The Best of Ellijay, Blue Ridge & Jasper Funpaper issue 7 | Page 61

Thia: Did you practice in the bathtub?
Eric: No, I don't have a bathtub, so
that makes it hard.
Thia: When you dive under the ice,
what if you can't find the hole you went
down into when you wanna come back
up?
Eric: You die! Luckily that didn't happen. I'm here. You cut a big hole and
you hope for a sunny day so the sun
comes through the hole. It looks like
another world when you are under
there. You are seeing the bottom of the
ice. I've never seen anything like it. It's
so cool. And only twenty or thirty people in the world have ever done it.
Most people that dive under ice use
compressed air. It's so cold it's hard to
hold your breath. And you have to have
special gear, like a 7 mill free dive suit,
and we had custom masks that have a
little hole for your eyes. Because you
get brain freeze. It's super cold.
Thia: So you are obviously brave,
courageous or crazy.
Eric: Stupid is what my mother would
say! There is a thin line between bravery and stupidity.
Thia: I can't wait to see your show.
When is it on?
Eric: My show is in re-runs right now.
We had eight new ones showing last
summer, and we will have twelve more
that start in March or April. River Monsters will air from 8-9, mine will air
from 9-930. We started filming a new
set in November, it will have fishing,
but other crazy stuff too. I think this
season's pilot will be on the underground street luge society in San Francisco. A Luge sled is this little wheeled
cart that slides on the ground. We wear
leather suits and helmets.
Thia: That sounds exciting! Betty, I
know you want to ask about fishing.
Bayou Betty: Can I ask you what is the
biggest large mouth bass you ever
caught?
Eric: It would be Devil’s River in
Texas. We did a kayak trip. It was
about 11 pounds. They are really hard
to catch because it is very protected,
so no one fishes and they are very skittish . We came down these rapids and
as soon as you hit, they are in these
pools on the bottom. But if you make
too much noise they just take off. I
think I caught 3 the entire weekend.
Mine was the biggest one we caught. I
got lucky. We do mostly salt water on
the show because that is where all the
crazy stuff happens. We caught a nine
foot hammerhead from the beach this
summer. That was wild. We caught a
thirteen foot seven gill shark in Oregon.

Robb- What is the most extreme thing
you have done?
Thia: Eric said it was fishing under the
ice
Eric: That is the most dangerous. That
and one other thing. So in Hawaii the
premise of the show is that I am going
to throw a luau. So we are collecting
the stuff for the feast. There are always
two stories for each location. So in
Hawaii, one is free diving for octopus.
We caught a bunch. Then the second
was, we did Opihi (O-P-High) picking
which is a shellfish that is along the
shore line. It's really dangerous. They
say more people die a year doing that
then couch or crab fishing. But not too
many people do it. It's a very traditional kind of Hawaiian thing. You have
a butter knife and these special boots
and you climb along the rocks. You are
picking these shellfish off and these
waves are coming in and crashing over
you. It's you versus the ocean and you
lose. I've been wrestling since I was 17
and I'm 33 now, and I've never been as
beat up ever, as I was that day. I had
cuts everywhere. I got four stitches in
my head from getting thrown into the
rocks. It sounds sweet doesn't it?
Opihi picking. It's the most dangerous
thing I've ever done. It's wild.
Thia: Sounds wild! Bayou Betty just
went alligator hunting. (Bayou Betty
talks all about her alligator hunt in her
column in this issue.)
Eric: We did an alligator hunting
show. There is a place in Florida called
Gator Quest. It's three square miles
and they say there are 1400 alligators
there. We were catching them to move
the gators from a pond to the holding
area. We used rod and reel and caught
one that was eleven feet. It was cool.
Jumping on the back was pretty crazy.
We had caught three that day, 7 feet,
9 feet and 11 feet. It's a dinosaur. Sitting on it's back, I could feel it breath.
It was awesome. I'm glad I did it.
Thia: That's cool. Bayou Betty kissed
'em.
Bayou Betty: I went to film an alligator
hunt. We'd been out for five nights. We
actually did two day hunts and the second day hunt we got em. 13 feet 1 inch
814 pounds. I got on him. He was still
growling. I kissed him. He outweighed
the Georgia record by two hundred
pounds.
Eric: Very cool. I'd like to see the pictures.
Eric and Bayou Betty shared pictures of
their adventures and then Eric went to
wrestle. It was really cool to meet and
talk to him. If you want to know more
about his adventures you can watch his
program on Animal Planet.

Caller ID should be more detailed~ "Wants Help Moving" "Going to Whine" "Will Ask to Borrow Money"

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