Frank Cerabino
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Many of you are probably vowing to start exercising after the holiday season.
It happens every year. Gym memberships swell in January.
But maybe instead of joining the gym, you should consider hunting for Bigfoot.
I thought of this after talking to Tim Fasano, a 56-year-old Tampa taxi driver by way of a college philosophy degree.
“I wouldn’t last five minutes on a treadmill,” said the 260-pound cabbie. “But I can spend hours walking around the woods. It’s good for me. I need the exercise.”
Fasano walks through Florida swamps, woodlands and forests about three days a week in search of Bigfoot. It’s more than a hobby with him. He has devoted countless hours to the hunt and posted YouTube videos of suspicious footprints and audio clips of animal howls. His website “Sasquatchevidence.com” makes for enjoyable reading for anybody who has the inclination to imagine that the mythical Bigfoot creature lives in Florida.
Fasano says it makes perfect sense for Bigfoot to be here.
“Florida contains some of the wildest areas of remote, dense jungle and unexplored areas,” he said.
And I’m guessing that if Bigfoot doesn’t live in Florida, certainly Bigfoot’s grandparents do. (Sasquatch Village?)
Fasano is used to the skeptics. But he’s too enamored with the quest, which probably has something to do with his philosophy degree.
“I was very interested in exploring the universe and finding out why we are here,” he said. “With all the oceans explored, now the great explorers must look inward to find mythical beasts.”
Fasano and a small band of enthusiasts have created something they call the Florida Bigfoot Organization.
“I’ve been doing it four years now,” he said. “I never thought I would be doing it this long. Every time I think I’m going to quit, I find something.”
Like a large fresh footprint in a remote swamp.
“I was covered with Off that day because the mosquitoes were so thick. So I couldn’t imagine a person would be barefoot out there. And I didn’t see anybody else,” he said.
His YouTube channel, “FasanoTampa,” has hundreds of videos posted, and they’ve already gotten more than 1 million views. The videos typically feature the camouflage-wearing Fasano wandering Florida’s swamps in search of clues with his camera. Some of his videos are shot at night, when creature sounds are heard and Fasano narrates to a black screen with a voice dripping with drama.
“I’m putting myself in real danger in the middle of the night,” he explains on one video. “There are critters out here that can eat you.”
Fasano is not beyond showcasing his own persona as something that might ultimately be far more fascinating than the theoretical beast he is allegedly looking for.
In one of his videos, he spoofs a popular beer commercial by calling himself “The Most Interesting Bigfoot Man in the World.”
He says he’s been in touch with reality TV people in Los Angeles. He’s hopeful. But the field of Bigfoot searchers in America is already pretty crowded.
So where does it all end?
“I think it’s an ongoing quest,” Fasano said. “I don’t know if there is an endpoint, unless you find a dead body. Until a dead body comes along, it will never be classified as an animal.”
If nothing else, there’s always the exercise.
It happens every year. Gym memberships swell in January.
But maybe instead of joining the gym, you should consider hunting for Bigfoot.
I thought of this after talking to Tim Fasano, a 56-year-old Tampa taxi driver by way of a college philosophy degree.
“I wouldn’t last five minutes on a treadmill,” said the 260-pound cabbie. “But I can spend hours walking around the woods. It’s good for me. I need the exercise.”
Fasano walks through Florida swamps, woodlands and forests about three days a week in search of Bigfoot. It’s more than a hobby with him. He has devoted countless hours to the hunt and posted YouTube videos of suspicious footprints and audio clips of animal howls. His website “Sasquatchevidence.com” makes for enjoyable reading for anybody who has the inclination to imagine that the mythical Bigfoot creature lives in Florida.
Fasano says it makes perfect sense for Bigfoot to be here.
“Florida contains some of the wildest areas of remote, dense jungle and unexplored areas,” he said.
And I’m guessing that if Bigfoot doesn’t live in Florida, certainly Bigfoot’s grandparents do. (Sasquatch Village?)
Fasano is used to the skeptics. But he’s too enamored with the quest, which probably has something to do with his philosophy degree.
“I was very interested in exploring the universe and finding out why we are here,” he said. “With all the oceans explored, now the great explorers must look inward to find mythical beasts.”
Fasano and a small band of enthusiasts have created something they call the Florida Bigfoot Organization.
“I’ve been doing it four years now,” he said. “I never thought I would be doing it this long. Every time I think I’m going to quit, I find something.”
Like a large fresh footprint in a remote swamp.
“I was covered with Off that day because the mosquitoes were so thick. So I couldn’t imagine a person would be barefoot out there. And I didn’t see anybody else,” he said.
His YouTube channel, “FasanoTampa,” has hundreds of videos posted, and they’ve already gotten more than 1 million views. The videos typically feature the camouflage-wearing Fasano wandering Florida’s swamps in search of clues with his camera. Some of his videos are shot at night, when creature sounds are heard and Fasano narrates to a black screen with a voice dripping with drama.
“I’m putting myself in real danger in the middle of the night,” he explains on one video. “There are critters out here that can eat you.”
Fasano is not beyond showcasing his own persona as something that might ultimately be far more fascinating than the theoretical beast he is allegedly looking for.
In one of his videos, he spoofs a popular beer commercial by calling himself “The Most Interesting Bigfoot Man in the World.”
He says he’s been in touch with reality TV people in Los Angeles. He’s hopeful. But the field of Bigfoot searchers in America is already pretty crowded.
So where does it all end?
“I think it’s an ongoing quest,” Fasano said. “I don’t know if there is an endpoint, unless you find a dead body. Until a dead body comes along, it will never be classified as an animal.”
If nothing else, there’s always the exercise.
1 comment:
Good for Tim!
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