With six national titles under their belt and a relationship stretching over a decade, spearfishers Julian Hansford and Dwayne Herbert are now testing the waters halfway across the world in Europe.
The pair - along with new teammate Dave Mullins, a former freediving world record holder - are off to Syros Island in Greece to compete in the World Underwater Spearfishing Championship.
They have plenty of experience having both worked as commercial divers, but Hansford says it'll be a far different challenge to what they have faced in New Zealand waters.
"It's completely different to the competitions we're used to doing - we're not out of our league but we're going to have to adjust all our tactics and everything, and give it a shot," he said.
Hansford says descending between 30 and 50 metres into the Mediterranean and sustaining that depth while hunting will be "quite difficult" for them.
"[We'll spend] five or six weeks just scouting the area, finding out where all the fish are [and] what depth they're at."
Herbert says there are two different factors when it comes to spearfishing, which will likely determine how well they'll do in the competition.
"There's diving deep and being able to get down there and stay down there - but there's also being able to find fish and shoot it. It is hunting, effectively, underwater."
Hansford and his teammates are at a disadvantage because a number of teams have been there for months in preparation for the competition, while they are only heading over now - but he says "fitness and hunters' ability" will give them an edge over their rivals.
"With our competitions [in New Zealand] we'll swim quite a few kilometres every day, whereas competitions they have in Europe, they don't do any swimming at all - they drive around in boats and just get in and out whenever they get to a spot," he explained.
However Herbert says they're not heading to Greece with "high expectations".
"We'd love to do well, but we're not here to say we're gonna bloody clean up just because we got some help and have done all this fundraising," he said.
"We're still competing against the best in the world, and they're the best in the world for a reason."
The 30th World Underwater Spearfishing Championship kicks off on September 15.
Newshub.
