If you’re a fan of sports, you’ve likely seen your fair share of commercials with athletes hawking everything from shaving cream to Subway sandwiches, but the authenticity of those pitch jobs often leaves a little bit of doubt about the genuine nature of those advertising arrangements.
Does Tom Brady really shave his own face, or does he have a team of stylists descend from the rafters to sculpt his facial hair within an inch of perfection? Does Reggie Bush wolf down a foot long Subway sandwich before a game, or does his personal chef cook up a meal that’s perfectly tailored for the nutritional needs of an NFL running back?
There’s no need to worry about the authenticity or genuine interaction between Charles Espenlaub, driver of the Mazda RX-8 for Dempsey Racing in the GRAND-AM Rolex GT series, and the team’s primary sponsor, VisitFlorida.com.
Espenlaub, a veteran racer and native Floridian, spends considerable time exploring his home state when he’s not piloting a race car, and through his Action Fishing Charters business, he routinely trades the cockpit of his fire-breathing RX-8 for the excitement of taking clients on fishing adventures in the Florida Everglades.
The truth is, Espenlaub has been promoting the ‘Visit Florida’ agenda long before the Florida Tourism Board became involved with Mazda and the Rolex Series team owned by actor/racer Patrick Dempsey. He could even be credited for helping to promote ‘extreme’ Florida visitations as the action adventure buff reveals.
“When I’m not racing, I have my adventure guide service. My friend, Frank Jackson, we’re partners in it. We do the normal half day trips, but specialize in taking well-established fishermen from say Colorado. They’re fly fishermen, or experts who’ve fished their whole life. We hike 10 miles up in the mountains and go to places where nobody’s ever been. Sometimes it takes 45 minutes to get in there with a little boat we have to get these guys into shallow water, sight fishing; sometimes we get back there and these fish have never seen a person or a lure before. There’s a lot of places like that in Florida, so we help people from other states and other countries to see a side of Florida that’s a lot different than you’ll find sitting on a beach or at a theme park.”
Born in Tampa, Espenlaub says he spent his youth exploring Florida’s many hidden treasures. “Even when I was a little kid I remember going out and I always wanted to do what was on the other side of the fence. It’s the adventure of being able to go places and find things. What’s behind the next creek? Or what’s up the next bay? So I’m on Google Earth a lot and looking and seeing where I can extend my natural curiosity. My friends call me ‘Adventure Guy.’ I’m always the guy that wants to go around the corner and see what the next thing is.”
Representing VisitFlorida.com has been easy, according to Espenlaub, as the push to strengthen the state’s tourism – something that has suffered since the global economy took a dive in 2008 – is vital to so many businesses in his home state. More recently, the events in the Gulf of Mexico has seen VisitFlorida.com used to spread the word that its beaches are clean and open for business.
“It’s a perfect fit. Really, our economy is based on tourism. I mean, they were trying to do other stuff and this and that. From my earliest memories, my father’s side of the family is from Germany, and they’d come over and they just loved Florida. That’s a big thing. I think with the economy where it’s at right now, people maybe think they can’t go on a vacation to Florida because it’s too expensive to spend two weeks at Disneyworld or wherever, but there’s lots to do. Especially if they like thrills.”
Espenlaub mentions ‘thrills’ for a reason and as he shares, racing at nearly 175 miles-per-hour in his Mazda RX-8 is almost too safe compared to his role as a fishing guide.
Apparently, Pythons don’t stand a chance when ‘Adventure Guy’ is on the prowl.
“I’ve been going to the Everglades for 15 or 16 years – about the same time I started racing. We have a huge problem with pythons in Florida, and especially in the Everglades. They aren’t natural inhabitants; they started out as pets that were released and found their way to the Everglades. It’s actually a very good environment for them. It doesn’t get that cold and there’s a lot of things in there for them to eat. The only natural predator that they have to worry about is alligators. And it’s kind of a toss up, a six-foot python, 12-foot gator, no problem. A six-foot gator against 12-foot python…maybe not. Unfortunately, the birds and stuff that migrate down there in the wintertime, they’re not used to dealing with a 12-foot snake that can climb a 30-foot tree! So it’s really wreaking havoc on the natural wildlife down there.
“Being a national park, you’re not really allowed to hunt anything or do that sort of stuff or allowed to fish without a license. No hunting whatsoever. We’re licensed guides, so we have all th permits necessary for our regular fishing tours, but with the Pythons, the park rangers ask if you see one to report it so they know where they’re at and if you have a chance to kill one, it’s up to you. So, of course, as Adventure Guy, when we’re out on a guided tour, we’re going to try and catch some snakes. Of course, we’re looking all the time for them.”
If you’re a snake lover, you might want to skip this next story.
“The first python I came across was with a friend of mine, a fellow Florida resident, Buzzy Roberts. I look across the bay at what looks like a big snake. We go over there and, holy cow, it’s a really big snake, a Python. So, fortunately – and I’ve got to quantify this – in the wintertime, when it’s cold, they don’t move around very much. They’re cold-blooded, and they aren’t very agile. This is the only time that I found I could mess with them. Anyway, we paddled over to this eight-foot snake and chased it around for a little bit. It’s diving under the water and doing all this escape maneuver stuff. Well, these bays, they’re only five, maybe six feet deep. So we kept chasing it with the boat and I figured out that it keeps diving and it keeps coming up and you could tell it’s getting tired and more tired. I said we’ll just get this thing tired out.
“So sure enough, we get it tired out, my friend holds it down with a stick and we get it tired enough by throwing a towel over its head and we chop its head off. Because it was a big snake, we turned it into the Ranger and they have a scientist there that does the DNA on them. I believe it was 29 pounds, and it was two years old. Born in the Everglades because they keep a DNA track and they know that it was born from ones that they have found already there so they know that it’s not a fresh snake; it was born there. They do all the studying on them to track the growth and infestation of the Python population. That was cool.”
If you’re a snake fan AND a Charles Espenlaub fan, you might want skip the rest of the story altogether.
“The next year I was on a tour with the other friend of mine that I grew up with, a fellow Florida resident, and have known him since second grade, and we’re like going around – it was kind of funny because I was practicing with him and I said, ‘Well, what do you want to catch?’ ‘I want to catch a snook.’ So we go over here and catch a snook. ‘What else would you like to see on Action Fishing Charter, Sir?’ And he goes, ‘Oh, I’d like to catch tarpon.’ ‘Okay, I know where some tarpon are.’ So we motor over there, boom, catch some tarpon. ‘What else?’ So the whole weekend’s like we see an alligator – ‘There you go, alligator.’ See a bald eagle. There’s an osprey. Here’s an otter swimming by. And every time, I’m like, ‘What else would you like to see on your fishing trip?’ So anyway, he catches this nice redfish, we go fish and we were coming back out to leave and we come around the corner and I said, ‘Let’s try that spot again where you caught that redfish.’
“We use a pole a lot with the boats instead of the regular motor because the water’s really shallow, so we push ourselves along with a pole. He’s on the front, I push us around the corner and he goes, ‘Holy !@#!, look at the size of that snake!’ And I’m like, ‘Holy cow, that’s a monster Python.’ This one was 12 foot. So we go through the whole thing again, chasing this thing, except we’re only in about two feet of water and I’m like, ‘All we have to do is keep him from going into the trees and get him when he gets tired again.’ Well, this one was smart enough to know what we were up to – so he heads up into the trees and we’re trying to stop it with the pole and all this stuff and it’s just heading up the trees. And it’s probably one of the dumbest things I ever did in my life, was I reached and grabbed its tail and I held onto it and I’m trying to hold onto the thing, hold onto the thing, I’m just looking at my buddy, I can’t stop it. It’s going. It’s actually pulling US along…”
If Espenlaub wasn’t a heroic figure before this story – he’s raced through injuries, burns and other maladies – that should change in the next two paragraphs.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen mangrove trees but it’s all roots tangled branches in the water. So he’s going up into the mangroves and I’m like, I either got to let him go or I’m going in with him. And my buddy looks at me, I look at him, and I’m like, all right. Let’s get it on. So I jumped in the water – all two feet of it — and I’m going, going, going and this Python is still dragging me along. I’m like, well, as soon as I get to a tree I’m going to wrap his tail around it, stop him, and then I’m going to have some leverage. Well, that didn’t work. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Those [giant Pythons] are just pure muscle… So he’s heading into the mangroves and finally I get to the point where I turn around and look and I can’t see my friend anymore! He’s dragged me that far! So I call out to my friend. And he’s like, ‘I can’t you see anymore.’ Things are starting to dawn on me at this point. I’m thinking, ‘Okay, this officially sucks. This is getting a bit sketchy.’ At this point now, about an hour into this chase, I’m shaking and weak. I’ve been fighting this guy for a while, holding on, trying to slow him down but nothing is working like it did with that 8-footer.
“So it dawns on me. I always keep this knife on me, right? (Espenlaub pulls out a small, folding 3” hunting knife from his belt) So I’m like, I’ve got a knife. We can do something here. So I reached up and I just cut right down a section of its tail. And, of course, now it’s VERY pissed off. So it turns around and comes back at me but it’s partially wrapped around a tree and I’m still clutching its tail, so it’s just a little too far away to strike. I’m like, this is really bad. I’m trying to figure out if I let go, am I going to be able to run? Which way should I go? So I start yelling at my buddy and I’m like, ‘I’m either going to have to have you come in here with me or I’m going to be coming out towards you, FAST, so be ready to go. And as soon as I yelled, he yelled back, and the Python reacted to his voice and turned and went towards him. The snake was staring me in the face for a while trying to figure out how to get me, but I wasn’t letting loose. And I’m like, ‘Keep yelling! Keep yelling! He’s coming back towards you.’ So it moved over a few feet (to the right) like it wanted to go after my buddy. Eventually, he poled over in the boat, held the Python down with the pole and I got it to bleed out.”
Like the first Python he killed, Espenlaub turned this one into the park rangers, but not before spending a few minutes to marvel at the sheer size – twice his height — of the beast he felled.
“The difference between the eight footer and the 12 footer, it was 90 pounds of angry, constricting muscle. The eight footer was as big as my wrist and the 12 footer was as big as my thigh and the strength of the thing was just incredible. And then I got my 16 foot boat and we stretched it out it really hit home how much of a monster it was. Needless to say, the rangers were very happy that I was able to get that snake out of the water…”
After this near-death experience, will Espenlaub jump in the water to battle a Python the next time he sees one?
“Now that I look back at it, maybe climbing into two feet of water to fight a 12-foot Python for an hour wasn’t the smartest move Adventure Guy’s made. This is definitely one of those ‘don’t try this at home, kids,’ deals.”
I don’t know about you, but the next time I visit Florida, I’m headed straight to Disneyworld.
