Hunter meets
his match
When TV Gladiator Hunter, a newly qualified diver, was invited by Diver Magazine to join a shark-feeding party in the Bahamas, he didn't even flinch. But when he came face to face with an amorous dolphin, the combative action man positively melted. Here he shares his first kiss with the 190kg female who knocked him off his feet -
without the aid of a pugil stick.
Nicola Tyrrell was there to see the big softy drop his guard and yield to animal attraction.
Pictures by John Bantin
THE voice crackled over a mobile phone. "It sounds like a great idea, but do these sharks ever bite?"
"Only when they're angry," I replied.
"OK," the voice laughed, "gotta go. What time do I need to be at the airport?"
And so the deal was done. I was off to the Bahamas to witness a Gladiator pitch his might against a swarm of hungry sharks. Beefy blond Hunter, teen idol and master of the pugil stick on LWT's prime time show Gladiators, was raring to take up the Diver challenge - face to face with a gang of razor-toothed sharks, would his confident and competitive spirit remain buoyant, or would his nerve sink with him to the ocean depths?
What does it take to get behind the steely guard of a man who makes a living out of his physical strength?
Hunter, alias Yorkshire-born James Crossley, admits to being fiercely competitive; for him, losing is not an option. Indeed, he says he did not lose one event in the last series of Gladiators - the cult game show where contestants test their strength against a team of super-fit athletes. He appears unflappable, the kind of person who takes life in his stride, the kind who knows he can win - at least on his own territory.
Each series of the show is filmed over a four-week period, shooting two episodes a day, five days a week. This demands an intensive fitness regime. For ten weeks before filming begins in LWT's Birmingham studios, the 24-year-old hunk trains twice a day, either playing football, squash, weight-lifting, boxing or climbing.
He takes food supplements to build up his strength, including zinc, liquid liver, and protein power-snacks.
This is a man who has for years modelled himself on his childhood TV hero, The Incredible Hulk, and who is used to relying on his physical strength to pull him through. How would he feel if, for once, he couldn't rely on it?
On day one at Stuart Cove's Dive South Ocean, Nassau, the weather decided to join in the spirit of our challenge. Wind, cloud and choppy seas did little to help pre-shark-encounter nerves, and meant our Gladiator would be extra-prone to his Achilles heel, seasickness. These were not the kind of conditions his PADI Open Water instructor would have suggested for his first post-qualification dip in the open sea, but never mind - it added to the challenge.
It may have eased the pressure off Hunter a little to know that he would not, on this occasion, have to cope with the pressure of being recognised in public. A following of 7 million British fans apparently meant little in the Bahamas :
"What are you known for?" asked one of the dive centre staff.
"I used to be in Neighbours," he joked.
"Yes, of course you did, silly me!" was the reply. And off the person went, none the wiser.
On that note we headed for the ominously dark horizon. "This is not what I expected of the Bahamas," said an otherwise quiet Hunter, turning against the ocean spray as he swayed with the motion of the boat. We had been on the island less than 24 hours, we were wet and cold, surrounded by decapitated fish, and no one had so much as mentioned pina coladas by the hotel pool.
What Hunter did not know is that Caribbean reef sharks like the ones he was about to encounter were thought to be responsible for over 90 per cent of all shark attacks in the area. This, admittedly, amounted to no more than about half a dozen a year, usually involving spearfishermen trying to wrestle their catch away from a defiant shark, but still, it made you think.
The secret, said local shark hero Graham Cove, cousin of the centre's owner Stuart Cove and our feeder for the day, is to hide your fear. As the boat headed into the driving rain, he explained: "A shark will always choose to sink its teeth into a wounded fish rather than a human with a tank on his back."
These would have been comforting words had he not continued: "But I guess there's no guarantee that the shark will know the difference. These are dumb animals, you know..."
We kitted up and waited for further instructions. "Make your way over to the wreck beneath the boat," said Graham, easing his arms into a pair of long chainmail gloves. "I shall be feeding from the box. Don't reach out to touch the sharks. When they touch you, stay still and don't panic. When the feed is over, I will signal OK and you come up to the boat. Any questions?"
Looking over the side, we could see several large shapes sweeping under and around the boat. "You'd better go first," I urged Hunter, "just in case you need a bit of extra time getting down." And so, whether through sheer bravery or a bout of seasickness, he disappeared into the swell.
I followed swiftly behind, and as we sank to the bottom I could see Graham making his way over to the wreck with a box full of bait, and several large shapes were closing in.
By the time we reached Graham's side, he had settled himself on the rusty deck. He was holding the plastic box on a rope, with a long stick poised in the other hand.
"Gladiator, ready!" - the box was opened and feeding began.
Suddenly sharks were everywhere - and so was Hunter's head. Looking up, down, left, right, he was wide-eyed - with fascination or horror, it was hard to tell. Keeping his arms tight against his side, he shuffled a bit nearer to our shark man, who by now was getting into his stride, stroking and nudging the sharks like playful puppies.
Hunter was within arm's reach of the bait box. As one of the stockier sharks swooped in, hyper-extending its jaws to snatch a piece of flesh off the feeding stick, it brushed against the side of his head. The Gladiator flinched, but only slightly. Another came at him head-on and, in its haste to grab its food, bumped into the Gladiator's chest, flicked its tail fin and darted away.
Seconds later another shark pounced on the bait, missed its aim and clamped its jaws down on Graham's hand. With an easy shake of his wrist he disentangled himself and pushed it away.
Hunter looked over to where I was kneeling, out of harm's way. His eyes were like saucers, his head shaking in disbelief, but he was in control.
Twenty-five minutes later the bait was gone and the dive was over. "I thought that was you nudging me, " he gasped as we came to the surface. "What was I supposed to do if that shark bit me? Wouldn't we be safer in a suit of armour, or in a cage?"
So, had the sharks got the better of our 6ft 3in, 16-stone Gladiator, who likes to push cars around car parks in his spare time? "What I'm trained for is useless for this kind of thing, " he conceded. "It was strange to feel so powerless, and those sharks move so fast. You've got to give that man Graham respect."
But this, apparently, did not mean he was beaten. " It's a different kind of challenge from what I'm used to - I suppose it's more of a challenge of bottle. Yes, I was wary but not frightened to the point of thinking, Jesus-I've-got-to-get-out-of-here!
"I probably would have been up for feeding them myself if I had a chainmail suit on... and a longer stick."
Tempted as I was to take him up on such a marvellous idea, it was not to be. He would need a few more dives to get comfortable with the sharks before we could fairly step up our challenge, and time was short. Alas, we would have to save the chainmail scheme for another time.
Unlike some of the other Bahamian dive centres offering shark dives, the feeders at Stuart Cove's make a point of not wearing full chainmail suits, in an effort to dispel what they believe is an ill-deserved image of sharks as frenzied, man-eating beasts. "If we were to go down in full suits, what kind of message would that give people?" asks Graham.
So does this mean sharks are not dangerous, and is it wrong to be afraid? "I was terrified when I first started," said Graham, "but I learned that a shark's reaction to a diver is directly related to a diver's reaction to the shark. If you're consistent with your movements they should be really good."
Graham estimates that 30,000 divers have been taken on shark feeds in the 12 years that Stuart Cove's has been running the trips, and he says no guest has ever been bitten. He, however, has been dubbed the Bionic Man because he has been nipped so many times in the five years he has been feeding.
"It's nothing," he said. "It's not the teeth that hurt but the chainmail, and when a shark realises it has bitten you it will quickly let go - as long as you don't piss it off by trying to punch it on the nose."
He added: "More people are killed in a year by bee stings than sharks, but Hunter was right to be a little wary. I mean, I would be wary of him on land - he could beat the hell out of you if he wanted to!"
But, he insisted: "People should really be more concerned about dolphins. Now they are very intelligent and mischievous, and can be surprisingly aggressive."
SO dolphins it would be. If a Gladiator could not (as far as we knew) be fazed by the likes of Jaws on its home territory, perhaps we needed the cunning wiles of Flipper to get behind the strong-man's iron guard. To find out, we headed for the Underwater Explorer's Society (UNEXSO) in Freeport, Grand Bahama.
UNEXSO houses 14 dolphins in a nine-acre lagoon. The animals are trained to follow the centre's dive boats out to one of several shallow sites, where they interact with divers following cues from their trainers. It is the only place in the world where divers can come into direct contact with trained dolphins in the sea.
"Diving with dolphins is one thing I've always wanted to do," enthused Hunter, clearly excited by the prospect, if a little guarded - "Are they dangerous?"
Chris Allison, who runs the Dolphin Experience at UNEXSO, told us: "We want our dolphins to act as ambassadors, but they can be frisky, so divers do need to be experienced, and are obliged to sign waivers before they go out. "
And so we duly signed our lives away - "I understand that my body or my equipment may be bumped, bitten or injured during the dolphin dive and that serious and/or life - threatening injury or damage may result" - and set off to the lagoon at nearby Sanctuary Bay. The lagoon is divided into a number of pens. The dolphins can, and do occasionally, leap over the partitions and get out into the open sea. The idea is that they stay in the lagoon because they choose to, and when they do escape they always return, albeit in their own time.
As we got our kit together on one of the jetties, two dolphins in an adjacent pen were poking their heads out of the water, trying to catch our attention. "Just ignore them," advised Eden, our dolphin trainer. They may look like lovable creatures, we were told, but it takes little to lead their cunning minds astray, and they can quickly forget their hard-earned skills.
The pre-dive briefing included a set of strict instructions on how we must behave during the dive. "Do not touch the dolphin unless I point to you and give you a cue. Touch the dolphin with the palm of your hand only. Do not grab or touch the dolphin's face."
And so we were off, into the water and down the shotline. Our dolphin, Robala, was gearing up for her performance, leaping high out of the water, coming down with a splash, and following through with a spectacular corkscrew down to the seabed. At 16 years old and weighing 190kg, she moved with surprising agility for such a large animal, flirting with the divers as she ducked and dived.
But it was Hunter who was to be the focus of her attention. Robala swooped down from the surface and came to an abrupt halt within inches of his face. A little startled, he tentatively reached out his hand to stroke her side as she gently turned her body over in the water. And then she was off, darting over to her trainer for a fish reward.
She was back again, this time more brazen - she wanted a kiss. She nuzzled Hunter's face and he obliged by removing his regulator, holding Robala under her rostrum and blowing bubbles into her mouth.
The games continued at the trainer's cue until Robala, getting into her flirtatious stride, stood herself upright, sidled up alongside her Gladiator and held out her pectoral fins for him to hold. She gazed at him for a long few seconds before giving out a loud squeal, pulling away and shooting to the surface.
Hunter extended his arm and within seconds Robala was back. She lodged her rostrum into his hand and, now revealing the extent of her strength, effortlessly spun him round and round in the water.
Time was lost in all the excitement and Hunter suddenly found himself low on air. Popping to the surface, composure momentarily forgotten, he shouted: "Wow! That was amazing. Absolutely amazing. That was the best experience of my life!"
So, we discovered, it was possible after all to get behind a Gladiator's tough exterior. Hunter was not a man of steel - iron-willed in the face of danger and adversity, perhaps, but disarmed by charm. He had been won over by animal attraction.
As we waited to get back on the boat, Robala bobbed up and down next to us, as if pleading with us not to leave so soon - or perhaps she was just interested in the remainders of the bait box.
Heading back to shore, Robala following alongside, Hunter's unbridled enthusiasm of a few moments before was replaced with a look bordering on concern. "The thing is," he said with a smile, "I was really taken by that dolphin. Please don't tell me it was a male!"
James Crossley and Nicola Tyrrell travelled to the Bahamas courtesy of the Bahamas Tourist Board, staying at the Radisson Cable Beach, New Providence (001 242 327 6000), and the Port Lucaya Resort, Freeport (001 242 373 6618). A trip including shark diving at Stuart Cove's Dive South Ocean, New Providence (001 242 362 4171) and dolphin diving at UNEXSO, Freeport (001 242 373 1244) can be arranged through Goldenjoy, 0171 794 9767.
Appeared in DIVER - April 1998
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