Survival Tips on TV - A must see for the outdoorsman

• Author: DigitalMind
• Filed under: Uncategorized
• Date: Sep 3,2008

I recently, and accidentaly, downloaded a TV show called Man Vs. Wild the other day.  This television series, which plays on the discovery channel, is about a guy called Bear Grylls and his adventures of surviving in the wild with almost no equipment. After discovering this show, and reading a little about Bear, I also found a show called Survivorman which is very similar, yet different.  Let me tell you a little about both after the pause.

About Man Vs. Wild :

In Man Vs. Wild, Bear is dropped off in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. He usually brings only a knife, flint, and a water bottle.  He often parachutes into these area’s, or rappels from a helicopter hovering above, once he even jumped out of a plane that was flying right by the water but couldn’t stop because there wouldn’t be enough room to take off again if they did.

He’s followed around by a camera crew as he finds food, water, and makes shelter for the night.  His goal, is to make it out of wherever he’s at and back to society.  Once he reaches a road, a house, or simply finds someone that can take him out “alive”, then the show is over.

Bear is a professional mountain climber, so he often climbs up and down very dangerous locations to speed up his travels.  He’s made boats, a forest hammock, and has eaten the grossest things you can imagine.

I REALLY love this show, but there’s a down side that you need to know and accept.  It’s a show. It usually takes 2-3 nights in the show to make it from where they’re dropped off, to “civilisation” where they end the show.  HOWEVER, they spend about 6 days to film each episode.  Bear admits that when they’re not filming, he’s with the Camera Crew.  So he sometimes sleeps with them (in the hut, MOTEL ROOM, cabin, whatever) eats normal food with them, etc etc … This ruins it a little for me because this means he’s not REALLY starving when he’s out looking for supper, and it also means he didn’t REALLY survive 3 days to get to civilisation. When you do see him making shelter and sleeping outside over night, he IS doing it though.  HOWEVER, he puts on a good show, he teaches lots of things that I never knew of, and despite everything he IS putting his life in danger pretty regularily for the sake of demonstration.    So for me, this show is more of a “how-to” survive, but Bear isn’t REALLY surviving in the wild from drop-off to the end of the episode.  They do plan lots of their shots, they prepare, and do them over again.  In one episode he finds “wild horses”, but it turned out they were RENTED and planted there for the show ! (That was kind of a bummer to find out)   Once again I have to mention that despite all this, it’s really fun and educational to watch.

About Survivorman :

In Survivorman, our survivor is a Canadian Man called Les Stroud.  Right off the bat I like him because he’s from Ontario, lives off-grid, and his show picks up the slack from Man. Vs. Wild.  It’s the same concept as Man. Vs. Wild, but much more realistic. Les has very little equipment with him, and at the beginning of every show shows us what he brought.  This show is not as well edited and doesn’t have as many of those “perfect” camera shots and angles, but there’s a good reason for it.

Here are the main differences :

• Survivorman’s mission is to survive for 7 days where he’s dropped off.  (Although he rarely stays at that location)  Often, he’ll get “rescued” at the same location seven days later.  Sometimes he needs to make it out on his own.
• There’s NO Camera crew. He films everything himself.  He has atleast 2 camera’s. He spends a lot of time setting up the camera’s in order to make this show.  Although it must be a pain for him to carry all the camera equipment around, atleast he gets NO help when he’s out there. (I wouldn’t really mind if he had a camera guy following him around that was allowed to eat and drink just to make it easier on Les. He spends so much time lugging around the camera equipment it’s the only non-realistic thing)
• Les Stroud is a regular guy, not an ex-army, everest climbing, ridiculously fit guy like Bear.
• NO cheating here.  He’s eating and drinking only what we see, and is REALLY sleeping and surviving out in the wild for 7 full days.
• This show is more realistic for a survival show than Man Vs. Wild but also less entertaining to watch.

If your the outdoor’s type, I suggest you watch these tv shows.  They both teach fun things like how to start a fire with only wood (no flint, no lighter, no glasses) , how to collect drinkable water in the wild, and how to hunt and set traps for food.