"Family's so important to me because I don't have anything else." "I don't have anything else at all." "What makes a family is if they stick together through thick and thin." "If everything goes bad in the end and they pull together, that's what makes them a family." "They need to trust me just a little bit more." "I'm gonna make this work." "Please, god, let me find gold today." "Check out that rainbow, man." "That's a good sign." "You know, I wanna hang onto it for myself." "It'sgettin'pretty rough up here, jordan." "thesearetheactions of a desperate man." "In the merciless mining community of nome, alaska, the only thing you can ever truly rely on is family." "But for these miners, gold fever can test even the strongest bonds." "But as the old saying goes, blood is even thicker than the salty waters of the bering sea." "I gotta get in the water and dive, so I can make my goal." "But I can't just sh..." "Close the doors on my company because dave's not here." "Rookie captain george young is gearing up for another day on the bering sea." "And for the first time, he won't have his brother watching over his shoulder." "Dave don't want me to get in the water until he's here." "But, um, if that has to happen, it's gonna happen." "I gotta make money." "You know, if I owned a frickin' grocery store and he said," ""don't open till I come,"" "too bad, man." "I already put it in the newspapers." "I'm opening my doors." "You know?" "Well, here's my newspaper article." "If the seas are good, I'm diving." "It's another beautiful day on the bering sea!" "Now, let's get some gold." "George came to nome riding his brother's coattails." "But when his brother left town, he had one last request." "Well, I'm on my own." "Now, george has a choice..." "Defy big brother, or risk his 100-ounce goal for the season." "Before I even came up here, my brother was very concerned with me diving and how dangerous it can me." "He tells me, you know, "you don't need to dive." "Just... that's why you have divers." "Let them dive."" "and that's just not me." "I'm..." "I'm gonna dive." "My plan for today is we're gonna head on down to the mound east of town." "I owe my brother a ton of money." "Haven't even paid him back anything yet." "But I'm doing the best I can with what I got." "Today, george hopes to change his luck by heading to a new claim that holds unique possibilities." "I have authorization to go on claim nine." "And it's over on the other side of the nome river." "It's normally a little deeper water." "But I noticed on the gps that there was a mound on it that came up to, like, 8 feet of water." "So I thought, you know, "hey."" ""That seems like a logical place to find gold, is, it might be settling right there."" "you gotta take risks." "You ain't gonna get no rewards if you can't..." "Unless you take risks." "For the first time in his mining career, george is stepping out of his brother's shadow... fire in the hole!" "To make a name for himself on the bering sea." "I'm gonna be minin' 'cause I love mining'." "Being a miner pretty much, um, means freedom to me." "And, um, I love the freedom of diving." "So it means a lot to me." "Can you hear me, george?" "I can hear you." "This don't look like bad ground." "Pretty decent looking." "Let me know when you're ready." "Go ahead and power up." "Poweringup." "I just wanna dig this hole and see what I got." "What do you see, george?" "And, bunch of red clay." "But I'm not seeing a dang bit of gold," "I can tell you that." "I got a nice rock that seems to be ledged right here." "Maybe there's something under it." "Come on, baby." "Have some gold." "Show me the money." "I'mseeinggold!" " You got it, george." " There we go." "God, it looks so good." "Damn it, I just seen a bunch of gold go up." "This is a pretty damn good spot." "Show me the money!" "Yeah." "I'veactuallynever seen anything like this," "I'mtellingyou." "Yeah, damn, that..." "That's probably the best I've seen right there." "Well, that really pulled me back up there." "Seemed to have gotten a little, turbulent down here, maybe." "What's the seas looking like?" "Looks like it's starting to pick up." "George may have finally hit a pay streak, but the bering sea isn't giving up the gold without a fight." "Come on." "Gettingprettywavy,boys?" "Yeah, it's getting pretty rough." "Come on, you damn hose." "All right, got it." "George,youmayhave to come up." "With the seas getting rougher by the minute..." "Giveme5!" "Giveme5 !" " We don't have 5." " We don't have 5." "George's day could be over already." "It'll be hard to get me off of this." "Everywhere!" "But the rookie is determined to weather the storm." "It's george's call." "But I think dave would be freaking out, man." "He would've called it." "Five miles to the west, back in nome harbor..." "Shawn pomrenke's mining operation is geared up for another day on the bering sea." "But there's just one problem." "Trying to get my back back in." "It slipped out again." "Now I'm in horrible pain." "I have a..." "A fractured vertebrae and a ruptured disk in the lower back." "When I was younger, there was a three-wheeler accident." "And the rack hit me in the back and took that vertebrae in, smashed it in." "Usually I can work through it, but this time I broke it for good." "For years..." "Yeah!" "The physical challenges of mining on the bering sea have taken their toll on mr." "Gold." "The boss is dying, man." "And now that the chronic injury has reared its ugly head, the entire pomrenke empire could be at risk." "I'm in constant pain." "There's no relief at all." "So I'm looking for somebody to fix me up." "In nome's small-boat harbor." "Okay, we're ready to go." "Staring down the back half of the season..." "I hope to god there's a lot of gold." "It's do or die for kris kelly." "We'll see what happens." "I don't know." "Only god knows what's gonna happen, right?" "So they're putting their noses to the cobblestone." " I got a good feeling!" " God." " Don't tell me that." " Come on, man." "Today's the last day of this cobblestone place." "You know, we're not going back there if we don't find anything good today." "Nope." "The season..." "You know, we can't take the chance on losing our gold and not getting paid our royalties." "The family's bad reputation in town has made access to claims a challenge." "And even when they've landed one..." "I got too many bills to pay." "You can't do this." "In typical kelly fashion, it's always falling apart." "Now..." "Let's concentrate on the gold that we're gonna get today." "So you can... yeah, we are gonna get gold then." "The family may be down to their final chance." "Everything's gonna work out great." "Yeah." "You know this is a really good chance..." "So can pigs fly." "You could win the lottery, too." "Forty miles east of nome, the owner of the untapped cobblestone claim has given the kellys 2 days to prove there's gold on the site in return for the opportunity to mine the claim for the rest of the summer." "Here you go." "There's gonna be big gold at the cobblestone claim." "Yeah, it's gonna be something in a little bit." "So after many failed attempts to get big gold, I want success." "I don't want mediocrity, you know?" "I don't want little bits." "I want something big." "I mean vegas jackpot big." "Okay, let's get going." "Idle up." "Okay." " Money's wasting'." " Let's do this." "We need to go over here, prove ourselves that we can find gold." "And if we can't find gold for them, we're gonna be..." "We're... we'll be screwed." "Hey, am I in front of the boat?" "No." "You'rerightonthe right-hand side of the boat whereyoujumpedin." "Really?" "Yeah, really." "About a foot away from it, actually." "The riverbed." "Nice." "Okay." "Nozzle." "Andy, I'm telling you." "The whole bottom of the ocean right here is one solid rock." "That'sawesome." "So you just gotta punch some holes." "Hopefully I find it real soon." "Okay." "Why, what do you think you've found?" "I mean, there's little bits of gold right here in the black." "But I'm just not finding enough of a concentration to get excited." "Yeah, really, it's a joke." "I'm really only finding, like, grams an hour." "Maybe less." "Three grams an hour is less than $40 each for the kelly boys." "You idiot, kris." "Not exactly the jackpot kris was looking for." "I gotta find something better." "Yes,pleasedo ." "Find me something more than a gram and a half an hour." "Really, I'm finding..." "I'm... okay." "Well, I'm finding gold just clearing the bottom of this thing." "And I'm telling you..." "I'm telling you, this is gonna be a good spot." "We just need some real time to make it here." "Justcalmdown." "Don't be a bitch whiner." "I am not a for failing or using excuses or..." "I really just need to turn this into some money." "These are the actions of a desperate man." "35 miles west on claim nine..." " I'm seeing gold." " Copy that." "Despite rough waters..." "We got tons of possibilities in this spot." "George young is 5 hours into his first dive without his brother topside." "Right where the anchor is." "This is cheesy as." "This frickin' rock is awesome." "And the rookie has tapped into a flush patch of gold." "I found us a little bit of christmas, boys." "Now, if the waves would let me suck it up..." "But incoming wind gusts could potentially overwhelm the newcomer's dogged determination." "Hold on." "Holy." "Suck it up quick, it's getting rough as crap up here." "I feel that, man." "Tossed around a little bit." "I just wanted to stick right there and just keep sucking." "The boat must've just hit a big one?" "Sucked me back real good." "That'smuchbetter." "There we go." "What the?" "We just took one all the way up to the cab." "Sonofabitch." "Well, we gotta get off the..." "We gotta get off the ocean." "The waves is just..." "I mean, you can see it just rocking up there, man." "I'mcomingup ." "Allright." "I'm going out to the ladder." "After 6 hours underwater..." " Whoo!" " Good job, george." "It's time for captain george to check the fruits of his labor." "Look at this." "Holy crap." "That's ridiculous." "I've never seen a mat with that much gold in it." "I think I found the best gold I've seen yet." "And the rookie's optimism is sky high." "Yeah, I mean, my brother..." "He had his thoughts that, you know," "I might not be able to make it." "But I proved that I could be a good diver." "Definitely proved that." "Check out that rainbow, man." "That's just awesome." "Boom!" "Right there, baby." "If that's a sign on how our year's gonna go," "I would say that's a good sign." "Forty miles east of nome..." "What would you say, you're on gram an hour or something?" "Gramsanhour." "Grams an hour." "Okay." "Captain kris kelly's last-ditch effort at the cobblestone claim is not panning out." "Keepgoing." "Yeah, 'cause in 31 hours you'll get an ounce of gold." "Hey, shut the up." "Okay, honestly." "It seems like all the way up," "I'm seeing a consistent stream of little bits of gold." "So it might actually turn into something." "Gold is typically found in concentrated areas where cobble filters the gold down onto an underlying layer of clay." "Kris hopes that following a trail of gold crumbs will lead him to a pool of gold." "This could be it, andy." "We're just waiting to hear." "This could be it right here, the day we make history." "This is what I'm finding." "I'm finding, like, a bunch of little flakes all over the place." "If I can process enough of this material..." "There it just went soft." "And it went under." "Watch this." "A soft spot could mean a break in the cobble, forming a funnel that's been trapping heavy materials, like gold, for centuries." " That's what I'm looking for." " Something just like that." "Something soft and punches through." "Okay, I'm gonna suck it away." "Could be a good day after all." "No, I wanna see it too." "Bam, it's right there." "Thislookslikeover an ounce an hour." "Well, that's good news." "Wow." "Nice, light overburden." "And the gold is just flying up the nozzle." "I told you guys, yeah, we're coming back here now." "I told you guys this spot was gonna pay off." "Now,we'regonnarun withit." "Okay." "Hey,willyoustop saying, "okay"?" "Will you try to something inspiring or at least putdadon theradio for a couple seconds." "You're the man, kris." "You're the one that led us to victory." "Captain kris, yay!" "Whoo!" "Man, what we're easily gonna make like 5,000, 6,000 today at the rate that I'm going." "Kris said he found the mother lode." "We're really excited." "This could really be our year for a change." "This is really what I'm looking for." "Kris may be seeing gold on the bottom..." "Coming up." "But to know if he's been moving pay dirt, he needs to see gold in the box." "Kris as captain is turning out all right." "If this spot produces, we're gonna have a great year this year, the best year we've ever had." " We landed on something good." " Well, good job." "We got a pocket full of gold today." "I'm." "I know." "It was a a long dive." "Let's have some peanut butter and jelly and water for celebration!" "I think it's the best day of the season so far." "This is the turning point." "We found huge gold." "It was just by luck, at the end, that we hit something huge." "But that's... that's mining." "All you need is a little bit of luck and hard work." "And you're probably gonna hit it big." "Right now, we have something established." "We can run with this and maybe have a 200-ounce-plus season." "The way I saw it down there, it was..." "It was looking good, man." "We're gonna be millionaires, boys!" "We actually have a plan for the future." "530 miles southeast, in anchorage, alaska... hoping I just have a slipped disk or something, pop it back in." "With the weight of the pomrenke empire on his shoulders, the pain in shawn's back has driven him to the chiropractor, looking for enough relief to finish the season strong." " I'm going to see todd curzie." " He's helped me out before." "Got me back on my feet, got me moving." "Hopefully, he can do it again." "You can make a million gold mining really fast." "But you can also lose it in a heartbeat." "One little hiccup will hurt us now." "You... your empire could fall apart really fast." "So you see shawn's lower back from the side." "We can see the old compression fractures up here." "That is the area where he has the pain, where he has the problem." "And where we're going to get that corrected biomechanically, and you're going to get better." "Yeah." "Here we go, buddy." "Nice." "That was beautiful." "That was gorgeous." "Drop that down for me." "Hands on your lap." "Yeah." "That was beautiful." "That was gorgeous." "We're gonna do one more, shawn." "Beautiful, baby, beautiful." "Chiropractor got me adjusted, but... still hurting." "Trying to get my back to relax and..." "Get enough..." "Enough relief so I can, get to where I'm going." "I gotta... my guys need me." "I need to get back to nome." "I need to... need to get back." "I mean, I'm supposed to be leading the team, and..." "I ain't leading nobody through laying on my back." "I'm used to doing everything." "Being right there, hands-on." "Getting it done." "But now with this, you could lose it all." "It's stressful." "You start thinking about how many people you gotta take care of, and how much gold you have to find to take care of all those people." "Sometimes it's a little mind-boggling." "Faced with season-ending back pain, shawn faces a difficult choice." "Really pisses me off." "A choice that could end his mining career forever." "I think I'm gonna have to get surgery." "In the heart of nome..." " Will you try not to slap..." " Yeah, I got it, kris." "Okay, I'm sorry." "I'm just saying, you know, like, every little bit counts." "After a successful prospecting mission on the remote cobblestone claim..." "Here, let me do this." "Like, you're..." "You, you don't have the..." "The temperament to do this." "Temperament?" "Finesse, you mean." "Look, it's really important this gold cleanup goes really well." "You know, like..." "What do you think I'm doing?" "Captain kris kelly needs a big payday to show the claim owner he's got a nose for gold." "Just care a little bit more." "Okay, here." "Loving spoonful." "Hey, you're the captain on the boat." "Here you're just kris, so chill out over here, okay?" "We pushed it hard." "We made it work." "We made gold." "I think this the..." "The start that the kellys need." "Risk versus reward finally worked today." "The reward is here." "I knew this was gonna work." "We just hit the tip of something." "This is gonna turn into something enormous." "Now we just need to put some real time in, and we'll..." "Everything will work out." "Whoa, this is a big moment right here for the kellys." "Okay." "Okay." "I need you to pay attention for this." "Done with that, so..." "When you said you were guys, this is serious business here." "You're handling more money than..." "Than you're worth." "Than we're both probably worth." "Here you go." "There's one, there's two." "And three." "And four." "And five, and six." "And seven." "And eight." "And watch out, nine, 10, 11." "Come on, 12, 12, 12." "Eleven and three quarter ounces." "Eleven and three quarter ounces." "That's pretty good." "That's big money." "11.7 ounces is worth over $15,000." "That's pretty good." "That's really good." "For the amount of time we put in there and what we actually did..." "Yeah, no, you guys did a really good job." "I'm really happy." "We did a great job." "This is a team effort." "And if we put a little bit more in..." "Into the operation, we're gonna kill it." "That's enough to get kris' season back on track and prove to the claim owner that the kellys have what it takes." "I was beginning to feel like my captaincy was going down." "And today this guy's gonna see that he made the right decision, trusting the kellys to go there and work for him." "He's gonna be happy." "He's gonna see that gold, he's gonna feel warmness in his heart and we're gonna move together as a team." "With a chance to escape their shady reputation..." " Here he comes." " Hey, how's it going?" "Going good." "Yeah, we're on a little something." "Yeah, let me see it." "The kellys meet with claim owner ed gilroy to show off their impressive haul." " That's pretty nice?" " Yeah." "We haven't weighed up your percentage yet, you know, but this is just the tip of the iceberg right here." "You know, if we get down there, we put in a couple weeks, you're gonna get rich over this." "And you're gonna be happy." "Everybody's gonna be happy." "Well, you know, I don't wanna..." "I don't..." "I want you guys to stop out there right now." "What do you mean?" "The kellys..." "I wanna..." "I wanna hang onto it for myself." "Yeah, no, you said go down there and prospect the area, and get you some markers." "That's what we agreed on." "And, you know, like..." "You prospected." "We did a good job that we could stay there all season." "And we're still prospecting." "No, that's what you said." "I said I wanted to keep it for myself." "Look, why the would we go 11 miles to prospect a spot for 3 days and..." "To find me some gold." "That's bull." "You know, there's..." "Well, I..." "I appreciate you bringing the gold and being upfront and all that, you know, but I'm just being upfront too." "You know, I told you in the beginning..." "We're trying to do the right thing right now, and trying to be honest and working together." "I appreciate it." "But, you know, like..." "Like I said, right now, you know," "I just want you guys off the claim, okay?" "Okay, well, I wanna tell you before you go, you're really screwing my family by doing this." "Well, I hope you understand." "I just, right now, I just want you to stop." "You know, stop dredging there, okay?" " See you." " Thanks." "Thanks..." "Well, this is screwed." "Well... 100 pounds earlier, you know what, if that guy was" "I would have kicked his head in." "You know, like, a realization is setting in." "A realization of failure." "I just can't seem to make it to that next step where we're, like, successful." "And I'm kind of a little stressed out." "You know what it means?" "We gotta go find us another claim right now." "My god." "I'm so sick of it." "Across town, in nome's small boat harbor..." "We got pushed off the water." "I mean, the rollers were coming up on..." "Up into the slough spots." "We had to call it." "George young's dive may have been cut short..." "Kill it, george!" "But the rough sea isn't the only surprise of the day." "I didn't know you were coming." "Now you know." "Yeah, we know!" " Did you get any gold?" " Yeah." "It's full." "George's brother, dave, is back in town, and he's got one question on his mind." " Hey, buckwheat!" " What?" "'Sup, buckwheat?" "Yeah." "Yeah." "It's a good thing, man." "It's cool." "Just not good." "Yes, sir." "I come from a family of 10 kids, and every single one of us care the same for each other, you know?" "My brother, dave, you know, if something was to happen to me he would feel like..." "Like he did it." "You know, he put me in that position." "And he didn't." "I'm an adult." "I can make my own decisions." "In nome, the solution for any family squabble..." "Let's go clean this out, george." "Must be the money!" "Is gold." "I'm hoping there's 15." "I'm gonna go with an even 10." "Ten ounces would definitely be a step in the right direction." "I'm excited, but I don't wanna have the letdown like I did on the last one." "With the last dismal cleanup in the back of his mind..." "Success is not a guarantee until they've weighed it up." "Finding anything in there, dave?" "I don't know yet." "But it's not just prove-it money for the new captain." "I don't wanna look." "As he needs a solid cleanup to begin paying back his $70,000 debt." "I don't know any more, george." "Six ounces?" "Why is the number going down?" "Yeah, I'm feeling the pressure really bad right now." "I really will not be super excited if it's anything under 10." " Ready?" " Yeah, come on, george." "A great businessman and a con man..." "What separates them, really?" "It's one guy's calling the guy a con man, the other guy's saying," ""he does great business, you know?"" "there's nothin' wrong with this hose." "You know, it's just the way you look at it." "If you're in the business yourself, you'll say, "man, that guy."" "It was a great hustle." you know what I mean?" "Why, I admire him." "You know what I mean?" "But if you're not in the business, you'll go," ""what a thief."" "man, those are the hustlers." "Thieves." "You know?" "I gotta get to that level." "You know me, I'm trying to get to that level fast." "It might seem shady to the average man." "But that's how we do business in nome." "In nome, alaska..." "I really will not be super excited if it's anything under 10." "After a disappointing start to the season, rookie captain george young is in desperate need of a big payday." " Ready?" " Yeah, come on, george." " One, two..." " One..." "Two..." "Four..." " Five..." " Five..." "Six..." "Seven..." "Eight..." "Nine..." "Come on, come on, 10!" "Ten!" " Whoo!" " Whoo!" "Got it!" "Right on the money!" "10.38." "Yeah!" "10.38!" "Now them are the highs and the lows in nome, you know?" "You got people in your ear giving you some lows." "But when I seen that scale go over 10 ounces, it... it was pretty awesome." "10.38 ounces is worth over $13,000, enough to put a dent in george's debt as well as earn the confidence and respect of his brother." "It wasn't no five or six." "I lost my 20." "Thank god." " Who had the highest bet?" " Guys..." " Could be good or bad." " Look at this, though." " That's a good start." " We just did a 10-ounce week." "And with one golden pour, george takes his first step out from his brother's shadow." "Dave." "This was my third." "But thank you." " Thanks." " Thanks." "Get me going on this business, man." "Give me more." "That's my first payment." " Here's 3,000." " Keep going." "Thirty-five hundred bucks." "Thanks." " Good job, buddy." " Gonna keep it up." "We worked hard for that, man." "530 miles southeast of nome..." "I feel like somebody's got a knife in my back." "And is twisting it back and forth and shoving it in and out." "Still down and out in anchorage, shawn pomrenke has reached out to his brother, eric, to help him get the medical attention he needs." "Gonna have to get something done, so we'll get that taken care of, and anything you need, far as helping with the guys in nome or whatever, just let me know and I'll take care of that for you," "so you can just relax your back and figure out what the plan is, where we're gonna go from here and how we're gonna get you back home here." "Well, let's see what this doctor says." "I went in, got oral steroids to try to get the inflammation down." "Doesn't seem to be working." "So the next thing is a epidural, where they shoot the steroids into my spine." "The next step is surgery and fuse the ruptured disk together with rods and clamps." "But that's 4 months of recovery." "And, I mean, 45 days left in the season." "I don't even know if I'll be able to make it back to nome." "All right." "I love gold mining." "It's a great job." " To anchorage we go." " Let's go." "It just took its toll on my body." "I just wanna get out there and find some more gold." "I can't go on like this." "I don't think you have any other choices, dude." "So..." "Time to get it done, so let's see if we can make something happen in here." "Sure is nice having you around, brother." "Any time, man." "That's what brothers do." "You got everything?" " Yeah." " The bucket of pills?" "Yep, yep." "Give me a second." "It might go away." "It's... it's over." "Cut." "While shawn is out of commission, the inland mine manages to keep the pomrenke empire marching toward their $3 million goal." "Desperate times call for desperate measures." " Hey, son!" " Hey, man!" "That's the sound of money!" "Finally things are going my way!" " Aah!" " You all right?" "I can't see a damn thing down here." "Ican'tsee2inches in front of me!" "What the..." "This is your last chance. captions paid for by discovery communications."