This craze that swept the chilly waters of Washingtonâs Puget Sound in the 1950s and â60s wonât be making a comeback. Hereâs what you need to know about it.
Absolutely! At the height of the sportâs popularity, dozens of top wrestlers gathered in Tacoma in front of a crowd of thousands to compete in the World Octopus Wrestling Championships.
With the help of friends. Working in teams of two or three, divers would descend as far as 60 feet to the octopusâs lair. The team would actually âwrestleâ the octopus by painstakingly detaching the creatureâs suction cups and unwrapping its tentacles before slowly bringing the quarry to surface. Once on shore, the giant beastsâ which grow as large as 20 feet from tentacle tip to tip and can weigh up to 150 poundsâ were tossed on a scale for judging.
Mainly patience. Also, remembering that youâre not wrestling a person. A 1964 True magazine piece summarized what made the grappler OâRourke such a legend: âHe knew full well the futility of trying for a crotch hold on an opponent with eight crotches.â
Once brought to surface and weighed, defeated octopi would hang out in aquarium tanks until the judging was over. Some were sent to local research labs, but most were escorted back into the ocean.
Washington killed the trend with a 1976 law that made it a misdemeanor to âmolestâ or âharassâ an octopus. So far, zero dolphins have been brought in on charges.
According to three-time octopus wrestling champ Gary Keffler, giant Pacific octopuses get a bad rap. As he told The Seattle Times , âPeople always hear these awful stories about them, killers of the deep. The ones we have here are pretty laid-back.â
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