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Cindy Garrison embodies the sportsman’s ideal. Whether swimming with
sailfish in Guatemala or hunting lion in South Africa, the fearless
host of ESPN Outdoors’s Get Wild with Cindy Garrison lives according to
the maxim “The more dangerous, the better.” That, and perhaps something
to do with her flawless looks, has men everywhere waking up early on
Sunday mornings to see what the blond bombshell will do next. (Did we
mention she’s single?) Research Editor Tom Tiberio recently caught up
with the modern-day Artemis to talk about breaking into a man’s world,
her hatred of big cities, and why elephants are attracted to blondes.
 How did you first get turned on to the outdoors?
We [my three sisters and I] were born into a family of avid outdoorsmen. We have a house in Northern California, and that’s where we went to school. But we always had a cattle ranch in Oregon, where we would spend every long weekend, every summer. Horseback riding, camping, hunting, fishing, water-skiing. I don’t remember anything but being in the outdoors. I’ve got pictures of myself in diapers catching my first fish.
I can’t imagine too many kids in Marin County doing the hunting-and-fishing thing.
I never fit in, in school. Ever. It was hard to find friends that I could relate to, because only guys had the same likes. I was always different from everybody. And it’s just because I loved the outdoors so much—when everybody else was into materialistic stuff. The last thing I wanted to do was go play dress-up, or go shopping. I just wanted to do all the stuff that guys did.
And your career path is consistent with that.
We were brought up in a different mindset—like there’s no difference between a male and a female. It was not, girls play with dolls and boys go out and hunt and fish. Because my mom was always out there. She is a phenomenal fly-caster. So we never saw any difference, even with our parents. I mean, my poor dad, he tried so hard for a son. [Laughs.]
Did you find it difficult to break into the industry?
Being a guide was tough. A lot of men would come up to Alaska and when they would be given me as their guide, they would refuse to go out. Literally, guys right in front of me saying, “I’m not going out with a woman.” And I’m still grinning and I’m 21 and it’s hard to hold back the tears. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t doubt myself, thinking, “What the hell am I doing?” But I couldn’t imagine going through life doing something just to make money. So I had to succeed.
Did you always know this was what you wanted to do?
No. The only thing I knew was it had to be rugged. I knew I wanted to do something where there were wild animals, it was dangerous, and just completely wild.
When I was seven years old, I wrote down a list. And every year I would add to that list of goals to do in a lifetime. I had over 100 things. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro, run with the bulls in Pamplona, travel here, travel there. And I still have this list today. It’s so cool, because I’ve crossed off everything. Well, almost everything.
Are you surprised that you have your own show?
I never in a million years thought I would be doing television. But it’s fabulous. Every day I’m in shock. It’s like, “Why am I on TV?”
Yet you appear to be really comfortable in front of a camera. Did that take some getting used to?
Honestly, from day one, I’ve never seen the cameras there. It just doesn’t register to me, because I’m having so much fun, and I’m in my element. So there’s a piece of metal being pushed in my face, but I don’t care because I’ve got a kick-ass fish on the end of my line. [Laughs.]
What do you love most about your job?
The adventure. You can never have enough adventure in your life. And the greatest thing for me is, a lot of people who are not involved in the outdoors are watching the show and thinking, “We want to go out and try that because she makes it look fun.” If we can get more people to enjoy the outdoors, then they’ll be more apt to practice conservation and we’ll be able to enjoy the outdoors for a lot longer.
 What’s the hairiest situation you’ve ever been in?
Oh, my God—you only want one? [Laughs.] Well, there was the time we were coming back from hunting lion in Botswana, and we see this elephant. It’s about two hundred yards away, and he starts swaying. Well, I hear this kind of cracking and look over, and the elephant seems to be closer. “OK,” I’m thinking, “I must be seeing things.” Then all of a sudden, I hear this crashing behind us, and this elephant comes for us at full force, his head down on the ground. When they put their head on the ground, that means they’re coming to kill you. And he was coming for me, because of my blond hair. Elephants do not like blond hair because they equate it to lions. So he was coming straight for me.
Naturally.
He’s like 15 yards away and still coming. Well, we shot at his head, but away from his brain, so we wouldn’t kill him. But he just kept coming. His trunk swung at my feet and knocked me and two other people over. The elephant fell down, spun around three times—there’s just dust everywhere—and then he gets up and takes off.
You seem not to have a problem with putting yourself—usually voluntarily—in harm’s way. Do you ever worry about the risks involved?
No, the more dangerous, the more I love it. The race-car driver gets off on racing cars fast; I get off on having an elephant charge me. To me, that’s what living is all about—the unknown, and having random things happen.
So is there anything that scares you?
I’m more afraid of people than I am of any animals or bugs or anything like that. You know, drop me off on 5th Avenue in New York and I’ll have a complete meltdown.
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