Gatory waters in Florida...

[Cuda1447]

Who has experience with Gators in Florida? (Or any other place, really?)

I had an interesting event happen the other day. The wife, me and another couple decided to go canoeing over the weekend. The other couple we were with weren't the best canoers ever and had a little accident. They flipped! I don't really know how it happened, but it did.

Now this river we were on has gators all over it. Not more than 15 minutes prior there was a real nice size gator we saw jump in the water and swim under our canoe. It wasn't our intention to go swimming in the water!

So my two friends end up in the water (along with all of our stuff!) and start freaking out. The canoe quickly gets flooded to the point that they can't flip it back over. We were in a narrow, heavily tree'd area. Lots of growth near the edges of the water, mucky seaweedy type stuff. The current was also surprisingly strong. The guy friend recently had surgery and wasn't in peak physical shape to deal with this situation. The girl friend was freaking out. She was scared of the gators and wasn't having a fun time trying to hang onto the canoe/remain above water/not die.


So the wife and I paddled up to them as fast as possible, stop the canoe real close and I jump in. I helped both of them get into our canoe (without them flipping that one!) and then I go after their canoe. I quickly realize I'm not going to be able to flip this back over in the water. I then started swimming back to our canoe, upstream against a pretty strong current. I really underestimated the difficulty here. I finally get back to our canoe and we all get situated into a cramped canoe. We head downstream to rescue our other canoe/gear and after loading as much as we can into the good canoe I hop back in the water and attempt to maneuver the capsized canoe toward some branches/shoreish area. After another few minutes fighting with it in the water we managed to get it to a shore area and get it free of water.


TLR: Friends flipped their shit, freaked out in gatory water and we had a lot of fun.


Now at the time I didn't even give any thought to jumping in the water. I was most concerned with my friends swimming ability. But in hindsight, man there were gators all over that day. We saw another one shortly after too. Had this happened near one of the gators (who knows, maybe there were some under us?) how big of a concern would it have been?

To put it another way. Let's say I see my friends flip over and there is a gator 15 feet away in the water. Is it still the right decision to jump in the water to help them?

I know gators aren't exactly predators of humans. But in the wild, in their territory... what are the odds of that going very badly?

 

[KaOTiK]

How close of friends are they?

 

[Cuda1447]

How close of friends are they?

Best friends, haha.

 

[Kaido]

Two tricks from gators gleaned from the Seminoles Indians in Florida: (if you ever watch their gator wrestling shows)

1. Their clamping force is powerful, but opening UP their jaws is not. If they snap at you, just grab their jaws and hold them shut. They have a hard time opening them back up again since all of the power is made for chewing on you pitbull-style.

2. If you flip them on their belly for awhile, they'll pass out.

And of course, 3. Just remember you only have to swim faster than the guy behind you

 

[KaOTiK]

And of course, 3. Just remember you only have to swim faster than the guy behind you

That's why I always bring Dale when we go out on the lake, he can't swim.

 

[GasX]

They don't generally see adults as prey. Kids and dogs on the other hand... They actively hunt in the early am and evening. They are creatures of opportunity, so jump out of your canoe onto a gator who hasn't eaten recently...

 

[Cuda1447]

They don't generally see adults as prey. Kids and dogs on the other hand... They actively hunt in the early am and evening. They are creatures of opportunity, so jump out of your canoe onto a gator who hasn't eaten recently...

Yeah, I was kinda thinking that. They wouldn't normally go after a human. But if we jumped into the water and one was nearby, or if we were splashing his ass without knowing... he was gonna be pissed.

 

[Broheim]

gators don't hunt much during the day, of course I would advice against going in the water but if your friends are in trouble go for it. With several people making a ruckus the gators are going to leave you alone because you seem like more trouble than you're worth.

you're more likely to win the lottery than get attacked by a gator.

if you do get attacked, attack the gator, don't struggle but attack it as hard as you possibly can. Convince it you're not going down without a fight and it'll back off.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

When I was in 8th grade, my GF's house was next to a canal. We hung around the same group of people. One of our friends Tom Tom (really his name) would jump off the dock trying to catch the gators, if they got close enough. He snagged a 3 footer that way. Never saw him catch another.

Moral of the story: You are not on the menu. But your dog is,; they LOVE dog. So watch your's when near water in florida.

Another gator story for you. I was golfing at The Savannahs with my friend that posts here- Xeno2060. He picks up this little turtle that is making its way out of the water and towards the green. He takes it to the other side and sets it at the edge of the water. He says something like "Here you go little buddy." It starts to make its way into the water, and a gator snatches it up. He damned near had himself a Chubbs moment.

 

[Vic Vega]

I lived in FL from 1993 to 2007 and again from 2009-2011. I will not go in any lake in FL.

I used to fish on Lake Jessup. There were so many gators near the boat ramp, when you launched your boat and started to move away you would run them over and hear "thud" as your boat hit their heads.

 

[GasX]

The three rules of safe swimming in Florida:

Location
Location
Location

 

[lxskllr]

It's cool that those animals are around, but it's even cooler that they aren't around me. I suggest moving to a decent state, and swim in peace.

 

[calvinbiss]

Seems like it was poor planning on the groups part to go canoeing in the first place. There is always the risk of capsizing, you mentioned your friend was in bad shape due to medical issues, they were inexperienced and you didn't know the conditions of the waters your were in. You were setting yourself up for failure, gators or not.

 

[Vic Vega]

It's cool that those animals are around, but it's even cooler that they aren't around me. I suggest moving to a decent state, and swim in peace.

That's certainly your opinion. I lived there a long time and found it more than decent.

 

[DrPizza]

Gators usually stay away from humans. The gators you really have to worry about are the ones that idiots have been feeding.

There are several lakes I've been to that have large swimming areas for people, but at the same time, also have a lot of large gators living in the lake. I never heard of any issues. (Though, if there had been issues, my in-laws probably wouldn't have thought to inform me.)

 

[QueBert]

friend in water filled with gators in need of help. Sorry but I'm going think and come up with something shitty they did to me in the past. I'm not jumping in gator infested waters they're going to have to fend for themselves. Wally Gator would be cool as shit to run into, but I know he's not an accurate representation of gators. In fact I doubt there's a single Wally Gator anywhere in Florida.

 

[KeypoX]

Lived in Florida most of my life, we swam/swim/tube in the rivers with gators. Its not a big deal

But it freaks me out, but do it anyways lol, my campus even has gators on it. UF

My mom flipped a canoe in the Hillsborough river with a ton of gators around. Freaked me out, we lived

 

[scorer]

may I ask you something without sounding like an idiot?? Why would any of you ever go boating etc with gators in said water to begin with??

 

[scorer]

t's cool that those animals are around, but it's even cooler that they aren't around me. I suggest moving to a decent state, and swim in peace. best post yet

 

[Vdubchaos]

Canoeing in Florida waters? Something I wouldn't do.....EVER.

 

[Cuda1447]

may I ask you something without sounding like an idiot?? Why would any of you ever go boating etc with gators in said water to begin with??

I'm not worried being IN the canoe. They aren't going to jump in the canoe with me or anything.

 

[Cuda1447]

Seems like it was poor planning on the groups part to go canoeing in the first place. There is always the risk of capsizing, you mentioned your friend was in bad shape due to medical issues, they were inexperienced and you didn't know the conditions of the waters your were in. You were setting yourself up for failure, gators or not.

Well, the friend could walk etc. fine, but when he fell in the water he pulled a muscle and was having a hard time physically. Unexpected, but surely a side effect of his surgery.

I didn't realize our friends were inexperienced, but more importantly, canoeing isn't hard. My first time canoeing I never had a worry in the world I would flip. I honestly have no idea how they pulled that off. It's really pretty hard to FLIP a canoe. We did know the conditions of the water... gatory and currenty. But we weren't planning on going in.

To be honest... you kinda sound like a douche, lol.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

To be honest... you kinda sound like a douche, lol.

Yeah he does. The way some post here, they must encase themselves in bubble wrap before leaving the house. Biggest bunch of nancy boys I have ever seen.

 

[Jeeebus]

may I ask you something without sounding like an idiot?? Why would any of you ever go boating etc with gators in said water to begin with??

We don't have any angry African hippos in our waters, so the chance of something flipping you over and then proceeding to eat you in pretty small.

 

[scorer]

Honestly, is it the excitement, cause i would be no where near water with gators around