The founder of Rob Allen Spearguns. Born in 1958, Rob spent his formative years as a fisherman off the coast of South Africa. At 22, while working for the Natal Sharks Board, Rob decided to get in the water…this experience changed his life forever! It answered many questions he had about the habits of fish, their actions and reactions and the undersea environment in general. Like most spearfishermen, Rob was constantly trying new things and modifying his equipment to perform better and eventually began developing his own guns.

During this period, Rob was working as a marine ranger while living at Cape Vidal. Here he was able to listen to different ideas and experiences from the many experienced spearfishermen who came to Cape Vidal for the big gamefish it had to offer. From these frequent encounters and dive opportunities, Rob was able to test new ideas on the spot.

By South African standards, Rob’s first guns were much bigger than the norm and many divers thought of the guns as too big and too long. Once the equipment was in the water it was a different story - very good fish were taken at long range.

Very soon, Rob was spending every spare moment building spearguns. Eventually in 1988, unable to keep up with the two jobs, he decided to take the plunge and went into building spearguns and accessories commercially.

Began spearfishing in 1974 off the KwaZulu-Natal coast. With no “off the shelf” guns available he was forced to build his own. Most of his early diving was skewed towards competitions and his equipment was developed for reef fish and cave diving. In the mid 80’s he was already experimenting with Carbon Fibre and Titanium.

First gaining his Provincial Colours in 1979, he went on to represent South Africa in competitions in Chile, Peru and the USA. In recent years he has acted as Coach and Manager to the South African Spearfishing Team.

Qualified as a B.Sc. Mechanical Engineer, he provides a strong theoretical input during the design and testing of all the Rob Allen products.