July 11, 2025 • 23 mins
The Brad Mercerow Show takes listeners on an aquatic adventure through Florida's waterways and beyond, sharing personal stories of boating, surfing, and close encounters with marine wildlife. Brad explores the expanding Freedom Boat Club, reminisces about navigating Florida's Chain of Lakes, and recounts heart-stopping experiences with sharks and hurricane surfing.
• Freedom Boat Club is expanding to Dubai, offering membership-based boating internationally
• The Winter Haven Chain of Lakes connects 17 lakes for versatile boating experiences
• Modern jet skis pack 300 horsepower engines, more powerful than many motorcycles
• Brad witnessed a 6-foot shark jump completely over his friend while surfing at New Smyrna Beach
• Surfing during Hurricane Wilma created massive waves alongside dangerous lightning and waterspouts
• Kayaking near Spring Hill provided peaceful encounters with gentle manatees
• Waterfront restaurants like Harborside and Old Man Frank's offer boat-up dining experiences
• Safety tips include staying hydrated, using sunscreen, and enjoying the water responsibly
Follow me on all socials at the Brad Mercerow Show. I value each listener and hope to bring entertainment to your life. Thank you so much and I'll be seeing you soon!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Brad Mercerow Show.
Welcome everybody.
So to kick this off, I'm goingto be starting with some news
from Florida.
Of course, florida man makesthe news again, as has been in
my previous episodes.
On this one we have Florida manmarks birthday by doing meth
stealing conch train, picking upriders and leaving his car
running sitting on the streetduring the middle of it.
(00:20):
Can you believe it?
Yeah, so in reports it says.
Key West police say a man toldofficers that it was his
birthday today after being toldhe was under arrest for stealing
a conch train.
So conch is like a type ofseashell sea creature out in the
ocean and that's just what theygave as a name to this like
train that goes on the streetsof Key West.
(00:40):
And this happened on the 4th ofJuly, according to a News 6
partner.
According to the arrest report,july 4th was indeed Mr
Winslow's birthday.
It's his 57th birthday.
He's facing three criminalcharges after being accused of
taking one of the famousvehicles on a meth-fueled
joyride Says.
Police went to the Conk TourTrain Depot at Staple Avenue in
Key West just before 1130 am,friday after receiving a report
(01:04):
that the conch train had beenstolen and was being GPS tracked
around downtown.
An arrest report states thatWinslow of Big Torch Key left
his Kia behind at the depot,still running with rock music
playing on the radio.
I mean, what does one elselisten to when they're doing
meth?
Police said an employee toldofficers that he had come into
the depot, claimed he used towork for the company years ago
and asked for a tour of thetrain.
(01:25):
They said he then got into oneof the vehicles and drove off,
leaving the employee confused,thinking that Winslow may have
had permission to take the train.
Winslow did not police it.
Another employee was able toretrieve the stolen conch train
near Duval and United Streets inKey West.
Authorities said Winslow hadeven picked up two random
passengers while driving thevehicle.
They found Winslow at thesouthernmost point, buoy which
(01:46):
is that buoy that says 90 milesto Key West and exhibited rapid
speech and appeared excited.
It's kind of some keyindicators of being on meth.
And when being told he wasfacing charges, claimed he
merely borrowed the trolley,saying he used to work for the
company and today was the July4th was his birthday, the report
states.
The report states while beingsearched in the jail corrections
deputy found a pipe inWinslow's pocket and he told him
(02:08):
that it was a weed pipe, but itwas not, because it tested
positive for methamphetamine.
As of Monday, after July 4th,winslow faced charges of
burglary, grand theft, auto andpossession of drug paraphernalia
Records show.
He was being held at MonroeCounty Sheriff's Office Key West
jail facility on a $60,000 bond.
So yeah, guys, another Floridaman story for you today on this
(02:28):
episode of Brad Mercer Show.
Let's get to the show.
Welcome to the show.
It's the About it Podcast.
Here we go Go.
I'm your host, bradley Marslowe.
(02:55):
That's the C-Cell to theParachute.
Hey everyone.
(03:32):
So today's episode is going tobe about boating and what we all
like to do in the summer getout on the water, right.
So yeah, I saw some interestingnews today from a former club I
used to be in called theFreedom Boat Club.
This isn't an advertisement oranything, but I used to be a
part of it and yeah, so FreedomBoat Club is entering the Middle
East market.
I just saw this news.
It came out on the 8th of July,dubai, of all places.
(03:55):
That's going to be pretty cool.
So yeah, freedom Boat Club isgoing international.
For those of you that don't knowit, it's like a membership you
can join where you pay a downpayment and then a monthly fee
and whenever you want you canschedule a boat on a lake near
you.
A lot of them are in Floridaand basically anywhere with
lakes around the country.
(04:16):
They have center consoles, somedeck boats and pontoons and
tritoons.
What we would do is, on a daywe want to go out, we'd call
them up, get a boat scheduledusually a pontoon boat, because
we had the family and kids alongand get all our supplies
together, get some food andsandwiches made and all that
good stuff, get the drinks onice and then head out to the
(04:37):
lake.
So yeah, it's pretty muchsimple as that.
You pay your down payment forthe year, your monthly
membership, you schedule a boatand go take it out on your
scheduled time and day.
So, like on a Saturday, we'dget the boat scheduled and go
out, take it with everything wewere bringing with us and then
head out on the lakes for theday.
The lakes I used to go out onwere in Florida, on the chain of
(04:59):
lakes in Winter Haven, so thatwas pretty cool.
You'd take the boat out fromthe dock and then you could take
it out into the lake, of coursethat it's attached to then go
through a chain of lakes sothey're all connected by canals
and stuff, basically, where youcould go from one lake to
another lake, to another lake,to another.
There was about 17 or so lakesconnected together and so you're
(05:19):
not just enjoying one lake downin that area, you're enjoying
like multiple, multiple lakes,change the scenery mode to the
max.
But yeah, I mean, pontoons weremostly our thing, but if we
ever wanted to get on sometubing action, we get one of
those deck boats and and reallyfly out there, which was a
pretty great time.
But yeah, again they're, theyare entering the middle east,
(05:39):
going to dubai.
That's someplace I've alwayswanted to go.
I can imagine you, I canimagine a lot of folks have
wanted to go there as well.
I used to work for the airlinesand I could hear my friends and
see my friends all the time, gointo Dubai and across other
countries and stuff like that.
I've been to a few countriesmyself, but just haven't been
here yet.
But yeah, so expanding intoDubai marks a milestone for the
(06:03):
Freedom Boat Club.
The manager over there, arturoGutierrez, general manager of
the Freedom Boat Club for thatregion, says Dubai is a natural
fit for the Freedom Boat Club.
It's got a dynamic coastline,growing community and passion
for luxury and lifestyle.
They make it an ideal locationfor their first boat club in the
(06:23):
Middle East.
Yeah, their first location inDubai is going to be owned by a
franchise partner, bakerAl-Masebe Said.
He was born and raised in SaudiArabia and brings a unique
blend of regional insight andinternational business
experience to the place.
I guess that's cool and all itsays that this owner was a
(06:48):
Freedom Boat Club member inCanada and then, inspired by his
love for boating and a desireto bring that concept closer to
his home, is what got him intothis.
In his own words, as a longtimeboater and Freedom Boat Club
member, he's seen firsthand howthe club makes the boating
lifestyle accessible andeffortless.
Yeah, I can speak to that frompersonal experience.
Once you get into it, it'spretty simple and easy to get
out on the water whenever youwant to.
(07:09):
Of course, sometimes thebookings get pretty busy, but as
long as you get ahead of it andget your spot, there's not too
too much of a fight, and I canonly imagine man.
Dubai is a place I've alwayswanted to visit, of course, like
I've said, and being able to dothe Freedom Boat Club.
Going over there and justtaking a boat out on the water
in Dubai, holy cow, that makesme want to go there so much more
(07:30):
.
So, yeah, if you're intoboating and getting out on the
water and all that stuff, yeah,freedom Boat Club is definitely
something to check out.
Look them up in your area, ofcourse, see if they're there.
I Look them up in your area, ofcourse, see if they're there.
I know, personally, I lovegetting out on the water in all
kinds of ways.
But so yeah, like I mentioned,get out on the boats.
My brother has one of those 300horsepower jet skis.
It's got the sport mode, youknow.
(07:51):
So you take this thing, it'sgot a supercharger on it.
It's got 100 more horsepowerthan a 1,000cc crotch rocket.
Of course, the top speed'slimited by the coast guard to
like what is it?
69 miles an hour or somethinglike that.
So it's, and, being thelimitations of the water, it's
not going to be going as fast assome sport bike on the street
(08:12):
will go, but this thingliterally has 100 more
horsepower than a thousand ccsport bike.
And when you put my brother'sjet ski in sport mode and and
hit that trigger, you better behugging that machine with
everything you got.
When you put my brother's jetski in sport mode and and hit
that trigger, you better behugging that machine with
everything you got when you pullthat handle back, when you pull
that trigger, because thatthing is taken off with or
without you, it does not care.
I mean, this thing's powerfulenough it can.
(08:32):
You can hook the uh tow ropesup to it and and get the tubes
going with that thing.
I mean, you can imagine just ajust a normal boat has what 150,
250 horsepower on a motor andthis thing having 300 and being
so lightweight, you can get someserious tubing in with it.
I made several YouTube videosover the years being out with
(08:52):
the jet skis and the boats andall that good stuff.
Something else I like to do is,obviously, being from the
Florida region, going out to thebeach.
You know, of course thisepisode is all about getting out
on the water and we'll talksome more about boats.
But yeah, something else that'sawesome to do is getting out on
the water at the beach takingthe surfboards with you the
paddleboards.
(09:13):
Sometimes that obviouslydoesn't mix, so if the waves are
high enough to go surfing,you're not usually going
paddleboarding out in there, butyou can use it kind of as a
longboard too though.
Yeah, hitting the gulf coastover sarasota, going to new
samarna where the sharks are,and all that stuff uh been some
good times.
Good times in fact.
Uh, talking about new samarna,I've been surfing over there one
(09:35):
time, and several timesactually, but I remember one
time in particular.
The waves were high about headhigh.
You fall down.
You feel like you're in awashing machine.
It's not going to let you upfor about a whole minute.
Sometimes it's going to holdyou under there a little bit.
But me and my buddy werepaddling out one time and
waiting in between a set ofwaves and while we were sitting
(09:56):
there just looking at each other, chatting it up, all that good
stuff.
You know, smiling days, daysbright, having a good time,
kicking back on the boards.
I I got stories for days out ofnew smyrna.
All of a sudden, uh, somethingcomes over out of the water.
Right, me and my buddy arefacing each other, so you can
imagine we're like sitting therelooking at each other.
(10:16):
He can see behind me, I can seebehind him.
So just over or under his leftshoulder, out of the water comes
some unknown fish, of course,like I didn't know what it was
for a second.
And it's just behind him.
So, like I can see behind him,he can't.
Obviously he's looking at me.
He can see behind me, um, butunderneath, underneath of him,
(10:37):
coming from his left shoulder,uh, what I eventually saw was a
about a six foot seven footshark.
Went in a straight rainbow arclike right behind his shoulders,
right over his head.
It jumped completely out of thewater from his left shoulder,
went over his head and landed inthe water behind his right
(10:58):
shoulder with its mouth hangingwide open and all the teeth
showing.
I mean, I swear this thing wascoming in for my buddy's head.
No lie, all he saw was my facedrop, turned white as a ghost
and like no words coming out ofmy mouth, just in awe.
And he said it sounded like acar got dropped in the water
behind him and all he could dowas say was that what I think it
(11:19):
was?
And I'm like, yep, yep, you justhad a shark jump over your head
, buddy, and we just sat therelooking at each other like not
knowing what to do for a second.
I mean, this guy was a Navyrescue swimmer.
So I'm just like looking at him, like, ok, buddy, hey, what are
we going to do right now?
And for some, some reason Idon't know of, we just decided,
you know what, we're just goingto stay in this water right here
(11:49):
.
Just, this is normal, this is agood thing to do.
You know great decisions.
So we ended up just staying inthe water and surfing, surfing
the day out and with no furtherincidences from from sharks
trying to eat our heads off.
I mean, luckily they didn't getcome after our legs or anything
else.
Um, but one of the reasons isone of the reasons new samarna's
got this going on is the wateris kind of muddy a lot of the
times and sharks don't usuallybother you in clear water
because they can see that you'renot their food.
But with the muddy watersometimes things can get a
(12:10):
little funky to where they don'tnecessarily know if you're food
or not.
I think that had something tocontribute to what looked like
this shark coming after us atthe moment.
I mean, thank goodness, uh, wesaw some dolphins in the area
afterwards as well.
Like that always comforts mewhen dolphins are swimming
around you.
The sharks usually don't botheryou too too much because,
(12:33):
because they can put a hurtingon those sharks.
But yeah, that same day, like wefinished that day out and sure
enough if we didn't get up tothe beach and I'm walking out of
the water my buddy already madeit out and so he comes out of
the water, starts walking alongthe beach, going back towards
the truck, because you can driveyour vehicles on the beach
there.
And I got like one foot out ofthe water, about to start
(12:55):
walking towards the truck too,and I go to take my other foot
out of the water and all of asudden I just feel this clamping
force down on my toe.
You know I'm startled, ofcourse.
So I like jump back a littlebit, get up on the beach.
I look down and I have a wholecrab like straight attached vice
grip to my big toe on my left,my left foot, like and this
(13:15):
thing is not letting go, Ibasically had to sit down on the
beach.
My buddy came back and we hadto like pry this thing off of me
.
He was like no, I'm going homewith you.
And I'm like what are youtrying to get cooked?
Buddy like like no, get off myfoot until we finally get this
thing off.
And then I ended up walkingback to the truck with like
blood dripping behind me fromthe thing, lacerating my toe,
(13:38):
lacerating my toe with its vicegrip claws here, pinchers.
So, yeah, that ended up being aquite a memorable day, uh,
about a whole decade ago.
At least that I can't forget.
So, yeah, if you're ever goingto new samarna, yeah, just be
advised.
Here's your public advisoryright.
Like they never take the purpleflags down from the beach there
, it seems like.
And purple flags, you know yougot green flags for it's okay to
(14:01):
go swimming.
Yellow flags for the currentsare getting Getting Kind of
swift, and then red flags theydon't necessarily want you
swimming in the water, just hasto do with how bad the currents
are and stuff.
Purple flags are for, likedangerous marine life, like
sharks, jellyfish that can stingyou, just different things that
(14:21):
could hurt you in the water.
Yeah, new Smyrna, they, theyabout never take those purple
flags down because there'salways something in the water
out there made for aninteresting car ride, truck ride
home.
So, yeah, if you guys arelistening to this on any of the
socials and all that, I'd loveto hear some of your uh, boat
and water stories and thingslike that.
Beach stories, mount lakes inthe mountains stories, whatever
you got you know, just commentif this is on.
(14:42):
Again, this is on social, justcomment down below like let me
know what you got going on.
But yeah, to continue, I'mgonna tell you one more surfing
story.
So again, out with this.
Uh, buddy of mine he was mymentor growing up name's dave,
hey dave, if you're listening,what's up, man?
We decided to do what a lot ofsurfers do sometimes and chase a
hurricane into the beach.
So, yeah, we decided to do whata lot of surfers do sometimes
(15:02):
and chase a hurricane into thebeach.
So, yeah, hurricanes can causesome excellent surfing
conditions, awful swimmingconditions.
Yeah, sometimes they can createsome pretty cool surfing
conditions.
I think it was Hurricane Wilmaback in the day I don't know if
that was like 2004, 2005,.
Something like that Came in offthe west coast of Florida, in
in the gulf, I think, somewherenear um, between sarasota and
(15:25):
lido key.
I forget the exact secret spotwe went to.
We go and follow this hurricanecoming in.
We go to the beach where it'sabout to be creating some big
waves and all that good stuff,and so we go surfing right, like
, we get the boards, we head tothe beach, go get them out, get
out in the water.
Of course it's creating somegood waves and stuff getting on
(15:46):
them, riding them in, paddlingback out.
But part of the story that getscrazy is when that thing
started getting closer to land.
It started churning up thewater into some washing machine
like conditions like the, thecurrents are going everywhere
and these waves are getting bigand harder and harder to paddle
(16:06):
back out into because I mean dueto their size and all that.
So we started.
So it started raining out there.
Of course, the wind startedblowing, the waves are getting
big and then we started havinglightning come down around us.
We're seeing water spouts outthere.
I'm just looking over at thisguy because I'm still like a
young teenager and all that.
I'm like man, I trust you.
(16:27):
You're a Navy rescue swimmer,like we're good, right, like.
I'm looking at him like are wegoing home yet, because this is
getting a little scary.
But we stayed out there for awhile and, yeah, about the time
when the water spout startedgetting within a few hundred
yards of us, the lightning wasgetting within a few hundred
yards of us.
The water's starting to looklike it's, it's ready to eat us
(16:48):
and then take us home for dinnertoo.
Um, that's that's about when wedecided to get out of there and
call it a day.
Man, I've had some crazyexperiences with Dave, no lie.
Um, that, uh, that was a dayI'm never going to forget as
well.
But, yeah, man, he carried us,he got us through that, dave,
and the good Lord, I guessthat's why he was pretty good at
his job.
He learned it pretty wellbecause he took us into some
(17:10):
crazy situations, but we alwayscame out of them Okay and I get
to tell people that, hey, I wentsurfing in a hurricane.
So that's, that's a pretty coolstory.
A little wild but pretty cool.
Wouldn't have been as cool asif something happened, but I, I
survived it.
But, yeah, to continue on withthe show for all my folks out
there that, hey, maybe you don'tlike getting out on the boats
necessarily.
Jet skis might not be yourthing, not too much of a surfer
(17:35):
or anything like that.
Paddle boarders I know there'ssome folks out there that love
kayaking and hiking naturetrails, bringing the kayak with
you, going to state parks andstuff like that, going down the
rivers and the springs man theresome cool things to to do in
florida with that and all aroundthe country honestly.
But I remember one time wentout with the family, brought the
(17:56):
coolers, brought the snacks,brought the dogs, and where we
ended up going out of was, Ithink, somewhere called mary's
fish camp or somewhere nearthere, over near, uh, spring
hill, florida, and they have gota whole like network of of
springs and rivers and canalsand stuff and even inlets,
(18:18):
outlets to the ocean that wejust had a one of the best times
I can remember there.
I mean we saw manatees, we'regoing down the rivers, going
down another canal, down anotherriver, seeing a spring, and
then all of a sudden you gotlike 15 manatees swimming under
your boat.
Of course you're not supposedto touch them and all that stuff
.
So I did come out with somegood pictures at least.
But man, those things are.
They're a little intimidatingat first.
(18:40):
When you see a big old, whatthey call a sea cow swimming
right underneath you.
It's quite a large animal.
So when you first see it it's alittle startling.
Um, especially afterexperiences like I shared before
with sharks and stuff comingout of the water.
They are some of the mostgentle creatures you've ever met
.
They don't really bother you oranything.
It's like they know you'rethere, you know they're there
and everything's just chill.
But yeah, I can't recommendthat area enough.
(19:01):
I mean, shoot, spring hill, allthat near wikiwachi mean all
the rivers.
If you look that up on the mapyou can see all the waterways
you have around you.
I think there's somerestaurants on the water you can
enjoy.
I mean, shoot, can't get toomuch better than that, right?
I think that day we did have,unfortunately, someone get a
little sun sick and pass out andthen slip in the water at that
point.
But luckily we had some goodmembers in our crew that knew
(19:24):
how to do water rescues andstuff, such as myself, like
after hanging out with a Navydude.
Yeah, overall, overall, goodmemories, good memories, yeah.
So start closing this episodeout.
I'm going to go back to some ofthe boating experiences we've
had on the Chain of Lakes.
Again, everybody's heard oflike Disney World and all that.
So these are just south ofthere.
If you know about Legoland,it's actually on the chain of
lakes.
(19:44):
So Legoland Florida is on LakeEloise, on the chain of lakes,
and that's also where theFreedom Boat Club is for that
area, like I was talking aboutin the beginning.
So, yeah, we'd head down to LakeEloise whenever we wanted to
get on the water.
This was really fun around theholidays.
But we'd go to get the boat,take it out on the Lake Eloise
(20:05):
and you could see Legoland rightaway after you get out on the
water there and start enjoyingour day, right?
One thing we'd love to do is goto the restaurants on the water
.
So after getting our boat, we'dhead out, have a little bit of
a day on the water, of course,eat some snacks, drink some
drinks all that good stuff playsome music, get on the tubes,
float a little bit, maybe getthe jet skis out and have a good
time.
And then we'd get hungry forlunch or dinner or something
(20:28):
Right, and we'd head over toLake ship on the chain of lakes.
So on Lake ship they haveHarborside and what's cool about
this place is you get to takeyour boat, your jet ski,
whatever, and pull it right upto a dock.
And you walk up to dock and therestaurant is sitting right
there on the water.
I can't take too many ways thatare cooler to go to dinner than
pulling your boat up to arestaurant Harborside had
(20:50):
everything you want.
I mean they had everything fromhamburgers to your lobster to
you know they got a full barthere and everything.
It was all cool to visit andthey had several other
restaurants on the water as well.
So, like Old man Frank's is onthe other side on Lake Howard.
You go through a couple otherlakes and you get to there and
that was a cool place just tohang out and stuff and they have
a dock that actually goes overthe water, like their dining
(21:13):
area goes over the water at Oldman Frank's, and so we go there
a lot of times, listen to somelive music, eat some oysters,
put something on the jukebox andif there wasn't some live music
playing, and have really thebest of times with each other
the jukebox, and if there wasn'tsome live music playing and
have really the best of timeswith each other, well, things I
recommend if you're going outthere and doing all that stuff,
you know, if you haven't beenused to it before, try to stay
(21:34):
hydrated.
Get out on the water.
You're in the sunshine, it'shot out there.
Yeah, you're swimming and stuff.
Don't drink too much or at all.
That's probably the best thingto do drink some power a your
water, drink some sodas,something like that.
If you must get some goodnutrition in you, bring your
sunscreen along, but definitelybring your music along.
Don't forget your music.
And something else not toforget is just to have a good
(21:56):
time.
Be safe out there.
Hey guys, I just wanted to thankyou for joining me on this
episode and taking adventurewith me on the boats, jet skis,
the surfboards, the paddleboards, all that good stuff, the
kayaks yeah, if you're aboutthe water life, then give me a
follow.
I'm going to have some morecontent coming up on that.
I've been on the water all mylife.
I'm from South Florida, livedin Central Florida, north
(22:18):
Florida, been all over, evenlived in the mountains before
with lakes up there, and I'mtotally about it, about the
water life.
So definitely give me a follow.
This has been the Brad Mercerowshow and I can't wait to talk at
you guys again.
All right, everybody follow meon all those socials at the Brad
Mercerow show.
That's what you'd be lookingfor.
Look for me, I'll be lookingfor you.
(22:40):
Please join me soon and I can'twait to talk to you guys more.
I value each and every one ofmy listeners and I hope I bring
some form of entertainment toyour life today.
Again, thank you so much.
Thank you so so much and I'llbe seeing you soon.
Peace out, thank you.
This is the Brad Mercerow Show.
Welcome everybody.
So to kick this off, I'm goingto be starting with some news
from Florida.
Of course, florida man makesthe news again, as has been in
my previous episodes.
On this one we have Florida manmarks birthday by doing meth
stealing conch train, picking upriders and leaving his car
running sitting on the streetduring the middle of it.
(00:20):
Can you believe it?
Yeah, so in reports it says.
Key West police say a man toldofficers that it was his
birthday today after being toldhe was under arrest for stealing
a conch train.
So conch is like a type ofseashell sea creature out in the
ocean and that's just what theygave as a name to this like
train that goes on the streetsof Key West.
(00:40):
And this happened on the 4th ofJuly, according to a News 6
partner.
According to the arrest report,july 4th was indeed Mr
Winslow's birthday.
It's his 57th birthday.
He's facing three criminalcharges after being accused of
taking one of the famousvehicles on a meth-fueled
joyride Says.
Police went to the Conk TourTrain Depot at Staple Avenue in
Key West just before 1130 am,friday after receiving a report
(01:04):
that the conch train had beenstolen and was being GPS tracked
around downtown.
An arrest report states thatWinslow of Big Torch Key left
his Kia behind at the depot,still running with rock music
playing on the radio.
I mean, what does one elselisten to when they're doing
meth?
Police said an employee toldofficers that he had come into
the depot, claimed he used towork for the company years ago
and asked for a tour of thetrain.
(01:25):
They said he then got into oneof the vehicles and drove off,
leaving the employee confused,thinking that Winslow may have
had permission to take the train.
Winslow did not police it.
Another employee was able toretrieve the stolen conch train
near Duval and United Streets inKey West.
Authorities said Winslow hadeven picked up two random
passengers while driving thevehicle.
They found Winslow at thesouthernmost point, buoy which
(01:46):
is that buoy that says 90 milesto Key West and exhibited rapid
speech and appeared excited.
It's kind of some keyindicators of being on meth.
And when being told he wasfacing charges, claimed he
merely borrowed the trolley,saying he used to work for the
company and today was the July4th was his birthday, the report
states.
The report states while beingsearched in the jail corrections
deputy found a pipe inWinslow's pocket and he told him
(02:08):
that it was a weed pipe, but itwas not, because it tested
positive for methamphetamine.
As of Monday, after July 4th,winslow faced charges of
burglary, grand theft, auto andpossession of drug paraphernalia
Records show.
He was being held at MonroeCounty Sheriff's Office Key West
jail facility on a $60,000 bond.
So yeah, guys, another Floridaman story for you today on this
(02:28):
episode of Brad Mercer Show.
Let's get to the show.
Welcome to the show.
It's the About it Podcast.
Here we go Go.
I'm your host, bradley Marslowe.
(02:55):
That's the C-Cell to theParachute.
Hey everyone.
(03:32):
So today's episode is going tobe about boating and what we all
like to do in the summer getout on the water, right.
So yeah, I saw some interestingnews today from a former club I
used to be in called theFreedom Boat Club.
This isn't an advertisement oranything, but I used to be a
part of it and yeah, so FreedomBoat Club is entering the Middle
East market.
I just saw this news.
It came out on the 8th of July,dubai, of all places.
(03:55):
That's going to be pretty cool.
So yeah, freedom Boat Club isgoing international.
For those of you that don't knowit, it's like a membership you
can join where you pay a downpayment and then a monthly fee
and whenever you want you canschedule a boat on a lake near
you.
A lot of them are in Floridaand basically anywhere with
lakes around the country.
(04:16):
They have center consoles, somedeck boats and pontoons and
tritoons.
What we would do is, on a daywe want to go out, we'd call
them up, get a boat scheduledusually a pontoon boat, because
we had the family and kids alongand get all our supplies
together, get some food andsandwiches made and all that
good stuff, get the drinks onice and then head out to the
(04:37):
lake.
So yeah, it's pretty muchsimple as that.
You pay your down payment forthe year, your monthly
membership, you schedule a boatand go take it out on your
scheduled time and day.
So, like on a Saturday, we'dget the boat scheduled and go
out, take it with everything wewere bringing with us and then
head out on the lakes for theday.
The lakes I used to go out onwere in Florida, on the chain of
(04:59):
lakes in Winter Haven, so thatwas pretty cool.
You'd take the boat out fromthe dock and then you could take
it out into the lake, of coursethat it's attached to then go
through a chain of lakes sothey're all connected by canals
and stuff, basically, where youcould go from one lake to
another lake, to another lake,to another.
There was about 17 or so lakesconnected together and so you're
(05:19):
not just enjoying one lake downin that area, you're enjoying
like multiple, multiple lakes,change the scenery mode to the
max.
But yeah, I mean, pontoons weremostly our thing, but if we
ever wanted to get on sometubing action, we get one of
those deck boats and and reallyfly out there, which was a
pretty great time.
But yeah, again they're, theyare entering the middle east,
(05:39):
going to dubai.
That's someplace I've alwayswanted to go.
I can imagine you, I canimagine a lot of folks have
wanted to go there as well.
I used to work for the airlinesand I could hear my friends and
see my friends all the time, gointo Dubai and across other
countries and stuff like that.
I've been to a few countriesmyself, but just haven't been
here yet.
But yeah, so expanding intoDubai marks a milestone for the
(06:03):
Freedom Boat Club.
The manager over there, arturoGutierrez, general manager of
the Freedom Boat Club for thatregion, says Dubai is a natural
fit for the Freedom Boat Club.
It's got a dynamic coastline,growing community and passion
for luxury and lifestyle.
They make it an ideal locationfor their first boat club in the
(06:23):
Middle East.
Yeah, their first location inDubai is going to be owned by a
franchise partner, bakerAl-Masebe Said.
He was born and raised in SaudiArabia and brings a unique
blend of regional insight andinternational business
experience to the place.
I guess that's cool and all itsays that this owner was a
(06:48):
Freedom Boat Club member inCanada and then, inspired by his
love for boating and a desireto bring that concept closer to
his home, is what got him intothis.
In his own words, as a longtimeboater and Freedom Boat Club
member, he's seen firsthand howthe club makes the boating
lifestyle accessible andeffortless.
Yeah, I can speak to that frompersonal experience.
Once you get into it, it'spretty simple and easy to get
out on the water whenever youwant to.
(07:09):
Of course, sometimes thebookings get pretty busy, but as
long as you get ahead of it andget your spot, there's not too
too much of a fight, and I canonly imagine man.
Dubai is a place I've alwayswanted to visit, of course, like
I've said, and being able to dothe Freedom Boat Club.
Going over there and justtaking a boat out on the water
in Dubai, holy cow, that makesme want to go there so much more
(07:30):
.
So, yeah, if you're intoboating and getting out on the
water and all that stuff, yeah,freedom Boat Club is definitely
something to check out.
Look them up in your area, ofcourse, see if they're there.
I Look them up in your area, ofcourse, see if they're there.
I know, personally, I lovegetting out on the water in all
kinds of ways.
But so yeah, like I mentioned,get out on the boats.
My brother has one of those 300horsepower jet skis.
It's got the sport mode, youknow.
(07:51):
So you take this thing, it'sgot a supercharger on it.
It's got 100 more horsepowerthan a 1,000cc crotch rocket.
Of course, the top speed'slimited by the coast guard to
like what is it?
69 miles an hour or somethinglike that.
So it's, and, being thelimitations of the water, it's
not going to be going as fast assome sport bike on the street
(08:12):
will go, but this thingliterally has 100 more
horsepower than a thousand ccsport bike.
And when you put my brother'sjet ski in sport mode and and
hit that trigger, you better behugging that machine with
everything you got.
When you put my brother's jetski in sport mode and and hit
that trigger, you better behugging that machine with
everything you got when you pullthat handle back, when you pull
that trigger, because thatthing is taken off with or
without you, it does not care.
I mean, this thing's powerfulenough it can.
(08:32):
You can hook the uh tow ropesup to it and and get the tubes
going with that thing.
I mean, you can imagine just ajust a normal boat has what 150,
250 horsepower on a motor andthis thing having 300 and being
so lightweight, you can get someserious tubing in with it.
I made several YouTube videosover the years being out with
(08:52):
the jet skis and the boats andall that good stuff.
Something else I like to do is,obviously, being from the
Florida region, going out to thebeach.
You know, of course thisepisode is all about getting out
on the water and we'll talksome more about boats.
But yeah, something else that'sawesome to do is getting out on
the water at the beach takingthe surfboards with you the
paddleboards.
(09:13):
Sometimes that obviouslydoesn't mix, so if the waves are
high enough to go surfing,you're not usually going
paddleboarding out in there, butyou can use it kind of as a
longboard too though.
Yeah, hitting the gulf coastover sarasota, going to new
samarna where the sharks are,and all that stuff uh been some
good times.
Good times in fact.
Uh, talking about new samarna,I've been surfing over there one
(09:35):
time, and several timesactually, but I remember one
time in particular.
The waves were high about headhigh.
You fall down.
You feel like you're in awashing machine.
It's not going to let you upfor about a whole minute.
Sometimes it's going to holdyou under there a little bit.
But me and my buddy werepaddling out one time and
waiting in between a set ofwaves and while we were sitting
(09:56):
there just looking at each other, chatting it up, all that good
stuff.
You know, smiling days, daysbright, having a good time,
kicking back on the boards.
I I got stories for days out ofnew smyrna.
All of a sudden, uh, somethingcomes over out of the water.
Right, me and my buddy arefacing each other, so you can
imagine we're like sitting therelooking at each other.
(10:16):
He can see behind me, I can seebehind him.
So just over or under his leftshoulder, out of the water comes
some unknown fish, of course,like I didn't know what it was
for a second.
And it's just behind him.
So, like I can see behind him,he can't.
Obviously he's looking at me.
He can see behind me, um, butunderneath, underneath of him,
(10:37):
coming from his left shoulder,uh, what I eventually saw was a
about a six foot seven footshark.
Went in a straight rainbow arclike right behind his shoulders,
right over his head.
It jumped completely out of thewater from his left shoulder,
went over his head and landed inthe water behind his right
(10:58):
shoulder with its mouth hangingwide open and all the teeth
showing.
I mean, I swear this thing wascoming in for my buddy's head.
No lie, all he saw was my facedrop, turned white as a ghost
and like no words coming out ofmy mouth, just in awe.
And he said it sounded like acar got dropped in the water
behind him and all he could dowas say was that what I think it
(11:19):
was?
And I'm like, yep, yep, you justhad a shark jump over your head
, buddy, and we just sat therelooking at each other like not
knowing what to do for a second.
I mean, this guy was a Navyrescue swimmer.
So I'm just like looking at him, like, ok, buddy, hey, what are
we going to do right now?
And for some, some reason Idon't know of, we just decided,
you know what, we're just goingto stay in this water right here
(11:49):
.
Just, this is normal, this is agood thing to do.
You know great decisions.
So we ended up just staying inthe water and surfing, surfing
the day out and with no furtherincidences from from sharks
trying to eat our heads off.
I mean, luckily they didn't getcome after our legs or anything
else.
Um, but one of the reasons isone of the reasons new samarna's
got this going on is the wateris kind of muddy a lot of the
times and sharks don't usuallybother you in clear water
because they can see that you'renot their food.
But with the muddy watersometimes things can get a
(12:10):
little funky to where they don'tnecessarily know if you're food
or not.
I think that had something tocontribute to what looked like
this shark coming after us atthe moment.
I mean, thank goodness, uh, wesaw some dolphins in the area
afterwards as well.
Like that always comforts mewhen dolphins are swimming
around you.
The sharks usually don't botheryou too too much because,
(12:33):
because they can put a hurtingon those sharks.
But yeah, that same day, like wefinished that day out and sure
enough if we didn't get up tothe beach and I'm walking out of
the water my buddy already madeit out and so he comes out of
the water, starts walking alongthe beach, going back towards
the truck, because you can driveyour vehicles on the beach
there.
And I got like one foot out ofthe water, about to start
(12:55):
walking towards the truck too,and I go to take my other foot
out of the water and all of asudden I just feel this clamping
force down on my toe.
You know I'm startled, ofcourse.
So I like jump back a littlebit, get up on the beach.
I look down and I have a wholecrab like straight attached vice
grip to my big toe on my left,my left foot, like and this
(13:15):
thing is not letting go, Ibasically had to sit down on the
beach.
My buddy came back and we hadto like pry this thing off of me
.
He was like no, I'm going homewith you.
And I'm like what are youtrying to get cooked?
Buddy like like no, get off myfoot until we finally get this
thing off.
And then I ended up walkingback to the truck with like
blood dripping behind me fromthe thing, lacerating my toe,
(13:38):
lacerating my toe with its vicegrip claws here, pinchers.
So, yeah, that ended up being aquite a memorable day, uh,
about a whole decade ago.
At least that I can't forget.
So, yeah, if you're ever goingto new samarna, yeah, just be
advised.
Here's your public advisoryright.
Like they never take the purpleflags down from the beach there
, it seems like.
And purple flags, you know yougot green flags for it's okay to
(14:01):
go swimming.
Yellow flags for the currentsare getting Getting Kind of
swift, and then red flags theydon't necessarily want you
swimming in the water, just hasto do with how bad the currents
are and stuff.
Purple flags are for, likedangerous marine life, like
sharks, jellyfish that can stingyou, just different things that
(14:21):
could hurt you in the water.
Yeah, new Smyrna, they, theyabout never take those purple
flags down because there'salways something in the water
out there made for aninteresting car ride, truck ride
home.
So, yeah, if you guys arelistening to this on any of the
socials and all that, I'd loveto hear some of your uh, boat
and water stories and thingslike that.
Beach stories, mount lakes inthe mountains stories, whatever
you got you know, just commentif this is on.
(14:42):
Again, this is on social, justcomment down below like let me
know what you got going on.
But yeah, to continue, I'mgonna tell you one more surfing
story.
So again, out with this.
Uh, buddy of mine he was mymentor growing up name's dave,
hey dave, if you're listening,what's up, man?
We decided to do what a lot ofsurfers do sometimes and chase a
hurricane into the beach.
So, yeah, we decided to do whata lot of surfers do sometimes
(15:02):
and chase a hurricane into thebeach.
So, yeah, hurricanes can causesome excellent surfing
conditions, awful swimmingconditions.
Yeah, sometimes they can createsome pretty cool surfing
conditions.
I think it was Hurricane Wilmaback in the day I don't know if
that was like 2004, 2005,.
Something like that Came in offthe west coast of Florida, in
in the gulf, I think, somewherenear um, between sarasota and
(15:25):
lido key.
I forget the exact secret spotwe went to.
We go and follow this hurricanecoming in.
We go to the beach where it'sabout to be creating some big
waves and all that good stuff,and so we go surfing right, like
, we get the boards, we head tothe beach, go get them out, get
out in the water.
Of course it's creating somegood waves and stuff getting on
(15:46):
them, riding them in, paddlingback out.
But part of the story that getscrazy is when that thing
started getting closer to land.
It started churning up thewater into some washing machine
like conditions like the, thecurrents are going everywhere
and these waves are getting bigand harder and harder to paddle
(16:06):
back out into because I mean dueto their size and all that.
So we started.
So it started raining out there.
Of course, the wind startedblowing, the waves are getting
big and then we started havinglightning come down around us.
We're seeing water spouts outthere.
I'm just looking over at thisguy because I'm still like a
young teenager and all that.
I'm like man, I trust you.
(16:27):
You're a Navy rescue swimmer,like we're good, right, like.
I'm looking at him like are wegoing home yet, because this is
getting a little scary.
But we stayed out there for awhile and, yeah, about the time
when the water spout startedgetting within a few hundred
yards of us, the lightning wasgetting within a few hundred
yards of us.
The water's starting to looklike it's, it's ready to eat us
(16:48):
and then take us home for dinnertoo.
Um, that's that's about when wedecided to get out of there and
call it a day.
Man, I've had some crazyexperiences with Dave, no lie.
Um, that, uh, that was a dayI'm never going to forget as
well.
But, yeah, man, he carried us,he got us through that, dave,
and the good Lord, I guessthat's why he was pretty good at
his job.
He learned it pretty wellbecause he took us into some
(17:10):
crazy situations, but we alwayscame out of them Okay and I get
to tell people that, hey, I wentsurfing in a hurricane.
So that's, that's a pretty coolstory.
A little wild but pretty cool.
Wouldn't have been as cool asif something happened, but I, I
survived it.
But, yeah, to continue on withthe show for all my folks out
there that, hey, maybe you don'tlike getting out on the boats
necessarily.
Jet skis might not be yourthing, not too much of a surfer
(17:35):
or anything like that.
Paddle boarders I know there'ssome folks out there that love
kayaking and hiking naturetrails, bringing the kayak with
you, going to state parks andstuff like that, going down the
rivers and the springs man theresome cool things to to do in
florida with that and all aroundthe country honestly.
But I remember one time wentout with the family, brought the
(17:56):
coolers, brought the snacks,brought the dogs, and where we
ended up going out of was, Ithink, somewhere called mary's
fish camp or somewhere nearthere, over near, uh, spring
hill, florida, and they have gota whole like network of of
springs and rivers and canalsand stuff and even inlets,
(18:18):
outlets to the ocean that wejust had a one of the best times
I can remember there.
I mean we saw manatees, we'regoing down the rivers, going
down another canal, down anotherriver, seeing a spring, and
then all of a sudden you gotlike 15 manatees swimming under
your boat.
Of course you're not supposedto touch them and all that stuff
.
So I did come out with somegood pictures at least.
But man, those things are.
They're a little intimidatingat first.
(18:40):
When you see a big old, whatthey call a sea cow swimming
right underneath you.
It's quite a large animal.
So when you first see it it's alittle startling.
Um, especially afterexperiences like I shared before
with sharks and stuff comingout of the water.
They are some of the mostgentle creatures you've ever met
.
They don't really bother you oranything.
It's like they know you'rethere, you know they're there
and everything's just chill.
But yeah, I can't recommendthat area enough.
(19:01):
I mean, shoot, spring hill, allthat near wikiwachi mean all
the rivers.
If you look that up on the mapyou can see all the waterways
you have around you.
I think there's somerestaurants on the water you can
enjoy.
I mean, shoot, can't get toomuch better than that, right?
I think that day we did have,unfortunately, someone get a
little sun sick and pass out andthen slip in the water at that
point.
But luckily we had some goodmembers in our crew that knew
(19:24):
how to do water rescues andstuff, such as myself, like
after hanging out with a Navydude.
Yeah, overall, overall, goodmemories, good memories, yeah.
So start closing this episodeout.
I'm going to go back to some ofthe boating experiences we've
had on the Chain of Lakes.
Again, everybody's heard oflike Disney World and all that.
So these are just south ofthere.
If you know about Legoland,it's actually on the chain of
lakes.
(19:44):
So Legoland Florida is on LakeEloise, on the chain of lakes,
and that's also where theFreedom Boat Club is for that
area, like I was talking aboutin the beginning.
So, yeah, we'd head down to LakeEloise whenever we wanted to
get on the water.
This was really fun around theholidays.
But we'd go to get the boat,take it out on the Lake Eloise
(20:05):
and you could see Legoland rightaway after you get out on the
water there and start enjoyingour day, right?
One thing we'd love to do is goto the restaurants on the water
.
So after getting our boat, we'dhead out, have a little bit of
a day on the water, of course,eat some snacks, drink some
drinks all that good stuff playsome music, get on the tubes,
float a little bit, maybe getthe jet skis out and have a good
time.
And then we'd get hungry forlunch or dinner or something
(20:28):
Right, and we'd head over toLake ship on the chain of lakes.
So on Lake ship they haveHarborside and what's cool about
this place is you get to takeyour boat, your jet ski,
whatever, and pull it right upto a dock.
And you walk up to dock and therestaurant is sitting right
there on the water.
I can't take too many ways thatare cooler to go to dinner than
pulling your boat up to arestaurant Harborside had
(20:50):
everything you want.
I mean they had everything fromhamburgers to your lobster to
you know they got a full barthere and everything.
It was all cool to visit andthey had several other
restaurants on the water as well.
So, like Old man Frank's is onthe other side on Lake Howard.
You go through a couple otherlakes and you get to there and
that was a cool place just tohang out and stuff and they have
a dock that actually goes overthe water, like their dining
(21:13):
area goes over the water at Oldman Frank's, and so we go there
a lot of times, listen to somelive music, eat some oysters,
put something on the jukebox andif there wasn't some live music
playing, and have really thebest of times with each other
the jukebox, and if there wasn'tsome live music playing and
have really the best of timeswith each other, well, things I
recommend if you're going outthere and doing all that stuff,
you know, if you haven't beenused to it before, try to stay
(21:34):
hydrated.
Get out on the water.
You're in the sunshine, it'shot out there.
Yeah, you're swimming and stuff.
Don't drink too much or at all.
That's probably the best thingto do drink some power a your
water, drink some sodas,something like that.
If you must get some goodnutrition in you, bring your
sunscreen along, but definitelybring your music along.
Don't forget your music.
And something else not toforget is just to have a good
(21:56):
time.
Be safe out there.
Hey guys, I just wanted to thankyou for joining me on this
episode and taking adventurewith me on the boats, jet skis,
the surfboards, the paddleboards, all that good stuff, the
kayaks yeah, if you're aboutthe water life, then give me a
follow.
I'm going to have some morecontent coming up on that.
I've been on the water all mylife.
I'm from South Florida, livedin Central Florida, north
(22:18):
Florida, been all over, evenlived in the mountains before
with lakes up there, and I'mtotally about it, about the
water life.
So definitely give me a follow.
This has been the Brad Mercerowshow and I can't wait to talk at
you guys again.
All right, everybody follow meon all those socials at the Brad
Mercerow show.
That's what you'd be lookingfor.
Look for me, I'll be lookingfor you.
(22:40):
Please join me soon and I can'twait to talk to you guys more.
I value each and every one ofmy listeners and I hope I bring
some form of entertainment toyour life today.
Again, thank you so much.
Thank you so so much and I'llbe seeing you soon.
Peace out, thank you.
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