1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:12,613 --> 00:00:14,182 Do you know what a legend is? 4 00:00:16,784 --> 00:00:20,721 A legend gets started out by somebody telling a story. 5 00:00:23,457 --> 00:00:25,493 "I caught a fish this big." 6 00:00:27,228 --> 00:00:29,830 Now, the guy that spread the story 7 00:00:29,963 --> 00:00:31,532 said it was this big. 8 00:00:33,467 --> 00:00:37,738 And by the time it goes to ten different people, guess what? 9 00:00:37,871 --> 00:00:40,040 "It was this big. It really was." 10 00:00:42,009 --> 00:00:44,545 And that's how a legend gets started. 11 00:00:44,678 --> 00:00:46,714 It doesn't mean anything. 12 00:00:46,847 --> 00:00:48,482 It's a story. 13 00:00:57,158 --> 00:01:00,128 Anyone that has not been able to hook a shark 14 00:01:01,028 --> 00:01:04,432 from a land based position wouldn't know what it's like. 15 00:01:05,065 --> 00:01:07,601 The tremendous amount of power of this fish had. 16 00:01:08,836 --> 00:01:11,038 Now when most people think of sharks, 17 00:01:11,172 --> 00:01:12,706 they automatically think of Jaws. 18 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:15,409 That Hollywood shark that bit its way 19 00:01:15,543 --> 00:01:16,977 through more than a few bodies, 20 00:01:17,111 --> 00:01:19,747 leaving behind a lot of blood and gore. 21 00:01:28,756 --> 00:01:31,058 So what is it with these guys? 22 00:01:31,192 --> 00:01:33,127 They jump right in with the shark. 23 00:01:33,261 --> 00:01:35,129 They beg them to come on over. 24 00:01:35,263 --> 00:01:36,897 They're not crazy. 25 00:01:37,030 --> 00:01:38,799 They've just caught shark fever. 26 00:01:38,932 --> 00:01:42,770 Actually, just holding the rod, that gave me the fever. 27 00:01:42,903 --> 00:01:44,805 I was just a little kid. 28 00:01:44,938 --> 00:01:46,807 Hooked me for life. 29 00:01:48,209 --> 00:01:51,412 I've taught a lot of kids, and they become good. 30 00:01:51,545 --> 00:01:54,315 They become better than me. 31 00:01:54,448 --> 00:01:55,949 And Rene was one of them. 32 00:01:56,083 --> 00:01:57,117 Whoa. 33 00:01:57,251 --> 00:01:58,452 Yeah. 34 00:02:01,955 --> 00:02:04,492 Hauling in a shark is no small chore. 35 00:02:04,625 --> 00:02:07,761 Yet challenges like these are what Rene de Dios lives for. 36 00:02:07,895 --> 00:02:10,130 The Miami Beach resident is considered by many, 37 00:02:10,264 --> 00:02:12,132 the best shark fisherman around. 38 00:02:12,266 --> 00:02:17,238 Being a fanatic is one big secret and I don't like it 39 00:02:17,371 --> 00:02:20,107 I love the sport of catching shark. 40 00:02:25,813 --> 00:02:27,348 Are there really sharks in Miami Beach? 41 00:02:27,481 --> 00:02:28,949 South Beach? 42 00:02:29,082 --> 00:02:31,118 If you ever questioned whether the waters 43 00:02:31,252 --> 00:02:32,820 off of South Florida beaches are filled with sharks, 44 00:02:32,953 --> 00:02:34,488 this should answer the question. 45 00:02:34,622 --> 00:02:36,690 And I'm like yeah, when you're swimming. 46 00:02:36,824 --> 00:02:38,459 They were swimming next to you. 47 00:02:38,592 --> 00:02:40,160 You just didn't know. 48 00:02:40,294 --> 00:02:42,663 I grew up on South Beach, South of fifth. 49 00:02:42,796 --> 00:02:45,499 My old man, Seaweed, grew up with these guys, 50 00:02:45,633 --> 00:02:47,335 with Rene, Hammer. 51 00:02:47,468 --> 00:02:49,837 He's a special case because he's really carried this 52 00:02:49,970 --> 00:02:52,673 in his blood, living in South Beach for so many years. 53 00:02:53,274 --> 00:02:55,309 I mean, before me, it was a special era 54 00:02:55,443 --> 00:02:57,578 that was, it was just totally different. 55 00:02:58,579 --> 00:03:00,714 South Beach back in the day, it was just a place 56 00:03:00,848 --> 00:03:03,517 where the hub of the action was, where everybody was out here 57 00:03:03,651 --> 00:03:05,219 trying to make a name for themselves. 58 00:03:05,353 --> 00:03:07,255 The surfers, the shark fishermen. 59 00:03:07,388 --> 00:03:08,922 It was a lifestyle. 60 00:03:09,056 --> 00:03:10,391 It was like crack brother. 61 00:03:10,524 --> 00:03:12,226 It was like so addictive, man. 62 00:03:12,360 --> 00:03:13,894 You know, if you lived in South Beach, 63 00:03:14,027 --> 00:03:16,063 you surfed there, you skated, you fished there, 64 00:03:16,196 --> 00:03:18,065 you had to congregate there. 65 00:03:18,198 --> 00:03:19,700 It was criteria. 66 00:03:20,534 --> 00:03:22,603 Everyone wanted the biggest shark. 67 00:03:22,736 --> 00:03:27,808 Everyone wanted to outlast the next guy that came along. 68 00:03:28,809 --> 00:03:30,344 The guys that were at the top, 69 00:03:30,478 --> 00:03:31,912 they weren't going to give up that spot. 70 00:03:32,045 --> 00:03:34,448 And the one guy that stuck out was Rene. 71 00:03:35,283 --> 00:03:38,085 Rene de Dios was completely caught up 72 00:03:38,218 --> 00:03:39,953 with the shark fishing. 73 00:03:40,087 --> 00:03:42,790 He's on, baby! He hit the one on top! 74 00:03:42,923 --> 00:03:45,559 He was aggressive, very competitive. 75 00:03:45,693 --> 00:03:47,328 World record. 76 00:03:47,461 --> 00:03:49,196 Look at the size of this shit. 77 00:03:49,330 --> 00:03:51,231 And he would tell you, "I'm number one." 78 00:03:51,365 --> 00:03:54,702 Rene is an icon in the history of South Beach. 79 00:03:54,835 --> 00:03:56,770 As a kid we thought, man this guy's a god. 80 00:03:56,904 --> 00:03:58,672 This guy's a bad ass. 81 00:03:58,806 --> 00:04:00,374 He'd project things and then it happened. 82 00:04:00,508 --> 00:04:02,676 He would risk life and limb to catch a shark. 83 00:04:02,810 --> 00:04:05,413 He caught a twenty foot great white shark 84 00:04:05,546 --> 00:04:07,815 that dragged down their small boat. 85 00:04:07,948 --> 00:04:09,383 I believe the story. 86 00:04:09,517 --> 00:04:11,452 If you told me that story, I'd say no. 87 00:04:11,585 --> 00:04:13,754 Blood's in the water. Now blood's in the water. 88 00:04:13,887 --> 00:04:15,723 And that's when everything went downhill. 89 00:04:15,856 --> 00:04:18,959 He was one of my young kids that I brought up 90 00:04:19,092 --> 00:04:21,429 that became one of the best shark fishermen 91 00:04:21,562 --> 00:04:23,464 in the United States. 92 00:04:23,597 --> 00:04:25,098 He proved it every day 93 00:04:25,232 --> 00:04:27,768 but he died, proving it. 94 00:04:44,452 --> 00:04:46,454 You can put jaws on there, it's not coming off. 95 00:05:08,442 --> 00:05:10,177 I like to be ready for whatever. 96 00:05:11,445 --> 00:05:13,447 Whatever I encounter out there. 97 00:05:34,902 --> 00:05:37,471 The two people I look at as legends right now 98 00:05:37,605 --> 00:05:43,577 are JD Hammer and Rene for two different reasons all together. 99 00:05:47,815 --> 00:05:50,384 People tell me like-- "What are you doing? You're crazy?" 100 00:05:50,518 --> 00:05:52,453 I don't even come close to Rene. 101 00:05:52,586 --> 00:05:54,555 I had stories where he was suicidal 102 00:05:54,688 --> 00:05:56,657 to put him in a little raft and let him go. 103 00:05:56,790 --> 00:05:58,859 'Cause he just wanted to die out there with the shark. 104 00:06:02,530 --> 00:06:05,132 Well, Rene taught me how to be an aggressive 105 00:06:05,265 --> 00:06:07,267 balls to the wall shark fishermen like-- 106 00:06:07,401 --> 00:06:09,670 Man, I don't even want to be out there in a big boat. 107 00:06:09,803 --> 00:06:11,572 I'm not going out there in this kayak. 108 00:06:11,705 --> 00:06:13,006 "Don't be scared. Go out there. 109 00:06:13,140 --> 00:06:14,775 "You know, you got to go right now." 110 00:06:17,611 --> 00:06:20,180 But Hammer, he taught me how to follow the winds, 111 00:06:20,313 --> 00:06:22,049 how to follow the seasons. 112 00:06:23,417 --> 00:06:25,318 He wakes up, no Weather Channel, 113 00:06:25,453 --> 00:06:26,787 "Oh no, we're not going there anymore, 114 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:28,489 "we're going here now." 115 00:06:28,622 --> 00:06:30,190 And then boom, we're on the fish. 116 00:06:30,323 --> 00:06:33,260 He is the god of fishing. 117 00:06:56,083 --> 00:06:57,818 I can tell you back in the days 118 00:06:57,951 --> 00:07:00,420 if you want to hear another story, because guess what? 119 00:07:00,554 --> 00:07:02,322 I'm a storyteller. 120 00:07:02,456 --> 00:07:04,758 And do you know, throughout history 121 00:07:04,892 --> 00:07:07,194 there's been storytellers. 122 00:07:07,327 --> 00:07:09,396 And I feel like I'm one of them. 123 00:07:10,397 --> 00:07:12,232 I'm one of the storytellers. 124 00:07:12,365 --> 00:07:14,968 So, I can tell you a great story 125 00:07:15,102 --> 00:07:17,070 about the South Beach Shark Club. 126 00:07:21,208 --> 00:07:24,177 Miami Beach, specifically South Beach. 127 00:07:24,311 --> 00:07:26,379 I could compare it to a... 128 00:07:27,114 --> 00:07:29,850 what would I compare it to? 129 00:07:31,351 --> 00:07:32,686 In the old days, 130 00:07:32,820 --> 00:07:34,822 it was totally different, it was uncrowded, 131 00:07:34,955 --> 00:07:36,524 it was relaxed, 132 00:07:36,657 --> 00:07:38,158 it was laid back. 133 00:07:40,761 --> 00:07:42,830 You could actually be a surf bum 134 00:07:42,963 --> 00:07:45,365 and make a living with a cast net netting mullet. 135 00:07:47,134 --> 00:07:49,269 Two out of every three people on South Beach 136 00:07:49,402 --> 00:07:51,872 have no car and no access to one. 137 00:07:52,005 --> 00:07:56,443 Half the people here live on less than $150 per month. 138 00:07:57,945 --> 00:07:59,346 South Beach was in decline. 139 00:07:59,479 --> 00:08:00,814 There was a lot of the old people 140 00:08:00,948 --> 00:08:02,683 who came to retire on South Beach. 141 00:08:02,816 --> 00:08:04,918 Just feeding the birds or just waiting to die. 142 00:08:05,052 --> 00:08:07,621 Basically, it was a retirement home. 143 00:08:07,755 --> 00:08:09,422 The southern tip of Miami Beach 144 00:08:09,557 --> 00:08:11,625 has a high concentration of elderly residents, 145 00:08:11,759 --> 00:08:13,694 perhaps higher than any other area 146 00:08:13,827 --> 00:08:15,796 of comparable size in the world. 147 00:08:16,897 --> 00:08:19,332 Fifth street was called Miami Beach Boulevard. 148 00:08:19,466 --> 00:08:22,002 South of fifth street was a community in itself. 149 00:08:23,336 --> 00:08:25,939 You know, imagine you have this retirement community 150 00:08:26,073 --> 00:08:28,175 of these zillions of elderly old people 151 00:08:28,308 --> 00:08:30,678 and then this little bunch of younger people. 152 00:08:30,811 --> 00:08:32,279 So, we all knew each other. 153 00:08:33,914 --> 00:08:36,216 There are only 50 low rent housing units 154 00:08:36,349 --> 00:08:40,320 in Miami Beach, all clustered at the very tip of South Beach. 155 00:08:41,421 --> 00:08:43,090 If you lived south of Fifth, 156 00:08:43,223 --> 00:08:46,159 it was basically like very decrepit. 157 00:08:47,961 --> 00:08:49,730 Our parents were very poor. 158 00:08:49,863 --> 00:08:51,732 We lived in small apartments, 159 00:08:51,865 --> 00:08:55,135 you know, no air conditioning, you know, jalousie windows. 160 00:08:55,869 --> 00:08:57,905 For the most part, 161 00:08:58,038 --> 00:09:00,373 Miami Beach from Sixth Street south, is not a pretty place. 162 00:09:00,507 --> 00:09:02,175 It's very old. 163 00:09:02,309 --> 00:09:04,211 One of the oldest neighborhoods in South Florida. 164 00:09:06,079 --> 00:09:08,515 It was a dump site, is what it was. It was a rough scene. 165 00:09:08,649 --> 00:09:10,083 It wasn't like it is now. 166 00:09:15,555 --> 00:09:17,825 Have you been to South Beach lately? 167 00:09:17,958 --> 00:09:19,526 Probably not. 168 00:09:19,660 --> 00:09:22,262 Most of us try to avoid the old rundown area 169 00:09:22,395 --> 00:09:24,097 of Miami Beach, south of Sixth Street. 170 00:09:24,898 --> 00:09:26,166 The city of Miami Beach has 171 00:09:26,299 --> 00:09:27,735 declared it a blighted area 172 00:09:27,868 --> 00:09:30,037 and rezoned it for renewal. 173 00:09:31,872 --> 00:09:34,274 South Beach, a ghetto in the sun, 174 00:09:34,407 --> 00:09:36,944 a place where old people and old values 175 00:09:37,077 --> 00:09:39,647 are making a lonely final struggle. 176 00:09:45,619 --> 00:09:47,721 There's a lot that's truly depressing, 177 00:09:47,855 --> 00:09:50,123 sites many of us would like to eliminate, 178 00:09:50,257 --> 00:09:53,927 but there are others too, young people 179 00:09:54,061 --> 00:09:57,798 who feel at home on one of the few pieces of real beach left 180 00:09:57,931 --> 00:09:59,566 in Miami Beach. 181 00:09:59,700 --> 00:10:01,134 And new ethnic groups, 182 00:10:01,268 --> 00:10:03,436 Cubans and blacks, families 183 00:10:03,570 --> 00:10:06,640 bringing young children back to these weary streets. 184 00:10:11,611 --> 00:10:14,648 What's different today than back in the days? 185 00:10:14,782 --> 00:10:17,150 Back in the days it was so free out there. 186 00:10:17,751 --> 00:10:19,787 Nobody would hassle you. 187 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:21,088 I mean... 188 00:10:21,789 --> 00:10:24,925 it was just a different time, a different place. 189 00:10:25,893 --> 00:10:28,628 Never, ever will it be like that again. 190 00:10:28,762 --> 00:10:29,897 It's gone. 191 00:10:39,006 --> 00:10:42,042 95% of the people that live on Miami Beach now 192 00:10:42,175 --> 00:10:45,145 are transient or just showed up on Miami Beach. 193 00:10:46,046 --> 00:10:48,849 They have no idea what it was back then. 194 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:54,354 South Beach, 195 00:10:54,487 --> 00:10:56,724 what a beautiful place. 196 00:11:00,093 --> 00:11:02,830 You know, I always tell people, South Beach, South Point, 197 00:11:02,963 --> 00:11:05,298 this is the last sand beach, 198 00:11:05,432 --> 00:11:08,936 like ocean beach on the whole East Coast. 199 00:11:09,069 --> 00:11:11,138 Everything else is just like, you know, it's not a beach. 200 00:11:12,372 --> 00:11:14,274 It's not. 201 00:11:14,407 --> 00:11:17,477 The geography of South Beach was a captive audience in itself. 202 00:11:17,978 --> 00:11:19,747 That's where A1A ends. 203 00:11:19,880 --> 00:11:23,650 I mean, now it's only ocean south of us and east of us. 204 00:11:23,784 --> 00:11:27,054 So people would just walk and just take it in. 205 00:11:28,488 --> 00:11:29,957 You had the projects on the south side, 206 00:11:30,090 --> 00:11:31,959 the parking lot, the dog track. 207 00:11:32,092 --> 00:11:34,094 Then you had the chicken shack. Then you had the surf shop. 208 00:11:34,227 --> 00:11:36,764 You had this bar in the corner where all the Hells Angels 209 00:11:36,897 --> 00:11:38,966 and these motorcycle guys would hang out. 210 00:11:39,099 --> 00:11:41,902 A restaurant that it was only like for high class people. 211 00:11:42,035 --> 00:11:43,871 You know, we didn't go inside there. 212 00:11:45,072 --> 00:11:47,207 There was a fish market called Sanitary Fish Market. 213 00:11:47,340 --> 00:11:48,809 They were the projects. 214 00:11:49,910 --> 00:11:52,245 It was like a surfing town surfing, fishing town. 215 00:11:52,379 --> 00:11:53,580 Locals. 216 00:11:53,713 --> 00:11:55,515 South Beach. It's like a funnel. 217 00:11:55,648 --> 00:11:58,151 It's a magnet for very strange people, very strange kids. 218 00:11:59,152 --> 00:12:01,188 It was very dynamic. It was very diversified. 219 00:12:01,321 --> 00:12:03,656 You had like a motley crew of people there. 220 00:12:04,691 --> 00:12:08,028 There was just a group of us that were from south of Fifth. 221 00:12:08,161 --> 00:12:10,931 We were surfers, skateboarders and fishermen and divers. 222 00:12:11,899 --> 00:12:15,302 I think I discovered the pier in like 1978. 223 00:12:15,435 --> 00:12:17,737 I was basically just skateboarding down Ocean Drive, 224 00:12:17,871 --> 00:12:20,107 and I saw it in the distance 225 00:12:20,240 --> 00:12:23,110 and I just kept skateboarding until I found out what it was. 226 00:12:25,012 --> 00:12:27,280 The pier was on First Street and Ocean. 227 00:12:27,414 --> 00:12:29,216 That's where I did most of my fishing. 228 00:12:29,349 --> 00:12:32,152 Was at night on the pier or right off the surf on the beach. 229 00:12:33,353 --> 00:12:35,422 You had the brotherhood of the South Beach guys, 230 00:12:35,555 --> 00:12:38,125 the surfers, the skateboarders, the shark fishermen. 231 00:12:38,258 --> 00:12:39,626 Everybody knew each other. 232 00:12:39,759 --> 00:12:41,128 And we would just congregate on the pier 233 00:12:41,261 --> 00:12:42,729 all day, every day. 234 00:12:44,231 --> 00:12:45,665 It was really localized, the turf. 235 00:12:45,799 --> 00:12:47,634 I mean, you didn't just pile next to the pier 236 00:12:47,767 --> 00:12:49,803 with a bunch of guys who knew each other 237 00:12:49,937 --> 00:12:51,571 and you were unfamiliar. 238 00:12:51,704 --> 00:12:53,273 You were either welcomed or you weren't. 239 00:12:53,406 --> 00:12:55,008 And if you weren't, 240 00:12:55,142 --> 00:12:58,611 you were either physically moved out or worse. 241 00:12:59,279 --> 00:13:00,613 You couldn't fish that area. 242 00:13:00,747 --> 00:13:02,682 It was very territorial on the pier, 243 00:13:02,816 --> 00:13:05,886 on the beach, the waves, same thing, even in the parking lot. 244 00:13:06,019 --> 00:13:08,321 If you were not a local, if you didn't know anybody there, 245 00:13:08,455 --> 00:13:10,991 there was certain areas where you can't-- you can't go. 246 00:13:13,961 --> 00:13:15,362 If you were a young kid, 247 00:13:15,495 --> 00:13:17,464 you knew to take your place and learn 248 00:13:17,597 --> 00:13:19,499 and try to build your way into the group. 249 00:13:19,632 --> 00:13:21,268 But you understood who was at the top. 250 00:13:22,102 --> 00:13:23,871 Once the sun started setting, 251 00:13:24,004 --> 00:13:28,008 the right hand corner of the pier belonged to the shark guys. 252 00:13:28,141 --> 00:13:30,177 Nobody messed with that. 253 00:13:31,111 --> 00:13:34,014 The whole thing was based on 254 00:13:34,147 --> 00:13:35,682 who got the biggest fish that day 255 00:13:35,815 --> 00:13:38,952 and who now is which we would call the Kahuna. 256 00:13:39,519 --> 00:13:44,191 So the Kahuna, many times Rene, would be on that pier 257 00:13:44,324 --> 00:13:48,661 for more than 10 hours a day. 258 00:13:48,795 --> 00:13:50,497 The guys were at the top, 259 00:13:50,630 --> 00:13:52,032 they weren't going to give up that spot. 260 00:13:52,165 --> 00:13:54,334 And the one guy that stuck out was Rene. 261 00:13:54,801 --> 00:13:56,169 Every time he went out on the pier, 262 00:13:56,303 --> 00:13:57,971 it was like his last night on the pier. 263 00:13:58,105 --> 00:14:00,207 And that's how he approached every bait he put out. 264 00:14:00,340 --> 00:14:02,375 That was going to be the big one, 265 00:14:02,509 --> 00:14:04,912 and he went every night, every free night that he had. 266 00:14:05,045 --> 00:14:06,846 He was on that corner. 267 00:14:06,980 --> 00:14:08,615 That was his corner. 268 00:14:09,849 --> 00:14:11,518 That was the corner that reached 269 00:14:11,651 --> 00:14:13,453 what we called "the monster hole" back then. 270 00:14:15,488 --> 00:14:17,390 There was only one guy. 271 00:14:17,524 --> 00:14:19,392 He was the master. 272 00:14:19,526 --> 00:14:22,963 He became the guy that out fished the teacher. 273 00:14:23,096 --> 00:14:25,565 He made the teacher look like crap. 274 00:14:26,233 --> 00:14:27,534 That's how good he was. 275 00:14:27,667 --> 00:14:28,835 Who was the teacher? 276 00:14:28,969 --> 00:14:30,670 I taught him how to fish. 277 00:14:31,504 --> 00:14:33,506 Topping the list of the great and famous 278 00:14:33,640 --> 00:14:36,009 South Beach pier fisherman is a 20 year old 279 00:14:36,143 --> 00:14:39,512 Miami-Dade Community College student, Rene de Dios. 280 00:14:40,647 --> 00:14:42,382 As a kid, we thought, man this guy's a god. 281 00:14:42,515 --> 00:14:44,651 He kind of had that, you know, 282 00:14:44,784 --> 00:14:46,719 he'd project things and then it happened. 283 00:14:46,853 --> 00:14:48,956 He had this aura about him. 284 00:14:49,089 --> 00:14:51,624 Like you could tell that he achieved something amazing 285 00:14:51,758 --> 00:14:53,660 that he wanted to do. 286 00:14:53,793 --> 00:14:56,296 I think Rene was born to do that. 287 00:14:56,429 --> 00:14:58,365 About 10 o'clock last night, 288 00:14:58,498 --> 00:15:02,269 the jaws of a 9 1/2 foot long man eating tiger shark 289 00:15:02,402 --> 00:15:05,905 clamped down on the bait at the end of de Dios' 14/0 reel. 290 00:15:06,039 --> 00:15:09,042 Rene came around. Rene became the big kahuna. 291 00:15:09,176 --> 00:15:11,244 It's like the king of the pack. You know, the top dog. 292 00:15:11,378 --> 00:15:13,280 Kahuna, man, the guy who catches 293 00:15:13,413 --> 00:15:15,448 all the big fish, man, the hot shot. 294 00:15:15,582 --> 00:15:17,517 Why do you pursue sharks? 295 00:15:17,650 --> 00:15:19,786 I guess it was kind of born with me. 296 00:15:19,919 --> 00:15:21,621 It's like a fever. 297 00:15:21,754 --> 00:15:24,124 If I give you my rod and you get that feeling, 298 00:15:24,257 --> 00:15:27,260 the big fish, it sticks to you and you can't let go. 299 00:15:27,394 --> 00:15:29,062 It's a fever that sticks to you. 300 00:15:29,196 --> 00:15:30,797 It's a big emotion 301 00:15:30,930 --> 00:15:32,899 because, you know everybody's watching you. 302 00:15:33,033 --> 00:15:35,068 And then you want more and more. It's like a drug. 303 00:15:35,202 --> 00:15:36,269 It's just the same. 304 00:15:39,906 --> 00:15:41,208 Who taught Rene how to fish? 305 00:15:41,341 --> 00:15:43,143 I know JD Hammer-- 306 00:15:43,276 --> 00:15:46,913 Jimbo had a lot to do with it, and he quietly-- 307 00:15:47,047 --> 00:15:49,082 I remember the story of when Rene 308 00:15:49,216 --> 00:15:51,184 hooked his first shark on the pier. 309 00:15:51,318 --> 00:15:54,654 He put out his rod and like, there was those higher powers. 310 00:15:54,787 --> 00:15:56,256 And it was really 311 00:15:56,389 --> 00:15:57,991 it wasn't like your average fishing pier 312 00:15:58,125 --> 00:15:59,592 that you go to Palm Beach now 313 00:15:59,726 --> 00:16:01,428 and it's like controlled with security and stuff. 314 00:16:01,561 --> 00:16:03,263 There were some bad motherfuckers out there 315 00:16:03,396 --> 00:16:05,265 that would just put down on you, 316 00:16:05,398 --> 00:16:07,500 like, straight up like, "Hey, man, give me that rod you know." 317 00:16:07,634 --> 00:16:09,036 Like snatch your rod out of your hands, 318 00:16:09,169 --> 00:16:10,270 and he's fighting a shark. 319 00:16:10,403 --> 00:16:11,604 And I forgot who it was. 320 00:16:11,738 --> 00:16:12,839 It was this big... 321 00:16:12,972 --> 00:16:14,541 I think they called him Moose. 322 00:16:14,674 --> 00:16:15,942 It was the Moose, 323 00:16:16,076 --> 00:16:18,478 he was like this big, big, 324 00:16:18,611 --> 00:16:21,714 like scary dude on the pier who was a shark fisherman. 325 00:16:21,848 --> 00:16:24,184 And Rene, I think he was like 15, hooked his first shark. 326 00:16:24,317 --> 00:16:25,952 And the guys like, "Man give me that rod, 327 00:16:26,086 --> 00:16:27,354 "you don't know what you're doing kid." 328 00:16:27,487 --> 00:16:28,955 And was taking the rod away 329 00:16:29,089 --> 00:16:30,823 and that Hammer came and grabbed the rod 330 00:16:30,957 --> 00:16:32,792 he's like, "No man, let the kid catch his shark." 331 00:16:32,925 --> 00:16:34,594 And since then, you know Rene looked up 332 00:16:34,727 --> 00:16:36,129 "Oh, man, this guy's nice." 333 00:16:36,263 --> 00:16:38,231 And he learned a lot from Hammer. 334 00:16:38,365 --> 00:16:39,566 I know that. 335 00:16:57,650 --> 00:16:59,486 When I met Rene, he was 14. 336 00:17:01,288 --> 00:17:03,323 He didn't know anything about shark fishing. 337 00:17:04,957 --> 00:17:06,293 I said, "Rene, what do you got?" 338 00:17:06,426 --> 00:17:08,428 And he goes, "I got a yo yo." 339 00:17:08,561 --> 00:17:10,097 I said, "Partner, you're not going to catch 340 00:17:10,230 --> 00:17:11,564 "nothing with that." 341 00:17:12,365 --> 00:17:14,067 He followed us 342 00:17:14,201 --> 00:17:16,069 because we were already there shark fishing 343 00:17:16,203 --> 00:17:17,870 and he was just starting. 344 00:17:18,004 --> 00:17:19,806 So yeah, he took out our bait. 345 00:17:21,208 --> 00:17:23,343 When you're first starting you have to go through, like, 346 00:17:23,476 --> 00:17:25,678 a rookie training. 347 00:17:25,812 --> 00:17:28,248 You know, you might as well say. 348 00:17:29,549 --> 00:17:32,385 I had to take out bait for somebody on a surfboard, 349 00:17:32,952 --> 00:17:35,388 and Rene had to take out my bait. 350 00:17:44,331 --> 00:17:48,435 When Rene caught his first shark on my rod in 1971, 351 00:17:48,568 --> 00:17:50,703 there was a 300 pound dude out there 352 00:17:50,837 --> 00:17:53,106 trying to take the rod away from him. 353 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:55,074 You know what I told him? 354 00:17:55,208 --> 00:17:57,410 I said, "Leave the kid alone." 355 00:17:57,944 --> 00:17:59,279 That was Rene's first shark. 356 00:17:59,412 --> 00:18:02,482 Yeah. The guy could have beat my ass, 357 00:18:02,615 --> 00:18:05,785 but he respected me as being one of the elders. 358 00:18:06,653 --> 00:18:07,954 So he left me alone. 359 00:18:08,087 --> 00:18:09,689 And Rene caught his first shark. 360 00:18:09,822 --> 00:18:14,127 And from then, till whenever he was a monster. 361 00:18:20,200 --> 00:18:23,270 Any angler has a dream as to a big fish. 362 00:18:24,003 --> 00:18:26,273 Rene's was to catch the biggest shark possible. 363 00:18:26,773 --> 00:18:28,675 I don't know if he came close to his dream, 364 00:18:28,808 --> 00:18:31,844 but I know he had some hookups that were impossible to stop. 365 00:18:34,046 --> 00:18:36,649 In 1974, Rene caught a 14 foot hammerhead 366 00:18:36,783 --> 00:18:38,651 and it came out in the Miami Herald, 367 00:18:38,785 --> 00:18:41,554 and that drove him to extreme heights. 368 00:18:41,688 --> 00:18:43,490 The 14 footer that he landed? 369 00:18:43,623 --> 00:18:44,924 Oh, he never let that go. 370 00:18:45,057 --> 00:18:46,293 No, that was his bragging rights. 371 00:18:46,426 --> 00:18:47,594 That was his thing. 372 00:18:47,727 --> 00:18:49,529 The pier was alive with people 373 00:18:49,662 --> 00:18:51,398 raving over this giant hammerhead 374 00:18:51,531 --> 00:18:54,967 that's part of his legend is that, that 14 foot hammer, 375 00:18:55,101 --> 00:18:56,836 people talked about that forever. 376 00:18:56,969 --> 00:18:58,671 That was the bar back then. 377 00:18:58,805 --> 00:19:00,340 I heard it from the elderly peoples 378 00:19:00,473 --> 00:19:01,974 down on Fourth Street, Fifth Street, 379 00:19:02,108 --> 00:19:03,976 this guy landed this 14 foot hammerhead 380 00:19:04,110 --> 00:19:05,678 and then hearing it from Rene, 381 00:19:05,812 --> 00:19:07,847 I think I believe he tied into two reels. 382 00:19:09,482 --> 00:19:11,318 Back then, when you would get stripped, 383 00:19:11,451 --> 00:19:13,085 you would run down the pier 384 00:19:13,220 --> 00:19:16,323 and cut the line and splice it into another line. 385 00:19:16,456 --> 00:19:18,291 As you're running out of line. 386 00:19:19,259 --> 00:19:21,661 One of your buddies would peel out all the line 387 00:19:21,794 --> 00:19:23,463 so the shark wouldn't feel the tension 388 00:19:23,596 --> 00:19:25,798 and that would give you time to pull that out 389 00:19:25,932 --> 00:19:28,968 and tie it to a second rod to keep fighting the fish. 390 00:19:29,702 --> 00:19:32,071 I don't know where that idea originally came from. 391 00:19:32,205 --> 00:19:35,174 I cannot say it was Rene's, 392 00:19:35,308 --> 00:19:37,610 but I cannot say it wasn't either. 393 00:19:41,180 --> 00:19:42,315 It was crazy. 394 00:19:44,951 --> 00:19:47,019 Having spliced and then brought those reels back in 395 00:19:47,153 --> 00:19:49,021 and having caught that shark. 396 00:19:49,155 --> 00:19:51,023 That set Rene at the epitome of land based 397 00:19:51,157 --> 00:19:52,992 shark fishing around the world. 398 00:19:53,125 --> 00:19:55,628 That 14 foot hammer. He was always bragging about it. 399 00:19:55,762 --> 00:19:58,398 And he was always telling me and you know he's number one, 400 00:19:58,531 --> 00:19:59,899 no one can ever beat him. 401 00:20:00,032 --> 00:20:01,901 Everybody wanted to out fish each other 402 00:20:02,034 --> 00:20:03,536 and try to equal what Rene was doing. 403 00:20:03,670 --> 00:20:05,171 And we wanted to be part of that. 404 00:20:07,039 --> 00:20:09,742 Rene became obsessed with this. 405 00:20:09,876 --> 00:20:12,679 His demeanor, his stamina. 406 00:20:12,812 --> 00:20:15,515 He attacked shark fishing with a fury, 407 00:20:15,648 --> 00:20:18,751 like it was the last thing he was going to do every day. 408 00:20:18,885 --> 00:20:20,787 He was like King Kong on the pier, 409 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:23,690 this little guy with muscles, with a big mouth. 410 00:20:23,823 --> 00:20:26,526 And then Jaws came out in '76 and that was it, man. 411 00:20:26,659 --> 00:20:28,328 It was like a fire out there. 412 00:20:44,143 --> 00:20:46,613 Shark, tiger of the sea. 413 00:20:46,746 --> 00:20:50,417 Of all sea terrors, the shark is the meanest, the most crass. 414 00:20:50,550 --> 00:20:54,754 Merciless. Tremendous strength, with an uncanny sense of smell. 415 00:20:56,055 --> 00:20:57,924 The men throw out the chum, 416 00:20:58,057 --> 00:21:00,793 the fish swarm about the delectable morsels 417 00:21:00,927 --> 00:21:04,731 but now this is where the sportsman gets into action. 418 00:21:04,864 --> 00:21:06,299 He took it all right. 419 00:21:06,433 --> 00:21:07,634 Hook, line and sinker. 420 00:21:10,503 --> 00:21:13,440 Jaws put sharks and shark fishing on the map. 421 00:21:13,573 --> 00:21:16,409 All of a sudden, you had tournaments all over the place. 422 00:21:16,543 --> 00:21:18,345 The University of Miami is sponsoring 423 00:21:18,478 --> 00:21:20,780 a shark fishing tournament this weekend in the Keys. 424 00:21:20,913 --> 00:21:24,484 Shark research will be benefited by the second annual shark hunt, 425 00:21:24,617 --> 00:21:26,886 which is scheduled for April 15th through the 17th. 426 00:21:27,019 --> 00:21:29,088 Rene started winning a lot of these tournaments 427 00:21:29,221 --> 00:21:32,258 and he'd come back to the pier and show off his trophies. 428 00:21:32,392 --> 00:21:33,760 Those early tournaments, 429 00:21:33,893 --> 00:21:35,194 it really showed that what he could do. 430 00:21:35,328 --> 00:21:37,630 You never beat Rene. Rene always won. 431 00:21:37,764 --> 00:21:39,632 You know, you could beat him in one category, 432 00:21:39,766 --> 00:21:41,801 but he'd beat you in three. 433 00:21:41,934 --> 00:21:44,170 Rene wanted to be in the newspaper. 434 00:21:44,303 --> 00:21:45,605 He wanted to be in your face. 435 00:21:45,738 --> 00:21:47,407 He wanted to beat everybody. 436 00:21:47,540 --> 00:21:51,378 So he brought shark fishing to a new, volatile level. 437 00:21:51,511 --> 00:21:52,779 The guy was fearless. 438 00:21:52,912 --> 00:21:53,946 This guy's a bad ass. 439 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:55,214 He wanted to catch Jaws now. 440 00:21:55,348 --> 00:21:56,916 Rene was Captain Quint. 441 00:21:59,318 --> 00:22:01,488 Hooper! Reverse it! 442 00:22:01,621 --> 00:22:04,123 Got him! Get us off the anchor! 443 00:22:06,693 --> 00:22:10,229 When he caught a shark, he became someone else. 444 00:22:10,363 --> 00:22:12,365 He would turn into like an animal 445 00:22:12,499 --> 00:22:14,266 when he would hook sharks. 446 00:22:14,401 --> 00:22:15,768 He would just go berserk. 447 00:22:15,902 --> 00:22:17,437 You know, he went into a frenzy. 448 00:22:17,570 --> 00:22:19,171 There you go! 449 00:22:19,305 --> 00:22:20,473 He's on, baby. 450 00:22:20,607 --> 00:22:22,174 He hit the one on top! 451 00:22:22,308 --> 00:22:23,476 I knew it, 452 00:22:23,610 --> 00:22:25,578 he hit the bottle, man. 453 00:22:26,546 --> 00:22:27,814 Oh, my God. 454 00:22:27,947 --> 00:22:30,983 Where is he, wait. See where he is. 455 00:22:31,918 --> 00:22:33,820 I need somebody in the back. 456 00:22:33,953 --> 00:22:35,688 The fish is completely, 457 00:22:35,822 --> 00:22:37,890 it's completely under on the boat Jorge. 458 00:22:39,459 --> 00:22:41,394 You know, he wanted the biggest shark. 459 00:22:41,528 --> 00:22:43,062 The meanest shark. 460 00:22:44,096 --> 00:22:46,699 Rene was chasing the Goliath of sharks. 461 00:23:11,157 --> 00:23:14,293 Rene de Dios is only 156 pounds 462 00:23:14,427 --> 00:23:16,729 and stands about 5'5", 463 00:23:16,863 --> 00:23:19,231 certainly not the world's biggest shark hunter. 464 00:23:19,365 --> 00:23:21,200 But he says size doesn't matter. 465 00:23:21,333 --> 00:23:22,702 You've got to have it in your heart 466 00:23:22,835 --> 00:23:24,704 and it's got to be in your blood 467 00:23:24,837 --> 00:23:26,806 if you want to be the world's greatest shark hunter. 468 00:23:26,939 --> 00:23:30,109 CT Taylor with the upcoming world's greatest shark hunter 469 00:23:30,242 --> 00:23:32,344 on South Beach for Channel 4 news. 470 00:23:35,482 --> 00:23:36,749 Oh, this guy was crazy. 471 00:23:36,883 --> 00:23:38,751 No doubt about it. 472 00:23:42,354 --> 00:23:44,423 I'm not saying anything against Rene. 473 00:23:44,924 --> 00:23:46,926 He's the guy that took it a step further 474 00:23:47,059 --> 00:23:51,197 and went beyond the average shark fisherman. 475 00:23:55,434 --> 00:23:57,403 And I tell some of these young shark fishermen 476 00:23:57,537 --> 00:24:00,507 that fish today and they're like, "Hey, am I like Rene?" 477 00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,142 And I'm like, "There's no one like Rene." 478 00:24:15,321 --> 00:24:18,457 He had to be number one every day. 479 00:24:20,860 --> 00:24:22,795 You're not going to be number one long, 480 00:24:22,929 --> 00:24:26,032 when you put that kind of pressure on yourself. 481 00:24:26,165 --> 00:24:29,001 I've never put that pressure on myself to be number one. 482 00:24:29,135 --> 00:24:30,770 I love shark fishing. 483 00:24:30,903 --> 00:24:32,505 And when I get a chance, I go out. 484 00:24:39,478 --> 00:24:42,649 He had to be number one every day. 485 00:24:51,423 --> 00:24:52,625 Look at this day. 486 00:24:52,759 --> 00:24:54,694 Look how beautiful it is. 487 00:24:56,295 --> 00:24:59,398 If I wanted to order this day for shark fishing, 488 00:24:59,532 --> 00:25:02,234 even though we're not getting too many bites right now, 489 00:25:02,368 --> 00:25:04,003 this is what I'd order. 490 00:25:04,136 --> 00:25:07,439 A nice, cool breeze, beautiful sun, 491 00:25:07,574 --> 00:25:10,342 nice people to hang out with and have a good time. 492 00:25:10,777 --> 00:25:14,013 Catching the shark is not important. 493 00:25:14,146 --> 00:25:17,349 And when I get a new kid and I'm teaching him how to fish, 494 00:25:17,483 --> 00:25:20,653 I tell him, "It's not important. 495 00:25:21,087 --> 00:25:23,956 "Don't make it your everything to catch a shark. 496 00:25:24,090 --> 00:25:27,226 "There's many more things that are more important 497 00:25:27,359 --> 00:25:28,928 "than shark fishing." 498 00:25:29,061 --> 00:25:30,362 Oh! 499 00:25:31,831 --> 00:25:34,066 The current. It's just the current. 500 00:25:42,541 --> 00:25:44,176 My dad would work really hard every day, 501 00:25:44,310 --> 00:25:46,078 so I didn't have my dad there. 502 00:25:46,212 --> 00:25:48,280 I would only see my dad early morning or late at night. 503 00:25:48,414 --> 00:25:50,016 Rene was like an older brother, father figure 504 00:25:50,149 --> 00:25:52,652 and kind of guiding us in the right direction. 505 00:25:52,785 --> 00:25:54,020 We kind of raised each other. 506 00:25:54,153 --> 00:25:55,421 I don't know what was going on 507 00:25:55,554 --> 00:25:57,223 in the households of the other kids, 508 00:25:57,356 --> 00:25:59,391 but it seemed like we were kind of feral. 509 00:25:59,525 --> 00:26:01,093 There was no curfews. 510 00:26:01,227 --> 00:26:03,796 Nobody was making sure we went to school, 511 00:26:03,930 --> 00:26:05,798 didn't seem like there were sit down meals. 512 00:26:05,932 --> 00:26:07,499 You know, like breakfast, lunch and dinner 513 00:26:07,634 --> 00:26:09,101 where mom's cooking dinner. 514 00:26:09,235 --> 00:26:10,703 I mean, yeah, I guess that was happening. 515 00:26:10,837 --> 00:26:12,271 Wasn't in my household. 516 00:26:12,404 --> 00:26:16,275 We would, not go to school too much. 517 00:26:16,843 --> 00:26:18,778 We were basically hanging around people 518 00:26:18,911 --> 00:26:21,547 that were a lot older than us. 519 00:26:21,681 --> 00:26:23,349 We were the young ones. 520 00:26:23,482 --> 00:26:25,451 I would spend at least four or five nights a week 521 00:26:25,584 --> 00:26:27,386 on the pier on a sleeping bag. 522 00:26:28,220 --> 00:26:29,956 I couldn't stay in school. 523 00:26:30,089 --> 00:26:31,824 All I wanted to do was surf and fish. 524 00:26:31,958 --> 00:26:34,460 So, by eighth grade I was done. 525 00:26:35,094 --> 00:26:39,065 Rene really drew a lot of people to the sport on that pier 526 00:26:39,198 --> 00:26:41,267 because of his personality, his character. 527 00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:43,569 You wanted to be like this guy, you saw what he did 528 00:26:43,703 --> 00:26:46,272 and you were just driven to be next to him 529 00:26:46,405 --> 00:26:48,274 and hear his stories and fish with him. 530 00:26:49,275 --> 00:26:51,310 You know, Rene was pretty good at calling meetings 531 00:26:51,443 --> 00:26:54,613 and getting things done with young minds 532 00:26:54,747 --> 00:26:56,649 who wanted to be in his good grace. 533 00:26:58,184 --> 00:26:59,952 Whether you like it or not, 534 00:27:00,086 --> 00:27:02,755 if you hung out with Rene, you became a shark fisherman. 535 00:27:04,156 --> 00:27:06,458 What specific items do you look for that would tell you 536 00:27:06,592 --> 00:27:08,327 that there are shark fishermen out there? 537 00:27:08,460 --> 00:27:11,764 Very heavy tackle, large reels, dead bait. 538 00:27:12,699 --> 00:27:14,133 We didn't realize what we were doing 539 00:27:14,266 --> 00:27:16,168 with the sharks and whatnot. 540 00:27:16,302 --> 00:27:19,939 We really had no basis on where it was going to go from there. 541 00:27:20,072 --> 00:27:22,709 He actually took us under his wing 542 00:27:22,842 --> 00:27:24,443 because basically we were derelicts. 543 00:27:25,712 --> 00:27:28,580 Our major objection is that it's a public beach. 544 00:27:28,715 --> 00:27:30,750 There's swimmers out here. 545 00:27:30,883 --> 00:27:32,551 We've got a good fishing pier here. 546 00:27:32,685 --> 00:27:34,486 It's a public pier. 547 00:27:34,620 --> 00:27:36,723 And the sharks, you know, they run off any decent fishing 548 00:27:36,856 --> 00:27:38,791 we might have and it's bad for the swimmers. 549 00:27:38,925 --> 00:27:40,426 It would be dangerous. 550 00:27:42,461 --> 00:27:46,332 The rules for the old pier back then was there wasn't any rules. 551 00:27:46,465 --> 00:27:48,735 We would just do basically whatever we really wanted to do 552 00:27:48,868 --> 00:27:51,470 because we just ran that pier. 553 00:27:52,171 --> 00:27:54,173 Oh, we'd piss people off all the time 554 00:27:54,306 --> 00:27:56,342 because they didn't understand our wild ways. 555 00:27:56,475 --> 00:27:59,111 The old people, they came to the beach to relax and die 556 00:27:59,245 --> 00:28:01,680 and we were out here living life to the fullest 557 00:28:01,814 --> 00:28:03,983 so people-- "Kid move over, get out of the way." 558 00:28:04,116 --> 00:28:06,753 And we were like running over people to get a bait out. 559 00:28:06,886 --> 00:28:09,688 When was the last incident that this happened? 560 00:28:09,822 --> 00:28:11,791 Just last night as a matter of fact, 561 00:28:11,924 --> 00:28:15,294 I asked a boy to leave because he wanted to shark fish. 562 00:28:15,427 --> 00:28:17,496 He bought the bait off of me as a matter of fact 563 00:28:17,629 --> 00:28:19,365 and he killed it right out front. 564 00:28:19,498 --> 00:28:21,167 I told him, you know, that that wasn't allowed. 565 00:28:21,300 --> 00:28:23,169 I explained to him that it wasn't allowed. 566 00:28:23,302 --> 00:28:25,504 I don't think he was aware of our ordinance here. 567 00:28:44,957 --> 00:28:47,193 I mean, we had the run of the beach. 568 00:28:48,027 --> 00:28:51,764 We thought that we actually owned that beach. 569 00:28:53,199 --> 00:28:55,134 We were there every day. We were there fishing. 570 00:28:55,267 --> 00:28:57,103 We were there doing whatever we want. 571 00:28:58,470 --> 00:29:01,573 You wanted to identify yourself with what was 572 00:29:02,574 --> 00:29:05,778 so we identified ourselves as South Beach Pier Rats. 573 00:29:06,412 --> 00:29:09,048 You were proud to call yourself a rat, a South Beach Rat. 574 00:29:09,181 --> 00:29:10,549 Really. 575 00:29:11,283 --> 00:29:13,886 The rats, they used to call us, "Oh here comes the rats." 576 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,722 We were these little troublemakers. 577 00:29:16,856 --> 00:29:19,291 Pier rat is someone that lives on the pier, man. 578 00:29:19,425 --> 00:29:22,094 Your life revolves around the pier. 579 00:29:22,862 --> 00:29:25,998 I was a pier rat. We skateboarded, lived, slept, 580 00:29:26,132 --> 00:29:29,268 hung out, surfed, everything was the pier. 581 00:29:30,569 --> 00:29:32,571 Rene was definitely like the Pied Piper. 582 00:29:32,704 --> 00:29:34,406 Where he'd have all these kids out there, 583 00:29:34,540 --> 00:29:36,408 even the surfers and the guys who were skateboarding 584 00:29:36,542 --> 00:29:38,110 would sit around and listen to his stories. 585 00:29:39,478 --> 00:29:43,950 We started hanging out with JD and JD and Rene would have us... 586 00:29:44,083 --> 00:29:45,484 I always hated this. 587 00:29:45,617 --> 00:29:47,419 They called us "Ginos" and I hated it. 588 00:29:47,553 --> 00:29:50,156 Rene had the proprietary language on the word Gino. 589 00:29:50,289 --> 00:29:51,924 He had the rights, the exclusive rights. 590 00:29:52,058 --> 00:29:55,862 You were a bonded servant or an indentured servant. 591 00:29:56,929 --> 00:29:58,797 We didn't have any money, so our job was to 592 00:29:58,931 --> 00:30:03,169 make ourselves useful, paddle out baits, buy baits, 593 00:30:03,302 --> 00:30:07,073 go to Collins Market, get sodas, a can of tuna, a loaf of bread. 594 00:30:07,206 --> 00:30:08,474 We were errand runners. 595 00:30:08,607 --> 00:30:10,176 You were given a number. 596 00:30:10,309 --> 00:30:12,811 Gino number one or Gino number four, five, six. 597 00:30:13,312 --> 00:30:15,347 It was just nice to know that you had a Gino number. 598 00:30:15,481 --> 00:30:17,649 You just knew you were part of the group. 599 00:30:17,783 --> 00:30:20,319 Everyone had a number, not a name. 600 00:30:20,452 --> 00:30:22,989 "Hey, number four, Gino Four, Gino Four, 601 00:30:23,122 --> 00:30:26,692 "Gino Four, go get the food. Gino Three, get the barracuda, 602 00:30:26,825 --> 00:30:27,994 "get the bait out. 603 00:30:28,127 --> 00:30:29,661 You felt like a cohesion. 604 00:30:29,795 --> 00:30:32,965 Like, wow, I got a number. I'll paddle out. 605 00:30:33,099 --> 00:30:35,334 Even if it was midnight, we would paddle the baits 606 00:30:35,467 --> 00:30:37,269 out on the surfboard. 607 00:30:37,403 --> 00:30:40,006 You get on your board, which you threw over the side on the pier, 608 00:30:40,139 --> 00:30:41,240 they lower the bait to you. 609 00:30:41,373 --> 00:30:43,009 You put the bait under your chest 610 00:30:43,142 --> 00:30:45,044 and you paddle the bait out as far as you could, 611 00:30:45,177 --> 00:30:46,946 and then drop it and then paddle back. 612 00:30:47,079 --> 00:30:48,647 Some people would say you're crazy 613 00:30:48,780 --> 00:30:50,216 for getting on a surfboard 614 00:30:50,349 --> 00:30:52,118 and swimming out into the ocean with sharks. 615 00:30:52,251 --> 00:30:53,619 - It's not crazy. It's just dedication. 616 00:30:53,752 --> 00:30:55,054 Its just once you go out there, 617 00:30:55,187 --> 00:30:56,923 you don't even think about sharks. 618 00:30:57,056 --> 00:30:59,258 You just sing a song in your head and you just go out. 619 00:30:59,391 --> 00:31:01,693 We were surfers, you know, so we were okay with that. 620 00:31:01,827 --> 00:31:04,030 So the Kahuna guys would look for the surfer guys 621 00:31:04,163 --> 00:31:06,498 to take bait out. 622 00:31:06,632 --> 00:31:08,700 Rene would like to cut the bait in half. 623 00:31:08,834 --> 00:31:10,269 So he would, like, give it to you 624 00:31:10,402 --> 00:31:12,071 and there's, like, blood dripping on you. 625 00:31:12,204 --> 00:31:13,906 Literally, you'd have to hold it down with your chest, 626 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:15,207 with the hooks and everything. 627 00:31:15,341 --> 00:31:16,842 And you're paddling 628 00:31:16,976 --> 00:31:18,810 and you're just like bathing in the blood. 629 00:31:18,945 --> 00:31:20,679 You know, we're thinking about getting the bait out there, 630 00:31:20,812 --> 00:31:22,848 but you didn't think about like, what could have happened 631 00:31:22,982 --> 00:31:24,416 if a shark would have been behind us. 632 00:31:25,384 --> 00:31:27,419 They would actually from the scent of the bait, 633 00:31:27,553 --> 00:31:29,755 blood trailing, they would trail the surfboard. 634 00:31:30,689 --> 00:31:32,291 We thought that's it, he's gone. 635 00:31:32,424 --> 00:31:33,993 He got-- he got eaten up! 636 00:31:34,126 --> 00:31:36,095 And then all of a sudden, he'd show up soaking wet, 637 00:31:36,228 --> 00:31:37,896 the boards all messed up. 638 00:31:38,030 --> 00:31:39,665 "Something hit the surfboard." 639 00:31:39,798 --> 00:31:41,300 "It was a shark!" 640 00:31:42,468 --> 00:31:44,603 I was forced to paddle out bait for Rene. 641 00:31:45,037 --> 00:31:47,573 It was inadvertently when Rene would force me, Rene de Dios, 642 00:31:47,706 --> 00:31:51,377 would force me to paddle out bait at all hours of the night. 643 00:31:52,578 --> 00:31:53,912 People were proud to say 644 00:31:54,046 --> 00:31:57,283 yeah I was Gino Five, I was Gino 0.76, 645 00:31:57,783 --> 00:31:59,751 I was Gino number Two, you know. 646 00:31:59,885 --> 00:32:01,420 Hey, I wasn't a shark fisherman, 647 00:32:01,553 --> 00:32:03,155 but I did it because I loved Rene. 648 00:32:03,289 --> 00:32:05,091 He always had words of encouragement. 649 00:32:05,224 --> 00:32:09,395 And so I did it because I wanted to appease him. 650 00:32:12,698 --> 00:32:14,766 Rene was very extreme. 651 00:32:14,900 --> 00:32:17,036 The story has it that he had a beautiful wife 652 00:32:17,769 --> 00:32:19,938 and he was so obsessed with being number one, 653 00:32:20,072 --> 00:32:21,607 winning these tournaments, beating Hammer, 654 00:32:21,740 --> 00:32:23,442 beating Kevin in these tournaments 655 00:32:23,575 --> 00:32:25,311 that his wife was warning him, 656 00:32:25,444 --> 00:32:27,313 she was like, "Look, you know I'm going to leave you. 657 00:32:27,446 --> 00:32:29,281 "You know, I want a normal life." 658 00:32:29,415 --> 00:32:31,917 A wife wants to go out to dinner and wants to go out dancing. 659 00:32:32,051 --> 00:32:33,519 You know, he wanted to go, 660 00:32:33,652 --> 00:32:35,287 "Hey, baby, you want to go shark fishing?" 661 00:32:35,421 --> 00:32:38,057 "Hey, tomorrow. Hey, after, you know, after work 662 00:32:38,190 --> 00:32:39,891 "you want to come with me shark fishing?" 663 00:32:40,026 --> 00:32:42,094 You know, that was every day. 664 00:32:42,228 --> 00:32:44,863 So that was Rene. Rene was an extremist. 665 00:32:46,765 --> 00:32:50,302 Woah! Yeah. Okay. 666 00:32:50,436 --> 00:32:52,971 Hauling in a shark is no small chore. 667 00:32:53,105 --> 00:32:56,275 Yet challenges like these are what Rene de Dios lives for 668 00:32:56,408 --> 00:32:58,577 the Miami Beach resident is considered by many 669 00:32:58,710 --> 00:33:00,679 the best shark fisherman around. 670 00:33:00,812 --> 00:33:05,884 Being a fanatic is one big secret and I don't like it. 671 00:33:06,018 --> 00:33:09,455 I love the sport of catching shark. 672 00:33:10,556 --> 00:33:14,093 It was probably in the late 70's 673 00:33:14,860 --> 00:33:18,830 when, when I heard, you know, the formation of a Shark Club. 674 00:33:18,964 --> 00:33:20,566 The South Beach Shark Club, not, you know, 675 00:33:20,699 --> 00:33:22,401 not the Miami Beach, the South Beach Shark Club. 676 00:33:22,534 --> 00:33:23,869 Rene went ahead and was like, 677 00:33:24,002 --> 00:33:25,304 "I'm going to grab all the locals. 678 00:33:25,437 --> 00:33:27,039 "All the rats flock to me. 679 00:33:27,173 --> 00:33:28,874 "We're going to have a club, we're going to fish, 680 00:33:29,007 --> 00:33:30,509 "we're going to beat everybody in tournaments. 681 00:33:30,642 --> 00:33:32,244 "We're going to beat the boat tournaments. 682 00:33:32,378 --> 00:33:33,845 "We're going to beat the land based tournaments. 683 00:33:33,979 --> 00:33:35,814 "South Beach is going to be on the map. 684 00:33:35,947 --> 00:33:37,883 "We're going to be better than everybody in shark fishing." 685 00:33:38,016 --> 00:33:40,552 And right from there, woof! Took off. 686 00:33:42,621 --> 00:33:44,123 We definitely identified ourselves. 687 00:33:44,256 --> 00:33:45,624 When we show up in a tournament 688 00:33:45,757 --> 00:33:47,359 there'd be a group of us, maybe 30 guys. 689 00:33:47,493 --> 00:33:49,195 And we were like the South Beach Rats. 690 00:33:49,328 --> 00:33:51,029 You know, all the guys that were from the pier. 691 00:33:51,163 --> 00:33:53,199 On his boat, The Shark Hunter, 692 00:33:53,332 --> 00:33:55,534 Rene and his crew rack up the big score. 693 00:33:55,667 --> 00:33:57,169 We all grew up together, you know? 694 00:33:57,303 --> 00:33:59,037 We all put in that little extra effort. 695 00:33:59,171 --> 00:34:01,673 And everybody had a certain amount of power 696 00:34:01,807 --> 00:34:04,710 in what they had to do and what's expected of them to do. 697 00:34:04,843 --> 00:34:06,845 It was kind of like a gang at one point. 698 00:34:07,079 --> 00:34:09,181 Once you're in you're in. 699 00:34:09,315 --> 00:34:10,916 And you would be in. 700 00:34:11,049 --> 00:34:12,418 Part of the ship, part of the crew, 701 00:34:12,551 --> 00:34:13,885 part of the pier, part of the crew. 702 00:34:14,019 --> 00:34:15,687 We were young, nothing mattered. 703 00:34:15,821 --> 00:34:17,723 We just wanted to go out there and make this happen. 704 00:34:17,856 --> 00:34:20,092 We wanted to show who we were to some of these other clubs 705 00:34:20,226 --> 00:34:21,893 and tournaments around Florida. 706 00:34:22,027 --> 00:34:24,563 That brought them to another level of publicity. 707 00:34:25,497 --> 00:34:27,766 This six footer was caught off South Beach 708 00:34:27,899 --> 00:34:31,437 by Captain Rene de Dios, a licensed shark hunter. 709 00:34:32,838 --> 00:34:34,440 The name of this boat is Shark Fever. 710 00:34:34,573 --> 00:34:36,074 And the reason we named the boat Shark Fever 711 00:34:36,208 --> 00:34:38,043 is once you get this, it's like a disease. 712 00:34:38,177 --> 00:34:39,278 You can't get rid of it. 713 00:34:39,411 --> 00:34:40,846 Every time you hook a fish 714 00:34:40,979 --> 00:34:42,514 and the fish is pulling the other end, 715 00:34:42,648 --> 00:34:44,350 your blood just pumps and your adrenaline goes. 716 00:34:44,483 --> 00:34:46,185 This is the place right here. 717 00:34:46,318 --> 00:34:48,120 This is ground zero 718 00:34:48,254 --> 00:34:50,256 for the South Beach Shark Club. 719 00:34:51,457 --> 00:34:52,791 It was just like a following, 720 00:34:52,924 --> 00:34:54,393 it was more than just a fishing club. 721 00:34:54,526 --> 00:34:56,162 You were in the South Beach Shark Club. 722 00:34:56,295 --> 00:34:57,563 It meant a lot. 723 00:35:12,244 --> 00:35:15,647 Fidel Castro must be having the last laugh tonight. 724 00:35:15,781 --> 00:35:17,583 With one foul swoop, he rid Cuba 725 00:35:17,716 --> 00:35:20,652 of thousands and thousands of undesirables. 726 00:35:20,786 --> 00:35:22,354 He emptied his prisons. 727 00:35:22,488 --> 00:35:24,656 He cleared the bums off the streets of Havana. 728 00:35:24,790 --> 00:35:26,925 Murderers, thieves, perverts, prostitutes, 729 00:35:27,058 --> 00:35:28,927 the retarded, crippled, the winos. 730 00:35:29,060 --> 00:35:31,963 All were rounded up, sent to Mariel Harbor 731 00:35:32,097 --> 00:35:34,166 and put aboard boats bound for Miami. 732 00:35:35,234 --> 00:35:38,136 Over 3000 refugees arrived in a 12 hour period. 733 00:35:38,270 --> 00:35:40,572 Officials say by tomorrow, 734 00:35:40,706 --> 00:35:42,641 the number of Cuban refugees brought over 735 00:35:42,774 --> 00:35:46,478 on the Mariel boatlift will total over 100,000. 736 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,016 The Mariel boatlift was in 1980, 737 00:35:51,149 --> 00:35:53,719 and that impacted the beach in a very negative way. 738 00:35:53,852 --> 00:35:56,021 You'd have drugs up and down the beach. 739 00:35:56,154 --> 00:35:59,325 The crack epidemic. You'd have robberies. 740 00:35:59,458 --> 00:36:01,993 You had so many criminals that now we're hovering amongst us. 741 00:36:02,127 --> 00:36:07,533 The perfect storm of this sleepy Holocaust survivor retirement 742 00:36:07,666 --> 00:36:11,102 ghetto converging with the Mariel boatlift 743 00:36:11,237 --> 00:36:14,640 made this a very sketchy area. 744 00:36:14,773 --> 00:36:17,376 The community had changed. 745 00:36:17,909 --> 00:36:19,711 Many of the Marielitos came to South 746 00:36:19,845 --> 00:36:21,480 Beach because of the rents. 747 00:36:21,613 --> 00:36:23,549 And as they moved into buildings, 748 00:36:23,682 --> 00:36:25,217 as they populated buildings, 749 00:36:25,351 --> 00:36:27,819 the elderlies would move out of the building. 750 00:36:27,953 --> 00:36:29,521 So now you had buildings 751 00:36:30,055 --> 00:36:31,590 with a different tenant profile, 752 00:36:31,723 --> 00:36:33,725 which was not what it was before. 753 00:36:33,859 --> 00:36:36,562 What's happened to the crime rate on Miami Beach 754 00:36:36,695 --> 00:36:38,630 since these people started arriving here? 755 00:36:38,764 --> 00:36:40,232 It has soared. 756 00:36:40,366 --> 00:36:43,001 It has soared in the worst possible areas, 757 00:36:43,134 --> 00:36:45,871 and that is crimes against persons. 758 00:36:46,004 --> 00:36:48,707 Aggravated assaults, rapes, 759 00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:51,843 robberies are up tremendously, 760 00:36:52,644 --> 00:36:54,713 in excess of 100%. 761 00:36:56,181 --> 00:36:57,683 South Beach got more dangerous 762 00:36:57,816 --> 00:36:59,685 because now they would break into the cars, 763 00:36:59,818 --> 00:37:03,355 which was not common and now became more commonplace after 764 00:37:03,489 --> 00:37:06,292 1980, 80, 81, 82, 83. 765 00:37:06,425 --> 00:37:08,360 My apartment had gotten broken into, 766 00:37:08,494 --> 00:37:10,662 you know, three or four times in a row. 767 00:37:10,796 --> 00:37:12,764 And I saw someone just getting completely almost killed 768 00:37:12,898 --> 00:37:15,166 in front of, in front of the pier one time. 769 00:37:15,301 --> 00:37:18,370 And a guy pulled out a bat and not even hesitating 770 00:37:18,870 --> 00:37:21,907 whacked the guy so hard on the face, busted all his teeth. 771 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:23,174 I thought he was dead. 772 00:37:23,309 --> 00:37:24,443 "Oh, shit. What just happened?" 773 00:37:24,576 --> 00:37:25,811 You know? 774 00:37:25,944 --> 00:37:27,646 Some fights on those piers occurred 775 00:37:27,779 --> 00:37:29,981 that people got thrown overboard. 776 00:37:30,115 --> 00:37:32,884 They were found dead ten miles away on another shore. 777 00:37:34,353 --> 00:37:36,322 One time, Rene got beat up out here 778 00:37:36,455 --> 00:37:38,657 by a couple of guys who broke a bottle over his head. 779 00:37:38,790 --> 00:37:41,860 It was sad to see, but this is the kind of stuff that happened. 780 00:37:42,894 --> 00:37:44,530 As a result of the crime problem 781 00:37:44,663 --> 00:37:47,466 the city commission today adopted six ordinances 782 00:37:47,599 --> 00:37:50,268 which will deal with the situation very forcefully. 783 00:37:50,402 --> 00:37:52,571 The parks, beaches and piers 784 00:37:52,704 --> 00:37:55,240 will be closed after 10 o'clock at night. 785 00:37:55,374 --> 00:37:57,108 The Mariel boatlift was a negative, 786 00:37:57,242 --> 00:37:59,811 and I think it was part of the reason 787 00:37:59,945 --> 00:38:02,247 that the pier was taken down in '84. 788 00:38:02,381 --> 00:38:04,015 The beach was in a downfall. 789 00:38:04,149 --> 00:38:06,251 Downward spiral. 790 00:38:06,385 --> 00:38:08,320 We may not be able to stop crime, 791 00:38:08,454 --> 00:38:10,956 but we certainly will chase crime away from this city 792 00:38:11,089 --> 00:38:14,426 because we've sent out a message concise and clearly 793 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:18,096 that crime will not pay on Miami Beach any longer. 794 00:38:45,791 --> 00:38:48,326 The people who realize that you contributed the money 795 00:38:48,460 --> 00:38:49,961 to make this day possible. 796 00:38:50,095 --> 00:38:52,197 I want to thank you for being on your team 797 00:38:52,330 --> 00:38:53,932 and being one of the members of the commission 798 00:38:54,065 --> 00:38:55,367 that properly spends your money. 799 00:38:55,501 --> 00:38:57,035 The proof is in the pudding. 800 00:38:57,168 --> 00:38:58,970 When that pipe starts to flow you'll say, 801 00:38:59,104 --> 00:39:00,906 "Well, by golly it wasn't all for nothing." 802 00:39:09,314 --> 00:39:10,582 Yeah, that was the first time 803 00:39:10,716 --> 00:39:12,884 I ever went to the South Beach pier. 804 00:39:13,018 --> 00:39:15,787 In probably '69 or '68. 805 00:39:17,255 --> 00:39:18,690 I was just a little kid 806 00:39:18,824 --> 00:39:20,526 and that's where the fascination started. 807 00:39:21,927 --> 00:39:24,362 The pier was starting to fall in disarray 808 00:39:24,496 --> 00:39:26,398 and it was going to cost like X amount of dollars 809 00:39:26,532 --> 00:39:28,133 to fix the pier. 810 00:39:28,266 --> 00:39:29,935 So there were people starting to voice. 811 00:39:30,068 --> 00:39:32,270 That they were disgruntled, it was an eyesore. 812 00:39:32,404 --> 00:39:34,540 They called it an eyesore. 813 00:39:37,543 --> 00:39:39,377 The South Beach Pier as it stands today 814 00:39:39,511 --> 00:39:41,212 is a bridge into the past. 815 00:39:41,346 --> 00:39:43,114 It's a daily reminder of the hard times 816 00:39:43,248 --> 00:39:44,716 that has hit this area. 817 00:39:44,850 --> 00:39:46,685 Miami Beach city officials are now trying 818 00:39:46,818 --> 00:39:48,587 to forget the bad times. 819 00:39:48,720 --> 00:39:50,689 And the demolition of this pier will serve as an example 820 00:39:50,822 --> 00:39:53,559 of how Miami Beach is trying to rebuild for the future. 821 00:39:54,292 --> 00:39:56,361 We were just drawn to the pier. 822 00:39:56,495 --> 00:39:58,029 It was like our home away from home, 823 00:39:58,163 --> 00:39:59,898 it's where we wanted to be. 824 00:40:00,031 --> 00:40:01,399 That pier was our sense of identity, 825 00:40:01,533 --> 00:40:03,234 it was part of who we were. 826 00:40:03,368 --> 00:40:05,937 And then, you know, obviously our hearts were broken 827 00:40:06,071 --> 00:40:08,574 when they dredged the beach and the pier 828 00:40:08,707 --> 00:40:10,308 eventually they tore it down. 829 00:40:12,711 --> 00:40:14,312 With virtually no discussion, 830 00:40:14,446 --> 00:40:17,082 the beach commission approved a $125,000 831 00:40:17,215 --> 00:40:20,519 demolition plan to clear away the old pier. 832 00:40:20,652 --> 00:40:23,755 The land will be used to expand the beach for bathers. 833 00:40:25,591 --> 00:40:27,626 And we all kind of broke up that whole thing. 834 00:40:27,759 --> 00:40:29,294 Everything just kind of-- 835 00:40:29,427 --> 00:40:31,162 everyone started going different directions. 836 00:40:31,296 --> 00:40:33,632 That was the, that was the end of what South Beach was 837 00:40:33,765 --> 00:40:36,635 in terms of skaters, surfers and the shark fishermen. 838 00:40:37,969 --> 00:40:39,471 They went their own ways. 839 00:40:39,605 --> 00:40:41,807 I mean, this is this is what happens. 840 00:40:41,940 --> 00:40:44,009 No more. It was all gone. 841 00:40:44,142 --> 00:40:46,978 It was just like memories left behind. 842 00:40:48,446 --> 00:40:49,447 Then everything changed. 843 00:40:49,581 --> 00:40:51,249 Fishing was terrible. 844 00:40:51,382 --> 00:40:55,120 The migrating bait would just pass over Government Cut 845 00:40:55,253 --> 00:40:57,556 and continue south to warmer water. 846 00:41:00,792 --> 00:41:02,260 And then for many years afterwards, 847 00:41:02,393 --> 00:41:03,962 it was just, like, dead. 848 00:41:04,095 --> 00:41:06,097 And it was sad, there was nothing we could do, 849 00:41:06,231 --> 00:41:08,466 nothing we could do. It was just happening. 850 00:41:08,600 --> 00:41:10,869 What you had south of Fifth Street in those days 851 00:41:11,002 --> 00:41:13,004 was something very, very special. 852 00:41:13,138 --> 00:41:16,174 And then, you know, once the pier was demolished, 853 00:41:16,307 --> 00:41:19,778 that was the beginning of the end of the magic of South Beach. 854 00:41:20,378 --> 00:41:22,814 The magic tour was over. 855 00:41:22,948 --> 00:41:25,350 It was finished. That was it. 856 00:41:25,483 --> 00:41:29,020 When I lost the South Beach, I lost a piece of me. 857 00:41:29,154 --> 00:41:30,922 I went with it. 858 00:41:31,056 --> 00:41:34,492 When they tore that down, part of my heart went with it. 859 00:41:35,460 --> 00:41:36,528 Now you have to-- 860 00:41:36,662 --> 00:41:38,730 You have to get creative. 861 00:41:39,330 --> 00:41:42,167 You have to go to other, other places where the fish are. 862 00:41:43,301 --> 00:41:45,336 After the pier was knocked down in '84, 863 00:41:45,470 --> 00:41:46,905 we felt so devastated. 864 00:41:47,038 --> 00:41:48,940 We had to go look for the next big spot 865 00:41:49,074 --> 00:41:52,878 where we can fish and fish hard and nobody bother us. 866 00:42:07,192 --> 00:42:08,660 I always get good sunset. 867 00:42:08,794 --> 00:42:09,761 Me too. 868 00:42:09,895 --> 00:42:10,896 Look at that. 869 00:42:11,029 --> 00:42:12,430 Oh, my Lord. 870 00:42:13,531 --> 00:42:15,066 I told you. 871 00:42:15,634 --> 00:42:17,569 Where are the sharks at, man? 872 00:42:17,703 --> 00:42:19,270 Sometimes the bites not on. 873 00:42:19,404 --> 00:42:20,839 I'd say the bites not on. 874 00:42:20,972 --> 00:42:21,973 I think so. 875 00:42:22,107 --> 00:42:23,642 That's all right. 876 00:42:23,775 --> 00:42:25,577 We'll fish a little here and a little outgo-- 877 00:42:25,711 --> 00:42:27,078 Incoming, then I'm out, partner. 878 00:42:27,212 --> 00:42:28,213 Yeah, me too. 879 00:42:28,346 --> 00:42:29,380 I'm whipped. 880 00:42:29,514 --> 00:42:30,916 You're leaving tonight? 881 00:42:46,765 --> 00:42:49,400 Well, my storytelling gets, at this age, 882 00:42:50,001 --> 00:42:51,502 a little complicated 883 00:42:51,637 --> 00:42:53,538 because I'll be telling you one story, 884 00:42:53,672 --> 00:42:55,206 and all of a sudden, 885 00:42:55,340 --> 00:42:57,075 I'm, like, thinking to myself, wait a minute. 886 00:42:57,208 --> 00:43:00,746 I went from one story to two stories, to three stories, 887 00:43:00,879 --> 00:43:04,249 and I never got to the point of what I was trying to tell you. 888 00:43:05,050 --> 00:43:07,585 So it does get kind of rough. It does. 889 00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:11,222 And as far as legends, legends can be born every day. 890 00:43:11,890 --> 00:43:14,492 It's just who's telling the story 891 00:43:14,626 --> 00:43:16,962 about what you actually did. 892 00:43:39,484 --> 00:43:41,953 Shark Club was a positive 893 00:43:42,087 --> 00:43:45,523 for a lot of kids that didn't have a lot of positive going on. 894 00:43:46,725 --> 00:43:49,427 Not much to look forward to other than fishing, 895 00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:51,763 growing up on South Beach, it was either fishing 896 00:43:51,897 --> 00:43:53,932 or, you know you're-- you're cooped up 897 00:43:54,065 --> 00:43:56,067 in your little roach motel apartment. 898 00:43:58,937 --> 00:44:01,306 But here you are. You're a young kid growing up. 899 00:44:01,439 --> 00:44:03,074 You're walking from Friday Night Live 900 00:44:03,208 --> 00:44:04,843 at South Point Park to the boardwalk. 901 00:44:04,976 --> 00:44:07,145 And these guys have out big giant shark rods. 902 00:44:07,278 --> 00:44:08,780 You're seven years old 903 00:44:08,914 --> 00:44:10,548 and it's the biggest thrill that there is. 904 00:44:10,682 --> 00:44:12,784 You want to stay and hear one of these things go off. 905 00:44:12,918 --> 00:44:14,452 So it was, it was, it was the best. 906 00:44:14,585 --> 00:44:17,188 It was, it was something that we look forward to. 907 00:44:22,260 --> 00:44:25,030 The sense of community. It started on South Beach. 908 00:44:25,163 --> 00:44:28,099 I know it's hard to even fathom it or see it now. 909 00:44:28,233 --> 00:44:31,302 Such a glitz and glam, you know, plastic, materialistic. 910 00:44:31,436 --> 00:44:33,805 But back then, all those apartments you see now 911 00:44:33,939 --> 00:44:36,808 that are art deco were all Section 8 or housing projects. 912 00:44:36,942 --> 00:44:39,878 And in these apartments you have lots of kids. 913 00:44:40,011 --> 00:44:41,847 So here you have all of these kids. 914 00:44:41,980 --> 00:44:44,515 And it started on South Beach, the South Beach Shark Club. 915 00:44:44,649 --> 00:44:46,752 So it was, it was like a community. 916 00:44:46,885 --> 00:44:49,320 It was all of us. We were all going to do the same thing. 917 00:44:49,454 --> 00:44:50,922 Everybody jump out of school, 918 00:44:51,056 --> 00:44:53,158 haul ass, and run to the boardwalk, you know, 919 00:44:53,291 --> 00:44:55,660 to see Rene, Hammer and all the old guys 920 00:44:55,794 --> 00:44:57,295 shark fishing on South Beach. 921 00:45:04,936 --> 00:45:07,005 Here, this is like the last thing we have. 922 00:45:07,138 --> 00:45:08,874 Right here, the Keys bridges 923 00:45:09,007 --> 00:45:10,842 is the last thing we have to where 924 00:45:10,976 --> 00:45:12,577 there's no drawbridge, there's no gate, 925 00:45:12,710 --> 00:45:14,946 there's no conformity, there's no security. 926 00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:19,550 We get to go out, be with 30 of our friends and do what we love. 927 00:45:19,684 --> 00:45:22,287 Hear those rods go off, fish, shark fish. 928 00:45:22,420 --> 00:45:24,189 And that was South Beach in-- 929 00:45:24,756 --> 00:45:26,191 Shark? 930 00:45:27,826 --> 00:45:29,394 Shark, shark, shark. 931 00:45:29,995 --> 00:45:31,229 Shark, shark, shark. 932 00:45:34,032 --> 00:45:35,266 You guys ready? You rolling? 933 00:45:43,208 --> 00:45:45,210 The craft and the art of shark fishing from land 934 00:45:45,343 --> 00:45:47,612 is that you are immovable. 935 00:45:47,745 --> 00:45:49,981 You can't get in a boat and chase the shark. 936 00:45:50,115 --> 00:45:53,218 So you have to contend with having a high capacity reel 937 00:45:53,351 --> 00:45:55,120 that has heavy line. 938 00:45:55,253 --> 00:45:56,888 And then it's going be you against that beast. 939 00:45:57,022 --> 00:45:58,523 You've got to be able to stop that fish 940 00:45:58,656 --> 00:45:59,791 before it takes all your line. 941 00:45:59,925 --> 00:46:01,259 That becomes a challenge. 942 00:46:06,164 --> 00:46:09,367 It's not the same as catching a snapper or a snook. 943 00:46:09,835 --> 00:46:13,104 You're dealing with an animal that's large and dangerous. 944 00:46:13,238 --> 00:46:15,573 It's very difficult to get these large specimens. 945 00:46:15,706 --> 00:46:18,243 It takes skill and knowledge. 946 00:46:22,948 --> 00:46:27,986 It's one thing to watch a show about fishing 947 00:46:28,119 --> 00:46:29,420 or sharks and whatnot. 948 00:46:29,554 --> 00:46:31,823 It's another to actually be there 949 00:46:31,957 --> 00:46:34,325 and seeing what actually occurs 950 00:46:34,459 --> 00:46:38,629 and seeing how your body either freezes in the moment 951 00:46:38,763 --> 00:46:44,903 that you don't know which way to turn and before you know it, 952 00:46:46,271 --> 00:46:47,873 you don't come back. 953 00:46:54,645 --> 00:46:57,215 Shark fishing, it's kind of like 12 rounds, 954 00:46:57,348 --> 00:46:59,184 you know, when you hook the fish 955 00:46:59,317 --> 00:47:01,686 you're in a 12 round battle, even if it's a six foot shark 956 00:47:01,819 --> 00:47:03,922 or a it's a twelve foot shark. 957 00:47:04,055 --> 00:47:05,756 You're still running around, you're huffing and puffing. 958 00:47:05,891 --> 00:47:07,358 You know, sometimes they take 20 minutes 959 00:47:07,492 --> 00:47:09,961 and sometimes they take, you know, six hours. 960 00:48:10,055 --> 00:48:12,390 Shark fishing has stayed good in the Keys 961 00:48:13,524 --> 00:48:16,727 for all the years that I've fished here. 962 00:48:16,861 --> 00:48:21,099 Those bridges, are for us, the only real place 963 00:48:21,232 --> 00:48:23,301 your average fisherman, your regular fisherman 964 00:48:23,434 --> 00:48:25,036 who doesn't have millions of dollars 965 00:48:25,170 --> 00:48:27,638 to have a boat are allowed to fish. 966 00:48:30,608 --> 00:48:33,611 Now that I'm retired, this is my second home 967 00:48:35,913 --> 00:48:37,415 and I'm never at home. 968 00:48:37,548 --> 00:48:39,684 So I'm here-- more here than I am at home. 969 00:48:40,518 --> 00:48:42,053 And I love it. 970 00:48:42,187 --> 00:48:43,588 I don't care if I catch a fish. 971 00:48:43,721 --> 00:48:45,023 Are you kidding me? 972 00:48:45,156 --> 00:48:47,959 I won't even put my rod out. 973 00:48:48,093 --> 00:48:50,328 It doesn't matter if I catch. 974 00:48:50,461 --> 00:48:52,163 It's just that I'm here. 975 00:48:53,631 --> 00:48:55,600 And when I know I'm going fishing with Hammer, 976 00:48:55,733 --> 00:48:58,303 just to Long Key bridge, just on that bridge, 977 00:48:58,436 --> 00:49:02,573 I get so giddy inside like I am so excited and happy. 978 00:49:02,707 --> 00:49:04,409 Like it's it's a kid on Christmas. 979 00:49:04,542 --> 00:49:06,111 Like, it was my first time 980 00:49:06,244 --> 00:49:08,913 every time, to go fishing with the old man. Now. 981 00:49:10,215 --> 00:49:12,617 And to a lot of the young guys, they show a lot of respect 982 00:49:12,750 --> 00:49:14,219 and reverence for the old teacher 983 00:49:14,352 --> 00:49:16,487 and hard core guy that's still doing it 984 00:49:16,621 --> 00:49:18,489 even after close to 70 years. 985 00:49:20,525 --> 00:49:22,994 - Hammer's the best man. - No. Don't say that. 986 00:49:23,128 --> 00:49:24,962 Hammer's the best all around fisherman I ever met. 987 00:49:25,096 --> 00:49:27,465 - No, no. - 100% 988 00:49:27,598 --> 00:49:29,634 I wouldn't say that. 989 00:49:30,835 --> 00:49:32,803 When I, when I say how good I am, 990 00:49:32,937 --> 00:49:36,274 I say just to put me in a nutshell, 991 00:49:36,407 --> 00:49:39,744 I'm one of the best. I never, never say that I'm the best. 992 00:49:39,877 --> 00:49:41,979 Because guess what? 993 00:49:42,113 --> 00:49:45,616 There's always somebody out there way better than you. 994 00:49:46,551 --> 00:49:47,985 And I've met him, so 995 00:49:48,119 --> 00:49:49,954 that's why I can't say I'm the best. 996 00:49:55,293 --> 00:49:57,962 This was Rene's favorite bridge. 997 00:49:58,096 --> 00:49:59,730 Me, I wasn't that type of fisherman. 998 00:49:59,864 --> 00:50:02,567 Rene would stay in one spot for three or four days 999 00:50:03,468 --> 00:50:04,835 and die out here. 1000 00:50:04,969 --> 00:50:07,004 The heat, the mosquitoes. 1001 00:50:07,138 --> 00:50:10,441 Me, I'd move around, hop around from one bridge to another. 1002 00:50:10,575 --> 00:50:12,943 So, we were two different kind of fishermen. 1003 00:50:14,412 --> 00:50:16,447 But no doubt, he was the best. 1004 00:50:17,082 --> 00:50:19,317 And in my mind, he'll always be the best. 1005 00:50:19,450 --> 00:50:22,153 There's nobody that could out fish Rene. 1006 00:50:23,154 --> 00:50:24,355 And that's true. 1007 00:50:24,489 --> 00:50:26,591 That's a true story right there. 1008 00:50:29,494 --> 00:50:31,896 Who's getting tired? You or it? You! 1009 00:50:33,831 --> 00:50:36,101 - He will get tired. - Yeah. 1010 00:50:36,234 --> 00:50:40,838 Rene! Rene! The big one, I told you, Seven Mile Bridge. 1011 00:50:40,971 --> 00:50:43,641 Even more so after the pier was knocked down in '84, 1012 00:50:43,774 --> 00:50:46,244 the bridges became like our second home. 1013 00:50:48,479 --> 00:50:50,715 We'd pack up the cars with rods, stinky bait. 1014 00:50:50,848 --> 00:50:52,817 And by Friday night, we were on the road, 1015 00:50:52,950 --> 00:50:56,053 like on a convoy of six to eight different cars. 1016 00:50:56,187 --> 00:50:59,257 We had to go seeking other areas, maybe driving 1017 00:50:59,390 --> 00:51:01,226 four or five hours at a time 1018 00:51:01,359 --> 00:51:03,428 just to get to where the fish are. 1019 00:51:03,561 --> 00:51:07,598 I went to Naples, Sebastian, Key West. 1020 00:51:07,732 --> 00:51:09,600 You know how many people lined up 1021 00:51:09,734 --> 00:51:12,170 to go to the Keys with Rene in his van? 1022 00:51:12,303 --> 00:51:13,604 Hundreds. 1023 00:51:13,738 --> 00:51:15,506 Guess how many made it? 1024 00:51:15,640 --> 00:51:17,542 three or four, every time he went. 1025 00:51:18,643 --> 00:51:20,111 If you wanted to be in his little clique, 1026 00:51:20,245 --> 00:51:21,746 or his little party 1027 00:51:21,879 --> 00:51:23,681 then you would have to go under his umbrella. 1028 00:51:23,814 --> 00:51:25,450 You couldn't have a rod bigger than him, 1029 00:51:25,583 --> 00:51:27,084 you couldn't fish as much as him. 1030 00:51:27,218 --> 00:51:28,953 You know, there's certain things you could do 1031 00:51:29,086 --> 00:51:30,788 and you couldn't do. 1032 00:51:30,921 --> 00:51:33,090 He always wanted to be at the top of his game, 1033 00:51:33,224 --> 00:51:35,126 and he didn't want to be outdone by anybody. 1034 00:51:35,726 --> 00:51:37,895 He didn't want anybody catching a bigger shark 1035 00:51:38,028 --> 00:51:39,597 than him, outdoing him. 1036 00:51:39,730 --> 00:51:41,065 And all he talked about was shark fishing 1037 00:51:41,199 --> 00:51:42,533 and being the best. 1038 00:51:42,667 --> 00:51:44,034 And "I'm number one." 1039 00:51:44,169 --> 00:51:46,404 And he would tell you, "I'm number one." 1040 00:51:47,705 --> 00:51:49,640 He always wanted to be numero uno. 1041 00:51:49,774 --> 00:51:52,076 The biggest shark, the most sharks. 1042 00:51:52,210 --> 00:51:54,078 He's always been number one. 1043 00:51:54,212 --> 00:51:56,614 Number one has always been Rene. 1044 00:51:56,747 --> 00:51:59,016 Rene would have these clashes. Like who was number one? 1045 00:51:59,150 --> 00:52:00,651 "I'm number one. 1046 00:52:00,785 --> 00:52:02,487 "I'm the Kahuna. You're wiener. 1047 00:52:02,620 --> 00:52:05,022 "You get the fucking shit. You take out my bait." 1048 00:52:05,156 --> 00:52:06,824 He became possessed with it. 1049 00:52:06,957 --> 00:52:09,794 Down with the wieners and up with the Kahunas. 1050 00:52:09,927 --> 00:52:13,130 People were terrified of Rene. Rene put fear of death into you. 1051 00:52:13,764 --> 00:52:16,167 He would even cut your line off if you had a shark on 1052 00:52:16,301 --> 00:52:18,336 so he could get his shark. 1053 00:52:18,469 --> 00:52:20,305 Whatever he had to do, he was going to win 1054 00:52:20,438 --> 00:52:22,072 by hook or by crook. 1055 00:52:22,207 --> 00:52:24,475 I guess some people would call him arrogant 1056 00:52:24,609 --> 00:52:27,478 or he made everybody think that he was number one, 1057 00:52:27,612 --> 00:52:29,780 but like he'd rub it in your face and tell you. 1058 00:52:29,914 --> 00:52:31,649 But he would really do it. 1059 00:52:31,782 --> 00:52:34,519 He'd go to the extreme, even sometimes bend the rules. 1060 00:52:34,652 --> 00:52:36,120 World record! 1061 00:52:36,254 --> 00:52:38,055 Look at the size of this shit! 1062 00:52:39,490 --> 00:52:40,858 Rene was very competitive. 1063 00:52:40,991 --> 00:52:43,294 Do whatever he had to do to get it done. 1064 00:52:44,262 --> 00:52:46,964 He would risk life and limb to catch a shark. 1065 00:52:47,765 --> 00:52:50,100 This guy would hook a shark and he'd be like, 1066 00:52:50,235 --> 00:52:52,203 "Hey! Tell those motherfuckers to move! 1067 00:52:52,337 --> 00:52:54,972 "Cut the line!" He'd come and cut people's lines. 1068 00:52:55,105 --> 00:52:56,441 And I'm like a kid, I'm like, 1069 00:52:56,574 --> 00:52:58,276 "Oh, my God, we're dying tonight." 1070 00:52:59,076 --> 00:53:02,647 Once I started fishing the Keys with JD and watching Rene 1071 00:53:02,780 --> 00:53:05,483 and fishing with Rene and seeing what these guys do. 1072 00:53:05,883 --> 00:53:07,585 And I just took it to the next level. 1073 00:53:07,718 --> 00:53:10,020 Now I'm in the Keys, now I'm in his house. 1074 00:53:10,688 --> 00:53:14,425 He pushed everybody to be like him or to praise him 1075 00:53:14,559 --> 00:53:18,329 because he was so driven at such a young age to do this. 1076 00:53:18,463 --> 00:53:20,865 So it was that drive that people saw in Rene, 1077 00:53:20,998 --> 00:53:23,634 that drove other people to become like Rene. 1078 00:53:23,768 --> 00:53:25,236 We just wanted to catch sharks. 1079 00:53:25,370 --> 00:53:27,305 That's all we wanted to do is catch sharks. 1080 00:53:27,438 --> 00:53:30,275 Our ultimate goal was to catch a shark and just to shut Rene up. 1081 00:53:31,008 --> 00:53:32,543 And it was very hard to do. 1082 00:53:32,677 --> 00:53:34,545 And some of us lost our jobs. 1083 00:53:34,679 --> 00:53:36,247 Some of us lost our wives. 1084 00:53:36,381 --> 00:53:38,949 But some of us, you know, did it. 1085 00:53:40,017 --> 00:53:42,620 Some of us did it. And I... 1086 00:53:42,753 --> 00:53:44,455 and I was one of them, I guess. 1087 00:53:49,527 --> 00:53:53,163 Well, what happened was Rene caught his giant hammer, 1088 00:53:53,698 --> 00:53:56,501 and then all of a sudden, here's a rookie. 1089 00:53:57,067 --> 00:54:00,104 His first shark was a black tip. 1090 00:54:00,237 --> 00:54:04,409 His second shark was an 800 pound tiger 1091 00:54:04,542 --> 00:54:09,113 that blew Rene's, only in weight, hammerhead away. 1092 00:54:09,246 --> 00:54:11,282 And from then on, remember, 1093 00:54:11,416 --> 00:54:14,251 there's only one room for number one, 1094 00:54:14,385 --> 00:54:16,487 you can't have two number ones. 1095 00:54:16,621 --> 00:54:19,357 And these guys fought 1096 00:54:19,490 --> 00:54:21,025 like you wouldn't believe. 1097 00:54:21,158 --> 00:54:23,093 They both wanted to be number one. 1098 00:54:23,227 --> 00:54:26,130 Kevin turned into a mini Rene. 1099 00:54:28,533 --> 00:54:29,800 My name is Kevin Pagan. 1100 00:54:30,368 --> 00:54:33,504 And I came just about 12 o'clock afternoon. 1101 00:54:34,204 --> 00:54:35,640 I took out a bait 1102 00:54:36,073 --> 00:54:38,343 and about 5:30, 5 o'clock this morning, I got hit. 1103 00:54:39,076 --> 00:54:41,446 Fought him for about two and a half hours. 1104 00:54:41,579 --> 00:54:44,114 Had 100 pound test, pulled some good drag, 1105 00:54:44,715 --> 00:54:46,116 couldn't stop him at first. 1106 00:54:46,250 --> 00:54:47,785 Thought I was going to lose him, you know, 1107 00:54:47,918 --> 00:54:49,787 it was really burning me a lot. 1108 00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:52,557 So I just put a little technique I invented on him 1109 00:54:53,123 --> 00:54:55,493 and just stop him cold, turn him on the beach, 1110 00:54:55,626 --> 00:54:57,595 just brought him right in. 1111 00:54:58,963 --> 00:55:00,130 Where are we right now? 1112 00:55:00,264 --> 00:55:02,066 We're on South Beach. 1113 00:55:02,199 --> 00:55:03,401 On the new pier. 1114 00:55:03,534 --> 00:55:05,202 The pier they built after 1115 00:55:05,336 --> 00:55:07,972 they knocked down the old pier or they reconstructed it. 1116 00:55:08,105 --> 00:55:10,675 When I was his age, we used to come out here. 1117 00:55:10,808 --> 00:55:12,510 There used to be a boardwalk that ran 1118 00:55:12,643 --> 00:55:14,879 from the end of that pier all the way across. 1119 00:55:15,012 --> 00:55:18,549 And when I was his age, they had Friday Night Live right there. 1120 00:55:18,683 --> 00:55:21,852 It was a live stage for live jazz music. 1121 00:55:21,986 --> 00:55:25,289 They had bounce houses, vending for food, 1122 00:55:25,423 --> 00:55:27,091 and we'd sneak away from our parents. 1123 00:55:27,224 --> 00:55:29,093 It would happen every night. 1124 00:55:29,226 --> 00:55:31,295 All of these guys would be shark fishing on the boardwalk. 1125 00:55:32,229 --> 00:55:34,699 And it's sites like this that are keeping some swimmers 1126 00:55:34,832 --> 00:55:39,404 away from the beach, but drawing dozens of shark hunters to it. 1127 00:55:39,537 --> 00:55:42,540 This is the scene tonight out on South Point pier. 1128 00:55:42,673 --> 00:55:44,475 We'd all go there 1129 00:55:44,609 --> 00:55:47,412 and once it was dark, everybody knew Rene, Hammer, 1130 00:55:47,545 --> 00:55:49,847 everybody would be taking out shark baits on the boardwalk. 1131 00:55:49,980 --> 00:55:51,549 So like that walk over there, 1132 00:55:51,682 --> 00:55:53,384 you're like as a kid, you're like, 1133 00:55:53,518 --> 00:55:55,386 "Oh my God. Are they going to catch a shark tonight?" 1134 00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:56,854 You'll never forget hearing that-- 1135 00:55:58,322 --> 00:55:59,690 from those senators. 1136 00:55:59,824 --> 00:56:01,992 You'll relive that sound, and it's it. 1137 00:56:02,527 --> 00:56:04,695 It reminds me of what got me into it. 1138 00:56:05,663 --> 00:56:07,598 My name's Kevin Pagan. 1139 00:56:07,732 --> 00:56:10,735 I'm a shark fishermen here from the South Florida Shark Club. 1140 00:56:12,236 --> 00:56:15,072 Again, the pier was a magnet. You know, it was like a hub. 1141 00:56:15,205 --> 00:56:17,942 Everybody would actually go and hang out. 1142 00:56:18,075 --> 00:56:20,044 The boardwalk became that later on. 1143 00:56:20,177 --> 00:56:22,747 But not too many people knew about it. 1144 00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:25,382 I felt it was important for me to continue that legacy 1145 00:56:25,516 --> 00:56:27,518 of shark fishing in Miami Beach. 1146 00:56:27,652 --> 00:56:30,354 So we carried a little bit of what we were doing on the pier 1147 00:56:30,488 --> 00:56:34,091 over to the boardwalk, and that was just a continuation. 1148 00:56:34,224 --> 00:56:36,494 And I guess Kevin Pagan was like the last hardcore 1149 00:56:36,627 --> 00:56:39,296 shark fishermen that wanted to make a name for himself. 1150 00:56:39,430 --> 00:56:42,232 Rene has always been competition. 1151 00:56:42,366 --> 00:56:44,201 You know, as I was growing up, 1152 00:56:44,334 --> 00:56:45,803 I just didn't feel intimidated by him anymore. 1153 00:56:45,936 --> 00:56:47,772 And I wasn't scared of him. 1154 00:56:47,905 --> 00:56:49,607 The way that Rene would say it is, 1155 00:56:49,740 --> 00:56:52,042 "Man, this little punk man. He's always on my ass." 1156 00:56:52,176 --> 00:56:53,844 He would call me Calvin. 1157 00:56:53,978 --> 00:56:55,713 Calvin, my name's Kevin. 1158 00:56:55,846 --> 00:56:58,616 "He follows me around. He wants to be like me. 1159 00:56:58,749 --> 00:57:00,384 "This Calvin, you know. 1160 00:57:00,518 --> 00:57:02,587 "I fish South Beach, he's there in South Beach. 1161 00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:04,455 "He's always in the hole." 1162 00:57:04,589 --> 00:57:06,524 And Kevin was still trying to, like, put his chest out 1163 00:57:06,657 --> 00:57:08,292 and show, "Man I'm out here, you know, 1164 00:57:08,425 --> 00:57:10,094 "I'm going to catch big sharks like you guys." 1165 00:57:10,227 --> 00:57:11,962 But really didn't have anything to show for it yet. 1166 00:57:12,096 --> 00:57:13,598 Beautiful night tonight. 1167 00:57:13,731 --> 00:57:15,165 And we're glad that 1168 00:57:15,299 --> 00:57:17,067 we're waiting for the loser, Kevin Pagan. 1169 00:57:17,201 --> 00:57:19,303 We're waiting for Kevin to come out on the bridge. 1170 00:57:19,436 --> 00:57:20,771 Mr. Know it all. 1171 00:57:20,905 --> 00:57:22,272 No, let him stay right where he is. 1172 00:57:22,406 --> 00:57:23,674 Mr. Know it all. 1173 00:57:27,612 --> 00:57:29,914 That 14 foot hammer, he was always bragging about it 1174 00:57:30,047 --> 00:57:32,617 and he was always telling me-- And, you know, he's number one. 1175 00:57:32,750 --> 00:57:34,485 No one can ever beat him. 1176 00:57:34,619 --> 00:57:36,654 And then all of a sudden, here I come. 1177 00:57:36,787 --> 00:57:38,989 He was like Rene's Gino, you could say, 1178 00:57:39,123 --> 00:57:43,093 but then his fucking third shark or whatever it was, he catches 1179 00:57:43,227 --> 00:57:46,363 the biggest tiger ever caught on Miami Beach. 1180 00:57:46,831 --> 00:57:48,599 And the night before, while he was out 1181 00:57:48,733 --> 00:57:50,467 on the boardwalk shark fishing, 1182 00:57:50,601 --> 00:57:52,703 a guy pulled out a knife and cut open his stomach. 1183 00:57:52,837 --> 00:57:55,506 Filet knife right across here. 1184 00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:57,808 Yeah, we were having a little party on the boardwalk 1185 00:57:57,942 --> 00:58:00,410 and I got into an altercation with a gentleman, 1186 00:58:01,078 --> 00:58:03,413 and he came back with a knife and cut me. 1187 00:58:04,949 --> 00:58:06,951 So Kevin called the ambulance, the ambulance came, 1188 00:58:07,084 --> 00:58:08,619 they stitched him up. 1189 00:58:08,753 --> 00:58:10,254 The next day, I call Kevin. 1190 00:58:10,387 --> 00:58:14,058 "Kevin, let's go. Let's fish South Beach." 1191 00:58:14,191 --> 00:58:16,226 He goes, "Hammer I don't know if I can man, 1192 00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:17,895 "I'm messed up." 1193 00:58:18,028 --> 00:58:21,566 "I go, I'll take the bus, I'll go get the bait, 1194 00:58:21,699 --> 00:58:23,400 "I'll take your bait out on a surfboard 1195 00:58:23,534 --> 00:58:25,502 "because I know you're messed up." 1196 00:58:25,636 --> 00:58:27,104 And guess what? 1197 00:58:27,237 --> 00:58:29,006 That's when he got his Tiger. 1198 00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:31,375 He's so possessed with shark fishing 1199 00:58:31,508 --> 00:58:33,644 that he went fishing the next day. 1200 00:58:33,778 --> 00:58:36,313 And when he hooked that tiger, he has like his belly cut open 1201 00:58:36,446 --> 00:58:38,382 fighting the tiger shark. 1202 00:58:38,515 --> 00:58:41,118 I was going over the rail, I was sliding down the boardwalk 1203 00:58:41,251 --> 00:58:43,554 with this rod and JD loosened the line 1204 00:58:43,688 --> 00:58:45,990 and that thing just started taking off. 1205 00:58:48,626 --> 00:58:50,928 So I remember taking that rod and reeling it all the way, 1206 00:58:51,061 --> 00:58:52,997 pretty much to the beach. 1207 00:58:53,130 --> 00:58:54,498 He got stuck on the sandbar 1208 00:58:54,632 --> 00:58:56,033 and when that fish was on the sandbar 1209 00:58:56,166 --> 00:58:57,635 and it was just splashing. 1210 00:58:57,768 --> 00:58:59,336 I just saw huge amounts of water. 1211 00:58:59,469 --> 00:59:02,139 It was dark, we couldn't really see, but that shark 1212 00:59:02,272 --> 00:59:03,874 I knew it was a little bit bigger 1213 00:59:04,008 --> 00:59:05,710 than what I've ever hooked, what I ever caught. 1214 00:59:05,843 --> 00:59:07,477 A lifeguard told him about sharks 1215 00:59:07,612 --> 00:59:09,079 frolicking just off shore of South Beach 1216 00:59:09,213 --> 00:59:11,081 for the past few mornings. 1217 00:59:11,215 --> 00:59:13,884 He caught it right off the pier. Surprise to swimmers maybe. 1218 00:59:14,018 --> 00:59:16,721 No surprise to this Shark Club fisherman. 1219 00:59:16,854 --> 00:59:18,422 I really wanted to beat that record. 1220 00:59:18,555 --> 00:59:20,691 I knew I could because, 1221 00:59:20,825 --> 00:59:22,392 you know, records are meant to be broken 1222 00:59:22,526 --> 00:59:23,928 and all these other guys are telling me, 1223 00:59:24,061 --> 00:59:25,630 you know, I saw another shark you know. 1224 00:59:25,763 --> 00:59:28,098 Last year I saw a bigger one and they're out there. 1225 00:59:28,232 --> 00:59:30,500 You just got to be at the right place at the right time. 1226 00:59:30,635 --> 00:59:32,703 And I never knew what that right time, and right place was, 1227 00:59:32,837 --> 00:59:34,739 so I fished every single day until we got him. 1228 00:59:38,175 --> 00:59:41,278 Everybody even till today thinks it was Rene on that 1229 00:59:41,712 --> 00:59:44,281 with the tiger, because Rene was in every single picture, 1230 00:59:44,581 --> 00:59:46,884 he was talking on the news, he stole the show. 1231 00:59:47,017 --> 00:59:48,953 Rene was definitely bothered 1232 00:59:49,086 --> 00:59:50,755 if you took a little bit of his spotlight. 1233 00:59:50,888 --> 00:59:52,122 He didn't like that. 1234 00:59:52,857 --> 00:59:54,591 He couldn't stand to be beaten. 1235 00:59:54,725 --> 00:59:57,628 He had been undone by a young guy that's showing him off 1236 00:59:57,762 --> 00:59:59,596 and he was just driven to go out there 1237 00:59:59,730 --> 01:00:01,298 and fish harder. 1238 01:00:01,431 --> 01:00:03,133 He's going to have to bring his own Gino now. 1239 01:00:03,267 --> 01:00:05,102 Yeah, that's it... 1240 01:00:05,235 --> 01:00:06,570 All right. 1241 01:00:06,704 --> 01:00:08,605 That's really nuts... 1242 01:00:08,739 --> 01:00:10,775 Number one man. Number one. 1243 01:00:10,908 --> 01:00:13,077 Number one. 1244 01:00:13,210 --> 01:00:15,079 - The new number one. - South Beach! 1245 01:00:15,212 --> 01:00:17,414 Number one man, number one. 1246 01:00:19,216 --> 01:00:22,586 While one fisherman's good luck is always another misfortune. 1247 01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:25,823 But you can bet Rene de Dios will be back next year 1248 01:00:25,956 --> 01:00:29,159 in pursuit of the biggest sharks. 1249 01:00:38,068 --> 01:00:39,737 Was there a dark side to Rene? 1250 01:00:41,638 --> 01:00:43,841 There's a dark side to all of us. 1251 01:00:43,974 --> 01:00:46,811 You know, sometimes we drink, sometimes we have frustrations. 1252 01:00:47,611 --> 01:00:51,181 Sometimes we look to set a goal 1253 01:00:51,682 --> 01:00:55,352 of the very high standard and all of a sudden 1254 01:00:55,485 --> 01:00:59,389 that one fish that you really wanted to land, 1255 01:00:59,924 --> 01:01:02,359 you saw it. You looked at him. 1256 01:01:02,492 --> 01:01:03,593 He looked at you. 1257 01:01:03,728 --> 01:01:05,996 Your eyes connected. 1258 01:01:06,130 --> 01:01:08,432 You were right there. 1259 01:01:08,565 --> 01:01:12,269 And that line just snapped. 1260 01:01:12,402 --> 01:01:14,138 And it kills your heart. 1261 01:01:14,271 --> 01:01:17,775 It just breaks it, and you never saw that fish again. 1262 01:01:23,680 --> 01:01:29,053 Rene wanted to do everything right 1263 01:01:29,186 --> 01:01:32,723 so that when the moment or the opportunity presented itself 1264 01:01:32,857 --> 01:01:36,193 of hooking the big one, 1265 01:01:36,326 --> 01:01:39,496 nothing would fail as far as the equipment 1266 01:01:39,629 --> 01:01:44,802 and nothing would fail as far as the man behind the reel. 1267 01:01:45,535 --> 01:01:49,406 Rene actually had problems in Bahamas with a shark. 1268 01:01:49,539 --> 01:01:50,841 That it actually sunk his boat. 1269 01:01:52,142 --> 01:01:54,344 I know that sounds like a... 1270 01:01:54,478 --> 01:01:57,848 when the story came up on the beach I said ah, Rene's 1271 01:01:59,249 --> 01:02:02,086 doing his acting again. But no, no. 1272 01:02:03,253 --> 01:02:05,555 He wasn't acting, he hooked a big one. 1273 01:02:05,689 --> 01:02:09,426 He sunk, sunk this guy's boat in the Bahamas 1274 01:02:09,559 --> 01:02:11,195 because he hooked a great white. 1275 01:02:11,328 --> 01:02:13,197 He ugh, actually he and Luis did, 1276 01:02:13,330 --> 01:02:15,032 they said they had a great white. 1277 01:02:15,165 --> 01:02:17,434 He would just tell you about, the thing was a monster, 1278 01:02:17,567 --> 01:02:19,069 it came up next to the boat. 1279 01:02:19,203 --> 01:02:21,438 The stomach looked like two barrels. 1280 01:02:21,571 --> 01:02:23,307 And the guy's looking at him, like, 1281 01:02:23,440 --> 01:02:25,309 "Man, my boat's sinking." The guy wanted to cut his line. 1282 01:02:25,442 --> 01:02:27,244 The guy knew if you cut Rene's line, 1283 01:02:27,377 --> 01:02:28,879 you're probably going to die. 1284 01:02:29,013 --> 01:02:30,314 Like he's probably going to kill you bro. 1285 01:02:30,447 --> 01:02:32,149 His one chance with a great white. 1286 01:02:32,282 --> 01:02:34,418 So they sunk, and he's out in the middle of floating 1287 01:02:34,551 --> 01:02:37,087 in the water for days because Rene didn't want to cut his line 1288 01:02:37,221 --> 01:02:38,789 with a great white. 1289 01:02:38,923 --> 01:02:41,291 "20 foot shark drags-- capsizes fishing boat." 1290 01:02:43,427 --> 01:02:47,297 I believe the story, I believe-- I know that it happened. 1291 01:02:47,832 --> 01:02:51,068 To Luis it was almost like a life and death thing. 1292 01:02:51,201 --> 01:02:54,104 To Rene, it was like his biggest adventure to that time. 1293 01:02:57,041 --> 01:02:58,809 From the beginning that trip was kind of, 1294 01:02:58,943 --> 01:03:00,610 you know, kind of, we went through, like, 1295 01:03:00,744 --> 01:03:02,412 it was the nightmare trip. 1296 01:03:02,546 --> 01:03:05,282 I think we left around 11 o'clock at night. 1297 01:03:05,415 --> 01:03:07,051 in this little 20 footer. 1298 01:03:07,184 --> 01:03:09,419 You know, me and Rene, "Luis, we going to go?" 1299 01:03:09,553 --> 01:03:11,588 I said, "No matter what we're going to go no matter what." 1300 01:03:11,721 --> 01:03:13,924 Rough. It took us like, I don't know, like three and a half, 1301 01:03:14,058 --> 01:03:15,559 four hours to get there. 1302 01:03:15,692 --> 01:03:17,394 We were all wet. Next day. 1303 01:03:17,527 --> 01:03:19,329 We're all like, you know, miserable really, 1304 01:03:19,463 --> 01:03:21,098 all wet, me and Rene. 1305 01:03:21,231 --> 01:03:23,467 And Rene got all these fishing rods on the floor. 1306 01:03:23,600 --> 01:03:26,336 You know, his big reels that he use for shark fishing. 1307 01:03:26,470 --> 01:03:29,139 And from there on, we went to catch bait, whatever. 1308 01:03:29,273 --> 01:03:30,975 We went fishing. 1309 01:03:31,108 --> 01:03:33,210 We were doing great that day. We were catching fish, 1310 01:03:33,343 --> 01:03:35,012 like you don't believe, we we're catching groupers 1311 01:03:35,145 --> 01:03:36,847 and you know, everything was going great. 1312 01:03:36,981 --> 01:03:38,515 We had that cooler full of fish already. 1313 01:03:38,648 --> 01:03:40,084 So you know what? 1314 01:03:40,217 --> 01:03:41,852 "We're taking a little break here, Rene." 1315 01:03:41,986 --> 01:03:44,121 That day we had a huge bait. 1316 01:03:44,254 --> 01:03:46,456 You know, one of those huge Cudas, big you know. 1317 01:03:46,590 --> 01:03:49,126 And Rene's like, "Can I put that whole thing out there?" 1318 01:03:49,259 --> 01:03:51,095 "You can do whatever you want, buddy, you know?" 1319 01:03:51,228 --> 01:03:52,930 So Rene's like, "Okay, Luis, I can do this now?" 1320 01:03:53,063 --> 01:03:54,564 I said, "Go ahead buddy, do it". 1321 01:03:54,698 --> 01:03:56,867 So he put this big ass bait out there. 1322 01:03:57,001 --> 01:03:59,403 Something like this kind of reel we had. 1323 01:03:59,536 --> 01:04:01,906 You know a little more older, but, like, you know, 1324 01:04:02,039 --> 01:04:03,974 like the movie Jaws, same reel. 1325 01:04:04,108 --> 01:04:05,809 Same reel from the movie Jaws really, 1326 01:04:05,943 --> 01:04:07,711 that's what we were using. The same reel. 1327 01:04:09,479 --> 01:04:11,815 I mean top of the line, whatever, heavy duty stuff. 1328 01:04:11,949 --> 01:04:13,884 No little shit, Rene don't mess around with this stuff. 1329 01:04:14,018 --> 01:04:16,120 Well nothing, we're having a little break there 1330 01:04:16,253 --> 01:04:18,022 a little lunch. The reel went-- 1331 01:04:18,155 --> 01:04:20,124 Like that. 1332 01:04:20,257 --> 01:04:22,159 I looked at that reel. My buddy James looked at me. 1333 01:04:22,292 --> 01:04:24,161 I looked at him. 1334 01:04:24,294 --> 01:04:27,497 He goes, "Eh, little shark out there messing with this bait." 1335 01:04:27,631 --> 01:04:29,166 "You know, don't even bother." 1336 01:04:29,299 --> 01:04:31,001 Rene's like, "Hey Luis, I'm getting a hit!" 1337 01:04:31,135 --> 01:04:33,070 "Hey Rene, little nurse shark or whatever under there. 1338 01:04:33,203 --> 01:04:34,738 "Come on, give me a break. 1339 01:04:34,871 --> 01:04:36,240 "We taking a little break over here buddy. 1340 01:04:36,373 --> 01:04:37,607 "Give me a break, you know." 1341 01:04:40,144 --> 01:04:41,745 That rod goes just like that again. 1342 01:04:41,878 --> 01:04:44,915 I'm like, uh oh. I look at my buddy James, I go, 1343 01:04:45,049 --> 01:04:46,883 "Hey, something big is in there eating that bait." 1344 01:04:47,017 --> 01:04:48,986 "Really Luis?" I said, "Listen, something is there." 1345 01:04:49,119 --> 01:04:51,521 Rene, "Luis, he's taking my bait!" 1346 01:04:51,655 --> 01:04:54,524 And this time that reel is just going-- 1347 01:04:54,658 --> 01:04:56,360 I'm like, "Lock him up Rene. 1348 01:04:56,493 --> 01:04:58,562 "Lock him up, let's put the- hook him, hook him!" 1349 01:04:58,695 --> 01:05:00,430 "Luis, I'm going to hook him now." 1350 01:05:00,564 --> 01:05:02,732 I said, "Hook him, hook him, put the hook on him, Rene. 1351 01:05:02,866 --> 01:05:04,768 "Set the hook on him, set him! 1352 01:05:04,901 --> 01:05:07,137 Rene just set that hook on him. We had a little fighting chair 1353 01:05:07,271 --> 01:05:09,139 similar to this fighting chair here. 1354 01:05:09,273 --> 01:05:11,308 When he set that hook on that fish the whole fighting chair, 1355 01:05:11,441 --> 01:05:13,677 I saw the whole bottom of the fighting chair bending on me. 1356 01:05:13,810 --> 01:05:15,712 The whole thing bent, the line and everything. 1357 01:05:17,581 --> 01:05:20,850 I'm like, "What! Holy shit!" 1358 01:05:20,985 --> 01:05:22,886 And that reel started smoking on us. 1359 01:05:23,020 --> 01:05:27,791 I mean smoking. I mean, "Get me some water now!" 1360 01:05:27,924 --> 01:05:30,494 I'm like, "Okay buddy," and ran and get him some fresh water. 1361 01:05:30,627 --> 01:05:32,296 If we don't do it, we melt the line. 1362 01:05:32,429 --> 01:05:34,298 You know, the line will melt. You know that. 1363 01:05:34,431 --> 01:05:36,800 I know people don't see it, but when you got a big fish 1364 01:05:36,933 --> 01:05:38,969 I see line melting on me. Melting, like, like butter. 1365 01:05:39,103 --> 01:05:40,770 They melt. So, you have to be careful. 1366 01:05:40,904 --> 01:05:42,939 You have to keep that line cold and the reel cold. 1367 01:05:43,073 --> 01:05:45,209 And then I know, you know, we're losing light now. 1368 01:05:45,342 --> 01:05:48,778 Now the fish. We fish in 126 feet of water, 1369 01:05:48,912 --> 01:05:51,781 its a ledge right in front of us, a 400 foot ledge. 1370 01:05:51,915 --> 01:05:54,118 I know now, that fish hits that ledge. 1371 01:05:54,251 --> 01:05:56,253 We're going to lose that fish. 1372 01:05:56,386 --> 01:05:58,255 "Let's go, get a buoy going." 1373 01:05:58,388 --> 01:06:01,358 We got the big buoy for the anchor. "Let go of the anchor." 1374 01:06:01,491 --> 01:06:04,494 That was it. We dumped the anchor out with the buoy. 1375 01:06:04,628 --> 01:06:06,430 And we start chasing that fish. 1376 01:06:06,563 --> 01:06:08,632 "Let's do it. Let's chase him. Let's chase him." 1377 01:06:08,765 --> 01:06:11,035 We thought we were going to fight that fish for a few hours. 1378 01:06:11,168 --> 01:06:12,836 I mean, come on. We never think, you know, 1379 01:06:12,969 --> 01:06:14,471 "Hey, it's going to happen." What's going on here? 1380 01:06:14,604 --> 01:06:16,306 I look back, and I keep seeing that buoy 1381 01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:19,243 just like going further and further away from me. 1382 01:06:19,376 --> 01:06:21,311 I'm like, "Uh oh." I'm like, "You know what?" 1383 01:06:21,445 --> 01:06:23,513 And Rene's, like, fighting that fish. 1384 01:06:27,651 --> 01:06:30,454 And I'm like, Holy shit. This is a big boy here. 1385 01:06:30,587 --> 01:06:35,792 And Rene's like, "Luis, big tiger, big tiger Luis!" 1386 01:06:35,925 --> 01:06:38,362 I'm like, "You got it buddy. We're going to catch this fish." 1387 01:06:38,495 --> 01:06:41,131 "Luis! This is a world record, Luis! 1388 01:06:41,265 --> 01:06:43,633 "Oh, my God, Luis, this is the fish we want, Luis!" 1389 01:06:43,767 --> 01:06:46,002 I'm like, holy shit. This is not a good one here. 1390 01:06:46,136 --> 01:06:48,138 We're in my 20 foot boat, you know, whatever. 1391 01:06:48,272 --> 01:06:50,040 Let's do it. 1392 01:06:50,174 --> 01:06:52,542 Rene, you know what? I look at my fuel gauge, I open my key. 1393 01:06:52,676 --> 01:06:54,010 Look at my fuel gauge. I got like, 1394 01:06:54,144 --> 01:06:55,845 I had like almost like three quarter tank. 1395 01:06:55,979 --> 01:06:57,781 We hooked that fish at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. 1396 01:06:57,914 --> 01:07:00,317 An hour went by, two hours went by, 1397 01:07:00,450 --> 01:07:02,519 and that fish was not coming up. 1398 01:07:02,652 --> 01:07:05,255 That fish was just going down and down and down 1399 01:07:05,389 --> 01:07:08,725 and now we already in 1500 feet of water, 1400 01:07:08,858 --> 01:07:11,861 2000 feet of water now, 2000 feet of water at least. 1401 01:07:11,995 --> 01:07:13,430 3000 feet of water. 1402 01:07:13,563 --> 01:07:15,332 And this fish is going down and stopping 1403 01:07:15,465 --> 01:07:17,067 and sounding down in 3000 feet, 1404 01:07:17,201 --> 01:07:18,668 like a submarine. 1405 01:07:20,604 --> 01:07:22,139 And now we start thinking, wait a minute, 1406 01:07:22,272 --> 01:07:23,807 what kind of fish we got here? 1407 01:07:28,845 --> 01:07:30,914 This is night. Now this is 10 o'clock, whatever, 1408 01:07:31,047 --> 01:07:32,582 11 o'clock at night already. 1409 01:07:32,716 --> 01:07:34,384 You know, fighting this fish 1410 01:07:34,518 --> 01:07:36,353 and now I see Bimini already disappear. No more light. 1411 01:07:36,486 --> 01:07:38,888 I see little lights out there. Uh oh. The only land that I see, 1412 01:07:39,022 --> 01:07:41,191 little, little tiny light, you know. 1413 01:07:41,325 --> 01:07:43,460 In those years, we don't use GPS really, 1414 01:07:43,593 --> 01:07:45,395 its like my compass, my coordinates. 1415 01:07:45,529 --> 01:07:47,564 So, you know, that was that was my concern too, you know, 1416 01:07:47,697 --> 01:07:49,366 losing land already. 1417 01:07:49,499 --> 01:07:51,268 "No, forget about it." I was like, "We'll get it." 1418 01:07:51,401 --> 01:07:53,002 Around 3 o'clock in the morning, 1419 01:07:53,137 --> 01:07:54,271 we start bringing this fish in already. 1420 01:07:54,404 --> 01:07:56,039 He start coming up on us. 1421 01:07:56,173 --> 01:07:59,376 "Oh, Luis, he's coming up! I'm getting line now." 1422 01:07:59,509 --> 01:08:01,911 And I start putting the light on him like that, right. 1423 01:08:02,045 --> 01:08:03,813 And I see this thing coming up on me. 1424 01:08:05,615 --> 01:08:07,984 You see the line come up, I knew it's coming up out there. 1425 01:08:08,118 --> 01:08:10,254 I saw like a dark, like a submarine 1426 01:08:10,387 --> 01:08:12,055 coming out of the water. 1427 01:08:12,189 --> 01:08:14,224 Voof! Like that. When I saw that thing, 1428 01:08:14,358 --> 01:08:16,593 when I saw that dorsal on top of the water, 1429 01:08:16,726 --> 01:08:18,262 I looked at Rene and I said, 1430 01:08:18,395 --> 01:08:20,029 "Buddy, I'm cutting the line off right now. 1431 01:08:20,164 --> 01:08:21,898 "Forget about this shark. We need a bigger boat. 1432 01:08:22,031 --> 01:08:23,433 "This is a shark. This the--" 1433 01:08:23,567 --> 01:08:24,934 "What the hell you think it is, Rene?" 1434 01:08:25,068 --> 01:08:26,870 "Luis, this is it! This is him! 1435 01:08:27,003 --> 01:08:29,105 "This is a great white, Luis! Look at the size of that!" 1436 01:08:29,239 --> 01:08:30,740 And then when he told me great white, 1437 01:08:30,874 --> 01:08:32,041 then he went down on us again 1438 01:08:32,176 --> 01:08:33,977 because we got him right there. 1439 01:08:34,110 --> 01:08:37,113 Then he went down on us and then I saw his white belly come up. 1440 01:08:37,247 --> 01:08:38,648 And then I looked at Rene and said,- 1441 01:08:38,782 --> 01:08:40,250 "Oh, my God, Rene, this is the beast." 1442 01:08:40,384 --> 01:08:42,018 Then he went down again on us, 1443 01:08:42,152 --> 01:08:44,621 sounding again, another 1,500 feet. 1444 01:08:44,754 --> 01:08:45,855 Stopped again. 1445 01:08:45,989 --> 01:08:47,657 I'm like, "Holy shit." Resting. 1446 01:08:47,791 --> 01:08:49,993 And Rene resting, like, "Holy shit." 1447 01:08:50,126 --> 01:08:51,861 I'm like, "Rene you know what, buddy? 1448 01:08:51,995 --> 01:08:53,830 "I'm done. 3 o'clock in the morning. 1449 01:08:53,963 --> 01:08:55,832 "I'm tired, you guys fight the fish. Don't worry about it. 1450 01:08:55,965 --> 01:08:57,467 "Let me know if you got him again." 1451 01:08:57,601 --> 01:08:59,436 I went to, you know, to rest. I was tired. 1452 01:08:59,569 --> 01:09:01,605 Already fighting this fish, this fish was not giving up on us. 1453 01:09:01,738 --> 01:09:03,973 "Okay buddy, I got it. I'm all right buddy. I'll be here." 1454 01:09:04,107 --> 01:09:06,910 Like 5 o'clock in the morning, he wake me up, you know. 1455 01:09:07,043 --> 01:09:09,346 "Hey Luis get up, I got a little water in the boat. 1456 01:09:09,479 --> 01:09:12,449 A little water in the boat... "What?" 1457 01:09:12,582 --> 01:09:14,117 Right away. "Water! What? Water? 1458 01:09:14,251 --> 01:09:16,486 "What do you mean water in my boat? 1459 01:09:16,620 --> 01:09:18,822 When I opened up the hatch the water was already in the boat, 1460 01:09:18,955 --> 01:09:20,290 already in the bilge inside the hull. 1461 01:09:20,424 --> 01:09:21,958 I had a lot of water in that bilge. 1462 01:09:22,091 --> 01:09:23,427 Backing up all night to that boat. 1463 01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:25,028 You know, my bilge pump, 1464 01:09:25,161 --> 01:09:26,763 my automatic switch was not going right. 1465 01:09:26,896 --> 01:09:28,765 That's when I told Rene, we're going to have to cut 1466 01:09:28,898 --> 01:09:30,767 this shark off or we're going to be in trouble here. 1467 01:09:30,900 --> 01:09:33,270 "Luis, let me see if I can bring this thing in one more time." 1468 01:09:33,403 --> 01:09:35,605 That's when the shark took a turn on us and it just went-- 1469 01:09:35,739 --> 01:09:37,574 and Rene locked the reel on us, and the shark 1470 01:09:37,707 --> 01:09:39,909 with that little weight on it. I tried to get the boat going, 1471 01:09:40,043 --> 01:09:41,578 but it was too late for us already. 1472 01:09:41,711 --> 01:09:43,580 It just-- The boat just went voof! And capsized. 1473 01:09:43,713 --> 01:09:45,081 Next thing I know, that boat's hitting me 1474 01:09:45,215 --> 01:09:46,750 on the top of my head. 1475 01:09:46,883 --> 01:09:48,885 You know, just capsized that boat you know, 1476 01:09:49,018 --> 01:09:50,587 I was like, "Uh oh." 1477 01:09:50,720 --> 01:09:52,822 I see Rene actually, when we capsized the boat, 1478 01:09:52,956 --> 01:09:54,858 Rene was still holding the shark on his reel. 1479 01:09:54,991 --> 01:09:57,060 He was still fighting that shark. 1480 01:10:07,304 --> 01:10:09,306 39 year old Rene de Dios 1481 01:10:09,439 --> 01:10:12,909 of Miami Beach says he caught a 20 foot great white shark 1482 01:10:13,042 --> 01:10:15,412 that dragged down their small boat. 1483 01:10:15,545 --> 01:10:18,081 Meanwhile, the fish is taking me under now. 1484 01:10:18,848 --> 01:10:21,418 Rene's side of the story was he was fighting the shark 1485 01:10:21,551 --> 01:10:23,720 something like all day and all night 1486 01:10:23,853 --> 01:10:26,222 power winching it, he was getting close 1487 01:10:26,356 --> 01:10:28,758 gaining on him but that the boat was sinking. 1488 01:10:29,359 --> 01:10:33,229 And the own captain of the boat, I guess like to cut Rene's line 1489 01:10:33,363 --> 01:10:35,231 you're like signing your death papers. 1490 01:10:35,365 --> 01:10:37,066 You know, this guy will probably stab you 1491 01:10:37,200 --> 01:10:38,668 with a knife or something. 1492 01:10:38,802 --> 01:10:40,937 As they're sinking, I think the captain 1493 01:10:41,070 --> 01:10:44,040 with his own boat sinking never touched the line. 1494 01:10:44,173 --> 01:10:47,210 And I remember Rene being appreciative of that. 1495 01:10:47,344 --> 01:10:49,045 He's like, "He never cut my line. 1496 01:10:49,178 --> 01:10:51,781 "You know, when we were in the water, I got the line 1497 01:10:51,915 --> 01:10:53,249 "and I bit it with my teeth." 1498 01:10:54,418 --> 01:10:56,219 So, do you believe the story? 1499 01:10:56,353 --> 01:10:58,622 Yeah, of course I believe everything that he said. 1500 01:10:58,755 --> 01:11:00,290 Everything Rene said, I believe. 1501 01:11:00,424 --> 01:11:01,991 Like, Rene was powerful with what he said. 1502 01:11:02,125 --> 01:11:05,629 He-- sometimes, he'd cheat, you know, 1503 01:11:05,762 --> 01:11:09,299 he'll cheat to win a tournament because of his competitiveness. 1504 01:11:09,433 --> 01:11:13,236 But as far as a story, if he said, it was probably the truth. 1505 01:11:15,372 --> 01:11:17,040 So without any doubt in your mind, 1506 01:11:17,173 --> 01:11:18,875 you know that was a great white shark. 1507 01:11:19,008 --> 01:11:20,877 Oh, for sure. For sure. It was bigger than my boat. 1508 01:11:21,010 --> 01:11:22,546 That thing was bigger than a 20 footer. 1509 01:11:22,679 --> 01:11:23,813 You know, that thing was a beast. 1510 01:11:23,947 --> 01:11:25,782 It looked like a submarine. 1511 01:11:25,915 --> 01:11:27,951 I mean, I don't I don't think nothing else grows that big. 1512 01:11:28,084 --> 01:11:30,620 I mean, a tiger shark can grow 12 feet long, 13 feet. 1513 01:11:30,754 --> 01:11:33,323 But I don't think it can grow like 20 feet long. 1514 01:11:33,457 --> 01:11:35,759 Me and Rene look at each other like, Rene's like, 1515 01:11:35,892 --> 01:11:37,927 "You never know Luis, this thing can be a 6,000 pound fish, 1516 01:11:38,061 --> 01:11:40,063 "7,000 pound you know, great white." 1517 01:11:40,196 --> 01:11:42,131 The world record was in Cuba, they caught him in Cuba. 1518 01:11:42,265 --> 01:11:43,933 In Cojimar. 1519 01:11:44,067 --> 01:11:45,935 You know, the biggest shark caught was in Cojimar. 1520 01:11:46,069 --> 01:11:48,638 They got him on a harpoon, but it was a 7,000 pound fish. 1521 01:11:50,507 --> 01:11:52,476 Around 2 o'clock in the morning when he came up 1522 01:11:52,609 --> 01:11:54,711 and I saw that big shark come up next to me, 1523 01:11:54,844 --> 01:11:57,180 this shark is bigger than my boat that we hooking now. 1524 01:11:57,313 --> 01:11:59,182 "What are we going to do with this shark Rene? 1525 01:11:59,315 --> 01:12:01,351 "We, we, we 15 miles away from land. 1526 01:12:01,485 --> 01:12:04,388 "You know, and we hooking this shark, what are we going to do? 1527 01:12:04,521 --> 01:12:06,790 "We going to tie him by his tail and drag him back? 1528 01:12:06,923 --> 01:12:08,392 "It's going to be impossible. 1529 01:12:08,525 --> 01:12:10,460 "Why don't we just cut the shark and let it go? 1530 01:12:10,594 --> 01:12:11,995 "You know just, let's let him go." 1531 01:12:12,128 --> 01:12:13,830 And, "No way." 1532 01:12:13,963 --> 01:12:15,832 He will die with that fishing rod in his hand there. 1533 01:12:15,965 --> 01:12:17,834 Rene said, "Luis this is my dream and forget about it." 1534 01:12:17,967 --> 01:12:19,669 I looked at my friend, you know what, he's right. 1535 01:12:19,803 --> 01:12:21,605 That's his dream. And we'll let him catch his dream. 1536 01:12:21,738 --> 01:12:24,173 We're gonna do whatever it takes that Rene catch this shark. 1537 01:12:24,307 --> 01:12:26,042 And that was it. That's when we went for it. 1538 01:12:26,175 --> 01:12:28,712 Flip the boat, whatever happened, we alive. 1539 01:12:31,681 --> 01:12:35,619 The feeling of hooking a big shark is like 1540 01:12:36,453 --> 01:12:38,988 the adrenaline starts going. You feel it. 1541 01:12:39,122 --> 01:12:41,491 You're like, "Oh, I want to get him so bad." 1542 01:12:41,625 --> 01:12:44,528 And then when you lose him, the highs become just as low. 1543 01:12:44,661 --> 01:12:46,029 You know what I mean? 1544 01:12:46,162 --> 01:12:48,498 You feel so bad that he got away. 1545 01:12:53,069 --> 01:12:55,238 Back on dry land for the first time in a week 1546 01:12:55,371 --> 01:12:57,941 the three men still hang on to one of the fishing poles 1547 01:12:58,074 --> 01:13:00,444 that first sank them and then saved them. 1548 01:13:00,577 --> 01:13:04,180 39 year old Rene de Dios of Miami Beach says he caught 1549 01:13:04,313 --> 01:13:06,416 a 20 foot great white shark 1550 01:13:06,550 --> 01:13:08,785 that dragged down their small boat. 1551 01:13:08,918 --> 01:13:11,187 Another wave came over, swamped the motor. 1552 01:13:11,320 --> 01:13:12,956 By that time, all I remember is the boat 1553 01:13:13,089 --> 01:13:15,659 turn to the right, rolling over. 1554 01:13:15,792 --> 01:13:17,594 I'm in the water next to the cooler 1555 01:13:17,727 --> 01:13:20,497 and I'm just doing my best-- he's still fighting the fish. 1556 01:13:20,630 --> 01:13:23,232 Meanwhile, the fish is taking me under now. 1557 01:13:23,366 --> 01:13:25,101 The three were nothing but a speck 1558 01:13:25,234 --> 01:13:26,603 in the trackless ocean. 1559 01:13:26,736 --> 01:13:28,705 Incredibly, miraculously, 1560 01:13:28,838 --> 01:13:30,507 the crew of the Oceanic spotted them. 1561 01:13:30,640 --> 01:13:33,209 So did some passengers with video cameras. 1562 01:13:33,342 --> 01:13:35,278 They'd been waving something. 1563 01:13:35,411 --> 01:13:37,714 And so we're making a direct turn toward them. 1564 01:13:37,847 --> 01:13:40,617 Out of no where the Big Red Boat comes up. 1565 01:13:40,750 --> 01:13:42,852 And he seemed like he was going to go away. 1566 01:13:42,986 --> 01:13:44,788 And out of nowhere, he makes his turn. 1567 01:13:44,921 --> 01:13:46,623 Hits the horn. 1568 01:13:46,756 --> 01:13:48,391 When he blew the horn. All the crew. 1569 01:13:48,525 --> 01:13:50,259 We all were crying because we knew we were saved. 1570 01:13:50,393 --> 01:13:52,061 A lifeboat rescued the three. 1571 01:13:52,195 --> 01:13:54,430 They were winched aboard. 1572 01:13:54,564 --> 01:13:57,000 And boy, do they have a fish story to tell. 1573 01:13:57,133 --> 01:13:59,736 The longest fishing battle ever in history. 1574 01:13:59,869 --> 01:14:02,171 We broke this weekend. 14 and a half foot 1575 01:14:02,305 --> 01:14:04,340 battle on a great white shark. 1576 01:14:04,474 --> 01:14:06,576 And even after the boat capsized, 1577 01:14:06,710 --> 01:14:08,845 I was still battling the shark. 1578 01:14:08,978 --> 01:14:11,180 I cut it with my teeth and I released him. 1579 01:14:26,062 --> 01:14:27,631 I've got so many stories 1580 01:14:27,764 --> 01:14:29,999 you guys will tell me to shut up. 1581 01:14:34,037 --> 01:14:37,306 I'm going to tell you, it is so beautiful out here. 1582 01:14:37,440 --> 01:14:38,842 It's epic. 1583 01:14:47,717 --> 01:14:49,085 Look at this. 1584 01:14:49,653 --> 01:14:51,020 Look at that. 1585 01:14:51,521 --> 01:14:53,189 Up here, it's like beautiful. 1586 01:14:53,322 --> 01:14:54,457 My lord. 1587 01:14:58,161 --> 01:15:00,997 This sunset is not finished by far. 1588 01:15:02,465 --> 01:15:04,333 Just because it went down. 1589 01:15:12,876 --> 01:15:15,044 What did I tell you? 1590 01:15:15,178 --> 01:15:18,715 The good part's coming now Shannon, watch. 1591 01:15:28,124 --> 01:15:30,293 I grew up on South Beach, south of Fifth. 1592 01:15:31,160 --> 01:15:32,729 Never crossed Fifth street. 1593 01:15:34,363 --> 01:15:35,999 I bounced around section eight 1594 01:15:36,132 --> 01:15:39,068 small, hole in the wall, roach infested apartments. 1595 01:15:40,003 --> 01:15:42,305 There was also a spiritual side to it, like 1596 01:15:42,538 --> 01:15:45,074 small apartment, but surfboards, fishing rods. 1597 01:15:45,208 --> 01:15:48,578 You know, your neighbors are frying fish. 1598 01:15:48,712 --> 01:15:51,380 My old man, Seaweed, grew up with these guys 1599 01:15:51,514 --> 01:15:53,583 with Rene, Hammer. 1600 01:15:55,418 --> 01:15:57,386 Seaweed was a South Beach classic. 1601 01:15:57,520 --> 01:15:59,388 A free spirit. He was a diver. 1602 01:15:59,522 --> 01:16:02,358 He was one of the number one spear fishermen on the pier. 1603 01:16:03,827 --> 01:16:05,929 He'd be the one who went and speared Rene 1604 01:16:06,062 --> 01:16:07,864 three tarpons or three barracudas 1605 01:16:07,997 --> 01:16:09,733 before a big tournament. 1606 01:16:09,866 --> 01:16:11,735 They gave him the name one time because they found him 1607 01:16:11,868 --> 01:16:13,269 sleeping under the pier 1608 01:16:13,402 --> 01:16:14,938 and he was blended in with the seaweed. 1609 01:16:15,071 --> 01:16:16,940 Like I said, part of the ship, part of the crew. 1610 01:16:17,073 --> 01:16:18,975 Rene saw him and called him, "Hey Seaweed! 1611 01:16:19,108 --> 01:16:21,544 "Look, you got seaweed all over your hair," and that name stuck. 1612 01:16:24,047 --> 01:16:26,716 My dad was homeless. He lived on the rocks. 1613 01:16:26,850 --> 01:16:29,052 He would bring me to the areas on the rocks 1614 01:16:29,185 --> 01:16:30,519 because he was like, 1615 01:16:30,654 --> 01:16:31,921 "Look, this is where I would sleep 1616 01:16:32,055 --> 01:16:33,522 "on the jetties, on South Beach." 1617 01:16:33,657 --> 01:16:35,191 From Government Cut, he used to pay 1618 01:16:35,324 --> 01:16:37,727 our groceries, my diapers, our rent. 1619 01:16:37,861 --> 01:16:40,229 Everything from poaching lobsters and snooks. 1620 01:16:41,998 --> 01:16:44,233 The story that my mom told me was, 1621 01:16:44,367 --> 01:16:46,235 "I'm looking out the window and I see 1622 01:16:46,369 --> 01:16:49,806 "this long, blond, flowing curly hair 1623 01:16:49,939 --> 01:16:52,709 "and this man, tanned, with this long sleeved sweater. 1624 01:16:53,142 --> 01:16:55,078 "And I fell in love with your dad." 1625 01:16:56,312 --> 01:16:58,314 And Shannon grew up in South Beach. 1626 01:16:58,447 --> 01:17:01,184 He started five, six, seven years old, walking to the Pier. 1627 01:17:01,317 --> 01:17:04,520 And then, you know, the influence of the South Beachers 1628 01:17:04,654 --> 01:17:08,357 in a diving world, in a fishing world, and it rubbed off on him. 1629 01:17:08,491 --> 01:17:09,926 You know, Shannon's got that, 1630 01:17:10,059 --> 01:17:11,394 the Seaweed gene. 1631 01:17:12,428 --> 01:17:14,530 My dad was never really a shark fisherman. 1632 01:17:14,664 --> 01:17:16,632 I liked to fish, so I would tie fishing line 1633 01:17:16,766 --> 01:17:18,702 on a can, go to the pier and drop my can 1634 01:17:18,835 --> 01:17:21,537 with a gold hook through a hole, catch little grunts. 1635 01:17:21,671 --> 01:17:23,606 And it was like, I was hooked from then. 1636 01:17:23,740 --> 01:17:25,809 As soon as I could walk, I was trying to fish. 1637 01:17:29,545 --> 01:17:32,148 My dad was pushing me towards surfing and diving. 1638 01:17:32,281 --> 01:17:34,350 My mom would take me out here and... 1639 01:17:34,483 --> 01:17:36,352 and just catching little grunts out on the pier, 1640 01:17:36,485 --> 01:17:38,287 just started spreading man. 1641 01:17:38,421 --> 01:17:40,523 From there, I went to hanging out with Rene 1642 01:17:40,656 --> 01:17:42,625 and Rene started bringing me along 1643 01:17:42,759 --> 01:17:44,794 and before you knew it, I was just, 1644 01:17:44,928 --> 01:17:47,463 like, hooked with a passion towards shark fishing. 1645 01:17:49,899 --> 01:17:51,868 He was like a protege of Rene. 1646 01:17:52,001 --> 01:17:53,970 Rene would take him fishing when he was a little kid. 1647 01:17:55,939 --> 01:17:57,907 Later on that was like my teacher. 1648 01:17:58,041 --> 01:17:59,375 So I would go with him. 1649 01:17:59,508 --> 01:18:00,910 He'd pick me up out of elementary 1650 01:18:01,044 --> 01:18:02,912 and I was going to the Keys at eight, 1651 01:18:03,046 --> 01:18:05,381 nine years old, camping out for four days. 1652 01:18:07,683 --> 01:18:10,019 So he had first hand as a child, 1653 01:18:10,153 --> 01:18:12,588 he had it like infused into his being. 1654 01:18:12,722 --> 01:18:15,191 He saw all these things. He was exposed to it. 1655 01:18:15,324 --> 01:18:18,361 So he had the training to become the next generation. 1656 01:18:19,863 --> 01:18:22,098 First of all, Rene had a great quality 1657 01:18:22,231 --> 01:18:24,033 of grabbing everybody in the room's attention. 1658 01:18:24,167 --> 01:18:26,202 Like, he'd be telling a story, and everybody on this pier 1659 01:18:26,335 --> 01:18:28,204 would be like, "Whoa, what's that guy talking about?" 1660 01:18:28,337 --> 01:18:30,173 You know, his voice would vibrate, 1661 01:18:30,306 --> 01:18:31,707 and he was, like, real good at, like, 1662 01:18:31,841 --> 01:18:33,376 "Shannon! Come with me! 1663 01:18:33,509 --> 01:18:35,178 "We're going to get the big hammer tonight. 1664 01:18:35,311 --> 01:18:37,313 So, like, you're hearing this, you're a little kid. 1665 01:18:37,446 --> 01:18:39,415 You're like, "What? I want to go get a big hammer. 1666 01:18:39,548 --> 01:18:41,217 "Let's do it," you know? So... 1667 01:18:42,351 --> 01:18:45,889 Just that guy, man, his, his passion. 1668 01:18:46,022 --> 01:18:48,157 Just it rubbed off on you, 1669 01:18:48,291 --> 01:18:50,193 and that guy could tell you to risk your life. 1670 01:18:50,326 --> 01:18:53,362 He'd have me risking my life as a child 1671 01:18:53,496 --> 01:18:55,731 and it was just like, "Let's do it, you know? Yeah, let's go." 1672 01:18:55,865 --> 01:18:58,034 And now you think today and it's... 1673 01:18:58,167 --> 01:19:00,136 some of that stuff was crazy. 1674 01:19:04,107 --> 01:19:06,042 I remember 1675 01:19:06,175 --> 01:19:08,812 Rene on the boardwalk would hook a big shark. 1676 01:19:09,112 --> 01:19:11,647 "Shannon hurry up, here, get my wallet 1677 01:19:11,781 --> 01:19:14,450 "here's 75 cents go call your dad. 1678 01:19:14,583 --> 01:19:16,786 "Go call Kevin. Hurry up. 1679 01:19:16,920 --> 01:19:18,654 "Call Calvin, get him out here to the boardwalk now; 1680 01:19:18,788 --> 01:19:20,656 "we're tangled on a buoy." 1681 01:19:20,790 --> 01:19:23,059 And I remember in my head I'm like, "Man, I'm ten years old. 1682 01:19:23,192 --> 01:19:25,728 I'm not fucking walking through that park, man. 1683 01:19:25,862 --> 01:19:28,764 Because these people would be sleeping in the pavilions. 1684 01:19:29,265 --> 01:19:32,368 You'd have like a gang of 25, 30 dudes 1685 01:19:32,501 --> 01:19:33,903 just hanging out, drinking, 1686 01:19:34,037 --> 01:19:35,771 wanting to mess with whatever walks by. 1687 01:19:36,239 --> 01:19:37,874 So I remember getting the change, 1688 01:19:38,007 --> 01:19:39,708 walking to the only payphone, 1689 01:19:39,843 --> 01:19:42,145 which was at the end of the-- the curving road 1690 01:19:42,278 --> 01:19:44,580 in, in South Point Park 1691 01:19:44,713 --> 01:19:46,950 and the innocence of when you're, like, ten, 1692 01:19:47,083 --> 01:19:48,717 of the dark, of a noise. 1693 01:19:48,852 --> 01:19:50,719 I remember walking, like, hearing noises 1694 01:19:50,854 --> 01:19:53,722 and being scared, looking to the left, looking to the right, 1695 01:19:54,423 --> 01:19:58,627 and just seeing everything man, seeing, seeing, 1696 01:19:58,761 --> 01:20:02,431 stabbings. Seeing people get their heads kicked in. 1697 01:20:03,232 --> 01:20:04,633 It was, it was toxic man. 1698 01:20:04,767 --> 01:20:07,336 It was, it was pretty gnarly back then. 1699 01:20:32,295 --> 01:20:35,798 I was literally born in the South Beach housing projects. 1700 01:20:35,932 --> 01:20:37,433 Yeah, it was pretty rough. 1701 01:20:37,566 --> 01:20:39,969 It was pretty rough in the 80's, 80's and 90's. 1702 01:20:40,103 --> 01:20:42,005 A lot of gangs, a lot of drugs. 1703 01:20:42,138 --> 01:20:46,709 Even though you read a magazine and you see the TV, 1704 01:20:46,842 --> 01:20:49,712 "Oh South Beach, you know, beautiful Miami Beach," 1705 01:20:49,845 --> 01:20:53,549 you know, and it's, like, not what you're reading. 1706 01:20:53,682 --> 01:20:55,451 There's some wild stuff going on. 1707 01:20:55,584 --> 01:20:57,453 Fifth Street, lots of crack, 1708 01:20:57,586 --> 01:21:00,223 lots of prostitution on Washington Ave. 1709 01:21:00,356 --> 01:21:02,125 The Mariel layovers, 1710 01:21:02,258 --> 01:21:04,693 walking around the park, talking to themselves. 1711 01:21:04,827 --> 01:21:07,830 Lots of stabbings, lots of bottle fights. 1712 01:21:07,964 --> 01:21:11,800 Fishing at night, you'd have to be with your head on a swivel. 1713 01:21:12,401 --> 01:21:13,502 It was a wild time. 1714 01:21:13,636 --> 01:21:14,770 Wild West. 1715 01:21:16,839 --> 01:21:18,942 South Florida's most wanted gang at the time 1716 01:21:19,075 --> 01:21:21,377 is the South Beach Posse. 1717 01:21:22,145 --> 01:21:24,948 From 15th Street down to the pier, 1718 01:21:25,081 --> 01:21:28,184 you have, you know, a hundred of the worst gang members 1719 01:21:28,317 --> 01:21:30,686 in South Florida at the time. 1720 01:21:30,819 --> 01:21:33,722 My first encounters was in our apartments, 1721 01:21:33,856 --> 01:21:35,491 on our apartments on South Beach. 1722 01:21:35,624 --> 01:21:37,994 So, this block Third and Meridian was just infested 1723 01:21:38,127 --> 01:21:41,897 with all of the gang members, all of the South Beach Posse. 1724 01:21:42,031 --> 01:21:44,167 Young kids, older kids, leaders. 1725 01:21:44,300 --> 01:21:47,003 Like clockwork, every Saturday night. 1726 01:21:47,136 --> 01:21:48,771 So all these dudes are all hanging out. 1727 01:21:48,904 --> 01:21:50,739 This is their block. They live there. 1728 01:21:50,873 --> 01:21:53,376 So these dudes from Hialeah come to the park, before you know it, 1729 01:21:53,509 --> 01:21:56,179 you just start hearing bottles break. 1730 01:21:56,312 --> 01:21:57,880 Bottles breaking. Screaming. 1731 01:21:58,982 --> 01:22:01,617 I would have anxiety as a kid just worrying about my dad 1732 01:22:01,750 --> 01:22:03,552 getting into it with these guys 1733 01:22:03,686 --> 01:22:05,721 and the whole time there, I'm just like frantic like, 1734 01:22:05,854 --> 01:22:07,756 "Oh my God, they're going to kill my dad, 1735 01:22:07,890 --> 01:22:09,558 "they're going to burn our house. 1736 01:22:09,692 --> 01:22:11,494 "They're going to come back and shoot our house. 1737 01:22:11,627 --> 01:22:14,597 My first encounter that little was-- I was scared shitless. 1738 01:22:14,730 --> 01:22:16,799 In different ages it meant different things to me, 1739 01:22:16,932 --> 01:22:19,235 when I'm seven, eight years old, it's like big fear. 1740 01:22:20,703 --> 01:22:22,605 Gunfire shatters the quiet 1741 01:22:22,738 --> 01:22:24,840 of yet another South Florida neighborhood. 1742 01:22:24,974 --> 01:22:28,411 Welcome to South Florida's teenage war zone. 1743 01:22:28,544 --> 01:22:30,279 Not a place for tourists. 1744 01:22:30,413 --> 01:22:32,681 Here are kids who came out of families 1745 01:22:32,815 --> 01:22:35,251 who went into a substitute family 1746 01:22:35,384 --> 01:22:37,753 that is so strict and so harsh 1747 01:22:37,886 --> 01:22:39,788 and does not tolerate very much, 1748 01:22:39,922 --> 01:22:43,626 which tells you something; that kids want a sense of direction. 1749 01:22:43,759 --> 01:22:45,328 They need nurturing. 1750 01:22:45,461 --> 01:22:47,163 They need to belong to something. 1751 01:22:47,296 --> 01:22:49,999 I actually didn't fully escape from that lifestyle. 1752 01:22:51,267 --> 01:22:55,671 My mom died when I was 14, and then I did-- 1753 01:22:55,804 --> 01:23:00,009 I fell into it because then my best friends were coincidentally 1754 01:23:00,143 --> 01:23:02,011 some of the worst ones for our age 1755 01:23:02,145 --> 01:23:04,480 that just really sucked me in real quick. 1756 01:23:04,613 --> 01:23:08,151 And then three years later, I'm 17 and my dad dies. 1757 01:23:09,018 --> 01:23:13,489 So for a good portion of my life of my childhood, 1758 01:23:13,622 --> 01:23:15,558 I was I was entrenched in all of it, 1759 01:23:15,691 --> 01:23:18,161 in some really, really gnarly stuff. 1760 01:23:18,294 --> 01:23:21,964 Some stuff I'm-- I'm even ashamed 1761 01:23:22,098 --> 01:23:24,667 to talk about, some crazy-- some crazy things 1762 01:23:24,800 --> 01:23:27,170 I've done and seen. 1763 01:23:28,104 --> 01:23:30,873 There was two things. There was a bank robbery. 1764 01:23:31,006 --> 01:23:32,541 Two armed men in ski masks 1765 01:23:32,675 --> 01:23:34,177 robbed the Republic National Bank. 1766 01:23:34,310 --> 01:23:36,312 And then there was a shooting on 71st Street. 1767 01:23:36,445 --> 01:23:39,315 Where they, they shot some kid. I think they killed him. 1768 01:23:39,448 --> 01:23:41,850 And from there they were like South Florida's most wanted. 1769 01:23:41,984 --> 01:23:43,386 Everywhere we went, everywhere we went, 1770 01:23:43,519 --> 01:23:45,354 to play football, to go fishing. 1771 01:23:45,488 --> 01:23:47,623 There was people taking pictures of everything and nobody knew. 1772 01:23:47,756 --> 01:23:49,625 It was like, what the fuck are these people 1773 01:23:49,758 --> 01:23:51,627 taking pictures for? Pictures. Pictures, pictures, pictures. 1774 01:23:51,760 --> 01:23:53,162 They shot pictures forever. 1775 01:23:53,296 --> 01:23:54,330 You'd be jumping off the pier. 1776 01:23:54,463 --> 01:23:55,664 Pictures. 1777 01:23:56,632 --> 01:23:58,467 Like what the fuck? We paparazzi? 1778 01:23:58,601 --> 01:24:00,503 You know, these dudes are paparazzi? 1779 01:24:00,636 --> 01:24:02,905 And in one, in one shot just threw a net. 1780 01:24:03,038 --> 01:24:04,907 And netted... Even if you were just hanging out, 1781 01:24:05,040 --> 01:24:06,475 you know luckily, I was too young 1782 01:24:06,609 --> 01:24:07,810 when that happened. 1783 01:24:07,943 --> 01:24:09,412 When the indictment happened, 1784 01:24:09,545 --> 01:24:11,347 they got them on a huge racketeering, 1785 01:24:11,480 --> 01:24:13,616 like what they do for the Mafia. Front page articles. 1786 01:24:13,749 --> 01:24:15,884 86 gang members arrested. 1787 01:24:16,018 --> 01:24:18,554 South Beach Posse, RICO Act, racketeering. 1788 01:24:18,687 --> 01:24:20,956 Penned up everybody, they put a net around everybody. 1789 01:24:21,090 --> 01:24:23,726 They were taking pictures for years. 1790 01:24:25,394 --> 01:24:27,596 I just saw there was just shit at the end of this road. 1791 01:24:27,730 --> 01:24:30,065 It was going to end bad. It was going to end bad. 1792 01:24:30,199 --> 01:24:32,935 I was already doing things out of my character. 1793 01:24:33,068 --> 01:24:35,704 I was already ashamed of things I was doing to people. 1794 01:24:35,838 --> 01:24:37,573 You know, like I told you, my mom raised me 1795 01:24:37,706 --> 01:24:39,308 with a lot of love. 1796 01:24:39,442 --> 01:24:41,710 So when I saw it all crumbling, you know, 1797 01:24:42,678 --> 01:24:44,547 my best friend got deported, 1798 01:24:44,680 --> 01:24:46,582 my other best friend got murdered. 1799 01:24:46,715 --> 01:24:48,184 All my friends are in jail. 1800 01:24:48,317 --> 01:24:50,085 All my other friends are smoking crack, 1801 01:24:50,219 --> 01:24:52,288 you know, 18 years old, hooked on crack. 1802 01:24:52,421 --> 01:24:54,457 You know, I'm like, this is, this is not... 1803 01:24:54,590 --> 01:24:57,426 This is going to end bad. I need to get out of this shit. 1804 01:25:32,295 --> 01:25:34,597 If your mom and your dad are your rock, 1805 01:25:34,730 --> 01:25:36,865 once they're dead, it's basically either, okay, 1806 01:25:36,999 --> 01:25:40,169 let's just keep on nosediving or how much do you love life. 1807 01:25:41,136 --> 01:25:42,905 If you don't have some luck or you don't have 1808 01:25:43,038 --> 01:25:44,473 some good guidance, like, 1809 01:25:44,607 --> 01:25:46,242 there was all that bad stuff going on 1810 01:25:46,375 --> 01:25:47,976 but you had, you had the Hammers, 1811 01:25:48,110 --> 01:25:50,813 you had the Renes who were taking you fishing, 1812 01:25:50,946 --> 01:25:52,415 keeping you away from that. 1813 01:25:52,548 --> 01:25:54,750 That's your, your way out of that. 1814 01:25:58,086 --> 01:26:01,190 Yeah Shannon was a, hung around very tight 1815 01:26:01,324 --> 01:26:03,526 with Rene, at the very end of Rene's life. 1816 01:26:04,460 --> 01:26:05,961 You know he died really fast. 1817 01:26:06,094 --> 01:26:09,031 He died abrupt, abruptly. He died suddenly. 1818 01:26:09,164 --> 01:26:10,433 It was unexpected. 1819 01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:14,136 This would not be Rene de Dios' day. 1820 01:26:14,270 --> 01:26:16,372 This head is all that was left 1821 01:26:16,505 --> 01:26:19,242 of the 14 foot hammerhead that would have won the tournament. 1822 01:26:19,675 --> 01:26:22,678 Rene hooked it, but lost it to a bigger shark. 1823 01:26:23,946 --> 01:26:26,014 You know Rene was like I said, Rene you know 1824 01:26:26,649 --> 01:26:28,351 he never took care of himself. 1825 01:26:28,484 --> 01:26:29,985 Be on that bridge all day in that sun, 1826 01:26:30,118 --> 01:26:31,720 that thing will kill you, that sun. 1827 01:26:31,854 --> 01:26:33,656 I used to tell him, "Rene, what are you doing?" 1828 01:26:33,789 --> 01:26:35,824 Well, you know-- "No Luis, I have to catch the big one." 1829 01:26:35,958 --> 01:26:37,760 "What do you mean?" "I'm here catching 1830 01:26:37,893 --> 01:26:39,928 "the big one Luis. I'm looking for..." You know, that was Rene. 1831 01:26:40,062 --> 01:26:41,564 He likes to be there. He doesn't care. 1832 01:26:41,697 --> 01:26:43,031 The only thing he cares about, that shark. 1833 01:26:43,165 --> 01:26:44,600 That was his lifestyle. 1834 01:26:44,733 --> 01:26:46,302 He just wanted to be out there shark fishing. 1835 01:26:46,435 --> 01:26:47,903 He didn't care about his health. 1836 01:26:48,036 --> 01:26:50,005 He didn't care about anything else. 1837 01:26:50,138 --> 01:26:51,540 There you go. 1838 01:26:51,674 --> 01:26:52,975 He's on, baby! 1839 01:26:53,108 --> 01:26:54,910 He hit the one on top. 1840 01:26:55,043 --> 01:26:57,313 I knew it, he hit the bottle man. 1841 01:26:57,446 --> 01:26:59,415 But just seconds later... 1842 01:26:59,548 --> 01:27:02,017 The ledge man, the ledge, I knew it. 1843 01:27:02,150 --> 01:27:05,488 Rene, who lives to hunt the shark was crushed. 1844 01:27:05,621 --> 01:27:09,157 Try as he may, his face couldn't hide the disappointment. 1845 01:27:10,225 --> 01:27:11,727 Him and Jimbo went down to the Keys. 1846 01:27:11,860 --> 01:27:13,362 They went shark fishing. 1847 01:27:13,496 --> 01:27:16,599 Rene had a minor stroke, Jimbo noticed it. 1848 01:27:16,732 --> 01:27:19,602 Jimbo, I think, stood with him at the hospital. 1849 01:27:19,735 --> 01:27:21,103 He says he wanted to go back fishing. 1850 01:27:21,236 --> 01:27:22,871 He didn't want to be in the hospital. 1851 01:27:23,005 --> 01:27:24,940 So Jimbo went back to the Keys with him fishing. 1852 01:27:25,073 --> 01:27:26,409 And he should have been, you know, 1853 01:27:26,542 --> 01:27:27,743 he should have been in a hospital, 1854 01:27:27,876 --> 01:27:29,445 but he wanted one more shark, 1855 01:27:29,578 --> 01:27:31,314 he wanted to catch one more shark, 1856 01:27:31,447 --> 01:27:34,249 told Hammer and Hammer, took him to Seven Mile Bridge, 1857 01:27:34,383 --> 01:27:36,218 caught him his last shark before he died. 1858 01:27:36,352 --> 01:27:37,886 I think he died shortly after that. 1859 01:27:39,355 --> 01:27:41,290 Rene was very competitive. 1860 01:27:41,424 --> 01:27:43,091 He was always number one. 1861 01:27:44,460 --> 01:27:45,928 He died being number one. 1862 01:27:47,730 --> 01:27:50,265 Believe it or not, he was one of my young kids 1863 01:27:50,399 --> 01:27:52,801 that I brought up, that became 1864 01:27:53,536 --> 01:27:56,405 one of the best shark fishermen in the United States. 1865 01:27:57,673 --> 01:28:01,910 He proved it every day, but he died proving it. 1866 01:28:25,233 --> 01:28:27,202 Can you tell me where that nickname comes from? 1867 01:28:27,336 --> 01:28:30,105 From Hammer. You know which one I'm talking about? 1868 01:28:30,238 --> 01:28:31,340 -Jimbo? -Not that. 1869 01:28:31,474 --> 01:28:32,975 The old man. 1870 01:28:33,108 --> 01:28:35,043 The old man. The old man. Yeah, I do. 1871 01:28:35,177 --> 01:28:36,945 I know exactly where it came from. 1872 01:28:38,747 --> 01:28:41,850 The old man. Because this is how it goes. 1873 01:28:41,984 --> 01:28:46,288 Rene was the ultimate contender, the number one. 1874 01:28:46,422 --> 01:28:48,357 "I'm going to let you know I'm the best. 1875 01:28:48,491 --> 01:28:51,159 "Everybody's attention. In the newspapers. 1876 01:28:51,293 --> 01:28:52,761 "Everywhere, everywhere. 1877 01:28:52,895 --> 01:28:54,797 "I'm number one." 1878 01:28:55,631 --> 01:28:58,434 Even though Rene, competitively speaking, 1879 01:28:58,567 --> 01:29:01,336 like for tournaments, for world records, 1880 01:29:01,470 --> 01:29:04,973 what have you, if you would put those two against each other, 1881 01:29:05,107 --> 01:29:06,975 Rene's probably going to win, you know, 1882 01:29:07,109 --> 01:29:09,678 nine out of ten tournaments, nine out of ten competitions. 1883 01:29:09,812 --> 01:29:11,714 Rene's going to figure out a way to beat him. 1884 01:29:13,582 --> 01:29:15,684 So many people only know Rene as the best. 1885 01:29:15,818 --> 01:29:19,855 However, on the flip side, Rene had such a respect for Hammer. 1886 01:29:19,988 --> 01:29:22,357 He had more respect for Hammer than any other man. 1887 01:29:22,491 --> 01:29:24,727 That was his number one. 1888 01:29:24,860 --> 01:29:26,228 Just the respect. 1889 01:29:26,361 --> 01:29:27,863 It's almost like, you know, 1890 01:29:27,996 --> 01:29:29,765 you're the old man, you're the originator, 1891 01:29:29,898 --> 01:29:32,367 you're the-- the old Kahuna, you know. 1892 01:29:32,501 --> 01:29:34,169 He knows when the fish are going to bite. 1893 01:29:34,302 --> 01:29:35,738 He knows where the fish are going. 1894 01:29:35,871 --> 01:29:37,372 He knows where they're going to be next week. 1895 01:29:37,506 --> 01:29:39,442 Rene was good like that, but Jimbo off land, 1896 01:29:40,409 --> 01:29:42,778 nobody could touch Jimbo. 1897 01:29:44,847 --> 01:29:46,582 With JD, his success is just that 1898 01:29:46,715 --> 01:29:48,751 he didn't get stressed out about anything. 1899 01:29:49,752 --> 01:29:51,454 He was just there for the moment 1900 01:29:51,587 --> 01:29:53,822 and he just did his thing and it fell together. 1901 01:29:53,956 --> 01:29:56,158 And if it didn't, it didn't. 1902 01:29:58,393 --> 01:30:01,564 Even today, when you look at JD Hammer, it's his life. 1903 01:30:02,197 --> 01:30:03,699 He doesn't care about anything else 1904 01:30:03,832 --> 01:30:05,734 that's really important to other people. 1905 01:30:05,868 --> 01:30:07,703 He just wants to fish. 1906 01:30:07,836 --> 01:30:10,773 And so that is the epitome of the obsession of the fishing 1907 01:30:11,339 --> 01:30:13,542 and what the ocean life does to a person. 1908 01:30:14,743 --> 01:30:16,545 The thing is, as you get older, 1909 01:30:16,679 --> 01:30:18,681 you drop out, you know, people drop out of skateboarding, 1910 01:30:18,814 --> 01:30:20,916 people drop out of surfing in their 20's, 30's. 1911 01:30:22,250 --> 01:30:25,588 But when you see surfers out there in their 40's, 50's, 60's, 1912 01:30:25,721 --> 01:30:28,056 You have to admire that. When you got J.D. 1913 01:30:28,190 --> 01:30:31,126 who's probably in his 60's still shark fishing, 1914 01:30:31,259 --> 01:30:33,428 hardcore, dedicated, 1915 01:30:33,562 --> 01:30:36,965 very much applied for the love of shark fishing. 1916 01:30:37,099 --> 01:30:39,602 Yeah you have to admire that dedication. 1917 01:30:41,036 --> 01:30:42,971 You know, you have to. 1918 01:30:43,438 --> 01:30:45,641 There's no ego in JD. 1919 01:30:45,774 --> 01:30:48,276 JD's like full of humility, man. 1920 01:30:48,410 --> 01:30:51,113 JD Hammer is a soul fisherman 1921 01:30:51,246 --> 01:30:54,082 and I'm sure he is still today. 1922 01:31:01,289 --> 01:31:04,059 As far as legends go, it's just, you know, 1923 01:31:04,192 --> 01:31:06,995 I think my legend is longevity. 1924 01:31:08,130 --> 01:31:10,499 You got to say that, here I am almost 70. 1925 01:31:10,633 --> 01:31:12,300 I'm still here. 1926 01:31:12,434 --> 01:31:16,739 And my next legend is teaching young kids like Shannon, 1927 01:31:16,872 --> 01:31:20,743 like my sons, like their friends, how to fish. 1928 01:31:20,876 --> 01:31:24,680 And keeping them out of trouble. Doesn't always work, you know. 1929 01:31:24,813 --> 01:31:26,649 But that makes me happy. 1930 01:31:28,250 --> 01:31:30,786 And yeah, I told you that before, right? 1931 01:31:30,919 --> 01:31:32,821 I don't care. It's not about me. 1932 01:31:36,324 --> 01:31:38,827 The one that bit Papi. Remember this? 1933 01:31:39,261 --> 01:31:40,629 Remember the one that bit me real quick 1934 01:31:40,763 --> 01:31:42,531 and I was bleeding everywhere. 1935 01:31:42,665 --> 01:31:44,399 So those sharks, when they migrate, 1936 01:31:44,533 --> 01:31:47,670 are in the water by the thousands, Dante. 1937 01:31:47,803 --> 01:31:50,205 I'm talking everywhere you look. 1938 01:31:50,338 --> 01:31:52,174 When, before we kayak out the bait. 1939 01:31:52,307 --> 01:31:54,509 You see fins swimming by the beach. 1940 01:31:55,978 --> 01:31:58,513 Oh, this scares me just talking about it. 1941 01:32:02,084 --> 01:32:04,553 The wind's howling. 1942 01:32:05,621 --> 01:32:10,325 Waves are getting bigger, crashing on the shore. 1943 01:32:11,694 --> 01:32:13,395 So, Papi gets in the kayak 1944 01:32:14,630 --> 01:32:15,798 and I start taking off. 1945 01:32:15,931 --> 01:32:17,465 I start kayaking out. 1946 01:32:17,600 --> 01:32:19,167 I start getting far. 1947 01:32:19,301 --> 01:32:21,704 And I know this is the last bait, 1948 01:32:21,837 --> 01:32:25,307 we want to go way out for the big boy. 1949 01:32:26,942 --> 01:32:28,677 I keep going further. I start looking back 1950 01:32:29,411 --> 01:32:30,579 and I'm looking for Hammer. 1951 01:32:30,713 --> 01:32:31,714 I don't see any more light. 1952 01:32:31,847 --> 01:32:33,749 I don't see Hammer. 1953 01:32:34,917 --> 01:32:37,586 But then it happened. 1954 01:32:59,474 --> 01:33:03,946 This man has steered so many troublesome teens 1955 01:33:04,079 --> 01:33:07,082 into fishing and changed their lives. 1956 01:33:07,215 --> 01:33:09,952 I'm talking it's in the hundreds, beyond the hundreds. 1957 01:33:10,085 --> 01:33:12,788 - I was one of them. - And Rene was one of them. 1958 01:33:12,921 --> 01:33:14,723 JD Hammer's the one who actually put me 1959 01:33:14,857 --> 01:33:16,925 into the second level of fishing. 1960 01:33:17,059 --> 01:33:20,095 You know, I looked up to JD and Rene and some of the older guys. 1961 01:33:20,228 --> 01:33:22,965 JD Hammer is another father to me. 1962 01:33:25,033 --> 01:33:27,770 Here's a young kid, he stays out of trouble 1963 01:33:27,903 --> 01:33:31,640 because he's always preparing to be a shark fisherman. 1964 01:33:31,774 --> 01:33:35,243 You just ain't got time to go out and be a bad person. 1965 01:33:35,377 --> 01:33:38,013 It teaches them in the best way that I know 1966 01:33:38,146 --> 01:33:40,816 to stay out of trouble is to fish. 1967 01:33:45,553 --> 01:33:47,022 It could steer a kid for me, 1968 01:33:47,155 --> 01:33:49,024 I wanted to do a bunch of bad stuff 1969 01:33:49,157 --> 01:33:52,294 right after my dad died. I was thinking nothing but negative. 1970 01:33:52,427 --> 01:33:54,763 And before you knew it, I was-- I had no time. 1971 01:33:54,897 --> 01:33:56,865 I was like, man, I want to go fishing with Jimbo, 1972 01:33:56,999 --> 01:33:58,500 you know, I want to go fishing. 1973 01:33:58,633 --> 01:34:00,335 Forget all this dumb shit. 1974 01:34:00,468 --> 01:34:02,304 Shannon was like one of my sons. 1975 01:34:03,939 --> 01:34:05,440 When his dad passed away. 1976 01:34:05,573 --> 01:34:07,075 It was every week Shannon. 1977 01:34:07,209 --> 01:34:09,444 I'd go to the beach, pick him up, let's go. 1978 01:34:10,145 --> 01:34:14,149 And he was like a brother to my kids. 1979 01:34:14,282 --> 01:34:17,953 I have three boys, and Shannon became the fourth one. 1980 01:34:18,553 --> 01:34:19,755 That's all. 1981 01:34:21,623 --> 01:34:23,191 One of the first times he took me fishing, 1982 01:34:23,325 --> 01:34:24,827 he had a brand new West Palm Beach rod. 1983 01:34:24,960 --> 01:34:26,628 Beautiful. 1984 01:34:26,762 --> 01:34:29,264 And he's like, "Shannon, come on, come with me partner. 1985 01:34:29,397 --> 01:34:31,599 "I'll get you a cuda. I promise. Come on." 1986 01:34:32,701 --> 01:34:36,171 And just holding on, scraping this man's rod up 1987 01:34:36,304 --> 01:34:37,639 and he didn't even flinch. 1988 01:34:37,773 --> 01:34:40,342 Just like, let me scrape up his rod. 1989 01:34:40,475 --> 01:34:41,877 Gaffed my cuda, brought it up 1990 01:34:42,010 --> 01:34:43,645 and he's like, "You did it," you know. 1991 01:34:43,779 --> 01:34:46,048 And I remember just instantly, 1992 01:34:46,648 --> 01:34:48,183 instantly knowing this guy's different 1993 01:34:48,316 --> 01:34:49,718 than, than other teachers. 1994 01:34:49,852 --> 01:34:51,854 This guy's different than my own dad. 1995 01:34:51,987 --> 01:34:53,255 This was a lot of fun. 1996 01:34:56,324 --> 01:34:57,592 That type of influence, 1997 01:34:58,226 --> 01:35:00,328 letting a kid be free and at all costs, 1998 01:35:00,462 --> 01:35:02,765 even the cost of your own rod. 1999 01:35:02,898 --> 01:35:04,867 Was really special to me. 2000 01:35:06,134 --> 01:35:08,904 I wish I could be a lot more like him sometimes. 2001 01:35:09,037 --> 01:35:12,574 Everybody knows this guy owned life 2002 01:35:12,707 --> 01:35:14,242 Does he have materialistics to show for? 2003 01:35:14,376 --> 01:35:15,978 No, he doesn't have that. 2004 01:35:16,111 --> 01:35:18,413 But did you see as many sunsets as he saw? 2005 01:35:18,546 --> 01:35:21,183 See the stars, see the galaxy? Shooting stars. 2006 01:35:21,316 --> 01:35:23,852 Were you out on the fresh breeze as many nights 2007 01:35:23,986 --> 01:35:26,088 as this guy was just free? 2008 01:35:27,555 --> 01:35:30,092 What were you doing when he was enjoying all of this? 2009 01:35:30,225 --> 01:35:33,896 Catching fish, eating his own catch every day of his life, 2010 01:35:34,029 --> 01:35:35,798 hooking monster sharks, 2011 01:35:35,931 --> 01:35:38,533 seeing everything you can imagine out on the water. 2012 01:35:38,666 --> 01:35:42,304 I know in my heart, when his time comes, 2013 01:35:42,437 --> 01:35:45,307 it's like, I don't think there's going to be a lot of crying. 2014 01:35:46,074 --> 01:35:49,277 I admire him, he's a role model to me. 2015 01:36:25,013 --> 01:36:27,582 Some of the kids I'm very proud of, 2016 01:36:27,715 --> 01:36:30,552 that they become excellent, shark fishermen. 2017 01:36:30,685 --> 01:36:32,821 I'm not going to say that I taught them 2018 01:36:32,955 --> 01:36:35,390 because there's something in here. 2019 01:36:35,523 --> 01:36:38,793 They are better than the teachers 2020 01:36:38,927 --> 01:36:41,596 and it's all because what's in here, 2021 01:36:41,729 --> 01:36:44,499 it has nothing to do with what I taught them. 2022 01:36:49,838 --> 01:36:52,140 I think any kid that's exposed to the water 2023 01:36:52,274 --> 01:36:54,376 carries that in his blood for life. 2024 01:36:54,509 --> 01:36:57,045 It's something that sticks with you, it doesn't leave you. 2025 01:36:57,179 --> 01:36:59,381 It's part of who we become 2026 01:36:59,514 --> 01:37:01,316 when you're exposed to that young. 2027 01:37:04,419 --> 01:37:06,388 Yeah, I'm so thankful that I moved towards the ocean. 2028 01:37:06,521 --> 01:37:08,957 It's the best thing I think anyone can do for kids. 2029 01:37:09,624 --> 01:37:12,928 We felt we were all very privileged to be near the ocean. 2030 01:37:13,061 --> 01:37:14,762 I mean, you can grow up in a city 2031 01:37:14,897 --> 01:37:16,464 and you can grow up in an environment 2032 01:37:16,598 --> 01:37:19,201 which is not very conducive to behavior, 2033 01:37:20,168 --> 01:37:22,304 you know, which is not conducive 2034 01:37:22,437 --> 01:37:24,706 to good character building, good personality building. 2035 01:37:25,273 --> 01:37:27,009 But when you're in, near the ocean, 2036 01:37:27,142 --> 01:37:28,676 it's a very safe environment. 2037 01:37:30,645 --> 01:37:33,982 The ocean was a magnet that drew many people 2038 01:37:35,450 --> 01:37:37,152 to South Beach. 2039 01:37:38,853 --> 01:37:41,823 My son, he dies to go fishing with me. 2040 01:37:41,957 --> 01:37:44,993 He loves tagging along with me, like taking out baits 2041 01:37:45,127 --> 01:37:46,594 the whole nine yards. 2042 01:37:48,496 --> 01:37:50,165 The times are changing, 2043 01:37:50,298 --> 01:37:52,834 a lot of us have followed suit with conservation. 2044 01:37:54,236 --> 01:37:56,104 Every shark I catch, 2045 01:37:56,238 --> 01:37:58,840 I try my best to get the hooks out fast and release it now. 2046 01:37:58,974 --> 01:38:00,542 It means so much that I really want him 2047 01:38:00,675 --> 01:38:02,344 to be able to shark fish. 2048 01:38:02,477 --> 01:38:04,546 I want my son and be able to kayak out shark baits. 2049 01:38:04,679 --> 01:38:07,415 And there be some sharks where I caught sharks, on Miami Beach. 2050 01:38:11,386 --> 01:38:16,358 When you ask me about fishing and the love of it, 2051 01:38:17,059 --> 01:38:20,595 fishing is just not about killing fish. 2052 01:38:20,728 --> 01:38:25,700 You have a passion about it that you want to share with others. 2053 01:38:25,833 --> 01:38:28,070 In the beginning, 2054 01:38:28,670 --> 01:38:30,838 perhaps somebody might point a finger 2055 01:38:30,973 --> 01:38:33,741 and say, "Well you guys were killing a bunch of sharks, 2056 01:38:33,875 --> 01:38:35,610 "and that shouldn't have been done." 2057 01:38:35,743 --> 01:38:39,847 Perhaps we were not as knowledgeable in the beginning 2058 01:38:39,982 --> 01:38:42,284 as we all were towards the end. 2059 01:38:42,784 --> 01:38:44,052 We've changed completely. 2060 01:38:44,186 --> 01:38:46,721 We turned around 100%. 2061 01:38:46,854 --> 01:38:49,958 Every one of my sharks now are cut loose. 2062 01:38:50,558 --> 01:38:54,562 I was probably one of the first guys years ago, '91, '92, 2063 01:38:55,530 --> 01:38:57,732 and we would cut them off and let them go. 2064 01:38:57,865 --> 01:38:59,301 People change, man. 2065 01:38:59,434 --> 01:39:02,604 You mature, you-- you research, you learn. 2066 01:39:02,737 --> 01:39:06,441 And you could be different than you were five years ago. 2067 01:39:06,574 --> 01:39:08,143 Ten years ago. 2068 01:39:14,449 --> 01:39:18,153 If I don't keep it alive, how special it was to me and-- 2069 01:39:18,686 --> 01:39:21,389 how beautiful it was the thing that we had that I was taught 2070 01:39:21,523 --> 01:39:23,725 from by Rene, Hammer, and all these guys, 2071 01:39:23,858 --> 01:39:25,927 then it's going to die out. I'll never let it die. 2072 01:39:26,061 --> 01:39:28,930 My son will pass it on to his kids and to me, 2073 01:39:29,064 --> 01:39:31,933 it's very dear in my heart. The circle of friends we had, 2074 01:39:32,067 --> 01:39:33,601 I'll always keep those memories alive 2075 01:39:33,735 --> 01:39:35,270 through photo and through stories. 2076 01:39:35,403 --> 01:39:37,572 And my kid will pass it on too. 2077 01:40:18,813 --> 01:40:20,348 Look at this. 2078 01:40:20,482 --> 01:40:22,016 That's really-- 2079 01:40:22,150 --> 01:40:24,052 more beautiful than I thought when I was like, 2080 01:40:24,186 --> 01:40:26,354 "Oh, you guys are going to see the sunset." 2081 01:40:26,488 --> 01:40:28,956 I was telling them, it had to be here. 2082 01:40:29,091 --> 01:40:30,892 Like if they were going to end it off, 2083 01:40:31,025 --> 01:40:33,228 if that was the end of the film, it would be right here. 2084 01:40:33,361 --> 01:40:34,729 Definitely. Look how beautiful. 2085 01:40:34,862 --> 01:40:36,198 I mean, what else could you ask for? 2086 01:40:36,331 --> 01:40:38,400 Remember the, um, the-- the hammer 2087 01:40:38,533 --> 01:40:40,968 that you hooked that stripped you out? 2088 01:40:41,103 --> 01:40:43,371 And then came back and stripped you in and ran. 2089 01:40:43,505 --> 01:40:45,140 Ran inside? Inside of the bridge. 2090 01:40:45,273 --> 01:40:46,708 How do you know, you were here? 2091 01:40:46,841 --> 01:40:48,676 Yeah, I was here, but we were down from you. 2092 01:40:48,810 --> 01:40:50,545 Oh, you guys were catching lemons right? 2093 01:40:50,678 --> 01:40:53,515 You were all defeated. You were like, "Oh, I had him." 2094 01:40:53,648 --> 01:40:55,250 Can't catch them all partner. 2095 01:40:55,383 --> 01:40:58,620 You can't catch them all. All we can do is try. 2096 01:40:59,921 --> 01:41:01,022 But look at that. 2097 01:41:01,156 --> 01:41:02,590 Oh, my Lord. 2098 01:41:04,359 --> 01:41:08,430 That is beautiful.