Jamie Susslin a natural as host of 'Ultimate Sportsman'
- October 14, 2010
Jamie Susslin would have made an excellent candidate for the "Ultimate Sportsman" reality TV show on Versus: She's been hunting and fishing since she was a little girl, she's intensely competitive and she's a good shot.
But contestant wasn't what producer Tim Gauthier had in mind for the 44-year-old Loomis resident when he approached her at a Wild Sheep Foundation convention a few years ago. He wanted Susslin to host it.
Her reaction? "I said, 'Let me think about it. … Yes.' "
That conversation led to one of the more unusual turns in Susslin's varied career, which has included being a police officer, a private investigator, a small-business owner and a real estate agent.
Susslin's mother, Dianne Henry of Sacramento, couldn't have predicted that her daughter would one day host a TV show, but the fact that Susslin's new undertaking revolves around hunting and fishing comes as no surprise at all.
When their family moved to rural Pennsylvania from California, little Jamie took to outdoor pursuits with gusto. Her stepfather got her a BB gun, and she immediately put it to use.
"I have this picture of her coming home with a bird in a brown paper bag," Henry said. "I don't think her stepdad was home, but I remember her being so excited to show him that she got this bird with the BB gun he had given her."
And Susslin wanted to fish so much that she didn't wait for anyone to give her a fishing pole. "I got a stick and found a line and got a hook and found a worm and put it on there," she said. And she actually caught a fish.
Hunting and fishing took a back seat when Susslin followed her mother back to the Bay Area after graduating from high school – her adventures there were of a more urban nature.
After graduating from CSU Hayward (now CSU East Bay) with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, Susslin became a BART police officer. But that career came to an end less than five years later when she was chasing a suspected crack cocaine dealer in the Mission district of San Francisco.
"The guy ran between two parked cars on Mission Street. I grabbed the back of his shirt, and my hand slipped off of him and he fell into the street. I was on his heels so I was right on top of him."
She fell with all her weight on her left wrist, which snapped. She looked up to see a car speeding toward her – all she could see was a flash of chrome – and she rolled back toward the sidewalk, missing being hit by a fraction of an inch.
The car struck the suspect, who lived. And Susslin's wrist sustained enough permanent damage – the treatment included a bone fusion – that she was forced to retire from BART on disability.
"I thought it was the worst thing that had ever happened to me," she said. But now she realizes it was for the best, because it opened so many opportunities for her.
When she recovered, she got her private investigator's license and went to work for the District Attorney's Office in San Joaquin County, serving subpoenas to people to get them to appear in court. "I loved it because it was the chase," she said.
By this time, she was getting more involved again in hunting and fishing with her first husband, and that's when she conceived her first business. They were attending a fundraising banquet for Ducks Unlimited when Susslin took note of the beautiful young women who were selling raffle tickets there.
"I could do that," she told her husband.
"You're not like those girls," he told her.
"I don't have to be to sell tickets," she replied.
So she tried it once and "kicked butt." She worked one more dinner and liked it so much that she decided to start a promotions company that raised money at hunting and conservation events. She began to make connections in the hunting world.
Susslin was invited to be a guest speaker at the Wild Sheep Foundation's national convention in 2007. Producer Gauthier was there, too. He'd known her for several years by this time, but seeing how she handled herself in front of a big audience made him think she'd be a perfect host for a TV show he was planning – a competition among 12 men and women for the title of "Ultimate Sportsman."
"She's a heck of a hunter, a heck of a shot," he said. "She's very smart, very quick and witty – she worked out really well."
Perhaps her biggest admirer is her husband of six years, Mike Susslin. He describes meeting this knockout blonde who told him she loved hiking. "I've run into that problem before – they say they like to hike, then walk out half a mile and that's it."
This woman was the real deal. Their first date was a 17-mile hike in Mendocino in which he had a hard time keeping up with her – perhaps in part because she'd accidentally left behind his hiking boots, leaving him to hike in his Teva sandals. But when he developed a blister, she was ready with her blister kit.
Hiking-boot problem forgotten. He was impressed. They married a couple of years later, and she has never stopped impressing him with her skills and attitude.
The first time he took her to a shooting range, she was so accurate that she shot the black bull's-eye completely out of the target. The first time she picked up a bow, she started hitting bull's-eyes almost immediately.
When he introduced her to fly-fishing, it was the same thing. One time they went out with a guide to fish for cutthroat trout, and the guide mentioned that there was one hole with a giant fish that his clients could never get.
"Jamie heard 'never' and that's it, she has to do it. She does a perfect cast, the fly tumbles over, drops, has about half a foot float and she yanks out the biggest cutthroat of the whole trip."
As a couple, they are fiercely competitive. "When we fish," Jamie Susslin said, "we have three criteria: Who catches the first fish? Who catches the most fish? Who catches the biggest fish? You can lay claim to any of those or all three. You're the grandmaster if you get all three, and you really have bragging rights."
So being the host of a competition show, rather than a competitor, is a little odd for Susslin. She got the job in part because of her outdoor skills, but she neither hunts nor fishes on the show, leaving that to the contestants.
She loves the experience because it lets her spend time in the outdoors and promote conservation.
The TV gig hasn't replaced her day job as an agent for Lyon Real Estate in Roseville.
"If I could hunt and fish and spend my time outdoors and talk to people and spread a great message full-time?" she said. "Absolutely, I would do that."
JAMIE SUSSLIN
Who: Host of the Versus channel's "Ultimate Sportsman," a hunting and fishing reality TV show.
Personal: She lives in Loomis with her husband of six years, Mike Susslin, and two Jack Russell "terrierists," Bella and Vino Valentino. She watches very little TV at home – mostly cooking shows, particularly Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" on the Travel Channel and "Iron Chef" on the Food Network.
Past hunting grounds: Austria, New Zealand, Fiji, British Columbia, South Africa and all over North America.
Memberships: California Waterfowl, Granite Bay Flycasters, National Rifle Association, Sacramento Safari Club, Safari Club International, Wild Sheep Foundation.
About the show: "The Ultimate Sportsman" appears on Versus at 7 a.m. Thursdays. The 22-episode series, which began July 29, pits 12 contestants against one another in hunting, fishing and conservation-related contests for the title "Ultimate Sportsman."
Read article: