INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Todd Darress brought his 4-year-old granddaughter Reese to the Florida Outdoors Expo to revel in the family-centered scene – best of all for her, to bump along the grassy field of the Indian River County Fairgrounds in the heft of a Monster Truck.
“You’ve got to get involved with things, get outside and enjoy what nature has given us here in Florida,” said Darress, who likes to hunt, fish, camp, hike and boat, while sharing the fun of it all with family.
He was among thousands of people who dropped by the expo over the weekend organized by David Dangerfield to peruse vendors selling everything from RVs and boats to machine guns, knives, outdoor kitchen wares and fried gator tail.
The uber recreation lover could be tempted to invest in a kayak made for pedaling, paddling, fishing and hunting; for those who do archery, there were sophisticated crossbows; for people who want to prepare their catch or what they harvested, there were grills and other outdoor cooking appliances for sale.
Some boned up on regulations and education offered in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Hunter Safety Course, while others listened to conservation talks or used crossbows to hit targets of plastic deer, armadillo, wild turkey and hog. And there was the alligator wrestling and education program.
Apart from the buzz permeating the air about alligator hunting season, or the upcoming deer season and high performance equipment, not much could top the anticipation of meeting duck hunter-gone-celebrity John Godwin on the premises.
Godwin, a star of the American television reality show Duck Dynasty on A&E, drew hundreds of fans to the Aluma Tower Indoor Expo Stage where he offered autographs and scribbled his moniker, “Ham Samich,” on scraps of paper, and even the foreheads of admiring kids.
Duck Dynasty features the life of the Robertson family, who became wealthy from their family-operated business Duck Commander, in West Monroe, La. Godwin, who works with the Robertson clan, has made duck calls and headed up shipping for the business since 2002.
“It’s pretty flattering,” he said of the turnout and his newfound success. “I don’t know what happened!”
One day, he reminisced, he was making a modest number of duck calls out of a small shed. Seemingly the next, he was cranking out thousands of the instrument for attracting ducks each week from a large warehouse, while being filmed for the television show.
The show has broken several ratings records on cable television. The fourth season premiere drew 11.8 million viewers, the most watched non-fiction cable telecast in history.
Jennifer Sowa’s family, made up of avid hunters, has been glued to its television set since the show started airing. She credited her 8-year-old daughter Regan for spotting the entertaining program centered on hunting.
“One night, I asked her from the other room, ‘What are you watching in there?’ The next thing I know is our whole family is sitting around the television watching Duck Dynasty!” she recalled. “They are all class clowns, there’s no cussing, it’s family-based, and they say their prayers as a family before they eat their meals.”
Gun salesmen at the event reported no downturns in sales due to threats of gun control by the Obama Administration. In fact, a pleased Scott Rollf, a distributor of Scorpion Armaments, said the rhetoric from Washington usually prompted the very opposite.
“The greatest gun salesman in the world is Barack Obama,” he said, explaining that whenever there is a government threat of increasing gun controls, there’s usually a surge in sales of guns. Those concerned that gun sales will be soon be prohibited, rush out to purchase them.
Camouflage-clad Lisa Behuniak and Frank Toolen, came from Melbourne to attend the expo primarily to check out the latest in firearms and meet the Duck Dynasty character.
“It’s good clean fun,” said Toolen. “And a bit rednecky!”