Closest thing I could find was a fishing spider, close to wolf spider.
Fishing Spiders - genus Dolomedes - http://www.spiderzrule.com/commonspidersusa.htm
Fishing Spiders are quite large and may have a leg spread of 75 mm or more. Fishing spiders are hairy, large, and usually a mixture of black, brown, and grey. Although very difficult to distinguish from wolf spiders, nursery web and fishing spiders are usually slimmer in build. The Dolomedes spiders live near water; they walk on the surface of water and dive underneath it to feed on aquatic insects and even small fish. Not all fishing spiders live near water however.
Still waiting to hear from the spider guy but I will let everyone know once I do. Thanks to everyone who helped give their opinion on what it could be.
Damn Jemma! You are brave for getting near that thing. Spiders and roaches are the only things in the world that really scare me and make me uncomfortable!
AWESOME! lol. I am aracnoaphobic so I used to kinda nerd out on Spider books till I found the one that jumped at me as a kid. It was a south American bird eater (common name) in that case
I know spiders are helpful to our ecology, but I'm a bigot - I prefer that they stay in their own neighborhood and out of mine. However, I live in the woods when not at my incall, so I guess I'm the invader.
I kind of thought it might have been an orb weaver of some sort, but was hoping it was a new type for Jemma's sake. (Wonder what they would have named it? The Jemmader? Jemmantula? I'm sure Jemma catches a lot of willing victims in her erotic web.) Orbs are reluctant to bite, their venom isn't known to be toxic to humans, they make large, intricate, beautiful webs suspended from trees and/or posts, and they don't jump out of them at you, so live and let live - unless I walk into one, then I run screaming around beating my hair and anything in it. Not a pretty site, but probably entertaining for the neighbors.