2007 – Colorado – TheGators |

2007 – Colorado – TheGators

The Gator Wrestling Class

So this was the whole reason for our trip. The rest, as cool as they were, were just filler activities. The idea was originally discovered by Kurt.

Another funny story here: Kurt discovered this class while reading a magazine at my doctors office. He was at the office because he was waiting to drive me home after a procedure where I would have two cortico-steriod epidural shots into the lumbar part of my spine to reduce inflamation from a herniated disk. Now one of the key reasons I had this issue is the stunt school classes that he gave me for Xmas, and attends as well. So while I am limping around and cross-eyed shortly after this procedure, he says, “So, I found this class where we can learn to wrestle gators…. Wanna go?”

What, was I gonna say? “No”?

Anyways, back to the point. This is a extremely cool class, and I would recommend it to any one. The whole deal started as a fish farm in the geothermal springs about 3 hours south of Denver. In order to handle all the dead fish bodies and skeletons, they came up with the bright idea of bringing in gators as a natural garage disposal. Well, once you have a bunch O gators, you have to handle em to move them around, provide medical attention when the get hurt, etc.. And once your friends find out, they wanna play too……

For more info, go visit em at GatorFarm.Com (Click here)

The Guard Turtle

Yes, this is a cat, asleep ontop of a cage containing a Boa...

This looked impressive. Little did we know we would be walking around IN this pen a little later

While you are at it, remember this area as well, you will see it later

We started out by following our instructor into a large (150 X 50 foot) penned in swamp to learn how to handle small gators. He showed us the proper procedure, and then it was our turn.

So now that we had the basics…. We got to play with larger ones….The little ones were quick, these were quick and very strong.

The Instructor pulled out and pinned the first one, as it needed some medical care. So Kurt got to hold it down while the instructor cleaned a bite in the gators leg.... But we can clearly see a thought forming in our instructors mind.

Why... You... Little....!

The gator succeeded in dumping Felicia

Right… So now that we have perfected the 6 footers… it must be time to go up in size….Ohhh gooody.

Everyone (except Kurt) Got a stick. This was to poke around in front of you in the water to ensure you didnt step on a submerged gator... It wasnt very reassuring