Team Geared Up

DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Deadliest Scoop! A furious account of life on and off the Bering sea. Listen to the interview here.

For those of who unfamiliar with Deadliest Catch, it is a show about one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. The series follows eight to ten crab fishing boats and their crews throughout two of the dangerous crab fishing seasons, the October king crab season and the January opilio crab.

Battling two storey waves, callous wind, battering ice-cold rain and the merciless and stubborn Bering Sea, the crews featured in Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” test the limits of human endurance on the short but deadly crabbing seasons out of Alaska’s Dutch Harbour and have created a cult show out of what appears at first hand to merely be a documentary about fishing but in truth is testimony to man’s determination to dominate and conquer nature, despite its formidable opposition…….so who in their sane mind would decided to do it? The answer is the Hillstrand brothers.

Johnathan and Andy are co-owners of the vessel the Time Bandit. Johnathan captains during the King crab season and Andy skippers during the opilio season. Although these two are brothers there is a stark difference between the them. Johnathan is a captain with a love for life on the edge and a passion to speak his mind and will to do the impossible. When not battling with the Bering sea his hobbies include riding his Harley which has been souped up 120mph (193km/hr) at the touch of a button. Andy Hillstrand is the skipper during opilio crab season and heads up the business side of the family’s fishing venture. During the off-season, Andy lives on a ranch in Indiana where he engages in his other passion which is training horses. He’s happily married and light heartedly says that himself and his loving wife have learned that they have both learned to adjust to his marriage to her and his marriage to the sea.

So how did these two men get into crab fishing in the first place? Going back to their father who was also a fisherman, the Hillstrands became involved in the family business at a relatively early age. Andy not content working in a doughnut shop at a young age, yearned for something more (No doubt casting an envious eye at the bait shop across the road). Along with their father, they help in designing the Time Bandit for fishing crab. What many fans find hard to believe is that their designs included staterooms, a 4 person sauna and queen size beds. Not what you expect on a crabbing vessel. That is not to say that they have life easy!

Explaining that all they wear on deck can amount to a few layers of clothing then covered by waterproof overalls. There is no easy way to endure 30shorts in rolling seas and tempestuous waves. This all adds to the danger of the job whereby the injury rate is believed to be 100%. Andy goes on to say that many of the injuries that they have include broken bones and cases of frostbite. If you get wet during the opilio season you can be in trouble as the water will freeze on skin it’s just that cold. Also a topic of popular concern is that of the cameramen. Do they have difficulties? do they have the same guys every year? The Brothers explain that they have to look out for the cameramen and that they have helped save their lives on more than one occasion. Crab pots weighing up 900lb can easily kill if they fall on an unsuspecting person. They never have the same cameramen from one season to the next so there are always a few problems to work out, so say the Hillstrands. Though the people always change the brother captains say that it can be good especially in the wheelhouse, when normally you are alone for hours, you have someone to talk to.

Thankfully they have never lost a man but were especially reminded of the risks when in the last season they were lucky enough to be near another vessel when a man was swept overboard and managed to pull him from the water quickly. As most fishermen know, the life expectancy in the Bering sea is mere minutes without survival gear. Risks are part of the game they explain, last year Johnathan braved a moving ice pack and freezing harbour to offload $10,000 worth of crab causing hull damage and risking the vessel sinking. Now with his son Scott joining the crew season 4, when asked would he take the same risks with him on board the answer was an undoubted ‘yes’. This job is their livelihood and with risk it seems, comes great reward.

Fans will be looking forward to season 4 say the captains. Back with more insane pranks and some life threatening situations for the crew of the Timebandit, The hillstrand brothers are back this April 15th on the Discovery channel in the US and also have more to be revealed in their upcoming book ‘Time Bandit: Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World’s Deadliest Jobs’.

So what now for the delicious Hillstand brothers of the Time Bandit? They look set to continue fishing for crab on the unforgiving Bering sea and also to travelling to promote their book. More information can be found on the Discovery website and their own re-vamped website http://www.timebandit.tv/.

-John Carroll (Furious J)-

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EDITOR: Many thanks to John for stepping in to do this Guest Post for Team Geared Up! We’re very grateful - and next time we’ll try have someone in the right timezone! It was great to see our cyber buddies Backcountry Blog: The Goat on the call to! Thanks to the screengrabs from Deadliest Reports. Thanks to readers who asked questions - Ken, your music one was answered at 19mins!