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Do you know what a legend is?

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A legend gets started out
by somebody telling a story.

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"I caught a fish this big."

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Now, the guy
that spread the story

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said it was this big.

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And by the time it goes to ten
different people, guess what?

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"It was this big.
It really was."

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And that's how
a legend gets started.

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It doesn't mean anything.

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It's a story.

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Anyone that has not
been able to hook a shark

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from a land based position
wouldn't know what it's like.

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The tremendous amount
of power of this fish had.

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Now when most people
think of sharks,

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they automatically think
of Jaws.

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That Hollywood shark
that bit its way

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through more than a few bodies,

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leaving behind
a lot of blood and gore.

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So what is it with these guys?

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They jump right
in with the shark.

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They beg them to come on over.

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They're not crazy.

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They've just caught shark fever.

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Actually, just holding the rod,
that gave me the fever.

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I was just a little kid.

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Hooked me for life.

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I've taught a lot of kids,
and they become good.

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They become better than me.

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And Rene was one of them.

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Whoa.

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Yeah.

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REPORTER: Hauling in a shark
is no small chore.

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Yet challenges like these are
what Rene de Dios lives for.

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00:02:07,895 --> 00:02:10,130
The Miami Beach resident
is considered by many,

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the best shark fisherman around.

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Being a fanatic is one
big secret and I don't like it

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I love the sport
of catching shark.

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Are there really
sharks in Miami Beach?

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00:02:27,481 --> 00:02:28,949
South Beach?

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If you ever questioned
whether the waters

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off of South Florida beaches
are filled with sharks,

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this should answer the question.

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And I'm like yeah,
when you're swimming.

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They were swimming next to you.

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You just didn't know.

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I grew up on South Beach,
South of fifth.

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My old man, Seaweed,
grew up with these guys,

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with Rene, Hammer.

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He's a special case because
he's really carried this

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in his blood, living in
South Beach for so many years.

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I mean, before me,
it was a special era

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that was,
it was just totally different.

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South Beach back in the day,
it was just a place

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where the hub of the action was,
where everybody was out here

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trying to make a name for themselves.

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The surfers,
the shark fishermen.

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It was a lifestyle.

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It was like crack brother.

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It was like so addictive, man.

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You know,
if you lived in South Beach,

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00:03:14,027 --> 00:03:16,063
you surfed there,
you skated, you fished there,

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you had to congregate there.

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It was criteria.

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Everyone wanted
the biggest shark.

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Everyone wanted to outlast
the next guy that came along.

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The guys that were at the top,

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they weren't going to give up
that spot.

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And the one guy
that stuck out was Rene.

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Rene de Dios was
completely caught up

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with the shark fishing.

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He's on, baby!
He hit the one on top!

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He was aggressive,
very competitive.

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World record.

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Look at the size of this shit.

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And he would tell you,
"I'm number one."

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Rene is an icon in
the history of South Beach.

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As a kid we thought,
man this guy's a god.

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JESSIE: This guy's a bad ass.

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ALBERT: He'd project things
and then it happened.

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He would risk life
and limb to catch a shark.

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REPORTER: He caught a twenty
foot great white shark

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00:04:05,546 --> 00:04:07,815
that dragged
down their small boat.

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I believe the story.

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If you told me that story,
I'd say no.

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Blood's in the water.
Now blood's in the water.

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And that's when
everything went downhill.

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He was one of my
young kids that I brought up

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that became one of the best
shark fishermen

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in the United States.

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He proved it every day

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but he died, proving it.

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You can put jaws on there,
it's not coming off.

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I like to be ready for whatever.

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Whatever I encounter out there.

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The two people I look
at as legends right now

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are JD Hammer and Rene for two
different reasons all together.

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People tell me like-- "What
are you doing? You're crazy?"

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I don't even come close to Rene.

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I had stories
where he was suicidal

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to put him in a little raft
and let him go.

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'Cause he just wanted to
die out there with the shark.

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Well, Rene taught me
how to be an aggressive

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balls to the wall
shark fishermen like--

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Man, I don't even want
to be out there in a big boat.

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I'm not going out
there in this kayak.

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"Don't be scared. Go out there.

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"You know,
you got to go right now."

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But Hammer, he taught me
how to follow the winds,

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how to follow the seasons.

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He wakes up, no Weather Channel,

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"Oh no, we're not
going there anymore,

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"we're going here now."

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And then boom,
we're on the fish.

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He is the god of fishing.

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I can tell you back in the days

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if you want to hear another
story, because guess what?

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I'm a storyteller.

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And do you know,
throughout history

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there's been storytellers.

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And I feel like I'm one of them.

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I'm one of the storytellers.

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So, I can tell you a great story

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about the South Beach
Shark Club.

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Miami Beach,
specifically South Beach.

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I could compare it to a...

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what would I compare it to?

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In the old days,

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it was totally different,
it was uncrowded,

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it was relaxed,

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it was laid back.

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You could actually be a surf bum

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and make a living
with a cast net netting mullet.

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REPORTER: Two out of every three
people on South Beach

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have no car
and no access to one.

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Half the people here live
on less than $150 per month.

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South Beach was in decline.

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There was a lot of
the old people

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who came to retire
on South Beach.

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Just feeding the birds
or just waiting to die.

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00:08:05,052 --> 00:08:07,621
Basically,
it was a retirement home.

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REPORTER: The southern tip
of Miami Beach

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has a high concentration
of elderly residents,

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perhaps higher
than any other area

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00:08:13,827 --> 00:08:15,796
of comparable size in the world.

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Fifth street was
called Miami Beach Boulevard.

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South of fifth street
was a community in itself.

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You know, imagine you
have this retirement community

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of these zillions
of elderly old people

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and then this little bunch
of younger people.

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So, we all knew each other.

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REPORTER: There are only 50
low rent housing units

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in Miami Beach, all clustered
at the very tip of South Beach.

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If you lived south of Fifth,

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it was basically
like very decrepit.

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Our parents were very poor.

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We lived in small apartments,

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you know, no air conditioning,
you know, jalousie windows.

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REPORTER: For the most part,

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Miami Beach from Sixth Street
south, is not a pretty place.

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It's very old.

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One of the oldest neighborhoods
in South Florida.

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It was a dump site, is what
it was. It was a rough scene.

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It wasn't like it is now.

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Have you been to
South Beach lately?

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Probably not.

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Most of us try to
avoid the old rundown area

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of Miami Beach,
south of Sixth Street.

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The city of Miami Beach has

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declared it a blighted area

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and rezoned it for renewal.

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REPORTER: South Beach,
a ghetto in the sun,

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a place where old
people and old values

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are making a
lonely final struggle.

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REPORTER 2: There's a lot
that's truly depressing,

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sites many of us
would like to eliminate,

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00:09:50,257 --> 00:09:53,927
but there are others too,
young people

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who feel at home on one of the
few pieces of real beach left

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00:09:57,931 --> 00:09:59,566
in Miami Beach.

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And new ethnic groups,

182
00:10:01,268 --> 00:10:03,436
Cubans and blacks, families

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00:10:03,570 --> 00:10:06,640
bringing young children
back to these weary streets.

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00:10:11,611 --> 00:10:14,648
What's different
today than back in the days?

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00:10:14,782 --> 00:10:17,150
Back in the days it
was so free out there.

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Nobody would hassle you.

187
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I mean...

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it was just a different time,
a different place.

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Never, ever will
it be like that again.

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It's gone.

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00:10:39,006 --> 00:10:42,042
SHANNON: 95% of the people
that live on Miami Beach now

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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.

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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
CHINO: 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
CHINO:
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
INTERVIEWER:
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
REPORTER:
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
REPORTER:
Why do you pursue sharks?

295
00:15:17,650 --> 00:15:19,786
RENE: 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
CHINO: 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
REPORTER:
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
REPORTER: 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
HAMMER:
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
MAN: 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
HAMMER: 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
ALBERT:
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
JESSIE: 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
MAN: 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
- MAN 2:
- 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
MAN:
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
REPORTER: 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
RENE: 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
REPORTER: 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
MAN: 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
REPORTER: 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
REPORTER: 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
MAN: 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
REPORTER:
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
MAN:
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
MAN: 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
MAN: 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
MAN 2: 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
SHANNON: 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
HAMMER: 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
HAMMER: 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
MAN: 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
MAN: 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
MAN: 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
JESSE: 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
INTERVIEWER:
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
00:55:56,987 --> 00:55:58,188
[rolling tongue]

1136
00:55:58,322 --> 00:55:59,690
from those senators.

1137
00:55:59,824 --> 00:56:01,992
You'll relive that sound,
and it's it.

1138
00:56:02,527 --> 00:56:04,695
It reminds me of
what got me into it.

1139
00:56:05,663 --> 00:56:07,598
My name's Kevin Pagan.

1140
00:56:07,732 --> 00:56:10,735
I'm a shark fishermen here from
the South Florida Shark Club.

1141
00:56:12,236 --> 00:56:15,072
Again, the pier was a magnet.
You know, it was like a hub.

1142
00:56:15,205 --> 00:56:17,942
Everybody would
actually go and hang out.

1143
00:56:18,075 --> 00:56:20,044
The boardwalk
became that later on.

1144
00:56:20,177 --> 00:56:22,747
But not too many
people knew about it.

1145
00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:25,382
I felt it was important for me
to continue that legacy

1146
00:56:25,516 --> 00:56:27,518
of shark fishing in Miami Beach.

1147
00:56:27,652 --> 00:56:30,354
So we carried a little bit of
what we were doing on the pier

1148
00:56:30,488 --> 00:56:34,091
over to the boardwalk, and
that was just a continuation.

1149
00:56:34,224 --> 00:56:36,494
And I guess Kevin Pagan
was like the last hardcore

1150
00:56:36,627 --> 00:56:39,296
shark fishermen that wanted
to make a name for himself.

1151
00:56:39,430 --> 00:56:42,232
Rene has always
been competition.

1152
00:56:42,366 --> 00:56:44,201
You know, as I was growing up,

1153
00:56:44,334 --> 00:56:45,803
I just didn't feel intimidated
by him anymore.

1154
00:56:45,936 --> 00:56:47,772
And I wasn't scared of him.

1155
00:56:47,905 --> 00:56:49,607
The way that
Rene would say it is,

1156
00:56:49,740 --> 00:56:52,042
"Man, this little punk man.
He's always on my ass."

1157
00:56:52,176 --> 00:56:53,844
He would call me Calvin.

1158
00:56:53,978 --> 00:56:55,713
Calvin, my name's Kevin.

1159
00:56:55,846 --> 00:56:58,616
"He follows me around.
He wants to be like me.

1160
00:56:58,749 --> 00:57:00,384
"This Calvin, you know.

1161
00:57:00,518 --> 00:57:02,587
"I fish South Beach,
he's there in South Beach.

1162
00:57:02,720 --> 00:57:04,455
"He's always in the hole."

1163
00:57:04,589 --> 00:57:06,524
And Kevin was still trying to,
like, put his chest out

1164
00:57:06,657 --> 00:57:08,292
and show, "Man I'm out here,
you know,

1165
00:57:08,425 --> 00:57:10,094
"I'm going to catch big sharks
like you guys."

1166
00:57:10,227 --> 00:57:11,962
But really didn't have
anything to show for it yet.

1167
00:57:12,096 --> 00:57:13,598
MAN: Beautiful night tonight.

1168
00:57:13,731 --> 00:57:15,165
And we're glad that

1169
00:57:15,299 --> 00:57:17,067
we're waiting for the loser,
Kevin Pagan.

1170
00:57:17,201 --> 00:57:19,303
MAN: We're waiting for Kevin
to come out on the bridge.

1171
00:57:19,436 --> 00:57:20,771
Mr. Know it all.

1172
00:57:20,905 --> 00:57:22,272
No, let him stay right
where he is.

1173
00:57:22,406 --> 00:57:23,674
Mr. Know it all.

1174
00:57:27,612 --> 00:57:29,914
That 14 foot hammer,
he was always bragging about it

1175
00:57:30,047 --> 00:57:32,617
and he was always telling me--
And, you know, he's number one.

1176
00:57:32,750 --> 00:57:34,485
No one can ever beat him.

1177
00:57:34,619 --> 00:57:36,654
And then all of a sudden,
here I come.

1178
00:57:36,787 --> 00:57:38,989
He was like Rene's Gino,
you could say,

1179
00:57:39,123 --> 00:57:43,093
but then his fucking third shark
or whatever it was, he catches

1180
00:57:43,227 --> 00:57:46,363
the biggest tiger
ever caught on Miami Beach.

1181
00:57:46,831 --> 00:57:48,599
And the night before,
while he was out

1182
00:57:48,733 --> 00:57:50,467
on the boardwalk shark fishing,

1183
00:57:50,601 --> 00:57:52,703
a guy pulled out a
knife and cut open his stomach.

1184
00:57:52,837 --> 00:57:55,506
Filet knife right across here.

1185
00:57:55,640 --> 00:57:57,808
Yeah, we were having a
little party on the boardwalk

1186
00:57:57,942 --> 00:58:00,410
and I got into an
altercation with a gentleman,

1187
00:58:01,078 --> 00:58:03,413
and he came back
with a knife and cut me.

1188
00:58:04,949 --> 00:58:06,951
So Kevin called the ambulance,
the ambulance came,

1189
00:58:07,084 --> 00:58:08,619
they stitched him up.

1190
00:58:08,753 --> 00:58:10,254
The next day, I call Kevin.

1191
00:58:10,387 --> 00:58:14,058
"Kevin, let's go.
Let's fish South Beach."

1192
00:58:14,191 --> 00:58:16,226
He goes, "Hammer I don't know
if I can man,

1193
00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:17,895
"I'm messed up."

1194
00:58:18,028 --> 00:58:21,566
"I go, I'll take the bus,
I'll go get the bait,

1195
00:58:21,699 --> 00:58:23,400
"I'll take your bait out
on a surfboard

1196
00:58:23,534 --> 00:58:25,502
"because I know
you're messed up."

1197
00:58:25,636 --> 00:58:27,104
And guess what?

1198
00:58:27,237 --> 00:58:29,006
That's when he got his Tiger.

1199
00:58:29,640 --> 00:58:31,375
He's so possessed
with shark fishing

1200
00:58:31,508 --> 00:58:33,644
that he went fishing
the next day.

1201
00:58:33,778 --> 00:58:36,313
And when he hooked that tiger,
he has like his belly cut open

1202
00:58:36,446 --> 00:58:38,382
fighting the tiger shark.

1203
00:58:38,515 --> 00:58:41,118
I was going over the rail,
I was sliding down the boardwalk

1204
00:58:41,251 --> 00:58:43,554
with this rod
and JD loosened the line

1205
00:58:43,688 --> 00:58:45,990
and that thing just started
taking off.

1206
00:58:48,626 --> 00:58:50,928
So I remember taking that rod
and reeling it all the way,

1207
00:58:51,061 --> 00:58:52,997
pretty much to the beach.

1208
00:58:53,130 --> 00:58:54,498
He got stuck on the sandbar

1209
00:58:54,632 --> 00:58:56,033
and when that fish
was on the sandbar

1210
00:58:56,166 --> 00:58:57,635
and it was just splashing.

1211
00:58:57,768 --> 00:58:59,336
I just saw huge
amounts of water.

1212
00:58:59,469 --> 00:59:02,139
It was dark, we couldn't
really see, but that shark

1213
00:59:02,272 --> 00:59:03,874
I knew it was
a little bit bigger

1214
00:59:04,008 --> 00:59:05,710
than what I've ever hooked,
what I ever caught.

1215
00:59:05,843 --> 00:59:07,477
REPORTER: A lifeguard
told him about sharks

1216
00:59:07,612 --> 00:59:09,079
frolicking just off shore
of South Beach

1217
00:59:09,213 --> 00:59:11,081
for the past few mornings.

1218
00:59:11,215 --> 00:59:13,884
He caught it right off the pier.
Surprise to swimmers maybe.

1219
00:59:14,018 --> 00:59:16,721
No surprise to this
Shark Club fisherman.

1220
00:59:16,854 --> 00:59:18,422
I really wanted
to beat that record.

1221
00:59:18,555 --> 00:59:20,691
I knew I could because,

1222
00:59:20,825 --> 00:59:22,392
you know, records
are meant to be broken

1223
00:59:22,526 --> 00:59:23,928
and all these other guys are
telling me,

1224
00:59:24,061 --> 00:59:25,630
you know,
I saw another shark you know.

1225
00:59:25,763 --> 00:59:28,098
Last year I saw a bigger
one and they're out there.

1226
00:59:28,232 --> 00:59:30,500
You just got to be at the
right place at the right time.

1227
00:59:30,635 --> 00:59:32,703
And I never knew what that
right time, and right place was,

1228
00:59:32,837 --> 00:59:34,739
so I fished every
single day until we got him.

1229
00:59:38,175 --> 00:59:41,278
Everybody even till
today thinks it was Rene on that

1230
00:59:41,712 --> 00:59:44,281
with the tiger, because Rene
was in every single picture,

1231
00:59:44,581 --> 00:59:46,884
he was talking on the news,
he stole the show.

1232
00:59:47,017 --> 00:59:48,953
Rene was definitely bothered

1233
00:59:49,086 --> 00:59:50,755
if you took a little bit
of his spotlight.

1234
00:59:50,888 --> 00:59:52,122
He didn't like that.

1235
00:59:52,857 --> 00:59:54,591
He couldn't stand to be beaten.

1236
00:59:54,725 --> 00:59:57,628
He had been undone by a
young guy that's showing him off

1237
00:59:57,762 --> 00:59:59,596
and he was just
driven to go out there

1238
00:59:59,730 --> 01:00:01,298
and fish harder.

1239
01:00:01,431 --> 01:00:03,133
He's going to have to
bring his own Gino now.

1240
01:00:03,267 --> 01:00:05,102
Yeah, that's it...

1241
01:00:05,235 --> 01:00:06,570
All right.

1242
01:00:06,704 --> 01:00:08,605
That's really nuts...

1243
01:00:08,739 --> 01:00:10,775
Number one man. Number one.

1244
01:00:10,908 --> 01:00:13,077
Number one.

1245
01:00:13,210 --> 01:00:15,079
- The new number one.
- South Beach!

1246
01:00:15,212 --> 01:00:17,414
Number one man, number one.

1247
01:00:19,216 --> 01:00:22,586
While one fisherman's good luck
is always another misfortune.

1248
01:00:22,720 --> 01:00:25,823
But you can bet Rene de Dios
will be back next year

1249
01:00:25,956 --> 01:00:29,159
in pursuit of
the biggest sharks.

1250
01:00:38,068 --> 01:00:39,737
INTERVIEWER:
Was there a dark side to Rene?

1251
01:00:41,638 --> 01:00:43,841
There's a dark
side to all of us.

1252
01:00:43,974 --> 01:00:46,811
You know, sometimes we drink,
sometimes we have frustrations.

1253
01:00:47,611 --> 01:00:51,181
Sometimes we look to set a goal

1254
01:00:51,682 --> 01:00:55,352
of the very high
standard and all of a sudden

1255
01:00:55,485 --> 01:00:59,389
that one fish that
you really wanted to land,

1256
01:00:59,924 --> 01:01:02,359
you saw it. You looked at him.

1257
01:01:02,492 --> 01:01:03,593
He looked at you.

1258
01:01:03,728 --> 01:01:05,996
Your eyes connected.

1259
01:01:06,130 --> 01:01:08,432
You were right there.

1260
01:01:08,565 --> 01:01:12,269
And that line just snapped.

1261
01:01:12,402 --> 01:01:14,138
And it kills your heart.

1262
01:01:14,271 --> 01:01:17,775
It just breaks it, and
you never saw that fish again.

1263
01:01:23,680 --> 01:01:29,053
Rene wanted to
do everything right

1264
01:01:29,186 --> 01:01:32,723
so that when the moment or
the opportunity presented itself

1265
01:01:32,857 --> 01:01:36,193
of hooking the big one,

1266
01:01:36,326 --> 01:01:39,496
nothing would fail
as far as the equipment

1267
01:01:39,629 --> 01:01:44,802
and nothing would fail as far as
the man behind the reel.

1268
01:01:45,535 --> 01:01:49,406
Rene actually had problems
in Bahamas with a shark.

1269
01:01:49,539 --> 01:01:50,841
That it actually sunk his boat.

1270
01:01:52,142 --> 01:01:54,344
I know that sounds like a...

1271
01:01:54,478 --> 01:01:57,848
when the story came up
on the beach I said ah, Rene's

1272
01:01:59,249 --> 01:02:02,086
doing his acting again.
But no, no.

1273
01:02:03,253 --> 01:02:05,555
He wasn't acting,
he hooked a big one.

1274
01:02:05,689 --> 01:02:09,426
He sunk, sunk this
guy's boat in the Bahamas

1275
01:02:09,559 --> 01:02:11,195
because he hooked a great white.

1276
01:02:11,328 --> 01:02:13,197
He ugh,
actually he and Luis did,

1277
01:02:13,330 --> 01:02:15,032
they said they
had a great white.

1278
01:02:15,165 --> 01:02:17,434
He would just tell you about,
the thing was a monster,

1279
01:02:17,567 --> 01:02:19,069
it came up next to the boat.

1280
01:02:19,203 --> 01:02:21,438
The stomach
looked like two barrels.

1281
01:02:21,571 --> 01:02:23,307
And the guy's
looking at him, like,

1282
01:02:23,440 --> 01:02:25,309
"Man, my boat's sinking."
The guy wanted to cut his line.

1283
01:02:25,442 --> 01:02:27,244
The guy knew
if you cut Rene's line,

1284
01:02:27,377 --> 01:02:28,879
you're probably going to die.

1285
01:02:29,013 --> 01:02:30,314
Like he's probably
going to kill you bro.

1286
01:02:30,447 --> 01:02:32,149
His one chance
with a great white.

1287
01:02:32,282 --> 01:02:34,418
So they sunk, and he's out in
the middle of floating

1288
01:02:34,551 --> 01:02:37,087
in the water for days because
Rene didn't want to cut his line

1289
01:02:37,221 --> 01:02:38,789
with a great white.

1290
01:02:38,923 --> 01:02:41,291
"20 foot shark drags--
capsizes fishing boat."

1291
01:02:43,427 --> 01:02:47,297
I believe the story, I believe--
I know that it happened.

1292
01:02:47,832 --> 01:02:51,068
To Luis it was almost
like a life and death thing.

1293
01:02:51,201 --> 01:02:54,104
To Rene, it was like his
biggest adventure to that time.

1294
01:02:57,041 --> 01:02:58,809
From the beginning
that trip was kind of,

1295
01:02:58,943 --> 01:03:00,610
you know, kind of,
we went through, like,

1296
01:03:00,744 --> 01:03:02,412
it was the nightmare trip.

1297
01:03:02,546 --> 01:03:05,282
I think we left
around 11 o'clock at night.

1298
01:03:05,415 --> 01:03:07,051
in this little 20 footer.

1299
01:03:07,184 --> 01:03:09,419
You know, me and Rene,
"Luis, we going to go?"

1300
01:03:09,553 --> 01:03:11,588
I said, "No matter what we're
going to go no matter what."

1301
01:03:11,721 --> 01:03:13,924
Rough. It took us like, I don't
know, like three and a half,

1302
01:03:14,058 --> 01:03:15,559
four hours to get there.

1303
01:03:15,692 --> 01:03:17,394
We were all wet. Next day.

1304
01:03:17,527 --> 01:03:19,329
We're all like, you know,
miserable really,

1305
01:03:19,463 --> 01:03:21,098
all wet, me and Rene.

1306
01:03:21,231 --> 01:03:23,467
And Rene got all these fishing
rods on the floor.

1307
01:03:23,600 --> 01:03:26,336
You know, his big reels that he
use for shark fishing.

1308
01:03:26,470 --> 01:03:29,139
And from there on,
we went to catch bait, whatever.

1309
01:03:29,273 --> 01:03:30,975
We went fishing.

1310
01:03:31,108 --> 01:03:33,210
We were doing great that day.
We were catching fish,

1311
01:03:33,343 --> 01:03:35,012
like you don't believe,
we we're catching groupers

1312
01:03:35,145 --> 01:03:36,847
and you know, everything was
going great.

1313
01:03:36,981 --> 01:03:38,515
We had that cooler
full of fish already.

1314
01:03:38,648 --> 01:03:40,084
So you know what?

1315
01:03:40,217 --> 01:03:41,852
"We're taking a
little break here, Rene."

1316
01:03:41,986 --> 01:03:44,121
That day we had a huge bait.

1317
01:03:44,254 --> 01:03:46,456
You know, one of those huge
Cudas, big you know.

1318
01:03:46,590 --> 01:03:49,126
And Rene's like, "Can I
put that whole thing out there?"

1319
01:03:49,259 --> 01:03:51,095
"You can do whatever you want,
buddy, you know?"

1320
01:03:51,228 --> 01:03:52,930
So Rene's like, "Okay,
Luis, I can do this now?"

1321
01:03:53,063 --> 01:03:54,564
I said, "Go ahead buddy, do it".

1322
01:03:54,698 --> 01:03:56,867
So he put this
big ass bait out there.

1323
01:03:57,001 --> 01:03:59,403
Something like
this kind of reel we had.

1324
01:03:59,536 --> 01:04:01,906
You know a little more older,
but, like, you know,

1325
01:04:02,039 --> 01:04:03,974
like the movie Jaws, same reel.

1326
01:04:04,108 --> 01:04:05,809
Same reel from the movie
Jaws really,

1327
01:04:05,943 --> 01:04:07,711
that's what we were using.
The same reel.

1328
01:04:09,479 --> 01:04:11,815
I mean top of the line,
whatever, heavy duty stuff.

1329
01:04:11,949 --> 01:04:13,884
No little shit, Rene don't
mess around with this stuff.

1330
01:04:14,018 --> 01:04:16,120
Well nothing, we're having
a little break there

1331
01:04:16,253 --> 01:04:18,022
a little lunch. The reel went--

1332
01:04:18,155 --> 01:04:20,124
Like that.

1333
01:04:20,257 --> 01:04:22,159
I looked at that reel.
My buddy James looked at me.

1334
01:04:22,292 --> 01:04:24,161
I looked at him.

1335
01:04:24,294 --> 01:04:27,497
He goes, "Eh, little shark out
there messing with this bait."

1336
01:04:27,631 --> 01:04:29,166
"You know, don't even bother."

1337
01:04:29,299 --> 01:04:31,001
Rene's like, "Hey Luis, I'm
getting a hit!"

1338
01:04:31,135 --> 01:04:33,070
"Hey Rene, little nurse shark
or whatever under there.

1339
01:04:33,203 --> 01:04:34,738
"Come on, give me a break.

1340
01:04:34,871 --> 01:04:36,240
"We taking a little
break over here buddy.

1341
01:04:36,373 --> 01:04:37,607
"Give me a break, you know."

1342
01:04:40,144 --> 01:04:41,745
That rod goes
just like that again.

1343
01:04:41,878 --> 01:04:44,915
I'm like, uh oh. I look
at my buddy James, I go,

1344
01:04:45,049 --> 01:04:46,883
"Hey, something big is in there
eating that bait."

1345
01:04:47,017 --> 01:04:48,986
"Really Luis?" I said,
"Listen, something is there."

1346
01:04:49,119 --> 01:04:51,521
Rene, "Luis,
he's taking my bait!"

1347
01:04:51,655 --> 01:04:54,524
And this time that reel is
just going--

1348
01:04:54,658 --> 01:04:56,360
I'm like, "Lock him up Rene.

1349
01:04:56,493 --> 01:04:58,562
"Lock him up, let's put
the- hook him, hook him!"

1350
01:04:58,695 --> 01:05:00,430
"Luis, I'm
going to hook him now."

1351
01:05:00,564 --> 01:05:02,732
I said, "Hook him, hook him,
put the hook on him, Rene.

1352
01:05:02,866 --> 01:05:04,768
"Set the hook on him, set him!

1353
01:05:04,901 --> 01:05:07,137
Rene just set that hook on him.
We had a little fighting chair

1354
01:05:07,271 --> 01:05:09,139
similar to this fighting chair here.

1355
01:05:09,273 --> 01:05:11,308
When he set that hook on that
fish the whole fighting chair,

1356
01:05:11,441 --> 01:05:13,677
I saw the whole bottom of the
fighting chair bending on me.

1357
01:05:13,810 --> 01:05:15,712
The whole thing bent,
the line and everything.

1358
01:05:17,581 --> 01:05:20,850
I'm like, "What! Holy shit!"

1359
01:05:20,985 --> 01:05:22,886
And that reel
started smoking on us.

1360
01:05:23,020 --> 01:05:27,791
I mean smoking. I mean,
"Get me some water now!"

1361
01:05:27,924 --> 01:05:30,494
I'm like, "Okay buddy," and ran
and get him some fresh water.

1362
01:05:30,627 --> 01:05:32,296
If we don't do it,
we melt the line.

1363
01:05:32,429 --> 01:05:34,298
You know, the line will melt.
You know that.

1364
01:05:34,431 --> 01:05:36,800
I know people don't see it,
but when you got a big fish

1365
01:05:36,933 --> 01:05:38,969
I see line melting on me.
Melting, like, like butter.

1366
01:05:39,103 --> 01:05:40,770
They melt.
So, you have to be careful.

1367
01:05:40,904 --> 01:05:42,939
You have to keep that line cold
and the reel cold.

1368
01:05:43,073 --> 01:05:45,209
And then I know, you know,
we're losing light now.

1369
01:05:45,342 --> 01:05:48,778
Now the fish.
We fish in 126 feet of water,

1370
01:05:48,912 --> 01:05:51,781
its a ledge right in front of
us, a 400 foot ledge.

1371
01:05:51,915 --> 01:05:54,118
I know now,
that fish hits that ledge.

1372
01:05:54,251 --> 01:05:56,253
We're going to lose that fish.

1373
01:05:56,386 --> 01:05:58,255
"Let's go, get a buoy going."

1374
01:05:58,388 --> 01:06:01,358
We got the big buoy for the
anchor. "Let go of the anchor."

1375
01:06:01,491 --> 01:06:04,494
That was it. We dumped
the anchor out with the buoy.

1376
01:06:04,628 --> 01:06:06,430
And we start chasing that fish.

1377
01:06:06,563 --> 01:06:08,632
"Let's do it. Let's chase him.
Let's chase him."

1378
01:06:08,765 --> 01:06:11,035
We thought we were going to
fight that fish for a few hours.

1379
01:06:11,168 --> 01:06:12,836
I mean, come on.
We never think, you know,

1380
01:06:12,969 --> 01:06:14,471
"Hey, it's going to happen."
What's going on here?

1381
01:06:14,604 --> 01:06:16,306
I look back,
and I keep seeing that buoy

1382
01:06:16,440 --> 01:06:19,243
just like going further
and further away from me.

1383
01:06:19,376 --> 01:06:21,311
I'm like, "Uh oh."
I'm like, "You know what?"

1384
01:06:21,445 --> 01:06:23,513
And Rene's, like,
fighting that fish.

1385
01:06:27,651 --> 01:06:30,454
And I'm like, Holy shit.
This is a big boy here.

1386
01:06:30,587 --> 01:06:35,792
And Rene's like, "Luis,
big tiger, big tiger Luis!"

1387
01:06:35,925 --> 01:06:38,362
I'm like, "You got it buddy.
We're going to catch this fish."

1388
01:06:38,495 --> 01:06:41,131
"Luis! This is
a world record, Luis!

1389
01:06:41,265 --> 01:06:43,633
"Oh, my God, Luis, this is the
fish we want, Luis!"

1390
01:06:43,767 --> 01:06:46,002
I'm like, holy shit.
This is not a good one here.

1391
01:06:46,136 --> 01:06:48,138
We're in my 20 foot boat,
you know, whatever.

1392
01:06:48,272 --> 01:06:50,040
Let's do it.

1393
01:06:50,174 --> 01:06:52,542
Rene, you know what? I look
at my fuel gauge, I open my key.

1394
01:06:52,676 --> 01:06:54,010
Look at my fuel gauge.
I got like,

1395
01:06:54,144 --> 01:06:55,845
I had like almost
like three quarter tank.

1396
01:06:55,979 --> 01:06:57,781
We hooked that fish at
4 o'clock in the afternoon.

1397
01:06:57,914 --> 01:07:00,317
An hour went by,
two hours went by,

1398
01:07:00,450 --> 01:07:02,519
and that fish was not coming up.

1399
01:07:02,652 --> 01:07:05,255
That fish was just going down
and down and down

1400
01:07:05,389 --> 01:07:08,725
and now we already
in 1500 feet of water,

1401
01:07:08,858 --> 01:07:11,861
2000 feet of water now,
2000 feet of water at least.

1402
01:07:11,995 --> 01:07:13,430
3000 feet of water.

1403
01:07:13,563 --> 01:07:15,332
And this fish is going down
and stopping

1404
01:07:15,465 --> 01:07:17,067
and sounding down in 3000 feet,

1405
01:07:17,201 --> 01:07:18,668
like a submarine.

1406
01:07:20,604 --> 01:07:22,139
And now we start thinking,
wait a minute,

1407
01:07:22,272 --> 01:07:23,807
what kind of fish we got here?

1408
01:07:28,845 --> 01:07:30,914
This is night. Now this is
10 o'clock, whatever,

1409
01:07:31,047 --> 01:07:32,582
11 o'clock at night already.

1410
01:07:32,716 --> 01:07:34,384
You know, fighting this fish

1411
01:07:34,518 --> 01:07:36,353
and now I see Bimini already
disappear. No more light.

1412
01:07:36,486 --> 01:07:38,888
I see little lights out there.
Uh oh. The only land that I see,

1413
01:07:39,022 --> 01:07:41,191
little, little tiny light,
you know.

1414
01:07:41,325 --> 01:07:43,460
In those years, we don't use
GPS really,

1415
01:07:43,593 --> 01:07:45,395
its like my compass,
my coordinates.

1416
01:07:45,529 --> 01:07:47,564
So, you know, that was that was
my concern too, you know,

1417
01:07:47,697 --> 01:07:49,366
losing land already.

1418
01:07:49,499 --> 01:07:51,268
"No, forget about it."
I was like, "We'll get it."

1419
01:07:51,401 --> 01:07:53,002
Around 3 o'clock in the morning,

1420
01:07:53,137 --> 01:07:54,271
we start bringing this fish
in already.

1421
01:07:54,404 --> 01:07:56,039
He start coming up on us.

1422
01:07:56,173 --> 01:07:59,376
"Oh, Luis, he's coming up!
I'm getting line now."

1423
01:07:59,509 --> 01:08:01,911
And I start putting the
light on him like that, right.

1424
01:08:02,045 --> 01:08:03,813
And I see this
thing coming up on me.

1425
01:08:05,615 --> 01:08:07,984
You see the line come up,
I knew it's coming up out there.

1426
01:08:08,118 --> 01:08:10,254
I saw like a dark,
like a submarine

1427
01:08:10,387 --> 01:08:12,055
coming out of the water.

1428
01:08:12,189 --> 01:08:14,224
Voof! Like that.
When I saw that thing,

1429
01:08:14,358 --> 01:08:16,593
when I saw that dorsal
on top of the water,

1430
01:08:16,726 --> 01:08:18,262
I looked at Rene and I said,

1431
01:08:18,395 --> 01:08:20,029
"Buddy, I'm cutting
the line off right now.

1432
01:08:20,164 --> 01:08:21,898
"Forget about this shark.
We need a bigger boat.

1433
01:08:22,031 --> 01:08:23,433
"This is a shark. This the--"

1434
01:08:23,567 --> 01:08:24,934
"What the hell you
think it is, Rene?"

1435
01:08:25,068 --> 01:08:26,870
"Luis, this is it! This is him!

1436
01:08:27,003 --> 01:08:29,105
"This is a great white, Luis!
Look at the size of that!"

1437
01:08:29,239 --> 01:08:30,740
And then when he told me
great white,

1438
01:08:30,874 --> 01:08:32,041
then he went down on us again

1439
01:08:32,176 --> 01:08:33,977
because we got him right there.

1440
01:08:34,110 --> 01:08:37,113
Then he went down on us and then
I saw his white belly come up.

1441
01:08:37,247 --> 01:08:38,648
And then I
looked at Rene and said,-

1442
01:08:38,782 --> 01:08:40,250
"Oh, my God, Rene,
this is the beast."

1443
01:08:40,384 --> 01:08:42,018
Then he went down again on us,

1444
01:08:42,152 --> 01:08:44,621
sounding again,
another 1,500 feet.

1445
01:08:44,754 --> 01:08:45,855
Stopped again.

1446
01:08:45,989 --> 01:08:47,657
I'm like, "Holy shit." Resting.

1447
01:08:47,791 --> 01:08:49,993
And Rene resting,
like, "Holy shit."

1448
01:08:50,126 --> 01:08:51,861
I'm like,
"Rene you know what, buddy?

1449
01:08:51,995 --> 01:08:53,830
"I'm done.
3 o'clock in the morning.

1450
01:08:53,963 --> 01:08:55,832
"I'm tired, you guys fight
the fish. Don't worry about it.

1451
01:08:55,965 --> 01:08:57,467
"Let me know if
you got him again."

1452
01:08:57,601 --> 01:08:59,436
I went to, you know, to rest.
I was tired.

1453
01:08:59,569 --> 01:09:01,605
Already fighting this fish, this
fish was not giving up on us.

1454
01:09:01,738 --> 01:09:03,973
"Okay buddy, I got it. I'm
all right buddy. I'll be here."

1455
01:09:04,107 --> 01:09:06,910
Like 5 o'clock in the morning,
he wake me up, you know.

1456
01:09:07,043 --> 01:09:09,346
"Hey Luis get up, I got
a little water in the boat.

1457
01:09:09,479 --> 01:09:12,449
A little water in the boat...
"What?"

1458
01:09:12,582 --> 01:09:14,117
Right away.
"Water! What? Water?

1459
01:09:14,251 --> 01:09:16,486
"What do you
mean water in my boat?

1460
01:09:16,620 --> 01:09:18,822
When I opened up the hatch the
water was already in the boat,

1461
01:09:18,955 --> 01:09:20,290
already in the
bilge inside the hull.

1462
01:09:20,424 --> 01:09:21,958
I had a lot of water
in that bilge.

1463
01:09:22,091 --> 01:09:23,427
Backing up all night
to that boat.

1464
01:09:23,560 --> 01:09:25,028
You know, my bilge pump,

1465
01:09:25,161 --> 01:09:26,763
my automatic switch
was not going right.

1466
01:09:26,896 --> 01:09:28,765
That's when I told Rene,
we're going to have to cut

1467
01:09:28,898 --> 01:09:30,767
this shark off or we're going
to be in trouble here.

1468
01:09:30,900 --> 01:09:33,270
"Luis, let me see if I can bring
this thing in one more time."

1469
01:09:33,403 --> 01:09:35,605
That's when the shark took a
turn on us and it just went--

1470
01:09:35,739 --> 01:09:37,574
and Rene locked the reel
on us, and the shark

1471
01:09:37,707 --> 01:09:39,909
with that little weight on it.
I tried to get the boat going,

1472
01:09:40,043 --> 01:09:41,578
but it was too
late for us already.

1473
01:09:41,711 --> 01:09:43,580
It just-- The boat just
went voof! And capsized.

1474
01:09:43,713 --> 01:09:45,081
Next thing I know,
that boat's hitting me

1475
01:09:45,215 --> 01:09:46,750
on the top of my head.

1476
01:09:46,883 --> 01:09:48,885
You know, just capsized
that boat you know,

1477
01:09:49,018 --> 01:09:50,587
I was like, "Uh oh."

1478
01:09:50,720 --> 01:09:52,822
I see Rene actually,
when we capsized the boat,

1479
01:09:52,956 --> 01:09:54,858
Rene was still holding the shark
on his reel.

1480
01:09:54,991 --> 01:09:57,060
He was still
fighting that shark.

1481
01:10:07,304 --> 01:10:09,306
REPORTER:
39 year old Rene de Dios

1482
01:10:09,439 --> 01:10:12,909
of Miami Beach says he caught
a 20 foot great white shark

1483
01:10:13,042 --> 01:10:15,412
that dragged down
their small boat.

1484
01:10:15,545 --> 01:10:18,081
RENE: Meanwhile,
the fish is taking me under now.

1485
01:10:18,848 --> 01:10:21,418
Rene's side of the story was
he was fighting the shark

1486
01:10:21,551 --> 01:10:23,720
something like all day
and all night

1487
01:10:23,853 --> 01:10:26,222
power winching it,
he was getting close

1488
01:10:26,356 --> 01:10:28,758
gaining on him but
that the boat was sinking.

1489
01:10:29,359 --> 01:10:33,229
And the own captain of the boat,
I guess like to cut Rene's line

1490
01:10:33,363 --> 01:10:35,231
you're like
signing your death papers.

1491
01:10:35,365 --> 01:10:37,066
You know, this guy
will probably stab you

1492
01:10:37,200 --> 01:10:38,668
with a knife or something.

1493
01:10:38,802 --> 01:10:40,937
As they're sinking,
I think the captain

1494
01:10:41,070 --> 01:10:44,040
with his own boat sinking
never touched the line.

1495
01:10:44,173 --> 01:10:47,210
And I remember Rene being
appreciative of that.

1496
01:10:47,344 --> 01:10:49,045
He's like,
"He never cut my line.

1497
01:10:49,178 --> 01:10:51,781
"You know, when we were
in the water, I got the line

1498
01:10:51,915 --> 01:10:53,249
"and I bit it with my teeth."

1499
01:10:54,418 --> 01:10:56,219
INTERVIEWER:
So, do you believe the story?

1500
01:10:56,353 --> 01:10:58,622
Yeah, of course I
believe everything that he said.

1501
01:10:58,755 --> 01:11:00,290
Everything Rene said, I believe.

1502
01:11:00,424 --> 01:11:01,991
Like, Rene was
powerful with what he said.

1503
01:11:02,125 --> 01:11:05,629
He-- sometimes,
he'd cheat, you know,

1504
01:11:05,762 --> 01:11:09,299
he'll cheat to win a tournament
because of his competitiveness.

1505
01:11:09,433 --> 01:11:13,236
But as far as a story, if he
said, it was probably the truth.

1506
01:11:15,372 --> 01:11:17,040
INTERVIEWER: So without
any doubt in your mind,

1507
01:11:17,173 --> 01:11:18,875
you know that was
a great white shark.

1508
01:11:19,008 --> 01:11:20,877
Oh, for sure. For sure.
It was bigger than my boat.

1509
01:11:21,010 --> 01:11:22,546
That thing was bigger
than a 20 footer.

1510
01:11:22,679 --> 01:11:23,813
You know,
that thing was a beast.

1511
01:11:23,947 --> 01:11:25,782
It looked like a submarine.

1512
01:11:25,915 --> 01:11:27,951
I mean, I don't I don't think
nothing else grows that big.

1513
01:11:28,084 --> 01:11:30,620
I mean, a tiger shark
can grow 12 feet long, 13 feet.

1514
01:11:30,754 --> 01:11:33,323
But I don't think it
can grow like 20 feet long.

1515
01:11:33,457 --> 01:11:35,759
Me and Rene look at each other
like, Rene's like,

1516
01:11:35,892 --> 01:11:37,927
"You never know Luis, this thing
can be a 6,000 pound fish,

1517
01:11:38,061 --> 01:11:40,063
"7,000 pound you know,
great white."

1518
01:11:40,196 --> 01:11:42,131
The world record was in Cuba,
they caught him in Cuba.

1519
01:11:42,265 --> 01:11:43,933
In Cojimar.

1520
01:11:44,067 --> 01:11:45,935
You know, the biggest shark
caught was in Cojimar.

1521
01:11:46,069 --> 01:11:48,638
They got him on a harpoon, but
it was a 7,000 pound fish.

1522
01:11:50,507 --> 01:11:52,476
Around 2 o'clock in
the morning when he came up

1523
01:11:52,609 --> 01:11:54,711
and I saw that big shark come up
next to me,

1524
01:11:54,844 --> 01:11:57,180
this shark is bigger than my
boat that we hooking now.

1525
01:11:57,313 --> 01:11:59,182
"What are we going to do with
this shark Rene?

1526
01:11:59,315 --> 01:12:01,351
"We, we, we 15 miles
away from land.

1527
01:12:01,485 --> 01:12:04,388
"You know, and we hooking this
shark, what are we going to do?

1528
01:12:04,521 --> 01:12:06,790
"We going to tie him by
his tail and drag him back?

1529
01:12:06,923 --> 01:12:08,392
"It's going to be impossible.

1530
01:12:08,525 --> 01:12:10,460
"Why don't we just cut the shark
and let it go?

1531
01:12:10,594 --> 01:12:11,995
"You know just,
let's let him go."

1532
01:12:12,128 --> 01:12:13,830
And, "No way."

1533
01:12:13,963 --> 01:12:15,832
He will die with that
fishing rod in his hand there.

1534
01:12:15,965 --> 01:12:17,834
Rene said, "Luis this is
my dream and forget about it."

1535
01:12:17,967 --> 01:12:19,669
I looked at my friend,
you know what, he's right.

1536
01:12:19,803 --> 01:12:21,605
That's his dream. And
we'll let him catch his dream.

1537
01:12:21,738 --> 01:12:24,173
We're gonna do whatever it takes
that Rene catch this shark.

1538
01:12:24,307 --> 01:12:26,042
And that was it.
That's when we went for it.

1539
01:12:26,175 --> 01:12:28,712
Flip the boat,
whatever happened, we alive.

1540
01:12:31,681 --> 01:12:35,619
The feeling of
hooking a big shark is like

1541
01:12:36,453 --> 01:12:38,988
the adrenaline starts going.
You feel it.

1542
01:12:39,122 --> 01:12:41,491
You're like,
"Oh, I want to get him so bad."

1543
01:12:41,625 --> 01:12:44,528
And then when you lose him,
the highs become just as low.

1544
01:12:44,661 --> 01:12:46,029
You know what I mean?

1545
01:12:46,162 --> 01:12:48,498
You feel so bad
that he got away.

1546
01:12:53,069 --> 01:12:55,238
REPORTER: Back on dry land for
the first time in a week

1547
01:12:55,371 --> 01:12:57,941
the three men still hang on
to one of the fishing poles

1548
01:12:58,074 --> 01:13:00,444
that first sank them
and then saved them.

1549
01:13:00,577 --> 01:13:04,180
39 year old Rene de Dios of
Miami Beach says he caught

1550
01:13:04,313 --> 01:13:06,416
a 20 foot great white shark

1551
01:13:06,550 --> 01:13:08,785
that dragged down
their small boat.

1552
01:13:08,918 --> 01:13:11,187
Another wave came over,
swamped the motor.

1553
01:13:11,320 --> 01:13:12,956
By that time,
all I remember is the boat

1554
01:13:13,089 --> 01:13:15,659
turn to the right, rolling over.

1555
01:13:15,792 --> 01:13:17,594
I'm in the water next
to the cooler

1556
01:13:17,727 --> 01:13:20,497
and I'm just doing my best--
he's still fighting the fish.

1557
01:13:20,630 --> 01:13:23,232
RENE: Meanwhile,
the fish is taking me under now.

1558
01:13:23,366 --> 01:13:25,101
REPORTER: The three were
nothing but a speck

1559
01:13:25,234 --> 01:13:26,603
in the trackless ocean.

1560
01:13:26,736 --> 01:13:28,705
Incredibly, miraculously,

1561
01:13:28,838 --> 01:13:30,507
the crew of the Oceanic
spotted them.

1562
01:13:30,640 --> 01:13:33,209
So did some
passengers with video cameras.

1563
01:13:33,342 --> 01:13:35,278
WOMAN:
They'd been waving something.

1564
01:13:35,411 --> 01:13:37,714
And so we're making a
direct turn toward them.

1565
01:13:37,847 --> 01:13:40,617
LUIS: Out of no where the
Big Red Boat comes up.

1566
01:13:40,750 --> 01:13:42,852
And he seemed like
he was going to go away.

1567
01:13:42,986 --> 01:13:44,788
And out of nowhere,
he makes his turn.

1568
01:13:44,921 --> 01:13:46,623
Hits the horn.

1569
01:13:46,756 --> 01:13:48,391
JAMES: When he blew the horn.
All the crew.

1570
01:13:48,525 --> 01:13:50,259
We all were crying
because we knew we were saved.

1571
01:13:50,393 --> 01:13:52,061
REPORTER:
A lifeboat rescued the three.

1572
01:13:52,195 --> 01:13:54,430
They were winched aboard.

1573
01:13:54,564 --> 01:13:57,000
And boy, do they
have a fish story to tell.

1574
01:13:57,133 --> 01:13:59,736
The longest fishing
battle ever in history.

1575
01:13:59,869 --> 01:14:02,171
We broke this weekend.
14 and a half foot

1576
01:14:02,305 --> 01:14:04,340
battle on a great white shark.

1577
01:14:04,474 --> 01:14:06,576
And even after
the boat capsized,

1578
01:14:06,710 --> 01:14:08,845
I was still battling the shark.

1579
01:14:08,978 --> 01:14:11,180
I cut it with my
teeth and I released him.

1580
01:14:26,062 --> 01:14:27,631
I've got so many stories

1581
01:14:27,764 --> 01:14:29,999
you guys will
tell me to shut up.

1582
01:14:34,037 --> 01:14:37,306
I'm going to tell you,
it is so beautiful out here.

1583
01:14:37,440 --> 01:14:38,842
It's epic.

1584
01:14:47,717 --> 01:14:49,085
Look at this.

1585
01:14:49,653 --> 01:14:51,020
Look at that.

1586
01:14:51,521 --> 01:14:53,189
Up here, it's like beautiful.

1587
01:14:53,322 --> 01:14:54,457
My lord.

1588
01:14:58,161 --> 01:15:00,997
This sunset is
not finished by far.

1589
01:15:02,465 --> 01:15:04,333
Just because it went down.

1590
01:15:12,876 --> 01:15:15,044
What did I tell you?

1591
01:15:15,178 --> 01:15:18,715
The good part's
coming now Shannon, watch.

1592
01:15:28,124 --> 01:15:30,293
SHANNON: I grew up on South
Beach, south of Fifth.

1593
01:15:31,160 --> 01:15:32,729
Never crossed Fifth street.

1594
01:15:34,363 --> 01:15:35,999
I bounced around section eight

1595
01:15:36,132 --> 01:15:39,068
small, hole in the wall,
roach infested apartments.

1596
01:15:40,003 --> 01:15:42,305
There was also a
spiritual side to it, like

1597
01:15:42,538 --> 01:15:45,074
small apartment,
but surfboards, fishing rods.

1598
01:15:45,208 --> 01:15:48,578
You know,
your neighbors are frying fish.

1599
01:15:48,712 --> 01:15:51,380
My old man, Seaweed,
grew up with these guys

1600
01:15:51,514 --> 01:15:53,583
with Rene, Hammer.

1601
01:15:55,418 --> 01:15:57,386
Seaweed was
a South Beach classic.

1602
01:15:57,520 --> 01:15:59,388
A free spirit.
He was a diver.

1603
01:15:59,522 --> 01:16:02,358
He was one of the number
one spear fishermen on the pier.

1604
01:16:03,827 --> 01:16:05,929
He'd be the one who
went and speared Rene

1605
01:16:06,062 --> 01:16:07,864
three tarpons
or three barracudas

1606
01:16:07,997 --> 01:16:09,733
before a big tournament.

1607
01:16:09,866 --> 01:16:11,735
They gave him the name one time
because they found him

1608
01:16:11,868 --> 01:16:13,269
sleeping under the pier

1609
01:16:13,402 --> 01:16:14,938
and he was blended
in with the seaweed.

1610
01:16:15,071 --> 01:16:16,940
Like I said, part of the ship,
part of the crew.

1611
01:16:17,073 --> 01:16:18,975
Rene saw him and
called him, "Hey Seaweed!

1612
01:16:19,108 --> 01:16:21,544
"Look, you got seaweed all over
your hair," and that name stuck.

1613
01:16:24,047 --> 01:16:26,716
My dad was homeless.
He lived on the rocks.

1614
01:16:26,850 --> 01:16:29,052
He would bring me
to the areas on the rocks

1615
01:16:29,185 --> 01:16:30,519
because he was like,

1616
01:16:30,654 --> 01:16:31,921
"Look, this is where
I would sleep

1617
01:16:32,055 --> 01:16:33,522
"on the jetties,
on South Beach."

1618
01:16:33,657 --> 01:16:35,191
From Government Cut,
he used to pay

1619
01:16:35,324 --> 01:16:37,727
our groceries,
my diapers, our rent.

1620
01:16:37,861 --> 01:16:40,229
Everything from
poaching lobsters and snooks.

1621
01:16:41,998 --> 01:16:44,233
The story that my mom
told me was,

1622
01:16:44,367 --> 01:16:46,235
"I'm looking out the window
and I see

1623
01:16:46,369 --> 01:16:49,806
"this long, blond,
flowing curly hair

1624
01:16:49,939 --> 01:16:52,709
"and this man, tanned, with
this long sleeved sweater.

1625
01:16:53,142 --> 01:16:55,078
"And I fell in
love with your dad."

1626
01:16:56,312 --> 01:16:58,314
And Shannon grew
up in South Beach.

1627
01:16:58,447 --> 01:17:01,184
He started five, six, seven
years old, walking to the Pier.

1628
01:17:01,317 --> 01:17:04,520
And then, you know, the
influence of the South Beachers

1629
01:17:04,654 --> 01:17:08,357
in a diving world, in a fishing
world, and it rubbed off on him.

1630
01:17:08,491 --> 01:17:09,926
You know, Shannon's got that,

1631
01:17:10,059 --> 01:17:11,394
the Seaweed gene.

1632
01:17:12,428 --> 01:17:14,530
My dad was never
really a shark fisherman.

1633
01:17:14,664 --> 01:17:16,632
I liked to fish,
so I would tie fishing line

1634
01:17:16,766 --> 01:17:18,702
on a can, go to the pier and
drop my can

1635
01:17:18,835 --> 01:17:21,537
with a gold hook through a hole,
catch little grunts.

1636
01:17:21,671 --> 01:17:23,606
And it was like,
I was hooked from then.

1637
01:17:23,740 --> 01:17:25,809
As soon as I could walk,
I was trying to fish.

1638
01:17:29,545 --> 01:17:32,148
My dad was pushing me
towards surfing and diving.

1639
01:17:32,281 --> 01:17:34,350
My mom would
take me out here and...

1640
01:17:34,483 --> 01:17:36,352
and just catching little grunts
out on the pier,

1641
01:17:36,485 --> 01:17:38,287
just started spreading man.

1642
01:17:38,421 --> 01:17:40,523
From there, I went to hanging
out with Rene

1643
01:17:40,656 --> 01:17:42,625
and Rene started bringing me along

1644
01:17:42,759 --> 01:17:44,794
and before you knew it,
I was just,

1645
01:17:44,928 --> 01:17:47,463
like, hooked with a passion
towards shark fishing.

1646
01:17:49,899 --> 01:17:51,868
ALBERT:
He was like a protege of Rene.

1647
01:17:52,001 --> 01:17:53,970
Rene would take him fishing
when he was a little kid.

1648
01:17:55,939 --> 01:17:57,907
Later on that
was like my teacher.

1649
01:17:58,041 --> 01:17:59,375
So I would go with him.

1650
01:17:59,508 --> 01:18:00,910
He'd pick me up out
of elementary

1651
01:18:01,044 --> 01:18:02,912
and I was going
to the Keys at eight,

1652
01:18:03,046 --> 01:18:05,381
nine years old,
camping out for four days.

1653
01:18:07,683 --> 01:18:10,019
So he had first hand as a child,

1654
01:18:10,153 --> 01:18:12,588
he had it like infused
into his being.

1655
01:18:12,722 --> 01:18:15,191
He saw all these things.
He was exposed to it.

1656
01:18:15,324 --> 01:18:18,361
So he had the training
to become the next generation.

1657
01:18:19,863 --> 01:18:22,098
First of all,
Rene had a great quality

1658
01:18:22,231 --> 01:18:24,033
of grabbing everybody
in the room's attention.

1659
01:18:24,167 --> 01:18:26,202
Like, he'd be telling a story,
and everybody on this pier

1660
01:18:26,335 --> 01:18:28,204
would be like, "Whoa,
what's that guy talking about?"

1661
01:18:28,337 --> 01:18:30,173
You know, his voice
would vibrate,

1662
01:18:30,306 --> 01:18:31,707
and he was, like,
real good at, like,

1663
01:18:31,841 --> 01:18:33,376
"Shannon! Come with me!

1664
01:18:33,509 --> 01:18:35,178
"We're going to get
the big hammer tonight.

1665
01:18:35,311 --> 01:18:37,313
So, like, you're hearing this,
you're a little kid.

1666
01:18:37,446 --> 01:18:39,415
You're like, "What? I want to go
get a big hammer.

1667
01:18:39,548 --> 01:18:41,217
"Let's do it," you know? So...

1668
01:18:42,351 --> 01:18:45,889
Just that guy,
man, his, his passion.

1669
01:18:46,022 --> 01:18:48,157
Just it rubbed off on you,

1670
01:18:48,291 --> 01:18:50,193
and that guy could tell you to
risk your life.

1671
01:18:50,326 --> 01:18:53,362
He'd have me risking
my life as a child

1672
01:18:53,496 --> 01:18:55,731
and it was just like, "Let's do
it, you know? Yeah, let's go."

1673
01:18:55,865 --> 01:18:58,034
And now you think today
and it's...

1674
01:18:58,167 --> 01:19:00,136
some of that stuff was crazy.

1675
01:19:04,107 --> 01:19:06,042
I remember

1676
01:19:06,175 --> 01:19:08,812
Rene on the boardwalk
would hook a big shark.

1677
01:19:09,112 --> 01:19:11,647
"Shannon hurry up,
here, get my wallet

1678
01:19:11,781 --> 01:19:14,450
"here's 75 cents
go call your dad.

1679
01:19:14,583 --> 01:19:16,786
"Go call Kevin. Hurry up.

1680
01:19:16,920 --> 01:19:18,654
"Call Calvin, get him out here
to the boardwalk now;

1681
01:19:18,788 --> 01:19:20,656
"we're tangled on a buoy."

1682
01:19:20,790 --> 01:19:23,059
And I remember in my head I'm
like, "Man, I'm ten years old.

1683
01:19:23,192 --> 01:19:25,728
I'm not fucking walking
through that park, man.

1684
01:19:25,862 --> 01:19:28,764
Because these people would
be sleeping in the pavilions.

1685
01:19:29,265 --> 01:19:32,368
You'd have like a gang of 25,
30 dudes

1686
01:19:32,501 --> 01:19:33,903
just hanging out, drinking,

1687
01:19:34,037 --> 01:19:35,771
wanting to mess with whatever
walks by.

1688
01:19:36,239 --> 01:19:37,874
So I remember
getting the change,

1689
01:19:38,007 --> 01:19:39,708
walking to the only payphone,

1690
01:19:39,843 --> 01:19:42,145
which was at the end of the--
the curving road

1691
01:19:42,278 --> 01:19:44,580
in, in South Point Park

1692
01:19:44,713 --> 01:19:46,950
and the innocence
of when you're, like, ten,

1693
01:19:47,083 --> 01:19:48,717
of the dark, of a noise.

1694
01:19:48,852 --> 01:19:50,719
I remember walking,
like, hearing noises

1695
01:19:50,854 --> 01:19:53,722
and being scared, looking to
the left, looking to the right,

1696
01:19:54,423 --> 01:19:58,627
and just seeing everything man,
seeing, seeing,

1697
01:19:58,761 --> 01:20:02,431
stabbings. Seeing people
get their heads kicked in.

1698
01:20:03,232 --> 01:20:04,633
It was, it was toxic man.

1699
01:20:04,767 --> 01:20:07,336
It was, it was
pretty gnarly back then.

1700
01:20:32,295 --> 01:20:35,798
I was literally born in the
South Beach housing projects.

1701
01:20:35,932 --> 01:20:37,433
Yeah, it was pretty rough.

1702
01:20:37,566 --> 01:20:39,969
It was pretty rough in the 80's,
80's and 90's.

1703
01:20:40,103 --> 01:20:42,005
A lot of gangs, a lot of drugs.

1704
01:20:42,138 --> 01:20:46,709
Even though you read a magazine
and you see the TV,

1705
01:20:46,842 --> 01:20:49,712
"Oh South Beach, you know,
beautiful Miami Beach,"

1706
01:20:49,845 --> 01:20:53,549
you know, and it's, like,
not what you're reading.

1707
01:20:53,682 --> 01:20:55,451
There's some
wild stuff going on.

1708
01:20:55,584 --> 01:20:57,453
Fifth Street, lots of crack,

1709
01:20:57,586 --> 01:21:00,223
lots of prostitution on
Washington Ave.

1710
01:21:00,356 --> 01:21:02,125
The Mariel layovers,

1711
01:21:02,258 --> 01:21:04,693
walking around the park,
talking to themselves.

1712
01:21:04,827 --> 01:21:07,830
Lots of stabbings,
lots of bottle fights.

1713
01:21:07,964 --> 01:21:11,800
Fishing at night, you'd have to
be with your head on a swivel.

1714
01:21:12,401 --> 01:21:13,502
It was a wild time.

1715
01:21:13,636 --> 01:21:14,770
Wild West.

1716
01:21:16,839 --> 01:21:18,942
South Florida's most wanted gang
at the time

1717
01:21:19,075 --> 01:21:21,377
is the South Beach Posse.

1718
01:21:22,145 --> 01:21:24,948
From 15th Street
down to the pier,

1719
01:21:25,081 --> 01:21:28,184
you have, you know, a hundred
of the worst gang members

1720
01:21:28,317 --> 01:21:30,686
in South Florida at the time.

1721
01:21:30,819 --> 01:21:33,722
My first encounters
was in our apartments,

1722
01:21:33,856 --> 01:21:35,491
on our apartments
on South Beach.

1723
01:21:35,624 --> 01:21:37,994
So, this block Third and
Meridian was just infested

1724
01:21:38,127 --> 01:21:41,897
with all of the gang members,
all of the South Beach Posse.

1725
01:21:42,031 --> 01:21:44,167
Young kids,
older kids, leaders.

1726
01:21:44,300 --> 01:21:47,003
Like clockwork,
every Saturday night.

1727
01:21:47,136 --> 01:21:48,771
So all these dudes
are all hanging out.

1728
01:21:48,904 --> 01:21:50,739
This is their block.
They live there.

1729
01:21:50,873 --> 01:21:53,376
So these dudes from Hialeah come
to the park, before you know it,

1730
01:21:53,509 --> 01:21:56,179
you just start
hearing bottles break.

1731
01:21:56,312 --> 01:21:57,880
Bottles breaking. Screaming.

1732
01:21:58,982 --> 01:22:01,617
I would have anxiety as a kid
just worrying about my dad

1733
01:22:01,750 --> 01:22:03,552
getting into it with these guys

1734
01:22:03,686 --> 01:22:05,721
and the whole time there,
I'm just like frantic like,

1735
01:22:05,854 --> 01:22:07,756
"Oh my God, they're going
to kill my dad,

1736
01:22:07,890 --> 01:22:09,558
"they're going to burn
our house.

1737
01:22:09,692 --> 01:22:11,494
"They're going to come
back and shoot our house.

1738
01:22:11,627 --> 01:22:14,597
My first encounter that little
was-- I was scared shitless.

1739
01:22:14,730 --> 01:22:16,799
In different ages it
meant different things to me,

1740
01:22:16,932 --> 01:22:19,235
when I'm seven, eight years old,
it's like big fear.

1741
01:22:20,703 --> 01:22:22,605
REPORTER:
Gunfire shatters the quiet

1742
01:22:22,738 --> 01:22:24,840
of yet another
South Florida neighborhood.

1743
01:22:24,974 --> 01:22:28,411
Welcome to South Florida's
teenage war zone.

1744
01:22:28,544 --> 01:22:30,279
Not a place for tourists.

1745
01:22:30,413 --> 01:22:32,681
WOMAN: Here are kids
who came out of families

1746
01:22:32,815 --> 01:22:35,251
who went into
a substitute family

1747
01:22:35,384 --> 01:22:37,753
that is so strict and so harsh

1748
01:22:37,886 --> 01:22:39,788
and does not tolerate very much,

1749
01:22:39,922 --> 01:22:43,626
which tells you something; that
kids want a sense of direction.

1750
01:22:43,759 --> 01:22:45,328
They need nurturing.

1751
01:22:45,461 --> 01:22:47,163
They need to
belong to something.

1752
01:22:47,296 --> 01:22:49,999
I actually didn't fully
escape from that lifestyle.

1753
01:22:51,267 --> 01:22:55,671
My mom died when I was 14,
and then I did--

1754
01:22:55,804 --> 01:23:00,009
I fell into it because then my
best friends were coincidentally

1755
01:23:00,143 --> 01:23:02,011
some of the worst ones
for our age

1756
01:23:02,145 --> 01:23:04,480
that just really sucked me in
real quick.

1757
01:23:04,613 --> 01:23:08,151
And then three years later,
I'm 17 and my dad dies.

1758
01:23:09,018 --> 01:23:13,489
So for a good portion of
my life of my childhood,

1759
01:23:13,622 --> 01:23:15,558
I was I was entrenched
in all of it,

1760
01:23:15,691 --> 01:23:18,161
in some really,
really gnarly stuff.

1761
01:23:18,294 --> 01:23:21,964
Some stuff I'm--
I'm even ashamed

1762
01:23:22,098 --> 01:23:24,667
to talk about, some crazy--
some crazy things

1763
01:23:24,800 --> 01:23:27,170
I've done and seen.

1764
01:23:28,104 --> 01:23:30,873
There was two things.
There was a bank robbery.

1765
01:23:31,006 --> 01:23:32,541
REPORTER:
Two armed men in ski masks

1766
01:23:32,675 --> 01:23:34,177
robbed the Republic
National Bank.

1767
01:23:34,310 --> 01:23:36,312
And then there was a
shooting on 71st Street.

1768
01:23:36,445 --> 01:23:39,315
Where they, they shot some kid.
I think they killed him.

1769
01:23:39,448 --> 01:23:41,850
And from there they were like
South Florida's most wanted.

1770
01:23:41,984 --> 01:23:43,386
Everywhere we went,
everywhere we went,

1771
01:23:43,519 --> 01:23:45,354
to play football, to go fishing.

1772
01:23:45,488 --> 01:23:47,623
There was people taking pictures
of everything and nobody knew.

1773
01:23:47,756 --> 01:23:49,625
It was like, what the fuck
are these people

1774
01:23:49,758 --> 01:23:51,627
taking pictures for? Pictures.
Pictures, pictures, pictures.

1775
01:23:51,760 --> 01:23:53,162
They shot pictures forever.

1776
01:23:53,296 --> 01:23:54,330
You'd be jumping off the pier.

1777
01:23:54,463 --> 01:23:55,664
Pictures.

1778
01:23:56,632 --> 01:23:58,467
Like what the fuck?
We paparazzi?

1779
01:23:58,601 --> 01:24:00,503
You know,
these dudes are paparazzi?

1780
01:24:00,636 --> 01:24:02,905
And in one,
in one shot just threw a net.

1781
01:24:03,038 --> 01:24:04,907
And netted... Even
if you were just hanging out,

1782
01:24:05,040 --> 01:24:06,475
you know luckily,
I was too young

1783
01:24:06,609 --> 01:24:07,810
when that happened.

1784
01:24:07,943 --> 01:24:09,412
When the indictment happened,

1785
01:24:09,545 --> 01:24:11,347
they got them
on a huge racketeering,

1786
01:24:11,480 --> 01:24:13,616
like what they do for the Mafia.
Front page articles.

1787
01:24:13,749 --> 01:24:15,884
86 gang members arrested.

1788
01:24:16,018 --> 01:24:18,554
South Beach Posse,
RICO Act, racketeering.

1789
01:24:18,687 --> 01:24:20,956
Penned up everybody,
they put a net around everybody.

1790
01:24:21,090 --> 01:24:23,726
They were taking
pictures for years.

1791
01:24:25,394 --> 01:24:27,596
I just saw there was just
shit at the end of this road.

1792
01:24:27,730 --> 01:24:30,065
It was going to end bad.
It was going to end bad.

1793
01:24:30,199 --> 01:24:32,935
I was already doing
things out of my character.

1794
01:24:33,068 --> 01:24:35,704
I was already ashamed of things
I was doing to people.

1795
01:24:35,838 --> 01:24:37,573
You know, like I told you,
my mom raised me

1796
01:24:37,706 --> 01:24:39,308
with a lot of love.

1797
01:24:39,442 --> 01:24:41,710
So when I saw it all crumbling,
you know,

1798
01:24:42,678 --> 01:24:44,547
my best friend got deported,

1799
01:24:44,680 --> 01:24:46,582
my other best
friend got murdered.

1800
01:24:46,715 --> 01:24:48,184
All my friends are in jail.

1801
01:24:48,317 --> 01:24:50,085
All my other friends
are smoking crack,

1802
01:24:50,219 --> 01:24:52,288
you know, 18 years old,
hooked on crack.

1803
01:24:52,421 --> 01:24:54,457
You know, I'm like, this is,
this is not...

1804
01:24:54,590 --> 01:24:57,426
This is going to end bad.
I need to get out of this shit.

1805
01:25:32,295 --> 01:25:34,597
If your mom and
your dad are your rock,

1806
01:25:34,730 --> 01:25:36,865
once they're dead,
it's basically either, okay,

1807
01:25:36,999 --> 01:25:40,169
let's just keep on nosediving
or how much do you love life.

1808
01:25:41,136 --> 01:25:42,905
If you don't have some luck
or you don't have

1809
01:25:43,038 --> 01:25:44,473
some good guidance, like,

1810
01:25:44,607 --> 01:25:46,242
there was all
that bad stuff going on

1811
01:25:46,375 --> 01:25:47,976
but you had,
you had the Hammers,

1812
01:25:48,110 --> 01:25:50,813
you had the Renes
who were taking you fishing,

1813
01:25:50,946 --> 01:25:52,415
keeping you away from that.

1814
01:25:52,548 --> 01:25:54,750
That's your,
your way out of that.

1815
01:25:58,086 --> 01:26:01,190
Yeah Shannon was a,
hung around very tight

1816
01:26:01,324 --> 01:26:03,526
with Rene,
at the very end of Rene's life.

1817
01:26:04,460 --> 01:26:05,961
You know he died really fast.

1818
01:26:06,094 --> 01:26:09,031
He died abrupt, abruptly.
He died suddenly.

1819
01:26:09,164 --> 01:26:10,433
It was unexpected.

1820
01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:14,136
REPORTER: This would not
be Rene de Dios' day.

1821
01:26:14,270 --> 01:26:16,372
This head is
all that was left

1822
01:26:16,505 --> 01:26:19,242
of the 14 foot hammerhead that
would have won the tournament.

1823
01:26:19,675 --> 01:26:22,678
Rene hooked it,
but lost it to a bigger shark.

1824
01:26:23,946 --> 01:26:26,014
You know Rene was like I said,
Rene you know

1825
01:26:26,649 --> 01:26:28,351
he never took care of himself.

1826
01:26:28,484 --> 01:26:29,985
Be on that bridge all day
in that sun,

1827
01:26:30,118 --> 01:26:31,720
that thing will kill you,
that sun.

1828
01:26:31,854 --> 01:26:33,656
I used to tell him,
"Rene, what are you doing?"

1829
01:26:33,789 --> 01:26:35,824
Well, you know-- "No Luis,
I have to catch the big one."

1830
01:26:35,958 --> 01:26:37,760
"What do you mean?"
"I'm here catching

1831
01:26:37,893 --> 01:26:39,928
"the big one Luis. I'm looking
for..." You know, that was Rene.

1832
01:26:40,062 --> 01:26:41,564
He likes to be there.
He doesn't care.

1833
01:26:41,697 --> 01:26:43,031
The only thing he cares about,
that shark.

1834
01:26:43,165 --> 01:26:44,600
That was his lifestyle.

1835
01:26:44,733 --> 01:26:46,302
He just wanted to be
out there shark fishing.

1836
01:26:46,435 --> 01:26:47,903
He didn't care about his health.

1837
01:26:48,036 --> 01:26:50,005
He didn't care
about anything else.

1838
01:26:50,138 --> 01:26:51,540
There you go.

1839
01:26:51,674 --> 01:26:52,975
He's on, baby!

1840
01:26:53,108 --> 01:26:54,910
He hit the one on top.

1841
01:26:55,043 --> 01:26:57,313
I knew it,
he hit the bottle man.

1842
01:26:57,446 --> 01:26:59,415
REPORTER:
But just seconds later...

1843
01:26:59,548 --> 01:27:02,017
The ledge man, the ledge,
I knew it.

1844
01:27:02,150 --> 01:27:05,488
REPORTER: Rene, who lives to
hunt the shark was crushed.

1845
01:27:05,621 --> 01:27:09,157
Try as he may, his face couldn't
hide the disappointment.

1846
01:27:10,225 --> 01:27:11,727
Him and Jimbo
went down to the Keys.

1847
01:27:11,860 --> 01:27:13,362
They went shark fishing.

1848
01:27:13,496 --> 01:27:16,599
Rene had a minor stroke,
Jimbo noticed it.

1849
01:27:16,732 --> 01:27:19,602
Jimbo, I think, stood
with him at the hospital.

1850
01:27:19,735 --> 01:27:21,103
He says he wanted
to go back fishing.

1851
01:27:21,236 --> 01:27:22,871
He didn't want to
be in the hospital.

1852
01:27:23,005 --> 01:27:24,940
So Jimbo went back to
the Keys with him fishing.

1853
01:27:25,073 --> 01:27:26,409
And he should have been,
you know,

1854
01:27:26,542 --> 01:27:27,743
he should have been
in a hospital,

1855
01:27:27,876 --> 01:27:29,445
but he wanted one more shark,

1856
01:27:29,578 --> 01:27:31,314
he wanted to catch one more shark,

1857
01:27:31,447 --> 01:27:34,249
told Hammer and Hammer,
took him to Seven Mile Bridge,

1858
01:27:34,383 --> 01:27:36,218
caught him his last shark
before he died.

1859
01:27:36,352 --> 01:27:37,886
I think he died
shortly after that.

1860
01:27:39,355 --> 01:27:41,290
Rene was very competitive.

1861
01:27:41,424 --> 01:27:43,091
He was always number one.

1862
01:27:44,460 --> 01:27:45,928
He died being number one.

1863
01:27:47,730 --> 01:27:50,265
Believe it or not,
he was one of my young kids

1864
01:27:50,399 --> 01:27:52,801
that I brought up, that became

1865
01:27:53,536 --> 01:27:56,405
one of the best shark
fishermen in the United States.

1866
01:27:57,673 --> 01:28:01,910
He proved it every day,
but he died proving it.

1867
01:28:25,233 --> 01:28:27,202
INTERVIEWER: Can you tell me
where that nickname comes from?

1868
01:28:27,336 --> 01:28:30,105
From Hammer. You know which one
I'm talking about?

1869
01:28:30,238 --> 01:28:31,340
- SHANNON: Jimbo?
- INTERVIEWER: Not that.

1870
01:28:31,474 --> 01:28:32,975
The old man.

1871
01:28:33,108 --> 01:28:35,043
SHANNON: The old man.
The old man. Yeah, I do.

1872
01:28:35,177 --> 01:28:36,945
I know exactly
where it came from.

1873
01:28:38,747 --> 01:28:41,850
The old man.
Because this is how it goes.

1874
01:28:41,984 --> 01:28:46,288
Rene was the ultimate contender,
the number one.

1875
01:28:46,422 --> 01:28:48,357
"I'm going to let
you know I'm the best.

1876
01:28:48,491 --> 01:28:51,159
"Everybody's attention.
In the newspapers.

1877
01:28:51,293 --> 01:28:52,761
"Everywhere, everywhere.

1878
01:28:52,895 --> 01:28:54,797
"I'm number one."

1879
01:28:55,631 --> 01:28:58,434
Even though Rene,
competitively speaking,

1880
01:28:58,567 --> 01:29:01,336
like for tournaments,
for world records,

1881
01:29:01,470 --> 01:29:04,973
what have you, if you would put
those two against each other,

1882
01:29:05,107 --> 01:29:06,975
Rene's probably
going to win, you know,

1883
01:29:07,109 --> 01:29:09,678
nine out of ten tournaments,
nine out of ten competitions.

1884
01:29:09,812 --> 01:29:11,714
Rene's going to
figure out a way to beat him.

1885
01:29:13,582 --> 01:29:15,684
So many people only
know Rene as the best.

1886
01:29:15,818 --> 01:29:19,855
However, on the flip side, Rene
had such a respect for Hammer.

1887
01:29:19,988 --> 01:29:22,357
He had more respect for
Hammer than any other man.

1888
01:29:22,491 --> 01:29:24,727
That was his number one.

1889
01:29:24,860 --> 01:29:26,228
Just the respect.

1890
01:29:26,361 --> 01:29:27,863
It's almost like, you know,

1891
01:29:27,996 --> 01:29:29,765
you're the old man,
you're the originator,

1892
01:29:29,898 --> 01:29:32,367
you're the--
the old Kahuna, you know.

1893
01:29:32,501 --> 01:29:34,169
He knows when the
fish are going to bite.

1894
01:29:34,302 --> 01:29:35,738
He knows where the fish
are going.

1895
01:29:35,871 --> 01:29:37,372
He knows where they're going
to be next week.

1896
01:29:37,506 --> 01:29:39,442
Rene was good like that,
but Jimbo off land,

1897
01:29:40,409 --> 01:29:42,778
nobody could touch Jimbo.

1898
01:29:44,847 --> 01:29:46,582
MAN: With JD,
his success is just that

1899
01:29:46,715 --> 01:29:48,751
he didn't get stressed out
about anything.

1900
01:29:49,752 --> 01:29:51,454
He was just there for the moment

1901
01:29:51,587 --> 01:29:53,822
and he just did his thing
and it fell together.

1902
01:29:53,956 --> 01:29:56,158
And if it didn't, it didn't.

1903
01:29:58,393 --> 01:30:01,564
Even today, when you look
at JD Hammer, it's his life.

1904
01:30:02,197 --> 01:30:03,699
He doesn't care
about anything else

1905
01:30:03,832 --> 01:30:05,734
that's really
important to other people.

1906
01:30:05,868 --> 01:30:07,703
He just wants to fish.

1907
01:30:07,836 --> 01:30:10,773
And so that is the epitome
of the obsession of the fishing

1908
01:30:11,339 --> 01:30:13,542
and what the ocean
life does to a person.

1909
01:30:14,743 --> 01:30:16,545
The thing is, as you get older,

1910
01:30:16,679 --> 01:30:18,681
you drop out, you know, people
drop out of skateboarding,

1911
01:30:18,814 --> 01:30:20,916
people drop out of
surfing in their 20's, 30's.

1912
01:30:22,250 --> 01:30:25,588
But when you see surfers out
there in their 40's, 50's, 60's,

1913
01:30:25,721 --> 01:30:28,056
You have to admire that.
When you got J.D.

1914
01:30:28,190 --> 01:30:31,126
who's probably in his 60's
still shark fishing,

1915
01:30:31,259 --> 01:30:33,428
hardcore, dedicated,

1916
01:30:33,562 --> 01:30:36,965
very much applied for
the love of shark fishing.

1917
01:30:37,099 --> 01:30:39,602
Yeah you have to
admire that dedication.

1918
01:30:41,036 --> 01:30:42,971
You know, you have to.

1919
01:30:43,438 --> 01:30:45,641
There's no ego in JD.

1920
01:30:45,774 --> 01:30:48,276
JD's like full of humility, man.

1921
01:30:48,410 --> 01:30:51,113
JD Hammer is a soul fisherman

1922
01:30:51,246 --> 01:30:54,082
and I'm sure he is still today.

1923
01:31:01,289 --> 01:31:04,059
As far as legends go, it's just,
you know,

1924
01:31:04,192 --> 01:31:06,995
I think my legend is longevity.

1925
01:31:08,130 --> 01:31:10,499
You got to say that,
here I am almost 70.

1926
01:31:10,633 --> 01:31:12,300
I'm still here.

1927
01:31:12,434 --> 01:31:16,739
And my next legend is teaching
young kids like Shannon,

1928
01:31:16,872 --> 01:31:20,743
like my sons,
like their friends, how to fish.

1929
01:31:20,876 --> 01:31:24,680
And keeping them out of trouble.
Doesn't always work, you know.

1930
01:31:24,813 --> 01:31:26,649
But that makes me happy.

1931
01:31:28,250 --> 01:31:30,786
And yeah,
I told you that before, right?

1932
01:31:30,919 --> 01:31:32,821
I don't care. It's not about me.

1933
01:31:36,324 --> 01:31:38,827
The one that bit Papi.
Remember this?

1934
01:31:39,261 --> 01:31:40,629
Remember the one that bit me
real quick

1935
01:31:40,763 --> 01:31:42,531
and I was bleeding everywhere.

1936
01:31:42,665 --> 01:31:44,399
So those sharks,
when they migrate,

1937
01:31:44,533 --> 01:31:47,670
are in the water by the
thousands, Dante.

1938
01:31:47,803 --> 01:31:50,205
I'm talking everywhere you look.

1939
01:31:50,338 --> 01:31:52,174
When, before we
kayak out the bait.

1940
01:31:52,307 --> 01:31:54,509
You see fins
swimming by the beach.

1941
01:31:55,978 --> 01:31:58,513
Oh, this scares me
just talking about it.

1942
01:32:02,084 --> 01:32:04,553
The wind's howling.

1943
01:32:05,621 --> 01:32:10,325
Waves are getting bigger,
crashing on the shore.

1944
01:32:11,694 --> 01:32:13,395
So, Papi gets in the kayak

1945
01:32:14,630 --> 01:32:15,798
and I start taking off.

1946
01:32:15,931 --> 01:32:17,465
I start kayaking out.

1947
01:32:17,600 --> 01:32:19,167
I start getting far.

1948
01:32:19,301 --> 01:32:21,704
And I know this
is the last bait,

1949
01:32:21,837 --> 01:32:25,307
we want to go way
out for the big boy.

1950
01:32:26,942 --> 01:32:28,677
I keep going further.
I start looking back

1951
01:32:29,411 --> 01:32:30,579
and I'm looking for Hammer.

1952
01:32:30,713 --> 01:32:31,714
I don't see any more light.

1953
01:32:31,847 --> 01:32:33,749
I don't see Hammer.

1954
01:32:34,917 --> 01:32:37,586
But then it happened.

1955
01:32:59,474 --> 01:33:03,946
This man has steered
so many troublesome teens

1956
01:33:04,079 --> 01:33:07,082
into fishing
and changed their lives.

1957
01:33:07,215 --> 01:33:09,952
I'm talking it's in the
hundreds, beyond the hundreds.

1958
01:33:10,085 --> 01:33:12,788
- I was one of them.
- And Rene was one of them.

1959
01:33:12,921 --> 01:33:14,723
JD Hammer's the one
who actually put me

1960
01:33:14,857 --> 01:33:16,925
into the second level of fishing.

1961
01:33:17,059 --> 01:33:20,095
You know, I looked up to JD and
Rene and some of the older guys.

1962
01:33:20,228 --> 01:33:22,965
JD Hammer is
another father to me.

1963
01:33:25,033 --> 01:33:27,770
Here's a young kid,
he stays out of trouble

1964
01:33:27,903 --> 01:33:31,640
because he's always preparing
to be a shark fisherman.

1965
01:33:31,774 --> 01:33:35,243
You just ain't got time
to go out and be a bad person.

1966
01:33:35,377 --> 01:33:38,013
It teaches them in the best way
that I know

1967
01:33:38,146 --> 01:33:40,816
to stay out of trouble
is to fish.

1968
01:33:45,553 --> 01:33:47,022
It could steer a kid for me,

1969
01:33:47,155 --> 01:33:49,024
I wanted to do a bunch
of bad stuff

1970
01:33:49,157 --> 01:33:52,294
right after my dad died. I was
thinking nothing but negative.

1971
01:33:52,427 --> 01:33:54,763
And before you knew it,
I was-- I had no time.

1972
01:33:54,897 --> 01:33:56,865
I was like, man,
I want to go fishing with Jimbo,

1973
01:33:56,999 --> 01:33:58,500
you know, I want to go fishing.

1974
01:33:58,633 --> 01:34:00,335
Forget all this dumb shit.

1975
01:34:00,468 --> 01:34:02,304
Shannon was like one of my sons.

1976
01:34:03,939 --> 01:34:05,440
When his dad passed away.

1977
01:34:05,573 --> 01:34:07,075
It was every week Shannon.

1978
01:34:07,209 --> 01:34:09,444
I'd go to the beach,
pick him up, let's go.

1979
01:34:10,145 --> 01:34:14,149
And he was like
a brother to my kids.

1980
01:34:14,282 --> 01:34:17,953
I have three boys, and
Shannon became the fourth one.

1981
01:34:18,553 --> 01:34:19,755
That's all.

1982
01:34:21,623 --> 01:34:23,191
One of the first times
he took me fishing,

1983
01:34:23,325 --> 01:34:24,827
he had a brand new
West Palm Beach rod.

1984
01:34:24,960 --> 01:34:26,628
Beautiful.

1985
01:34:26,762 --> 01:34:29,264
And he's like, "Shannon,
come on, come with me partner.

1986
01:34:29,397 --> 01:34:31,599
"I'll get you a cuda.
I promise. Come on."

1987
01:34:32,701 --> 01:34:36,171
And just holding on,
scraping this man's rod up

1988
01:34:36,304 --> 01:34:37,639
and he didn't even flinch.

1989
01:34:37,773 --> 01:34:40,342
Just like,
let me scrape up his rod.

1990
01:34:40,475 --> 01:34:41,877
Gaffed my cuda, brought it up

1991
01:34:42,010 --> 01:34:43,645
and he's like,
"You did it," you know.

1992
01:34:43,779 --> 01:34:46,048
And I remember just instantly,

1993
01:34:46,648 --> 01:34:48,183
instantly knowing
this guy's different

1994
01:34:48,316 --> 01:34:49,718
than, than other teachers.

1995
01:34:49,852 --> 01:34:51,854
This guy's
different than my own dad.

1996
01:34:51,987 --> 01:34:53,255
This was a lot of fun.

1997
01:34:56,324 --> 01:34:57,592
That type of influence,

1998
01:34:58,226 --> 01:35:00,328
letting a kid be free
and at all costs,

1999
01:35:00,462 --> 01:35:02,765
even the cost of your own rod.

2000
01:35:02,898 --> 01:35:04,867
Was really special to me.

2001
01:35:06,134 --> 01:35:08,904
I wish I could be
a lot more like him sometimes.

2002
01:35:09,037 --> 01:35:12,574
Everybody knows
this guy owned life

2003
01:35:12,707 --> 01:35:14,242
Does he have materialistics
to show for?

2004
01:35:14,376 --> 01:35:15,978
No, he doesn't have that.

2005
01:35:16,111 --> 01:35:18,413
But did you see as
many sunsets as he saw?

2006
01:35:18,546 --> 01:35:21,183
See the stars, see the galaxy?
Shooting stars.

2007
01:35:21,316 --> 01:35:23,852
Were you out on the fresh
breeze as many nights

2008
01:35:23,986 --> 01:35:26,088
as this guy was just free?

2009
01:35:27,555 --> 01:35:30,092
What were you doing when
he was enjoying all of this?

2010
01:35:30,225 --> 01:35:33,896
Catching fish, eating his
own catch every day of his life,

2011
01:35:34,029 --> 01:35:35,798
hooking monster sharks,

2012
01:35:35,931 --> 01:35:38,533
seeing everything you can
imagine out on the water.

2013
01:35:38,666 --> 01:35:42,304
I know in my heart,
when his time comes,

2014
01:35:42,437 --> 01:35:45,307
it's like, I don't think there's
going to be a lot of crying.

2015
01:35:46,074 --> 01:35:49,277
I admire him,
he's a role model to me.

2016
01:36:25,013 --> 01:36:27,582
Some of the kids
I'm very proud of,

2017
01:36:27,715 --> 01:36:30,552
that they become excellent,
shark fishermen.

2018
01:36:30,685 --> 01:36:32,821
I'm not going to say
that I taught them

2019
01:36:32,955 --> 01:36:35,390
because there's something
in here.

2020
01:36:35,523 --> 01:36:38,793
They are better
than the teachers

2021
01:36:38,927 --> 01:36:41,596
and it's all
because what's in here,

2022
01:36:41,729 --> 01:36:44,499
it has nothing to do
with what I taught them.

2023
01:36:49,838 --> 01:36:52,140
I think any kid
that's exposed to the water

2024
01:36:52,274 --> 01:36:54,376
carries that in his blood
for life.

2025
01:36:54,509 --> 01:36:57,045
It's something that sticks
with you, it doesn't leave you.

2026
01:36:57,179 --> 01:36:59,381
It's part of who we become

2027
01:36:59,514 --> 01:37:01,316
when you're exposed
to that young.

2028
01:37:04,419 --> 01:37:06,388
Yeah, I'm so thankful that
I moved towards the ocean.

2029
01:37:06,521 --> 01:37:08,957
It's the best thing I
think anyone can do for kids.

2030
01:37:09,624 --> 01:37:12,928
We felt we were all very
privileged to be near the ocean.

2031
01:37:13,061 --> 01:37:14,762
I mean, you can grow up
in a city

2032
01:37:14,897 --> 01:37:16,464
and you can grow up
in an environment

2033
01:37:16,598 --> 01:37:19,201
which is not very
conducive to behavior,

2034
01:37:20,168 --> 01:37:22,304
you know, which is not conducive

2035
01:37:22,437 --> 01:37:24,706
to good character building,
good personality building.

2036
01:37:25,273 --> 01:37:27,009
But when you're in,
near the ocean,

2037
01:37:27,142 --> 01:37:28,676
it's a very safe environment.

2038
01:37:30,645 --> 01:37:33,982
The ocean was a magnet
that drew many people

2039
01:37:35,450 --> 01:37:37,152
to South Beach.

2040
01:37:38,853 --> 01:37:41,823
My son, he dies
to go fishing with me.

2041
01:37:41,957 --> 01:37:44,993
He loves tagging along with me,
like taking out baits

2042
01:37:45,127 --> 01:37:46,594
the whole nine yards.

2043
01:37:48,496 --> 01:37:50,165
The times are changing,

2044
01:37:50,298 --> 01:37:52,834
a lot of us have followed suit
with conservation.

2045
01:37:54,236 --> 01:37:56,104
Every shark I catch,

2046
01:37:56,238 --> 01:37:58,840
I try my best to get the hooks
out fast and release it now.

2047
01:37:58,974 --> 01:38:00,542
It means so much
that I really want him

2048
01:38:00,675 --> 01:38:02,344
to be able to shark fish.

2049
01:38:02,477 --> 01:38:04,546
I want my son and be
able to kayak out shark baits.

2050
01:38:04,679 --> 01:38:07,415
And there be some sharks where
I caught sharks, on Miami Beach.

2051
01:38:11,386 --> 01:38:16,358
When you ask me about
fishing and the love of it,

2052
01:38:17,059 --> 01:38:20,595
fishing is just
not about killing fish.

2053
01:38:20,728 --> 01:38:25,700
You have a passion about it that
you want to share with others.

2054
01:38:25,833 --> 01:38:28,070
In the beginning,

2055
01:38:28,670 --> 01:38:30,838
perhaps somebody
might point a finger

2056
01:38:30,973 --> 01:38:33,741
and say, "Well you guys were
killing a bunch of sharks,

2057
01:38:33,875 --> 01:38:35,610
"and that shouldn't
have been done."

2058
01:38:35,743 --> 01:38:39,847
Perhaps we were not as
knowledgeable in the beginning

2059
01:38:39,982 --> 01:38:42,284
as we all were towards the end.

2060
01:38:42,784 --> 01:38:44,052
We've changed completely.

2061
01:38:44,186 --> 01:38:46,721
We turned around 100%.

2062
01:38:46,854 --> 01:38:49,958
Every one of my
sharks now are cut loose.

2063
01:38:50,558 --> 01:38:54,562
I was probably one of the
first guys years ago, '91, '92,

2064
01:38:55,530 --> 01:38:57,732
and we would cut
them off and let them go.

2065
01:38:57,865 --> 01:38:59,301
People change, man.

2066
01:38:59,434 --> 01:39:02,604
You mature, you--
you research, you learn.

2067
01:39:02,737 --> 01:39:06,441
And you could be different
than you were five years ago.

2068
01:39:06,574 --> 01:39:08,143
Ten years ago.

2069
01:39:14,449 --> 01:39:18,153
If I don't keep it alive, how
special it was to me and--

2070
01:39:18,686 --> 01:39:21,389
how beautiful it was the thing
that we had that I was taught

2071
01:39:21,523 --> 01:39:23,725
from by Rene, Hammer,
and all these guys,

2072
01:39:23,858 --> 01:39:25,927
then it's going to die out.
I'll never let it die.

2073
01:39:26,061 --> 01:39:28,930
My son will pass it on
to his kids and to me,

2074
01:39:29,064 --> 01:39:31,933
it's very dear in my heart.
The circle of friends we had,

2075
01:39:32,067 --> 01:39:33,601
I'll always keep
those memories alive

2076
01:39:33,735 --> 01:39:35,270
through photo
and through stories.

2077
01:39:35,403 --> 01:39:37,572
And my kid will pass it on too.

2078
01:40:18,813 --> 01:40:20,348
HAMMER: Look at this.

2079
01:40:20,482 --> 01:40:22,016
SHANNON: That's really--

2080
01:40:22,150 --> 01:40:24,052
more beautiful than I thought
when I was like,

2081
01:40:24,186 --> 01:40:26,354
"Oh, you guys are going to see
the sunset."

2082
01:40:26,488 --> 01:40:28,956
I was telling them,
it had to be here.

2083
01:40:29,091 --> 01:40:30,892
Like if they were
going to end it off,

2084
01:40:31,025 --> 01:40:33,228
if that was the end of the
film, it would be right here.

2085
01:40:33,361 --> 01:40:34,729
Definitely. Look how beautiful.

2086
01:40:34,862 --> 01:40:36,198
I mean, what
else could you ask for?

2087
01:40:36,331 --> 01:40:38,400
Remember the, um,
the-- the hammer

2088
01:40:38,533 --> 01:40:40,968
that you hooked that stripped
you out?

2089
01:40:41,103 --> 01:40:43,371
And then came back and
stripped you in and ran.

2090
01:40:43,505 --> 01:40:45,140
Ran inside?
Inside of the bridge.

2091
01:40:45,273 --> 01:40:46,708
How do you know, you were here?

2092
01:40:46,841 --> 01:40:48,676
Yeah, I was here,
but we were down from you.

2093
01:40:48,810 --> 01:40:50,545
Oh, you guys were
catching lemons right?

2094
01:40:50,678 --> 01:40:53,515
You were all defeated.
You were like, "Oh, I had him."

2095
01:40:53,648 --> 01:40:55,250
Can't catch them all partner.

2096
01:40:55,383 --> 01:40:58,620
You can't catch them all.
All we can do is try.

2097
01:40:59,921 --> 01:41:01,022
But look at that.

2098
01:41:01,156 --> 01:41:02,590
Oh, my Lord.

2099
01:41:04,359 --> 01:41:08,430
That is beautiful.