The Discovery Channel filmed the wrap-up of its fifth season of Deadliest Catch \u2013 called “After the Catch” \u2013 at RT\u2019s Longboard Grill in Pacific Beach during the second week of June. “Deadliest Catch” is a documentary turned docu-drama about the hardcore life of Alaska\u2019s fishermen \u2014 modern-day heroes and icons of doom riding the high seas in their relentless quest to catch King crab. A spin-off from the original series, “After the Catch” shows the colorful captains kicked back and celebrating their season at sea. The show takes fishing out of Alaska and off the Bering Sea to ride a wave of popularity in cities steeped in maritime heritage. San Diego is the third city after Seattle and Gloucester, Mass. where “After the Catch” has been filmed. RT\u2019s owner Doug Trenton was as surprised as anyone when the show\u2019s co-producers visited unannounced and said the restaurant was the perfect filming location. The Discovery Channel bought out the bar \u2013 with its wooden booths, long boards and big screen TVs \u2013 and all 63 employees got a week\u2019s paid vacation with tips. RT\u2019s has its own connection to the sea, a back story of love and loss. The restaurant is named after Doug\u2019s brother, Ron, a well-known San Diego lifeguard and writer who died in 1997 after he set out in his single-engine Piper Warrior on a solo whale watching trip to Catalina. Neither he nor his plane was ever recovered. A 30-year lifeguard veteran credited with saving more than 1,000 lives, Ron dreamt of opening a restaurant after he retired. Brothers Doug and Craig fulfilled his dream and named it RT\u2019s Longboard Grill in memory of Ron. During a lunch break on the set of “After the Catch,” Trenton sits down at an oversized captain\u2019s table \u2013 the only prop brought in by the show that is signed by the water warriors and left behind. Captains Monte Colburn of the Wizard and Sig Hansen of the Northwestern are telling stories of hauling crab pots and riding waves. Hansen, red-eyed and chain smoking, is nursing a cocktail, a hair-of-the-dog to calm the roiling waters from the previous night\u2019s party at World Famous where Hansen helped close the bar. “In Gloucester the fans and fishing community were waiting for us in the pouring rain,” Hansen said. “San Diego is so casual; no one\u2019s showing their boobies. Everyone here is really cool. We saw some guys who said, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re one of those fishing dudes.\u2019” Accustomed to the perils and pit falls of fishing and Alaska\u2019s last-frontier free-for-all where a good day includes a black eye and a bar brawl, the blue collar seafarers enjoyed the ocean\u2019s gentler side in San Diego. Except for one thing. “The no-smoking law here sucks,” Hansen said, exhaling a bilious cloud of Camel smoke. The crew stayed at the Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa on Mission Boulevard and submerged themselves in the neighborhood bars. “San Diego is like a secret,” Hansen was quick to add. “The coast is pretty with the ocean on the outside and bay on the inside. If I wanted to take a break I\u2019d take my family down here.” The five-episodes of “After the Catch” feature Sea World, Belmont Park, the USS Midway, surfing, the Navy, the Coast Guard and local fishermen. Throughout the show the ship captains wade through San Diego\u2019s seaside recreation and military offerings. Capt. Keith Colburn gets an early morning surfing lesson; Andy Hillstrand falls from the sky in a tandem jump with the Navy; and Hansen takes a ride with the Coast Guard. And then they return to RT\u2019s to talk about the fishing life. Has the lure of Hollywood softened America\u2019s hardest working men revered for their take-no-prisoners posture? “People know bullshit when they hear it,” Hansen said. “We\u2019re for real and people know it. None of us is here to be in Hollywood.” “Fishing is a means to an end,” Colburn said. “We all have mouths to feed and that\u2019s it. At the end of the day we\u2019re still hauling crab pots and busting ice.” The show\u2019s pop culture status “was never the intent,” said Hansen, who boasted of kicking film crews off his ship. “We did it the first year as a documentary and it just kept snowballing.” Still, Hansen said he\u2019ll continue to make the show as long as it\u2019s profitable. “It\u2019s good for the fleet,” he said. “You can\u2019t buy this notoriety, and the price of crab is up.” The San Diego episodes of “After the Catch,” hosted by Ben Bailey of the zany Cash Cab show, air on the Discovery Channel Tuesdays at 9 p.m. through July.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Discovery Channel filmed the wrap-up of its fifth season of Deadliest Catch \u2013 called “After the Catch” \u2013 at RT\u2019s Longboard Grill in Pacific Beach during the second week of June. “Deadliest Catch” is a documentary turned docu-drama about the hardcore life of Alaska\u2019s fishermen \u2014 modern-day heroes and icons of doom riding the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":284692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"RT\u2019s Longboard Grill reels in fame","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11559,11547,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-beach-bay-press","category-features","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}