2015.04.17 Discovery (
2:44)
2015.04.17 New York Post
The new season of Discovery Channel’s “Naked and Afraid” (premiering Sunday at 10 p.m.) is promising its harshest challenges yet — so who better to take those on than its first New York survivalist?
Westchester resident Charlie Frattini appears on the May 24 episode of the reality show, where he’s paired with female partner Dani Beauchemin. They must try to survive in the remote Colombian wilderness for 21 days without food, water — or clothes.
“This was without a doubt the toughest thing I have done in my life,” Frattini, a former US Marine, tells The Post.
At 52, he’s also the oldest person to ever compete in “Naked and Afraid.” But Frattini, now a construction professional, was well-trained in survival skills from his four years in the military as well as his adopted “prepper” lifestyle.
He lives with his wife in Croton-on-Hudson surrounded by 900 acres of forest, where he moved to raise his two sons — ages 21 and 18 — with survival skills useful in case of a societal catastrophe, teaching them to make shelter and hunt prey.
For his episode in the Colombian Amazon, he endured temperatures that dropped to 60 degrees at night (which is chilly when you have no clothes) and hit 100 degrees during the day, went three days without food, and faced his greatest fear, bats — all for mere bragging rights (contestants receive only a small stipend for their troubles).
The Post chatted with Frattini about why he wanted to join the show, the weirdest thing he ate and the hardest part of being naked for three weeks.
Why did you sign up for ‘Naked and Afraid’?
One is my father. My father is the toughest man I know — he’s 86 years old and in a tremendous amount of pain every single day. He’s been my hero and I wanted him to know his son is as tough as he is. I did it for [my children] to show them that Daddy practices what he preaches. The last reason is that I wanted to show that I’ve still got it to myself.
What kind of outdoor training do you have?
I trained as a jungle survivalist in the Philippines and I went to advanced jungle training in Panama, which was excellent because Panama is one country above where I was for “Naked and Afraid.” So I was kind of familiar with the environment. The only difference is that I had more of a supply of food when I was in the Marine Corps, and I was definitely clothed.
Did you encounter wildlife? Insects?
The king of the jungle is the ant. I’ve had ants in parts of my body that are unbelievable. And they bite and they stay there.
What did you eat?
We found a lot of plant life to eat, some smaller animals. [The weirdest thing was] I ate a lot of toads. On average I figure I ate 125 to 200 calories per day. I was 198 pounds when I went in and [was] used to 3,000 to 5,000 calories per day.
What was the hardest part?
The only time I can say I honestly wanted to quit was when I was dehydrated. We were by a river; I learned how to make canteens out of bamboo in the Philippines and I used that knowledge to be able to boil the water. But I’m losing 3 liters of water a day and I’m getting maybe 6 cups back. After the second day I was actually delirious. But I was of the mindset, even when I was thirsty: You’re going to die in the jungle or you’re going to get out the right way.
How did you feel about the requirement of being naked?
That was hard, getting naked the first time. I would get through it by saying, I am treating this as a real and true survival situation. The hardest part is no shoes. I trained my feet prior to going by walking around barefoot a lot. When you take your clothes off, you’re exposed to every bug, every insect, every leaf, every vine, every thorn — everything you can imagine. Finding a mango tree is a wonderful thing when you’re hungry — now you’ve got to climb that damn tree and get them, but you can’t just shimmy up like a little 14-year-old because stuff is hanging out all over the place.
Did you get along with your partner?
We got along very well. She’s half my age. We did have a couple of arguments that lasted about an hour. It’s hard enough living with somebody, it takes years to learn, and [here] you’re rushed into that environment with somebody. We’re actually good friends, we still speak.
No hanky-panky went on. Everybody asks me, “You’ve got to be sleeping with that girl” — are you crazy? I want to eat, I want to drink and I want to not get eaten by bugs. We weren’t there to complicate it — we were there to be the most platonic of partners that helped each other as we could.
What was the first thing you did when you got home?
Kissed my wife. And I did not eat what I thought I would eat when I was away, burgers and stuff. I stayed a vegetarian for 4½ months.
