Bear Grylls Vs. Les Stroud

[Mustard Death]

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh288/Spastic_Ink/Motivational%20Posters/BearGryllsMordor.jpg

 

The choice is obvious.

[Cowtothesky]

I voted Les Stroud.

 

But, neither one of them have even come close to killing Manbearpig.

[KenJennings]

Les is the far superior suvivalist and entertainer.

 

I have both seasons of Survivorman on DVD, it's one of my favorite shows. Bear Grylls is a fraud, and I just can't watch that show.

[DiscipleofLerxst]

QUOTE (PhilCastro @ Sep 22 2008, 10:08 PM)

Bear Grylls is awesome I find Les boring to watch... Bear actually entertains me

got that right...and Les eats like a disgusting pig...smack his lips and chomping like a hog...it's vomitous to HEAR him eat...and it's vomitous WHAT bear will eat...I saw him sqeeze the juice out of elephant crap and drink it!!!!!

 

My vote to Bear.

Edited October 4, 2008 by DiscipleofLerxst

[DiscipleofLerxst]

QUOTE (Mustard Death @ Oct 4 2008, 01:01 PM)

http://i259.photobucket.com/albums/hh288/Spastic_Ink/Motivational%20Posters/BearGryllsMordor.jpg The choice is obvious.

LOVE IT!!!!

[Jack Aubrey]

What a difference a couple of years makes.

 

I've made it no secret that I love studying survival techniques and reading case studies of survivors and I have also amassed quite the survival library (37 books and counting, and I've read them all) and I have also gone on several survival camping trips, in hot, mild, rainy, and cold weather and have honed the techniques I learned from those books in the field, discarding the ones that don't work and refining the ones that do. I don't know if I'm an expert yet, but I'm pretty good and dead-set on getting even better.

 

So with that being said, I watched the latest Man Vs. Wild the other day, because it wasn't about wilderness survival, but featured Bear in an urban environment. I wound up yelling at my tv for pretty much the entire hour.

 

There was so much wrong with what he did I'm not even sure where to begin.

 

Okay, firstly was his approach. He was surviving in an abondoned industrial complex somewhere in Russia. He approached by boat, pretending that there was nowhere safe to land (hello? It's on the damned water! There has to be a dock somewhere, but I guess that's not dramatic enough!) So he jumps from the speeding boat to a cargo net that's hanging from a crane over the water and proceeds to climb it, hoping there's a way to get to the cab of the crane from there (all right, reality check, in a survival situation, you don't hope for something when you're risking life or safety, you make double-damned sure!) Of course, there's a convenient rope from which he can swing, and despite the fact it's from an industrial area, there's no grease on the rope and neither is it rotten so it's of course safe to swing on (unrealistic).

 

Later in the show, he was trying to get into one of the buildings and decided to turn a dumpster into a bomb (I am not making this up, I swear!) So he took some found chemicals and combined them in the dumpster (this took place off-camera for safety reasons - so they're concerned about us learning to make bombs from this show but they're not concerned about us replicating any of his other dumb stunts?!) Then he soaked a rag in a chemical to use as a fuse, lit it, and took cover. The chemicals in the dumpster exploded nicely, and the door was blown off the hinges with some nice flames in the doorway for Bear to charge through like a moron. I have just one question: if you need to gain entrance to a building and the door is locked then what's wrong with busting out a window? Just wondering.

 

His masterpiece, though was when he was in a huge open building, like a manufacturing bay, and he decided that the pigeons in the building had to be building nests high up and that there might be eggs. He then proceeds to climb up around 150-200 feet and walk across an 8 inch wide beam that was part of a gantry (which, again, probably would have been covered in grease in the real world) all to get one pigeon egg. So in other words, he burned about 2,000 calories to get back around 150. This is what we in the survival community call "stupid".

 

I won't deny that Bear's stunts make for great television, but they should advertise it as a stunt show and not a survival show! Survival is all about managing and minimizing risk and not about taking dangerously stupid risks! The show has turned into "watch me climb this" and "watch me jump off of that" and has little to nothing to do with real, practical survival and is more about Bear being an adrenaline junkie. Please don't try this stuff at home, friends. In fact, never, ever try it anywhere!

 

I recently read that the UK made Bear Grylls their Chief of Scouting. Now I think it's great that anyone should endorse the Scouts and I loved it when I was in it, but I just hope and pray that none of the kids try any of his stunts.

[thesweetscience]

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 8 2010, 09:11 AM)

What a difference a couple of years makes. I've made it no secret that I love studying survival techniques and reading case studies of survivors and I have also amassed quite the survival library (37 books and counting, and I've read them all) and I have also gone on several survival camping trips, in hot, mild, rainy, and cold weather and have honed the techniques I learned from those books in the field, discarding the ones that don't work and refining the ones that do. I don't know if I'm an expert yet, but I'm pretty good and dead-set on getting even better. So with that being said, I watched the latest Man Vs. Wild the other day, because it wasn't about wilderness survival, but featured Bear in an urban environment. I wound up yelling at my tv for pretty much the entire hour. There was so much wrong with what he did I'm not even sure where to begin. Okay, firstly was his approach. He was surviving in an abondoned industrial complex somewhere in Russia. He approached by boat, pretending that there was nowhere safe to land (hello? It's on the damned water! There has to be a dock somewhere, but I guess that's not dramatic enough!) So he jumps from the speeding boat to a cargo net that's hanging from a crane over the water and proceeds to climb it, hoping there's a way to get to the cab of the crane from there (all right, reality check, in a survival situation, you don't hope for something when you're risking life or safety, you make double-damned sure!) Of course, there's a convenient rope from which he can swing, and despite the fact it's from an industrial area, there's no grease on the rope and neither is it rotten so it's of course safe to swing on (unrealistic). Later in the show, he was trying to get into one of the buildings and decided to turn a dumpster into a bomb (I am not making this up, I swear!) So he took some found chemicals and combined them in the dumpster (this took place off-camera for safety reasons - so they're concerned about us learning to make bombs from this show but they're not concerned about us replicating any of his other dumb stunts?!) Then he soaked a rag in a chemical to use as a fuse, lit it, and took cover. The chemicals in the dumpster exploded nicely, and the door was blown off the hinges with some nice flames in the doorway for Bear to charge through like a moron. I have just one question: if you need to gain entrance to a building and the door is locked then what's wrong with busting out a window? Just wondering. His masterpiece, though was when he was in a huge open building, like a manufacturing bay, and he decided that the pigeons in the building had to be building nests high up and that there might be eggs. He then proceeds to climb up around 150-200 feet and walk across an 8 inch wide beam that was part of a gantry (which, again, probably would have been covered in grease in the real world) all to get one pigeon egg. So in other words, he burned about 2,000 calories to get back around 150. This is what we in the survival community call "stupid". I won't deny that Bear's stunts make for great television, but they should advertise it as a stunt show and not a survival show! Survival is all about managing and minimizing risk and not about taking dangerously stupid risks! The show has turned into "watch me climb this" and "watch me jump off of that" and has little to nothing to do with real, practical survival and is more about Bear being an adrenaline junkie. Please don't try this stuff at home, friends. In fact, never, ever try it anywhere! I recently read that the UK made Bear Grylls their Chief of Scouting. Now I think it's great that anyone should endorse the Scouts and I loved it when I was in it, but I just hope and pray that none of the kids try any of his stunts.

I have been saying this since the first time I watched his show. I am not going to say that Bear isn't bad ass but his show is a joke. I have a feeling that if he was in a true survival situation his demeanor would be totally different and it would be interesting but not nearly as dramatic as his very staged television program.

 

 

[Jack Aubrey]

QUOTE (thesweetscience @ Feb 8 2010, 08:25 AM)

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 8 2010, 09:11 AM) What a difference a couple of years makes. I've made it no secret that I love studying survival techniques and reading case studies of survivors and I have also amassed quite the survival library (37 books and counting, and I've read them all) and I have also gone on several survival camping trips, in hot, mild, rainy, and cold weather and have honed the techniques I learned from those books in the field, discarding the ones that don't work and refining the ones that do. I don't know if I'm an expert yet, but I'm pretty good and dead-set on getting even better. So with that being said, I watched the latest Man Vs. Wild the other day, because it wasn't about wilderness survival, but featured Bear in an urban environment. I wound up yelling at my tv for pretty much the entire hour. There was so much wrong with what he did I'm not even sure where to begin. Okay, firstly was his approach. He was surviving in an abondoned industrial complex somewhere in Russia. He approached by boat, pretending that there was nowhere safe to land (hello? It's on the damned water! There has to be a dock somewhere, but I guess that's not dramatic enough!) So he jumps from the speeding boat to a cargo net that's hanging from a crane over the water and proceeds to climb it, hoping there's a way to get to the cab of the crane from there (all right, reality check, in a survival situation, you don't hope for something when you're risking life or safety, you make double-damned sure!) Of course, there's a convenient rope from which he can swing, and despite the fact it's from an industrial area, there's no grease on the rope and neither is it rotten so it's of course safe to swing on (unrealistic). Later in the show, he was trying to get into one of the buildings and decided to turn a dumpster into a bomb (I am not making this up, I swear!) So he took some found chemicals and combined them in the dumpster (this took place off-camera for safety reasons - so they're concerned about us learning to make bombs from this show but they're not concerned about us replicating any of his other dumb stunts?!) Then he soaked a rag in a chemical to use as a fuse, lit it, and took cover. The chemicals in the dumpster exploded nicely, and the door was blown off the hinges with some nice flames in the doorway for Bear to charge through like a moron. I have just one question: if you need to gain entrance to a building and the door is locked then what's wrong with busting out a window? Just wondering. His masterpiece, though was when he was in a huge open building, like a manufacturing bay, and he decided that the pigeons in the building had to be building nests high up and that there might be eggs. He then proceeds to climb up around 150-200 feet and walk across an 8 inch wide beam that was part of a gantry (which, again, probably would have been covered in grease in the real world) all to get one pigeon egg. So in other words, he burned about 2,000 calories to get back around 150. This is what we in the survival community call "stupid". I won't deny that Bear's stunts make for great television, but they should advertise it as a stunt show and not a survival show! Survival is all about managing and minimizing risk and not about taking dangerously stupid risks! The show has turned into "watch me climb this" and "watch me jump off of that" and has little to nothing to do with real, practical survival and is more about Bear being an adrenaline junkie. Please don't try this stuff at home, friends. In fact, never, ever try it anywhere! I recently read that the UK made Bear Grylls their Chief of Scouting. Now I think it's great that anyone should endorse the Scouts and I loved it when I was in it, but I just hope and pray that none of the kids try any of his stunts. I have been saying this since the first time I watched his show. I am not going to say that Bear isn't bad ass but his show is a joke. I have a feeling that if he was in a true survival situation his demeanor would be totally different and it would be interesting but not nearly as dramatic as his very staged television program. Bingo. I feel foolish that it took me this long to come around on this. I was too hung up on the fact that Bear is former SAS, which is definitely not for sissies, and his miraculous recovery from a Hellish back injury, and I still do respect him for those, but they definitely colored my perception of what he was demonstrating on his show. At least I eventually got there, right?

[ILSnwdog]

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 8 2010, 08:11 AM)

What a difference a couple of years makes. I've made it no secret that I love studying survival techniques and reading case studies of survivors and I have also amassed quite the survival library (37 books and counting, and I've read them all) and I have also gone on several survival camping trips, in hot, mild, rainy, and cold weather and have honed the techniques I learned from those books in the field, discarding the ones that don't work and refining the ones that do. I don't know if I'm an expert yet, but I'm pretty good and dead-set on getting even better. So with that being said, I watched the latest Man Vs. Wild the other day, because it wasn't about wilderness survival, but featured Bear in an urban environment. I wound up yelling at my tv for pretty much the entire hour. There was so much wrong with what he did I'm not even sure where to begin. Okay, firstly was his approach. He was surviving in an abondoned industrial complex somewhere in Russia. He approached by boat, pretending that there was nowhere safe to land (hello? It's on the damned water! There has to be a dock somewhere, but I guess that's not dramatic enough!) So he jumps from the speeding boat to a cargo net that's hanging from a crane over the water and proceeds to climb it, hoping there's a way to get to the cab of the crane from there (all right, reality check, in a survival situation, you don't hope for something when you're risking life or safety, you make double-damned sure!) Of course, there's a convenient rope from which he can swing, and despite the fact it's from an industrial area, there's no grease on the rope and neither is it rotten so it's of course safe to swing on (unrealistic). Later in the show, he was trying to get into one of the buildings and decided to turn a dumpster into a bomb (I am not making this up, I swear!) So he took some found chemicals and combined them in the dumpster (this took place off-camera for safety reasons - so they're concerned about us learning to make bombs from this show but they're not concerned about us replicating any of his other dumb stunts?!) Then he soaked a rag in a chemical to use as a fuse, lit it, and took cover. The chemicals in the dumpster exploded nicely, and the door was blown off the hinges with some nice flames in the doorway for Bear to charge through like a moron. I have just one question: if you need to gain entrance to a building and the door is locked then what's wrong with busting out a window? Just wondering. His masterpiece, though was when he was in a huge open building, like a manufacturing bay, and he decided that the pigeons in the building had to be building nests high up and that there might be eggs. He then proceeds to climb up around 150-200 feet and walk across an 8 inch wide beam that was part of a gantry (which, again, probably would have been covered in grease in the real world) all to get one pigeon egg. So in other words, he burned about 2,000 calories to get back around 150. This is what we in the survival community call "stupid". I won't deny that Bear's stunts make for great television, but they should advertise it as a stunt show and not a survival show! Survival is all about managing and minimizing risk and not about taking dangerously stupid risks! The show has turned into "watch me climb this" and "watch me jump off of that" and has little to nothing to do with real, practical survival and is more about Bear being an adrenaline junkie. Please don't try this stuff at home, friends. In fact, never, ever try it anywhere! I recently read that the UK made Bear Grylls their Chief of Scouting. Now I think it's great that anyone should endorse the Scouts and I loved it when I was in it, but I just hope and pray that none of the kids try any of his stunts.

You just outlined exactly what I don't like about Bear's show. It's 60 minutes of Bear showing off. Give me Les any day of the week. His programs seems much more sincere and I feel there is much more to learn from watching Survivorman.

 

 

[Jack Aubrey]

QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Feb 8 2010, 09:02 AM)

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 8 2010, 08:11 AM) What a difference a couple of years makes. I've made it no secret that I love studying survival techniques and reading case studies of survivors and I have also amassed quite the survival library (37 books and counting, and I've read them all) and I have also gone on several survival camping trips, in hot, mild, rainy, and cold weather and have honed the techniques I learned from those books in the field, discarding the ones that don't work and refining the ones that do. I don't know if I'm an expert yet, but I'm pretty good and dead-set on getting even better. So with that being said, I watched the latest Man Vs. Wild the other day, because it wasn't about wilderness survival, but featured Bear in an urban environment. I wound up yelling at my tv for pretty much the entire hour. There was so much wrong with what he did I'm not even sure where to begin. Okay, firstly was his approach. He was surviving in an abondoned industrial complex somewhere in Russia. He approached by boat, pretending that there was nowhere safe to land (hello? It's on the damned water! There has to be a dock somewhere, but I guess that's not dramatic enough!) So he jumps from the speeding boat to a cargo net that's hanging from a crane over the water and proceeds to climb it, hoping there's a way to get to the cab of the crane from there (all right, reality check, in a survival situation, you don't hope for something when you're risking life or safety, you make double-damned sure!) Of course, there's a convenient rope from which he can swing, and despite the fact it's from an industrial area, there's no grease on the rope and neither is it rotten so it's of course safe to swing on (unrealistic). Later in the show, he was trying to get into one of the buildings and decided to turn a dumpster into a bomb (I am not making this up, I swear!) So he took some found chemicals and combined them in the dumpster (this took place off-camera for safety reasons - so they're concerned about us learning to make bombs from this show but they're not concerned about us replicating any of his other dumb stunts?!) Then he soaked a rag in a chemical to use as a fuse, lit it, and took cover. The chemicals in the dumpster exploded nicely, and the door was blown off the hinges with some nice flames in the doorway for Bear to charge through like a moron. I have just one question: if you need to gain entrance to a building and the door is locked then what's wrong with busting out a window? Just wondering. His masterpiece, though was when he was in a huge open building, like a manufacturing bay, and he decided that the pigeons in the building had to be building nests high up and that there might be eggs. He then proceeds to climb up around 150-200 feet and walk across an 8 inch wide beam that was part of a gantry (which, again, probably would have been covered in grease in the real world) all to get one pigeon egg. So in other words, he burned about 2,000 calories to get back around 150. This is what we in the survival community call "stupid". I won't deny that Bear's stunts make for great television, but they should advertise it as a stunt show and not a survival show! Survival is all about managing and minimizing risk and not about taking dangerously stupid risks! The show has turned into "watch me climb this" and "watch me jump off of that" and has little to nothing to do with real, practical survival and is more about Bear being an adrenaline junkie. Please don't try this stuff at home, friends. In fact, never, ever try it anywhere! I recently read that the UK made Bear Grylls their Chief of Scouting. Now I think it's great that anyone should endorse the Scouts and I loved it when I was in it, but I just hope and pray that none of the kids try any of his stunts. You just outlined exactly what I don't like about Bear's show. It's 60 minutes of Bear showing off. Give me Les any day of the week. His programs seems much more sincere and I feel there is much more to learn from watching Survivorman. Yep! Earlier in this thread I wrote how I liked Bear's book. I recently read Les' book and it's much better and a lot more thorough. Do yourself a favor and get it: Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere - Alive by Les Stroud.   By the way, I see that most of the debate in this thread a couple of years ago was between you and I. I salute you for being sharper than me about this whole thing from the get-go! Well done, sir!

[ILSnwdog]

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 8 2010, 09:38 AM)

QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Feb 8 2010, 09:02 AM) QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 8 2010, 08:11 AM) What a difference a couple of years makes. I've made it no secret that I love studying survival techniques and reading case studies of survivors and I have also amassed quite the survival library (37 books and counting, and I've read them all) and I have also gone on several survival camping trips, in hot, mild, rainy, and cold weather and have honed the techniques I learned from those books in the field, discarding the ones that don't work and refining the ones that do. I don't know if I'm an expert yet, but I'm pretty good and dead-set on getting even better. So with that being said, I watched the latest Man Vs. Wild the other day, because it wasn't about wilderness survival, but featured Bear in an urban environment. I wound up yelling at my tv for pretty much the entire hour. There was so much wrong with what he did I'm not even sure where to begin. Okay, firstly was his approach. He was surviving in an abondoned industrial complex somewhere in Russia. He approached by boat, pretending that there was nowhere safe to land (hello? It's on the damned water! There has to be a dock somewhere, but I guess that's not dramatic enough!) So he jumps from the speeding boat to a cargo net that's hanging from a crane over the water and proceeds to climb it, hoping there's a way to get to the cab of the crane from there (all right, reality check, in a survival situation, you don't hope for something when you're risking life or safety, you make double-damned sure!) Of course, there's a convenient rope from which he can swing, and despite the fact it's from an industrial area, there's no grease on the rope and neither is it rotten so it's of course safe to swing on (unrealistic). Later in the show, he was trying to get into one of the buildings and decided to turn a dumpster into a bomb (I am not making this up, I swear!) So he took some found chemicals and combined them in the dumpster (this took place off-camera for safety reasons - so they're concerned about us learning to make bombs from this show but they're not concerned about us replicating any of his other dumb stunts?!) Then he soaked a rag in a chemical to use as a fuse, lit it, and took cover. The chemicals in the dumpster exploded nicely, and the door was blown off the hinges with some nice flames in the doorway for Bear to charge through like a moron. I have just one question: if you need to gain entrance to a building and the door is locked then what's wrong with busting out a window? Just wondering. His masterpiece, though was when he was in a huge open building, like a manufacturing bay, and he decided that the pigeons in the building had to be building nests high up and that there might be eggs. He then proceeds to climb up around 150-200 feet and walk across an 8 inch wide beam that was part of a gantry (which, again, probably would have been covered in grease in the real world) all to get one pigeon egg. So in other words, he burned about 2,000 calories to get back around 150. This is what we in the survival community call "stupid". I won't deny that Bear's stunts make for great television, but they should advertise it as a stunt show and not a survival show! Survival is all about managing and minimizing risk and not about taking dangerously stupid risks! The show has turned into "watch me climb this" and "watch me jump off of that" and has little to nothing to do with real, practical survival and is more about Bear being an adrenaline junkie. Please don't try this stuff at home, friends. In fact, never, ever try it anywhere! I recently read that the UK made Bear Grylls their Chief of Scouting. Now I think it's great that anyone should endorse the Scouts and I loved it when I was in it, but I just hope and pray that none of the kids try any of his stunts. You just outlined exactly what I don't like about Bear's show. It's 60 minutes of Bear showing off. Give me Les any day of the week. His programs seems much more sincere and I feel there is much more to learn from watching Survivorman. Yep! Earlier in this thread I wrote how I liked Bear's book. I recently read Les' book and it's much better and a lot more thorough. Do yourself a favor and get it: Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere - Alive by Les Stroud.   By the way, I see that most of the debate in this thread a couple of years ago was between you and I. I salute you for being sharper than me about this whole thing from the get-go! Well done, sir!   I just find Les' show refreshing. It's nice to see someone try to make a realistic program that actually shows you how it is in the real world, instead of making something that is over the top for the sake of ratings.

[Ancient Ways]

QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Feb 8 2010, 11:42 AM)

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 8 2010, 09:38 AM) QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Feb 8 2010, 09:02 AM) QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 8 2010, 08:11 AM) What a difference a couple of years makes. I've made it no secret that I love studying survival techniques and reading case studies of survivors and I have also amassed quite the survival library (37 books and counting, and I've read them all) and I have also gone on several survival camping trips, in hot, mild, rainy, and cold weather and have honed the techniques I learned from those books in the field, discarding the ones that don't work and refining the ones that do. I don't know if I'm an expert yet, but I'm pretty good and dead-set on getting even better. So with that being said, I watched the latest Man Vs. Wild the other day, because it wasn't about wilderness survival, but featured Bear in an urban environment. I wound up yelling at my tv for pretty much the entire hour. There was so much wrong with what he did I'm not even sure where to begin. Okay, firstly was his approach. He was surviving in an abondoned industrial complex somewhere in Russia. He approached by boat, pretending that there was nowhere safe to land (hello? It's on the damned water! There has to be a dock somewhere, but I guess that's not dramatic enough!) So he jumps from the speeding boat to a cargo net that's hanging from a crane over the water and proceeds to climb it, hoping there's a way to get to the cab of the crane from there (all right, reality check, in a survival situation, you don't hope for something when you're risking life or safety, you make double-damned sure!) Of course, there's a convenient rope from which he can swing, and despite the fact it's from an industrial area, there's no grease on the rope and neither is it rotten so it's of course safe to swing on (unrealistic). Later in the show, he was trying to get into one of the buildings and decided to turn a dumpster into a bomb (I am not making this up, I swear!) So he took some found chemicals and combined them in the dumpster (this took place off-camera for safety reasons - so they're concerned about us learning to make bombs from this show but they're not concerned about us replicating any of his other dumb stunts?!) Then he soaked a rag in a chemical to use as a fuse, lit it, and took cover. The chemicals in the dumpster exploded nicely, and the door was blown off the hinges with some nice flames in the doorway for Bear to charge through like a moron. I have just one question: if you need to gain entrance to a building and the door is locked then what's wrong with busting out a window? Just wondering. His masterpiece, though was when he was in a huge open building, like a manufacturing bay, and he decided that the pigeons in the building had to be building nests high up and that there might be eggs. He then proceeds to climb up around 150-200 feet and walk across an 8 inch wide beam that was part of a gantry (which, again, probably would have been covered in grease in the real world) all to get one pigeon egg. So in other words, he burned about 2,000 calories to get back around 150. This is what we in the survival community call "stupid". I won't deny that Bear's stunts make for great television, but they should advertise it as a stunt show and not a survival show! Survival is all about managing and minimizing risk and not about taking dangerously stupid risks! The show has turned into "watch me climb this" and "watch me jump off of that" and has little to nothing to do with real, practical survival and is more about Bear being an adrenaline junkie. Please don't try this stuff at home, friends. In fact, never, ever try it anywhere! I recently read that the UK made Bear Grylls their Chief of Scouting. Now I think it's great that anyone should endorse the Scouts and I loved it when I was in it, but I just hope and pray that none of the kids try any of his stunts. You just outlined exactly what I don't like about Bear's show. It's 60 minutes of Bear showing off. Give me Les any day of the week. His programs seems much more sincere and I feel there is much more to learn from watching Survivorman. Yep! Earlier in this thread I wrote how I liked Bear's book. I recently read Les' book and it's much better and a lot more thorough. Do yourself a favor and get it: Survive! Essential Skills and Tactics to Get You Out of Anywhere - Alive by Les Stroud.   By the way, I see that most of the debate in this thread a couple of years ago was between you and I. I salute you for being sharper than me about this whole thing from the get-go! Well done, sir!   I just find Les' show refreshing. It's nice to see someone try to make a realistic program that actually shows you how it is in the real world, instead of making something that is over the top for the sake of ratings. Amen to everything just said. Still, the most annoying thing is that Les is ACTUALLY alone. Bear has a camera crew and gets situations set up to demonstrate things. Ever wonder how he just happens to walk up and find a snake? The snake is planted by a local who already taught Bear how to catch it. Les will take advice from locals. This is smart. He then goes out and puts it to use in a situation as close to reality as possible.

[Blenderhead]

As other's have mentioned Les is the better "survivor" as he is alone and whatnot, but I find Grylls show to be 100x more entertaining than Stroud's.

[KenJennings]

Les Stroud's show is definitely slower paced, but arguably more (lacking a better word here...) artistic. I was a fan of Stroud's dry, plain, straight forward, honest personality from day one- it reminded me of somthing almost Minnesotan. I guess I actually feel like I can relate to Stroud, something rare for me to see on TV or in the media.

[Jack Aubrey]

Remember what Bear says, though: "if you don't take your vittamins you could become disorientated while crossing a slippy glassier."

[ILSnwdog]

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 10 2010, 08:04 PM)

Remember what Bear says, though: "if you don't take your vittamins you could become disorientated while crossing a slippy glassier."

My favorite Bear Grylls quote.

 

QUOTE

How much longah until we are at the Holiday Inn?

[spirit of radio]

Is it me or has survivorman been in reruns for about 3 years now. I don't think Les has done a new episode in years.

[Ancient Ways]

QUOTE (Blenderhead @ Feb 10 2010, 01:06 AM)

As other's have mentioned Les is the better "survivor" as he is alone and whatnot, but I find Grylls show to be 100x more entertaining than Stroud's.

I agree with this. I enjoy Bear eating random critters - it's the best part of his show.

[Jack Aubrey]

QUOTE (spirit of radio @ Feb 11 2010, 09:28 PM)

Is it me or has survivorman been in reruns for about 3 years now. I don't think Les has done a new episode in years.

Survivorman was unfortunately cancelled, but the good news is you can keep up with Les on his Website!

 

[ILSnwdog]

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 12 2010, 08:00 AM)

QUOTE (spirit of radio @ Feb 11 2010, 09:28 PM) Is it me or has survivorman been in reruns for about 3 years now. I don't think Les has done a new episode in years. Survivorman was unfortunately cancelled, but the good news is you can keep up with Les on his Website! I believe that Les said that he is getting too old to put his body through the stress of making new episodes.   I was very sad when I heard that, because Survivorman was one of my favorite shows. I'm sure we will see Les in a different capacity on Discovery Channel, but I don't think it will be as Survivorman.

[Jack Aubrey]

QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Feb 12 2010, 10:12 AM)

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 12 2010, 08:00 AM) QUOTE (spirit of radio @ Feb 11 2010, 09:28 PM) Is it me or has survivorman been in reruns for about 3 years now. I don't think Les has done a new episode in years. Survivorman was unfortunately cancelled, but the good news is you can keep up with Les on his Website! I believe that Les said that he is getting too old to put his body through the stress of making new episodes.   I was very sad when I heard that, because Survivorman was one of my favorite shows. I'm sure we will see Les in a different capacity on Discovery Channel, but I don't think it will be as Survivorman. I'd like to see him do a kind of survival bootcamp, where he teaches people how to survive and then takes them into the wild and evaluates their skills. That would be both fun and informative!

[ILSnwdog]

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 12 2010, 10:22 AM)

QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Feb 12 2010, 10:12 AM) QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 12 2010, 08:00 AM) QUOTE (spirit of radio @ Feb 11 2010, 09:28 PM) Is it me or has survivorman been in reruns for about 3 years now. I don't think Les has done a new episode in years. Survivorman was unfortunately cancelled, but the good news is you can keep up with Les on his Website! I believe that Les said that he is getting too old to put his body through the stress of making new episodes.   I was very sad when I heard that, because Survivorman was one of my favorite shows. I'm sure we will see Les in a different capacity on Discovery Channel, but I don't think it will be as Survivorman. I'd like to see him do a kind of survival bootcamp, where he teaches people how to survive and then takes them into the wild and evaluates their skills. That would be both fun and informative! I believe you can send him messages through his website. You should send that idea off to him. I'd watch a show like that.

[Jack Aubrey]

QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Feb 12 2010, 10:47 AM)

QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 12 2010, 10:22 AM) QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Feb 12 2010, 10:12 AM) QUOTE (Jack Aubrey @ Feb 12 2010, 08:00 AM) QUOTE (spirit of radio @ Feb 11 2010, 09:28 PM) Is it me or has survivorman been in reruns for about 3 years now. I don't think Les has done a new episode in years. Survivorman was unfortunately cancelled, but the good news is you can keep up with Les on his Website! I believe that Les said that he is getting too old to put his body through the stress of making new episodes.   I was very sad when I heard that, because Survivorman was one of my favorite shows. I'm sure we will see Les in a different capacity on Discovery Channel, but I don't think it will be as Survivorman. I'd like to see him do a kind of survival bootcamp, where he teaches people how to survive and then takes them into the wild and evaluates their skills. That would be both fun and informative! I believe you can send him messages through his website. You should send that idea off to him. I'd watch a show like that. I believe I shall do just that!

[spirit of radio]

[Blenderhead]

QUOTE (spirit of radio @ Mar 4 2010, 07:25 PM)

Survivor Man wanabe freezes to death. Thursday, March 4, 2010 Toronto Edition National Edition Jennifer Yang Staff Reporter Just before dawn on Thursday morning, Richard Code disappeared into the darkness and lit out for the Ontario wilderness, bringing little more than a few supplies and the skills he had learned from watching Survivorman, a reality show about subsisting in the bush. The 41-year-old left behind a note, asking his landlady to call police if he failed to return by Sunday night. On Monday, she reported him missing and on Wednesday afternoon, Code’s body was found in a marshy, snowed-in area just north of Huntsville. Police say Code’s death is not considered suspicious at this time and his brother Stephen Code said OPP have informed him that the cause of death was hypothermia. It remains unclear if Code has ever received formal wilderness training but relatives say much of his knowledge came from watching Survivorman. The Discovery Channel program featured survival expert Les Stroud living in the wilderness without food, shelter or equipment and Code would often attempt similar trips, venturing into the Muskoka backwoods without food or tents. For some outdoor education experts, “survivalist” reality shows have skewed the public’s perception of how dangerous it really is to live off the land, prompting inexperienced campers to venture into the woods with a bolstered sense of confidence. For survival instructor Gino Ferri, shows like Survivorman make for excellent entertainment but should never substitute real-world training. “TV abstracts the real ugliness of survival,” said Ferri, who runs a school called Survival in the Bush and trained Stroud back in the day. “They make the wilderness look like it’s a romantic place. Well, it’s romantic, as long as you have all your gear and you’re camping and enjoying it. In a survival situation, it’s a nightmare.” Stephen Code, who lives in Kitchener, said his brother was passionate about survival trips but as far as he knew, he also lacked any formal training. “I understand that Richard has done some self-teaching, training, through the video work this gentleman’s (Stroud) done,” Code said. He said he and his father would worry about Richard’s trips and often warned him of the risks. “My father had conversations with him in the past about the dangers of camping with little gear,” he said. Code’s landlady Barbara Ellis said her tenant frequently read books about wilderness survival and would regale her with tales of his adventures. She said Code could “whittle” and rip bark from trees, twisting the pieces into makeshift ropes. “He would tell me how he would cut down boughs to make a shelter,” she recalled. “He would fish for food and he said there were certain trees that he could eat the bark.” Ellis said she met her tenant through church and Code moved into her Scarborough home about two years ago. The 86-year-old described Code as pleasant and mild-mannered, who made a living by helping her do errands around the house. She said Code did three survivor trips last year but most were during the summer months. He only attempted one wintertime trip last November but fell sick and lasted just one day, she added. Ellis said she had a bad feeling last week as Code prepared for this latest trip. “I just said, ‘I don’t like this one,’ ” she said. “He just laughed a little bit… I sort of dread these trips but I know they’re so very important to him.” Code left home at around 4 a.m. and, as he often does, left a note with Ellis telling her when he would be back. He included a map with his GPS coordinates as well as a checklist of what materials he brought, which included a multi-tool, an axe, matches, a lighter, an emergency blanket, fishing tools, a compass, a survival book, maps and some cash. He did not use a cellphone. Ellis called police when Code failed to return by Monday morning and police began conducting aerial searches of the area where Code indicated he was going, near Burks Falls. Code was known to hitchhike to his camping destinations and according to his brother, police received a tip early Wednesday indicating that Richard had been picked up in Aurora and dropped off at a truck stop near Bradford. Early Wednesday afternoon, Code was still hopeful his brother might turn up safe, but a few hours later provincial police announced they had found his brother’s body, just between Horn and Bear Lakes. Toronto police say a post-mortem will take place, likely Friday. OPP said Code was found by helicopter in an area that was no longer accessible by foot, thanks to heavy snowfalls in the area and surrounding marshes. Police were tight-lipped about further details including what he was wearing, but Code was last seen wearing beige cargo pants, a dark jacket, hiking boots and a black “Yukon”-style hat. Det. Const. Jeff Emms said Code was no “rookie” when it came to outdoor adventuring and clearly prepared for his trip. But at the same time, such survivor excursions have officers like him “scratching our heads.” “I would never do it,” he said. “These TV shows that are on, right, Survivorman and all these kinds of shows, would put these kinds of thoughts in someone’s head to do it.” When reached in Madagascar where he is filming a new television series, Stroud said he always stressed proper training on his show, as well as in his book. “You need that time in the bush and there is no replacement,” Stroud said, speaking to the Star before Code’s body was located. “I wouldn’t attempt to solo until I’d done at least half a dozen or 10 courses . . . in the bush with people that knew what they were doing.” For Stroud, his show is a “documentary” program and not a “reality-based” show, which he says portray wilderness survival in a flashy manner that gets people “all riled up.” He defended Survivorman as being an educational show that conveyed just how miserable it truly is to subsist in the wilderness. He noted that he can’t control how viewers interpret his show, adding that people have credited his teachings in the past for saving their lives in survival situations. But for Ferri, he worries about the effects of such survival reality shows and has noticed a spike in interest towards wilderness survival. Students tend to also bring an inflated sense of confidence into his classrooms now, he said. “Don’t think that you can learn things like survival by simply watching a show,” he said. “I mean, how often have we said that?” For Stephen Code, he has never watched Survivorman but said he doesn’t oppose such reality programming, as long as the shows couch their entertainment value in safety information. But for Code, he also recognizes the potential dangers of such shows, perhaps now better than anyone. “I think as laypeople, we’re always concerned about risky endeavours getting publicized on TV sets and society picking up these things and trying to execute them in the real world,” he said. “It’s disconcerting.” Also see: