‘It was challenging’: Grand Strand teacher appears on ‘I Survived Bear Grylls’

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) - A Grand Strand teacher went from grading papers to putting himself to the test after a joke landed him face-to-face with a TV star.

English teacher Roca Williams said he was sitting at his computer when his girlfriend sent him an email about a survival competition.

Williams said he filled out the application as a joke, but things quickly became real.

“The producers I guess liked it and contacted me and asked me if I’d like to be on the show,” said Williams.

Next thing you know, Williams was training for the new reality competition “I Survived Bear Grylls.”

However, Williams said he wasn’t going into the competition with zero skills.

He said he started learning different ways to survive years ago after watching well-known adventurer Bear Grylls himself on TV and successfully hiking the Appalachian trail.

“That really got me into it because I didn’t die. I thought, okay I’m good at this so I’ll keep doing it. So, it’s kind of been off and on for the last decade or so,” said Williams.

His training intensified months before going onto the show.

Williams said he went to the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve every day and started walking 12 miles, setting up hammocks and practicing starting fires from wet tinder.

“Being out here I kind of got the privacy I needed to be able to focus on building the skills that I needed,” said Williams.

Before he knew it, he was in Atlanta with four other people putting those skills to the test.

“We get out there and it’s a huge area that is all kinds of obstacles, scenarios and different seasons. It was challenging, to say the least,” said Williams.

He couldn’t go into specifics on what the challenges were, but he said some of them were pretty gross.

“Anytime you have to eat or drink something you don’t typically eat or drink, it’s a challenge,” said Williams.

Williams said he never could have imagined he’d be in this situation, but he encourages others to step outside of their comfort zone.

“Try it. That’s step one. Just do it. There’s a lot of people who make plans they want to do something, think about or research doing something and then they never actually do it. The hardest part is step one, getting out there and deciding I am going to go outside today and see what happens,” said Williams.

You can watch Williams compete for $10,000 on “I Survived Bear Grylls” Thursday on TBS.

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