About René Potvin

Long time spearfisherman and competitor, I used a large selection of very good products but I wanted a speargun that made no concessions. I made a speargun that would not float or sink. I designed the speargun so the bands, the shaft and the hand holding the speargun were on the same level. This avoid the all too common loss of stability during release. Lastly, I produced a mechanism that is incredibly strong and smooth. I have been competing solely with my products since 2009 and I managed to win the North Atlantic Spearfishing Champion twice. The added range and precision really helped.

Testing the Renesub 130

Posted on September 9, 2016 by René Potvin

Checking accuracy of a 130 before an offshore trip. Two short 16 mm with a 7.5 mm shaft.

Shooting cod point blank

Posted on August 29, 2015 by René Potvin

Who said my guns were only good for long shots!? This is JJ shooting cod with a renesub prototype (it has a delrin casette holding my custom trigger mecanism instead of the standard insertion in the wood).

tbar speargun shooting a shark

Posted on November 11, 2013 by René Potvin

So the tbargun or tbar speargun has a dedicated French name now, it’s the barrebalète! It was chosen by the member of the chassesousmarine.com forum.

In this video, you see a weighted down verson of the tbargun. I put one kilogram of led in the stock. It makes is perfectly neutral and helps reduce the recoil from the 3 kg metal bar!

Here I shoot a small edible shark. You can see how it simply obliterates it. It’s not a gun you’d call practical but it sure does kill whatever you put in front of it!

Tbar speargun trials

Posted on May 21, 2013 by René Potvin

Here is the Tbar speargun prototype test video.

This speargun was built for entertainment value alone. I do believe this sort of off the wall design helps me rethink my spearguns. Spearfishing with this prototype is quite feasible though. I don’t thing spearfishermen would hesitate one second to bring this thing spearfishing.

The prototype was tested with three of the four bands I intended to use. I also added one kilogram of led to the stock mid test. This made is almost neutral.

The fish shot were walleyes, perch, malachigan and I did some tests on carps.

The advantages include :

it’s hilarious,
stops anything in it’s tracks,
the bar costs nothing,
the bar is indestructible,
you can put any amount of power to the bar without fear of bending it,
you don’t need an integral track,
you can add a slip tip without changing the balistics,
the inertia of the bar makes it almost unstoppable (high penetration),
all the bands can be attached at the very back of the bar (no waste).

The disadvantages include:

it’s very heavy,
unmaneuvrable,
takes a while to load,
the recoil is severe,
noisy,
taking the shaft back up is like dragging an anchor back to the surface,
it scares children.

North Atlantic Championship

Posted on April 20, 2012 by René Potvin

The year I decided to use the Renesub Spearguns exclusively, I won the North Atlantic Championships. To win the Championship and earn the very pompus title of North Atlantic Champion, well it sounds grandiose, you have to accumulate the most points during the Open Competitions of the North Atlantic States that have a counsel. In 2009 and 2010, I had to compete in the New York Open, Massachusetts Open and the Rhode Island Open. I won both years. In 2011 I was busy kayaking from Miami to Montreal (http://miami2montreal.com). It took 114 days.

I think the gun with its extra range enabled me to score some very decisive points.

Winning the trophy in 2009, you can see my name on the trophy since I had won it in 2003.

This is me winning the first competition of 2009 and realizing what an advantage I had.

Stripe Bass taken with 90 cm

Posted on April 20, 2012 by René Potvin

The 90 cm Renesub Speargun on this picture was the inspiration for my entire production. The mechanism had been hacked with a metal saw and a file. Everything about that gun was new. I won two North Atlantic Titles using mostly that gun. The decision to use only my spearguns to compete turned out to be a very good idea.

Mechanism and new casette

Posted on April 20, 2012 by René Potvin

I designed a Delrin cassette for use with my mechanism. I normally install the mechanism directly into the wood stock but I wanted to have a cassette option in case I wanted to mass produce a new speargun model. It’s still entirely silent since the sheer swings without hitting the top of the cassette.