Gators don't attack skiers/wakeboarders...!!!!????

So, I lived in New Orleans for years and skied all the time on a river INFESTED with gators...never heard of or saw an attack...
I've never seen a posting or news article that ever CONFIRMED one and I live in Florida now ...same answer...gators don't attack riders..(runners,swimmers, people dangling feet off of dock - yes)...Can anyone Prove differently on an attack on a skier/rider? It's a little research project that I'm working on for a friend....thanks!

Not in FL, if you see a gator just use him like a slider, he'll go away. seriously though I've never heard of a gator attack on a rider.

i geus they are scared of the boat

they attack us all the time, we have to spray the boat with gator repellant

This is funny, Im from the midwest but Im currently vacationing in Florida.

While having a crew hook me up with a pull (thanks guys) I had the pleasure of doing an bs 180 ollie OVER a dead 7ft gator lol.

Briano, where did you live in new orleans. I lived in mid-city for 4 years. Now my family is in Slidell and I am in College Station, TX.

Gator's don't like people period. If they attack it's mating season or someone is feeding them. Also the attacks are always near the shoreline.

a few months ago, there were several incidents of gator attacks. i think snorkling and someone running on a sidewalk along a lake. don't fall near the shore during mating season. heard of a gator approaching someone near the shore, but the rider got up in time. but no attacks (that i can remember at least).

Alot of dumbazz tourist like to feed them to get pictures or what not. This causing them to associate food with humans.

Leo - I used to live by Tulane and we skied on the Chafunchta (sp) River where we kept the boat...a little north of the Causeway. We had a little gator that used to live under the boat but, he just wanted a pull I think....no attacks...he never brought any gas money so we didn't pull him....

I skied for years in Lake Washington which is part of the St. Johns river in Melbourne, Florida. Gators everywhere, many as large as 14'. Had a lot of gators that got brave or territorial, but the only real attack we had was one time I was driving a skier and he wiped out next to a baby gator that was only about a foot long. The gator charged him with his jaws chomping. I turned the boat around and ran over the gator just before he got to the skier. Since the gator was so small, it was super funny. I think the small ones are the most aggressive.

not a gator but I was waiting to get pulled a few weeks ago and a small fin appeared about 50-60 meters away from me. I heard the guys on the boat mention the word 'shark'and looked around but by then it had gone. I shouted to the guys if they had seen a shark and they just ignored me and pulled me up. They told me when I got back on the boat they had seen small fin belonging to a small shark. I have surfed in the canary islands for year and have never seen one where I go, although offshore is one of the biggest breading grounds for hammerheads. Not sure if I could relax enough to ollie a dead gator????? better than a live one though!!

This fellow decided to swim around my 10 year old daughter as she was trying to get up for the first run in the morning. The gator just looked around and swam off. My daughter was oblivious, and got up and rode away. After she was done riding we told her what we photographing, and she vowed not to ever ride again in that spot. We never knew Texas rivers had alligators.



Just after she began her ride, and before she know about the gator.

What river was that Flack?

MY god that is a huge gator!!!!!!! I bet people learning in this spot get to their feet pretty dam quick. NO letting go of the rope for no reason here!!!!!

That was the Trinity River just north of Lake Livingston near Huntsville, TX.

- so, eubanks - ready for that trip to the trinity?????

I used to be ready...NOT ANYMORE! I'll stick to the mellow 4 foot gar in the Brazos.

I called back east for some parts. This old guy answerd the phone. He was a hoot. It was when all the gator attacks were going on. We started talking about all the recent gator attacks. He said. Them Gators have the brain of a pea. They only see 2 things. Number #1 is they see other gators Number #2 is food and if you aint Number#1 they think you are Number#2 It was pretty funny. But back on subect it would be cool to see some study numbers in regaurds to gator attacks on people and what they were doing when they got attacked.

This guy could eat boat and rider if he wanted.
Gators leave you alone for the most part.
I grew up on a Fl. lake and I never had a run in with a gator I didnt mean to have. Lake Eloise is the lake Cypress Gardens has been on for 70yrs, the last gator census on Lk Eloise a few years ago, counted 220 gators. I only know of a couple of bites that have occurred there in the last 20yrs or so.

(Message edited by woreout on October 30, 2006)

My mama says that aligators are awnry because they have all those teeth and have no tooth brush to brush them with.

Somthins wrong with her medulla oblongata!

The jogger was either drunk or messed up on drugs if I recall.

The snorkeler was in the St. Johns. Probably one of the last places I would go to for a casual swim.

Billy, do you know where that picture is from? I think I remember seeing it in the Houston Chronicle a few years ago; found around Houston while a pipeline was being installed?

I swim and wakeboard in the st.johns almost everyday. I do see tons and tons of gators some up to 14 feet, but ive never had any encounters cause theyre always scared of the boat

do you swim in the evening, away from other people, without a boat?

I have wakeboarded there a few times too, and yes they are scared of the boats, but I wouldn't just up and go swimming there.

The St. Johns may not be the place for casual swimming, but it's awesome at night with a spotlight. Red eyes every 10 feet...

Go swimming at 6 mile Creek at night

Back in the day when you could get away with almost anything, a couple of slugs and a few 00 buck can free up some riding space. Problem was when they would float to the top the next day the whole creek would stink for weeks.

thats a dinosaur ^^^

id probably crap my board shorts if i saw a gator before getting up.

I use to ride a lake here in Florida before I started riding the chain that was infested with gators. Even all the fisherman would tell us we were crazy. I saw them all the time but they do not mess with you.

Clint...I think they found that monster when they were expanding the Convention Center in Orlando. It must have been feeding on cattle...?!

This lizard was caught last year...I think in Lake County:

Buck shot: $6.00
Spot light for night hunting: $40.00
12ga Shotgun: $300.00
Cutting the gator open and finding a Jetskier inside: PRICELESS

We cannot forget about this photo from a lake near you.

Who has the pic with the gator jumping out of the wake while the guy is riding? lol

I heard that manatees are the real problem in FL, they always hog the tabletop!

Now that's funny!

Manatees.....The other White Meat. YUMMM!!!

The Florida state record gator is only 14'5", nothing like the gators shown above. One of the guys who works in my building whose nickname is Gator, he's a professional gator hunter/trapper. He caught one 13'10" a few years ago. He has gotten as many as 35 gators in one night.

The answer is no, gators do not attack riders but a little gator fear adds some excitement to waiting for the boat to pick you up.

There were about 52 recorded deaths due to black bears between 1900 and 2003 and about 50 deaths due to brown bears.

Bears are winning 2 to 1.

FLORIDA ALLIGATOR ATTACKS FATAL
1. Sharon Holmes, 16, female, was attacked while swimming in Oscar Scherer State Park, Sarasota County, on Aug. 16, 1973 at dusk. The 11'3" healthy male alligator had been fed by visitors.
2. George Leonard, 52, male, was attacked while swimming in the Peace River Canal, Charlotte County, on Sept. 28, 1977 at 8:35 p.m. The 7-foot female alligator had appeared in the canal the day of the attack.
3. Phillip Rastrelli, 14, male, was attacked while swimming across the Hidden River Canal off Bessie Creek in Martin County on Sept. 10, 1978 at noon. The alligator was an 11-foot healthy male.
4. Robert Crespo, 11, male, was attacked while swimming in a canal in St. Lucie County on Aug. 6, 1984 at 4:30 p.m. The alligator was 12'4", aged and in poor health.
5. George Cummings III, 29, male, was attacked while snorkeling in the Wakulla River on July 13, 1987 at 2 p.m. The alligator was an 11-foot healthy male.
6. Erin Glover, 4, female, was attacked while walking along the shore of Hidden Lake, Charlotte County on June 4, 1988 at 6:10 p.m. The alligator was a 10'7" male.
7. Bradley Weidenhamer, 10, male, was attacked while wading in the Loxahatchee River at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County on June 19, 1993. The alligator was an 11'4" male.
8. Grace Eberhart, 70, female, was attacked at Lake Serenity in Sumter County on Oct. 3, 1993. The circumstances surrounding her death are unknown, but she died of a broken neck caused by an alligator bite to the throat and head. Several alligators may have been involved in the attack. The largest measured 9'7" long.
9. Adam Binford, 3, male, was attacked at Lake Ashby in Volusia County on March 21, 1997. The child strayed outside the roped-off swimming area in a county park to pick some lily pads when an 11-foot alligator attacked him. Splashing dogs in the area may have attracted the alligator. His body was recovered the next day about a mile from the site of the attack. A licensed trapper destroyed the gator.
10. Samuel Wetmore, 70, male, was attacked in a pond near his residence in Venice in Sarasota County. He was found on May 4, 2001, and the county medical examiner determined that he died from multiple repeated trauma and loss of blood. An 8'4" alligator was removed and destroyed.
11. Alexandria Murphy, 2, female, was attacked at Lake Cannon in Polk County on June 23, 2001. She wandered 700 feet from her fenced backyard where she had been playing when last seen by her mother. A 6'6" alligator was removed and destroyed.
12. Robert Steele, 82, was attacked near his house on Rabbit Road in Sanibel on September 11, 2001. Steele was walking his terrier on a narrow path that ran between two wetland areas close to JM "Ding Darling" National Wildlife Refuge when a 10'9" gator attacked him and dragged him into the water severing his leg. FWC officers destroyed the gator. Another six-foot alligator was also removed.
13. Brian Griffin, 12, male, was attacked while swimming near a boat ramp in the Dead River in Lake Countyon June 18, 2003. The male alligator that injured and drowned Griffin was 10’4” long and weighed 339 lbs. That alligator and several other large alligators were destroyed.
14. Janie Melsek, 54, female, was attacked while landscaping along Poinciana Circle, Sanibel on July 21, 2004. The alligator that attacked Melsek was 12’3” long and was removed and destroyed.
15. Michelle Reeves, 20, female, was attacked while swimming after midnight in a retention pond at the Lee Memorial Health Park in Lee County on September 26, 2004. Reeves was visiting the area during a college break. The male alligator that attacked her was 7’11”long. A trapper removed it.
16. Kevin Murray, 41, male, was attacked while swimming in a canal in Port Charlotte on July 15, 2005. The alligator that attacked him was 12’2” long and was removed and destroyed.

The gator being lifted by the back hoe was caught in Texas, I saw a story about it being caught of off Colonial in Orlando also and posted it on here and someone corrected me also. It was actually caught in Texas. There was an article about it somewhere.

The Florida Alligator Fatal Attacks report I think shows that there should be open season for gators over 7'. Is there is any reason to allow gators to grow over 7 feet (other than jet skiers)?

Gerald,

I don't think we should kill gators, just tell people not to swim where gators are.

One gator fatality every 2 years for the number of people in the water is nothing. Your odds of being killed by the neighborhood pitbull is much greater.

(Message edited by srock on November 01, 2006)

Gators love jet skis and tubes and they have a unique taste for knee boarders. The boat driving action known to many of us as a "powerturn" is actually like a dinner bell to the Florida gator and its nasty little cousin the water moccasin.

Ted, I wish that was true, it sure would make the lakes much nicer to ride in.

They love Snowbirds as well, the orange lifejackets around their necks and white sunblock on their noses attracts them.

"One gator fatality every two years is nothing"

Okay, that is just freakin scary. I'm sorry, but I'll take my chances here in Norcal. Maybe I can reassure myself by assuming some of the broken femur posts I keep seeing are the result of Florida gator bites and not crashes!

The scare tactic is working. I'm posting this on the jet skier's bulletin board and soon I'll have the lake all to myself. Haaaaaa!!

Thank goodness I live in NorCal. The only thing that we have seen in the river is a seal. That is an animal in the water that I can deal with! Say what you want about gators and riders but they have my respect and I will stick to waters where they do not like to live.

Last time I watched the Discovery Channel, seals were the favorite food of some of the oceans meanest critters. Hope one doesnt follow your seal into the Delta!!

I was surfing at Point Reyes 20 yrs ago when a sea lion popped up next to me. I wasn't sure what it was at the time but I knew it was alive and bigger than me. I about sheot myself. There is (was?) a sign on that beach that says it is the shark attack hotspot of the world.

I'd really rather not leave this world as a fish turd, or gator turd for that matter