The Story

In January 2017 my wife and I went to Florida for a vacation. While there we attended my brother’s wedding and spent time with family and friends. We also went on an air boat tour ride.. This is what happened live on Facebook! Watch the video!

We never expected that to happen! So the video was now on Facebook. We thought it was pretty cool and it was getting quite a few views just from friends and family. Eventually the local news in Springfield, MO got a hold of us and we skyped with them to talk about the experience. After that, the video got pretty out of hand. Even to the point that Shaq tweeted it.

It has been featured on a few nation TV shows like NBC’s Today and event ESPN’s SportsCenter.

Frequent Questions

Since having our Facebook live video go viral my wife and I have had many questions people ask us. Here are a few and our responses:

Why did you get so close?

At the time, we didn’t really think too much of it. We were on a tour and I figured this was fairly normal to get close to the wildlife.

Were you driving the boat?

No. We were never in control of the boat.

How did you get so close to it?

When we were on the airboat, we saw a handful of alligators at times. As soon as we got into their vicinity, they would go under water or slide off a bank into the water.

However, when we saw this alligator on the bank, the airboat engine was turned off. It was also a very windy morning. With the engine off, and the high winds, we began to get pushed up against that bank. Before I knew it, I was a foot away from it!

Will you go back to Florida again?

Yes! We love visiting Florida. Our alligator adventure was a once in a lifetime experience. We are fortunate that everything turned out great and got to share the experience with you through the video.

Is it real?

Believe it or not, we have had many people say that the video is faked and the alligator was CGI or something like that. That is completely false. It was a real alligator and the event was streamed live on Facebook at the time. You can view the actual video link on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thindery/videos/10102702037741844/

Alligator Stuff

Check out some alligator stuff that looks cool.