Family man, firefighter, and master hookmaker Chris Woodcock shares with us his herpetocultural career that led to educating first responders about venomous snakebites, and making the finest of snake handling equipment!
HM: So Chris, what got you into snakes and herpetology?
CW: Unlike most people that get asked this question in our hobby, I was afraid of snakes as a kid. When I was in the third grade, I took on fishing pretty frequently. I remember seeing a snake swimming as I was casting my line, and I was terrified! Around that same time, I had a childhood neighbor who kept snakes. He had recently caught a wild yellow rat snake, and showed it to me. Seeing this wild animal up close and personal let me realize that snakes were actually pretty cool and I fell in love.
HM: At what age did you get your first snake?
CW: I was about 10 years old, and it was a wild red rat snake. Growing up in Longwood Florida, I did a lot of childhood herping. Needless to say, there were many red rat snakes over the years. And things got even more fun in 1990 when my parents opened a pet shop that they had for over 10 years.
HM: When did the firefighting and venom education stuff kick in?
CW: I was always interested in venomous species and the amazing abilities of venoms. However, in my late teens, priorities took over, and getting into college was a major priority. It was recommended to me to become a firefighter and paramedic, and the Fire Department would pay for my schooling. So I went for it.
In 2006 I started teaching at the local tech college for their EMT and paramedic program. I found that their textbooks for both classes were giving information that was not accurate when it came to venomous bites and stings from reptiles to marine animals. When I mentioned it to the head of the EMS department at that school, she asked me to come up with a class to teach all of the EMT and paramedic students. That turned into me teaching once a semester on the subject. From there, I gave talks to local fire departments, community colleges and oddly enough, Duke Energy.
HM: when did you start keeping venomous personally?
CW: I didn’t. I had worked with countless Florida native venomous throughout my life, and realized I needed to expand my horizons. In 2010, Florida had begun its strict licensing for venomous possession, and I knew I had to get training at a facility. I was lucky enough to find an opening for an internship at MedToxin Labs in DeLand Florida, under direction of Carl Barden. Working for Carl, I could start getting my required hours of handling for the FL venomous license. I worked with Carl for several years and in 2014 I had gone to Tulsa, Oklahoma for a seminar on the biology of pit vipers. It was at this seminar that I met Brent Schulze, and we’ve been friends ever since.
HM: Is this where your partnership with Brent kicked off?
CW: Not yet. I was still working with Carl, and the thought of making snake hooks hadn’t quite happened yet. Carl had a few snake hooks made a long time ago by a company that no longer exists. Carl called them “Lab Hooks” and they were the best! Highly coveted by Carl, and he wasn’t about to give them to me. At some point, Carl sent two of the lab hooks to a commercial hook maker to try and have more of them re-created for the venom lab. But they were never produced.
I was annoyed that I couldn’t have my own set of these lab hooks and that’s what drove me to look at making my own. I started finding used old golf clubs at yard sales. I would cut the heads off and start bending my own hooks out of aluminum round bar from local hardware stores. But I wanted to make better ones that didn’t look like I got them from a yard sale. I learned that golf pro shops frequently take in used clubs that are in great shape. I Purchased those barely used clubs and progressively made over 30 hooks in a few weeks.
HM: At this point, you’re firefighting, training with venomous, making your own hooks, and you met Brent. When did Venom Life Gear and Get Hooked become a thing?
CW: After I made those first 30 hooks, I posted online that I had hooks that I was looking to sell. But I needed a catchy name. I wanted to use the name “Hook This!” But the wife said no! She thought people may find it offensive. So we went with Get Hooked instead. Brent saw the posts about the hooks and wanted in! Brent was in the zoology program at Fort Hays State University in Kansas, and was also a member of multiple organizations that had fellow herpers as members. He told me he could get my hooks in the hands of people that wanted them and get the name out there. So I sent a few hooks to Brent for him to try and sell. We realized we had a good thing going, so in 2015 the partnership was born. We came up with some great ideas for different hook options, such as color and style. Things that would set our hooks apart from the other hooks on the market.
We decided to do some Hydro-dipping for some custom projects and we got friendly with the Hydro dipper. He told us we should jump on the Salt Life bandwagon and do something with a snake theme. He recommended “Venom life.” We thought this was a fun idea, so we had a few tumbler cups and stickers made with the words Venom Life on them. It wasn’t until later, when Brent and I went to an entrepreneurial workshop in Colorado, that we really expanded on the Venom Life idea.
During that workshop, people were divided down into smaller groups and given a personal mentor. Our mentor’s name was Kevin, and Kevin had some brilliant ideas for branding. So we showed him one of the Venom Life stickers we had made up. Kevin fell in love with the idea and brought it to the workshop’s leader. “You guys are sitting on a gold mine,” the leader said. “Venom transcends everything, BRAND IT!” The week after the workshop, Brent and I decided on the name “Venom Life Gear” and immediately got it patented. It wasn’t until 2018 when I retired from the fire department, that I could go full-time with Venom Life Gear and Get Hooked.
HM: What are some of your ideas and goals for the future of Venom Life Gear?
CW: We’re always trying to come up with new and innovative ideas. Many of the current hooks we offer now were ideas and suggestions from people that had purchased our hooks previously. Shane Smith was the one who asked us to make the Viper series and Gaboon hooks. Mike Vescio asked us to make the Neonate hooks. The Rack Tool (aka, Drawer Puller) was an idea from a local breeder here in Central Florida, George Emde. We love getting feedback from our customers.
We’re working with some new manufacturers and suppliers of our materials, so we can produce better quality products and better prices for the end-user. We’re also still heavily proactive in the education of snake bites and snake handling. In 2017, Brent and I met Jordan Benjamin, founder of the Asclepius Snakebite Foundation, at a Venom conference at Zoo Miami. We saw what this ambitious young man was doing to help with the most neglected tropical disease in the world, Snake Bite, and we wanted to help. Brent and I are both members of the Asclepius Snakebite Foundation, and Venom Life Gear is going to continue to partner with ASF for the foreseeable future. We aspire to do our best to help both humans and Snakes.
