01x06 - Frog Jumping

[bunniefuu]

To create her idyllic Garden of Eden,

Only the fittest survive,

and so it is for the

great American bullfrog.

This royal rumble for survival

has shaped the bullfrog

into the greatest pound-for-pound

leaper on Mother Nature's roster.

But in their quest for jump perfection,

a few elite bullfrogs have found an

even more powerful teacher than nature.

The great American frog jockey.

Go!

This is frog jumping.

Hopefully, the weather will clear up a bit

so we can enjoy what is? Left of the fair.

Cold. Yeah, a little cold.

Cold. Yours are a little warmer than hers.

Go, you're laughing a lot. Get serious.

Oh, man! That's a great

day to jump some frogs.

Okay, let's go ahead and get started

with the Calaveras Frog Jumping Jubilee.

You can train anywhere you like,

but if you want the fame

and glory that comes

with being the frog jumping

champion of the world,

it's right here, baby.

It's right froggin' here.

Angels Camp, California,

a.k.a., Frogtown, U.S.A.

Most small towns have

homecoming celebrations,

where everybody comes back,

and that's how it is at Frogtown.

On the third weekend in May,

all these frog jockeys

converge on Frogtown.

We're right at the top.

We're the? International

jumping frog jubilee, so,

we are we are it.

This is the oldest, biggest

frog jump in the world.

But, have no fear for these dear frogs.

They are treated like the

world-class athletes they are,

and protected by a set of guidelines

established by California's

Fish and Game Commission

for the safety of the amphibians,

for the legitimacy of the competition,

and for the love of Twain.

The competition was

inspired by a Mark Twain story.

It's awesome. Google it.

Much has changed in

92 years of competition,

but the rules? And regulations

have remained sacred.

You bring the frog It has

to be an American bullfrog.

You put it on a pad,

it jumps three leaps

There we got us a good jumping frog.

and we measure the distance.

Eighteen feet, nine inches.

The longest leaper gets a kick-a*s trophy,

700 real American dollars,

and is immortalized on the

prestigious Hop of Fame,

alongside such greats as

"Weird Harold"

"Hill Billy Hopper" and,

of course, "Rosie the Ribiter."

Really,

Rosie the Ribiter is the record holder?

How could that be any better?

And, if anybody breaks

Rosie the Ribiter's world record,

it's a $5,000 prize.

You heard her right. That's $5,000,

pre-tax.

America, God bless it.

We don't know who is going to win,

but we know darn well

those competitors are

going to be back next year.

The human competitors, I mean.

You know, they'll probably

bring different frogs.

In life, as in frog jumping,

teamwork makes the g*dd*mn dream work.

These are the Calaveras Frog Jockeys.

They're Frogtown royalty

and the odds-on favorite to win.

We've done well for a

bunch of dummies that

In a crazy sport

that you? Would? Never

guess it's as competitive as it is.

2012 World Champion, 2018 World Champion.

I love to win. I like being a winner.

Laura and I first met at the frog jumps.

I was probably 17.

Back then, he had a lot of hair.

And he was cute.

Laura leans over and says,

"We could do this,"

and off we went.

When we started, I

didn't think we would win.

Boy, did they ever.

Frog gold pumps through their veins.

Joe Kitchell,

Mike Nash,

Laura Kitchell,

me, myself, Riley Kitchell,

Morgan Kitchell

And I do believe there's

actually one more in there.

And if you think it's

founder, Jon Kitchell,

you'd be wrong.

Dead wrong.

Well, my trophy case is pretty empty.

It's a tough one to win.

That's what keeps us chasing it.

A hop, skip and jump away in Silicon

Valley are their great rivals,

the Gustine Team.

They are lead by

cyber-security sales expert,

Bob Fasano.

People ask, "Do you like toads?"

I don't really like toads.

Toads are small, little

toads with warts and they don't

They don't they don't jump.

I'm a jump guy.

I love frogs.

The Gustine Team has been

jumping for seven decades.

Winning is not just a family tradition,

it's a family responsibility.

The frog jump came into our

life through my father and uncle.

I grew up with it.

My brother won in 1978,

my father won in 1988,

I won in 1998,

and my son, Justin? Fasano,

recently won in 2017.

I mean, literally, I probably

have frog DNA in me.

I watched my dad win

in '04 when I was young.

And had a 12-year drought

where we didn't win again,

so, to bring that back to my family,

build on our team legacy,

and start to create my

own legacy, that was cool.

- Who's that?

- Bob.

This is the year Bob won.

You mean the video was just coincidence?

Yes.

This year, I think there is an extra

feeling that we are going to win.

If we did what we did last year,

and we just had a little bit more luck,

game over. We're gonna win.

You gotta catch the best frog.

The Gustine Team knows that catching a

champion frog is all about preparation

and location.

So, for the last 62 years,

they've been diving into

the same top-secret waters

of the [bleep] Canal.

That's right, the [bleep] Canal.

They leave no lily pad unturned,

with a tactical advance requiring teamwork,

precision, and 500 horsepower

of frog-catching chrome.

Hit it.

Catching frogs, jumping

frogs, training frogs

The whole thing, it's a process,

and it starts with catching frogs.

We have a driver,

and then you have a spotter,

and then on the back of

the truck, we have a catcher.

There's a replication

on the other side? Of

the canal, so, each spotter

is spotting at the other side of the canal.

This is a Frog Team Six operation.

And with so much family honor at stake,

they must secure the target.

There he is. Frog!

- Let's go, let's go.

- Left.

- Yeah, nice frog.

- Yeah.

If you think about legacies

that have been passed down,

the last four generations of frog jumpers,

we have been catching, training,

jumping, taking those same frogs,

and putting them back

in our same secret spot

for 60 years.

Breeding the top The best in the world.

When we grab those

frogs, you can just feel it.

They are the Michael

Jordan frogs of the frog jump.

- Yeah.

- There we go.

Twenty-footer.

The best frog of the night.

While the Fasanos execute a

Navy-grade frog catching force,

the Kitchells' approach is a little more

uncomplicated.

You guys know the

music to Gilligan's Island?

We catch the local frogs.

These other teams are

bringing up valley frogs.

Not fighting as much for

their lives as these frogs are.

Local frog, local team.

- Oh, I see one.

- Yeah.

We originally set out saying,

"Let's bring that championship back

to Calaveras county,

where we had a competition here in our

backyard and nobody was doing it."

They had told us nobody

from Angels Camp had won

in 50 years.

Fifty years is a long time.

What you know what?

Here's to the three of us and

another g*dd*mn good year.

- Let's catch some frogs.

- Cheers.

It only takes one frog. You just need one.

I like them with longer legs.

Everybody's got their preference.

Athletic frogs, you can tell.

They got, like, an hourglass figure.

To catch the right frog and

keep the trophy? In Calaveras

requires patience

and an extra pair of dry pants.

Somewhere out in that rainy

darkness is their hero frog.

Anything over there?

Nope. Duck feather.

It's just really, really dark.

You better find a frog,

because we're sinking.

Like Jon said, "It just takes one frog."

We are starting to take on water.

And one long, wet night.

Got any duct tape?

I didn't bring it. I should have.

You've got to train the frog.

It's a gut check.

You either got it or you don't.

Sometimes people think you

got some sort of magical frogs

or a magical pond. It's not. Frog's a frog.

- Come on. Jump.

- Oh, yeah, that's a definite.

- He's I see him.

- Fast little frog.

Good job. That's a smart frog.

Come, bugger.? Might have been

He hit his head on the

garbage can, I don't know.

- That's a good one.

- Yeah, definitely going.

They are a unique creature.

These frogs have different personalities,

different mannerisms, and different looks.

You can After a while, you can get

to where you can identify frogs just

kind of like a cat.

Somebody once told me, "Jon,

when I die, I would like to come back

as one of your frogs,

because you'd get pampered.

You pamper them."

And we do.? We take very,

very, very good care of them.

Healthy frogs jump.

But when you lose as often as Jon does,

you have got to wonder,

"Is it the pampered frog,

the jockey,

or is it the? Schooling?"

For San Francisco Bay area frogs,

the finest institute of higher

learning is not Berkeley or Stanford,

it's the? Gustine Team's.

Croaker College.

Go! Go!

Fifteen.

No college admission scandals here.

This is a true meritocracy.

- Where should I put it, a 16?

- 16.

Of only the best and the bounciest.

High.

Basically, what we do is we've

taken a very large number of frogs,

we train these frogs, we weed them out,

looking at,

"Does this frog have

the ability to go 21 feet?"

- Go! Go! Go!

- Nice. Eighteen.

We mark down all frogs

that have gone plus-20 feet,

19 feet, 18 feet, 17 feet,

down to maybe about 15 feet.

Back to the pond.

You only get one frog in the final.

If you find that consistent frog

- Good one.

- you've got a winner, potentially.

That is a big frog.

Car.

Be patient.

Another car.

She was helping you with the horn.

Some people say that

frog jumping is just luck,

but the frog jockey is

the most important part.

Not over-jockeying the frog,

not scaring the frog so he turns.

Some people blow on a frog.

Some people scream

as loud as they can at the frog.

All of those things matter.

If I were jockeying a

frog against a layman,

the same frog, there is no question

I'm gonna out-jump that person.

Surprisingly enough, science

agrees with Bob Fasano.

When you think of a frog, you

think of spectacular jumping.

On average, we found that

bullfrogs could jump three feet.

Only three feet? Ha!

A pro jockey can jump

at least six or seven.

Here's how.

It seemed that the frog jockeys

had come up with an elaborate,

ritual series? Of steps

that was just dialed in perfectly

to get frogs to jump maximally.

We think that most of the

skill comes from the jockey.

But there's one magical

element science can't explain.

The frog knows the will of the jockey.

The will of the jockey.

This mysterious will must surely run strong

in the new generation of

the world-record holding team.

Go.

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

Or maybe not.

We're still learning the

whole science behind it.

Go, go, go. Go.

We're still quite young

in the frog-jumping years.

Most of the people

are, like, adults, so, like,

we're basically the

only, like, kids out there.

Our team is named

the World Champion Frog Team, because

we currently have the world's

record for the frog jump

that we've had for over 30 years.

While they set the world

record 30 years ago,

as a team, they have not won

since cargo pants were a thing.

Well, we haven't been real

strong for the last couple of years.

Go, go, go.

But, know what?

That record has been

standing for over 30 years.

With every year that Rosie's record stands,

the frog world grows more and more

obsessed.

Especially one man.

I was here when Lee

Giudici set that thing in 1986,

and I thought,

"That record, that's like the big

b*mb. That's the big banana."

He may be the biggest

loser in frog jump history,

but, in Jon's mind, only

three hops stand between him,

the world record, and

amphibious immortality.

Winning it is great, but,

my dad wants? His first

win to break the world record.

Every kid dreams about,

you know, hitting the big home run

in the bottom of the last inning,

or hitting that shot at the buzzer.

You think we've got trash talking

going on now, you get that title

Woo doggy!

"Woo doggy," indeed.

Jon is confident this is his year,

but he's going to have to

go through Bob Fasano,

determined to be the first on his team

to win that elusive world championship

three times.

This is our 65th year

entering the Calaveras County Frog Jump.

It's a long family tradition.

I want to go out there and three-peat,

so we can really say

we are the best in the world.

But, let's face it,

the Kitchells and the

Calaveras County Frog

may stop us.

With the Calaveras team,

it's a little bit of country,

and with us, it's a

little bit of rock 'n' roll.

And, as everybody knows,

you can't like both.

You gotta win the damn thing.

Let's load those little babies

up. You guys about ready?

Yep.

Game seven. Game day.

On game day, we treat

the frogs like athletes.

Let's get some of that here.

We look at water temperature,

how long they're in the water,

how you prep the frog.

You know, it's all to get the

most out of a particular athlete.

Everybody's nervous.

They keep running back and forth.

You won't find a competitive frog jockey

that isn't trying to win.

- Feeling good?

- Good.

I'm going to stomp your a*s.

Get out of here.

This is the only place

that you can win a world

champion frog jump.

You got one shot at it.

All right, we'd like to thank all of you

for coming to the 91st edition

of the? Calaveras Frog Jumping Jubilee.

Underneath this carpet is solid concrete,

so you're gonna see

people lay out their bodies,

and they may only go home

with your applause, okay?

Only the 50 best frogs and jockeys

get to jump for the big prize.

Ladies and gentlemen,

first up, from the Gustine Frog Team,

we have Frank Fasano

with his frog,

"Johnny Too Bad."

It's one jockey,

one jump.

Once chance to go for broke

or croak.

Go! Go! Go!

Sixteen feet, two and a half inches.

Next up, from the? World

Champion Frog Team, Bill Guzules

with "Soggy Pickle."

"Ribbit DeNiro."

"Fear the Leaper."

When you only get one chance

Here we go!

Laura's gonna set this frog.

Go! Go! Go!

Oh!

even champions can fall.

Get him out there. Get him out.

Come on, frog.

Ten feet, one and a half

inches. Ten, one and a half.

Woo! Yeah!

Oh, that was way up here.

Oh, sh*t. Are you kidding me?

One by one, they fall.

Come on, frog. That's gonna

be a disqualification on that.

Until only the greatest jockeys are left.

The big frogs.

All right, up next we have

Riley Kitchell with "Snafu."

Come on, baby.

Don't rush him. Don't rush.

I'm not.

For Riley Kitchell, there's

one simple path to victory.

Go on, Kit.

Become one with the frog.

All I hear is my name get called

Riley Kitchell.

Everything else gets blurred out.

Even when a crowd

stands up and starts yelling.

I don't hear a thing.

Go! Go!

- Go! Yes!

- Oh, look at that jump.

High five.

That's a pretty good

jump, ladies and gentlemen.

Eighteen feet, four and

three quarters of an inch.

Goddang it.

Next up to jump, we

have the legend himself,

Bob Fasano.

For most frog jumpers,

winning a world championship three

times is nothing short of a pipe dream.

For Bob Fasano,

it's destiny.

Winning the frog jump is

like hitting a hole in one.

Some people golf their entire life

and they never hit a hole in one.

Let's go.

I feel fortunate enough to win two

holes in one, and I want to win three.

Little bitty hops.

Well, I just made that mistake.

Didn't wanna go with that frog.

Looks like Riley Kitchell will

be holding on to that top spot.

Yes!

Up next, we have Jon Kitchell.

Jon has lost every frog

jump for the last 37 years.

Thirty-seven years.

What do you think?

We'll go with it.

Thirty-eighth time's the charm.

When my son and I were talking,

I'd help him any way I can

Any of my teammates, help them all I can,

but I will step right on their

throat on the way by to win it,

as they would, too. If they're not,

they're in the wrong business.

Jon Kitchell with his frog,

"Dennis Hopper."

I like this frog.

Break the record!

Twenty-one feet, five

inches, three quarters.

That is the distance

between Jon and his dream.

Jon's first jump has a solid seven feet.

A promising start for the perennial loser.

Jon's second jump is

an incredible nine feet,

and only 71 inches now stand between Jon

and history.

If that frog goes straight,

The world record,

the Hop of Fame,

and $5,000, pre-tax.

Oh, come on!

Dang it!

Oh, man. Oof.

Froggin' A, dude.

Froggin' A.

Maybe 39th time's the charm.

Seventeen feet, two and a quarter inches.

I may be the best that never was.

My eyes are bad.

Who has that top jump up there?

I don't know, I can't spell it.

One day, you will have

one of these buckles.

Just not this year.

Everybody goes in with the mindset of,

"I'm gonna win this thing,"

but in the back of your mind, you're like,

"Oh, man, if that actually wins,

my name's gonna be

embedded in the sidewalk."

I'm gonna have to change

my phone number after that.

With Riley leaping into the lead,

the only thing standing between him

and another Calaveras

Team trophy is this

12-year-old.

We have Logan Busch

with "The Webbed One."

Two years ago, I think I got 13th place,

and I thought that was really good, so,

my chances are

average.

This is the final jump.

All right, Logan's gonna set that frog.

That probably took

over the lead right there.

Who was that?

That little kid?

Eighteen feet, six.

Eighteen feet, six inches.

No matter how many frogs you catch,

no matter how hard you train,

no matter how many times

you step up to that lily pad,

some years, victory is just out of reach.

Our winner this year,

Logan Busch.

That's always been a dream,

walking out there and getting the trophy,

and having the plaque on the walk of fame.

The whole experience, it's just a blast.

On one thing, winners and losers agree:

Today's competition was

"ribbiting."

Those kids were good.

They knew what they were doing.

And my hat's off to them, because it's

This is a tough thing to win.

It's it's very difficult to win.

Next year.

We're coming back next year.

On our side, it's a bit

of the agony of defeat.

You know, we work hard, we play hard,

we come here to win,

but it's just so much bigger than that.

It's that family unity.

We were all together,

we all had a great time,

and we're gonna talk

about it all year long.

The frog jump could? Go

either way, it doesn't matter,

because it's more than just a competition.

It's a family tradition that

It really bonds us.

That's part? Of the reason why

we've been here for 62 years.

Gustine Frog Team!

The Calaveras County Frog Jumping Jubilee.

We're going to get all our frogs,

we're going to take them back

to where we caught them from,

wish them a great year,

and tell them we'll be

back next year to do it again.

We are professional frog jumpers.

Should it be in the Olympics? I don't know.

A group of toads is called a knot,

a group of frogs

is an army,

a group of frog jockeys,

that's a family.

And family knows

whether you're in first place

or dead, stinkin' last,

it doesn't matter.

Ultimately, we're all on the same team.

So, when any of us leap,

we all leap,

because we're all at

that lily pad together,

and because we

are

the champions.