Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 299 is a live Q&A with Cameron Kirkconnell, one of the most accomplished spearfishermen alive. Cam holds 18 spearfishing world records, has guided clients to 30 more, and is an unlimited tonnage master mariner. He has visited 90 countries, including Antarctica and the Arctic, and runs a premier international spearfishing guide service. We streamed this one live across Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram and took questions from the audience while Cam walked through a life spent entirely on the water.
Listen now: press play in the player above to watch the full conversation, or stream Episode 299 on your favorite podcast app.
Cameron Kirkconnell is an elite spearfisherman and international spearfishing guide. He holds 18 spearfishing world records and has guided clients to 30 more on guided trips. He is an unlimited tonnage master mariner and ship captain who has visited 90 countries, including Antarctica and the Arctic, and runs a premier guide service targeting world-class fish around the globe. He has never held a job that was not on the water.
Cameron holds 18 spearfishing world records of his own, and he has guided clients to 30 additional world records on his guided spearfishing trips. That combination of personal records and records set by the people he guides is part of what makes his resume so unusual in the sport.
Cameron has visited 90 countries, including Antarctica and the Arctic. His travel started with his career on ships, where he worked roughly six months of the year and used the rest to explore, beginning when an engineer on his first ship told him not to go home but to travel, prompting Cam to grab a backpack and head to Bali.
Cam attended the Merchant Marine Academy to study working on ships and started his career as a ship officer, ultimately earning an unlimited tonnage master mariner license. Because ship jobs ran about six months a year, he spent the off months traveling and spearfishing, which over time grew into running a premier international spearfishing guide service.
Cam describes how the freedom of the lifestyle reshaped his personality. Being able to be as solitary or as social as he wanted removed any fear of walking up and talking to anyone, making him open and outgoing. He also recalls the early days when underwater cameras were so big he had to carry a five-gallon-bucket-sized rig in one hand and his spear gun in the other just so people would believe his catches.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 299 with Cameron Kirkconnell is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
Cam's resume is hard to believe: 18 spearfishing world records, 30 more for his clients, an unlimited tonnage master mariner license, and 90 countries including Antarctica and the Arctic. We tried something new with this one and ran it as a live Q&A across three platforms so the audience could ask him anything in real time.
Press play in the player above to hear the whole conversation.
The number that stops people is the records. Cam holds 18 of his own and has put clients on 30 more. He talks about what it actually takes to chase a world-record fish on a single breath and why guiding others to records means as much to him as his own. Worth hearing in his own words.
Cam has never had a job off the water. He went to the Merchant Marine Academy, worked on ships about six months a year, and used the rest to travel. He explains how an engineer's advice on his very first ship, do not go home, just travel, set off the journey to 90 countries. Listen to that section of the episode.
I had to ask what he was doing at the poles. Cam has chased fish and adventure across 90 countries, and he describes how the ship career and the spearfishing fed each other, turning off-season travel into a global guide business. Press play in the player above.
Beyond the records, Cam is candid about how this life changed him. The freedom to be alone or social on his own terms erased any fear of approaching people and made him completely open. He even remembers hauling a bucket-sized underwater camera alongside his gun in the early days just to prove his catches. Scroll up and watch the player above.
Listen to the full conversation: press play in the YouTube player at the top of this page.
What stays with me about Cam is that the records are almost a byproduct of the life. He built everything around being on the water, and the achievements followed.
Doing this one live with the audience asking questions made it even better. It is a rare look inside one of the most accomplished careers in the sport.
Press play in the player above to hear how it all fits together.
Cameron Kirkconnell · Merchant Marine Academy · Saltwater Experience · The Bahamas · Antarctica · the Arctic · Bali
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Cameron Kirkconnell is an elite spearfisherman, international spearfishing guide, and unlimited tonnage master mariner. He holds 18 spearfishing world records and has guided clients to 30 more, and he has visited 90 countries, including Antarctica and the Arctic. A Merchant Marine Academy graduate who has never worked off the water, he runs a premier guide service targeting world-class fish around the globe.
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