Irwin's dad: 'I lost m                                   y best mate'
                                                                                POSTED: 2:08 p.m. EDT, September 6, 2006 BRISBANE, Australia
             (CNN) -- "Crocodile Hunter"          Steve Irwin's father said the family would refuse the offer of a state funeral for
the popular TV naturalist, because his son was an "ordinary bloke." Irwin died Monday when he was struck by a sting
ray on Batt Reef in the Great Barrier Reef off Port Douglas. He was 44. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie        has
said a state funeral would be held if the family desired one. "The state funeral wou                                          ld
be refused ... because he's an ordinary guy, he's just an ordinary bloke," Bob
Irwin said at a news conference Wednesday outside the Australia Zoo
in Beerwah, Queensland, where his son was the director. "He w
ants to be remembered as an ordinary bloke."(Watch Irwin'
s father describe his son -- 2:24) Bob Irwin told reporte
rs his son and he were extremely close. "Steve and I wer
en't like father and son, we never were," Irwin said. "We we
re good mates. I'll remember Steve as my best mate ever," he
said. Meanwhile, colleagues of Irwin said they wanted video footag
e destroyed of the star showing him pulling a deadly stingray barb
from his chest just before he died on Monday. The host of Animal Plan
et's "Crocodile Hunter" was filming scenes for a show intended for children wh
en he was attacked. Irwin's manager and close friend John Stainton told CNN's Larry King
he would not want the tape released. "It should be destroyed," he said Tuesday. The tape is in poli
ce custody, according to Stainton. Stainton told CNN he believed Irwin was dead by the time he was brought
from the water, despite efforts by those on his boat to keep him alive while racing to an island to meet a medical helic    o
pter. "In my heart, I figure -- I think he was dead when he was in the rubber ducky," Stainto  n told King. "I don't thi nk
he was alive." (Watch excerpts from the show -- 4:46) A rubber ducky is a small inflatable boat, which was used to transp o
rt Irwin back to his research vessel, CrocOne. Efforts to resuscitate Irwin proved futile. Stingray discussions Irwin, the Austral
ian naturalist and wildlife crusader who won fame for his TV show "The Crocodile Hunter," had been working on a document
ary-- ironically, on the ocean's deadliest animals when the accident occurred. Bad weather had made it impossible t
o proceed with a planned taping for the A                  nimal Planet channel, so Irwin chose Monday
to shoot "a couple of soft stories for a new TV
       show we're doing," Stainton told CNN when the
                    news broke. "He and the underwater camera
                                            man went out to