Preface: I've been knocking around the woods most of my life. I have been actively learning survival & bushcraft for more than 20 years. I've been teaching survival for more than 10 years.
Although I don't claim to be an expert, I definitely think I am more than qualified to give my opinion on any survival matter.
NOTE: this post pertains only to the survival shows that promote survival. This does not pertain to the shows where people vote one another off the tribe to win money.
Although I don't spend alot of time in front of the television, I have watched most of the shows that are on t.v.. I really can't say for sure if I've watched every episode of every show, but I have watched alot of them. Albeit I've watched quite a bit either from getting the series at my local library or caught some on the online movie websites.
The thing I get constantly from students, friends, family or people I strike up conversations with is how ridiculous some of the shows are or how ridiculous some of the people are or how lame the ideas are.
I will digress..........
The most common discussion I get involved in is in regards to Bear Grylls. In fact about 80% of discussions start & end with him. Comments include: "he is a phony..he was staying in a hotel & claiming he was staying in the bush." First of all, none of us know exactly what was going on. I am only aware of one instance where this happened & I read (somewhere) that in that instance he missed his wife & kids & wanted to go call & talk to them & ended up staying in a hotel. If there are other times, I don't know & personally I don't care. The fact is not everything you see on t.v. is real, actual or fact. (but i'll address that a little later) Too, I suspect the executives or channel powers-that-be advised not to advertise he wasn't staying in a hotel. That would be misleading & affect rating in a negative way.
"Can you really drink your own urine?" This is controversial in that many people say yes you can & many say no you can't. Personally, I wouldn't. Although urine IS water, it is also waste & contains bacteria. I've heard people say "well he didn't get sick on the show". Fact is there is alot of behind the scenes footage none of us will ever see. I'm not saying the network or BG would deliberately be dishonest about the affects of drinking urine, just that we didn't hear directly if he felt sick, got sick or had any undesirable effects from gulping down his own urine
.
Other comments regard his eating habits on the show. Again, I see a ratings driven menu. Although it's worth pointing out I wouldn't eat alot of what he eats in the manner in which he eats it, I would eat alot of what he eats, cooked! Eating bugs, etc. raw can contain harmful bacteria that can (and have given Bear) vomiting & diarrhea.
"he has a full film crew & the other guy goes out on his own" yep....he does. & look at the crazy camera angles & post production results. The camera work is amazing!
The last kind of comments discuss his adventure stuff. Mostly his climbing. Personally, I wouldn't attempt most of the climbing or descending he does on the show. It's way too dangerous & I'm not that experienced of a climber! BUT, he has a crew that contains a rope & climbing expert on hand to tackle just such stuff. The value in what he does is that he is showing how to climb & descend as safely as he can show if anyone had decided to self rescue.
Truth be told, I think Bear is a very skilled man. I think he is a skilled climber & is very knowledgeable & skilled in his survival skills. Sure, maybe not as much as some. BUT it's important to remember he was owned by the network to do the things they wanted him to do & they knew what would hold the ratings. I will get into that later.
The show with two guys from opposite ends of the survival spectrum. One guy has a military background & is really gung ho! The second guy is a primitive skills & minimalist guy.
From the onset there was drama between the two. One of the central issues they had was the primitive skills guy traveled with out any footwear. In all geography, terrain & weather he was barefoot (or in the snow he wore nothing more than thick wool socks on his feet). The military guy thought it was absurd! They also had two different points of view on bush travel. One was gung-ho & go at it, while the other was slower, more methodical. One was a risk taker & the other, not so much.
Personally I would not recommend anyone walking around in the bush barefoot. But then I don't live in the desert. Too, Cody Lundin has been barefoot-ing it for many years. He put his feet to the test & apparently he proved it can be done with minimal damage & pain.
I've heard alot of talk from people siding with one or the other about who's better or smarter or whatever. I think they both are well adept in their geographic areas. They are both skilled & talented in what they do for their areas. I can find flaws in some of the things they both did, but I won't go into that because I don't think it's relevant to this post. Whats obvious is they both have alot of experience in the bush & have obvious skills in what they teach.
So the last is the Canadian who goes out alone with a couple cameras & goes out with very little gear (other than his camera stuff). I haven't heard much complaining or criticism about Les. Personally I think he's a talented guy. I like his shows & his point of view on his situations but I must admit it is a little slow moving for me.
So here's my two cents worth on the realities of the 3 shows discussed.
First of all, they are mapped out, written, areas are chosen by the network folks & they all have to do what the network says they want them to do. A person has to weed through the ridiculous drama & bullshit. They have to gather the viable information that is worth picking up to be used in real bush ventures. All the rest of the drama should be viewed as entertainment- period!
All of the men participating in the above mentioned survival shows are talented guys with tidbits of real skills (to be learned) scattered thru-out each episode in each show.
Happy tube time!
