individual skills were unquestionable. A cohesive team, fully aware of each member’s value, and a head coach with extraordinary abilities. The same can be said of the following World Championship, Porto Cristo 1992. We were unbeatable for many reasons that, in my opinion, no longer exist today.
What is your personal ranking of spearfishing champions, and why? Your top three.
In such a diverse environment as ours, it’s practically impossible to draw up an absolute ranking. But looking purely at titles won: Amengual, Mazzarri and Carbonell have won more world titles than anyone else.
Many people remember your interview at the Porto Cristo World Championship, where you said you hadn’t slept. Can you explain what goes on in the mind—and beyond—of an athlete in such a competition?
I rarely sleep the night before a competition. I try, but as an extreme perfectionist, I end up spending the whole night checking and reviewing everything in my head. I now know that I only sleep the day after the competition, disturbing whoever is unlucky enough to share a room with me, because I don’t sleep deeply and I live my dreams interactively, often shouting like a madman.
Let’s talk about equipment. You are a very meticulous and precise athlete. Could you list the spearguns and gear you would take with you to a competition?
Yes, today more than ever, equipment is the deciding factor. You often win or lose by a single fish, so everything must be perfect. Everything in duplicate, of course, and nothing new. Everything must be used and tested many times until it is considered perfect.
Would you like to give some advice to our competitive readers about the “World Championship of qualifiers” (to quote you)? How should one prepare a fin-swimming competition?
It’s complicated and simple at the same time. Complicated because everyone is very close in level. Simple because, precisely for that reason, those who truly know how to fish always make the difference. A young athlete who wants to achieve good results in the qualifiers should simply avoid making life difficult for themselves. They should fish for enjoyment, and if they stay focused for the entire time, some fish will definitely come.
You know the offshore banks like the back of your hand. They have been the stage for many spearfishing adventures. Would you like to tell us an unpublished one?
Great white sharks, tuna, amberjacks, giant dentex, and above all the huge groupers of the 1980s and 1990s. One of the most incredible experiences I ever had on the great banks of the channel was a day with Carlo Gomez. Pantelleria Bank, August, clear and warm water, no current. It was almost evening and we had to leave. “One last dive,” I said to Carlo. At mid-water I realized I was about to see something unique. I reached the bottom and found a kind of tectonic crack about twenty meters long, literally full of enormous dentex and white seabream. Just enough time to take a couple, shouting in amazement, and then back home, still wearing our wetsuits.
We’ve reached the end, Nicola. If you could write a proposal for a “Spearfishing Reform”, borrowing a term from football like Baggio did in 2010, how would you formulate it?
There is an entire world to change in our sport. I proposed the introduction of categories, and finally we are partly living through a period of change in this sense. The list of things to do is very long, but what makes planning difficult is a series of conflicts of interest within the federation itself. In my opinion, it is the people inside federations who make the difference in every sport. And in ours, what is missing are institutional figures who truly care about the essence of our discipline.
You recently announced the end of your collaboration with Top Sub and the great Silvano Agostini. What will be your next step?
For 12 years, Silvano made wetsuits for me that were nothing short of fantastic. He is a master, and our collaboration was also an excuse to see each other, reminisce about past competitions, without forgetting that we still like to win. As for all other equipment, with the exception of the fins—custom-made for me by Carbonio GFT and truly outstanding—I have always handled everything within Sdive. Everything is custom-made, tailored to my very personal way of understanding competition.
However, I am now starting to think that there will be no continuity for such incredible products unless I begin a collaboration with an Italian or foreign company more inclined to explore these still-untapped market segments. I would like to collaborate with a leading company in the sector, not only to continue competing and winning, but above all to jointly develop ideas and projects that will remain a reference point for many years for young aspiring champions and for the strongest athletes around.
Thank you
Bye guys.