I saw this show on TV where the guy was dropped off in the Canadian Rockies with only some camera gear, to "survive" for a week and be picked up. I couldn't figure out the significance of not having a match or something to make fire with. He wound up useing a camera lens (supposably, I don't think it worked really) so he still used a manmade tool.

I didn't get that part and it really bothers me. Also he made a shelter right beside a creek and almost got flooded out. He ate a lot of berries.

The more I watch, the more I see things and wonder wtf.....

He doesn't seem to be "teaching" much at all, if that was his goal. He just tramps around, talks about how dangerous it is, then shows off his plant identification skills.

Take this episode for example.
He "just" discovered his space blanket on day THREE? What happened to doing a gear inventory at first opportunity when you realize you're on your own?

He's brings all the gear he needs to safely hike down a mountain, but never any basics? Obviously the point of the show is to show how you can survive without them, but it's also supposed to show how important it is to bring them, I would imagine. I'd like to see an episode where he's got a fully stocked survival kit just to show how much easier things can be.

He talks for 10 minutes about how amazing it is that there is a dry spot under this cedar tree, and he didn't take ANY of the dry tinder/kindling for future fire use?

He tries to make a slingshot out of bungee cord and expects to get something? What about sharpening a stick and going fishing in the stream _right next to him_?

He wonders if the crew will find him? I hope this is just for dramatic effect... His route was probably scouted out earlier and he's got a sat phone in an emergency. Not saying they know exactly, but they probably have some idea. He's all like "If they don't find me, I think I'll try to walk out..." no you wont.

Don't get me wrong, but this just seems more like a masochistic documentary than something people can use to learn from. Yet... I still watch and find myself looking forward to this costa rica one <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I figured he had some kind of tracking thingie on him so they could find his body. I forgot about the space blanket issue, I was only half listening at this point and thought he had found some disgarded stuff, I didn't realize he HAD IT WITH HIM THE WHOLE TIME!!!

I had never seen it before, it would be neat if he had a few items with him, like you said, a person could watch it and actually learn something.

Maybe it's not a total waste though, while watching you might see a situatioin in which some small psk item would have made a difference, all without leaving the couch!

What would REALLY be interesting is to have two guys (or women) in the same situation, but one has stuff in a daypack, and the other is your average fool with nothing but t-shirt, shorts, tennies, and a wallet. Have a clock running in the corner of the picture, and jump back and forth, with a voice-over analyzing what they're doing right and wrong (Cody Lundin would be good).

For something like THAT, I would have my TV service reconnected!

They could call it Live or Die, the Choice is Up to YOU.

And no weird made-up rules like in Survivor. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Sue

Sounds like a winner to me <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Well, I think the objective is to show how you can get by without some survival gear after getting stranded in the wilderness. In one show Les had a motorcycle and it "broke down" leaving him stranded, etc.
It amazes me to see the number of people that show up with nothing, as Susan pointed out. I recently went on an organized hike, about 60 miles from the city with a group of about 10 people, the leader and I were the only ones with daypacks and gear. The rest had what they were wearing and a water bottle and some snacks. No means to make fire, keep dry or get warmer. Since it was drizzling on and off before and during the hike, it was interesting to see people start a trip without essential gear. It was like they were on a park trail in the city. If any emergency were to arise, it would have been the trip leader and I taking care of the rest, if possible. If I had been the leader, they all would have went home before the start of the hike!
I think Les' idea is to show how one can get by using gear salvaged from broken down planes, snowmobiles, motorcyles and so on. I agree it would be good to show some alternatives, perhaps list items that should always be carried when traveling in remote areas or comment on how people should do this or do that to make a trip safer. But overall, it is a good excercise in getting through a particular situation. The fact that someone with survival knowledge can pick up on mistakes or to comment that they would do better shows me that it is getting a message across to some viewers. There are tips in the show and there are mistakes made and overcome. Just as it may be if you ever find yourself stranded. Survival is not all gear, it is a combination of knowledge, skill and determination, Les sure demonstrates that on each show. Myself, after one adventure like that, I would be at a Pizza Hut, a hot shower and a foot bath, with a plan to never do that again! Les is detrmined to experience it all and let you watch. There has never been a perfect survival show, there probably has never been a perfect survival situation, just some people do the right things and live and others do dumb things and die.
Many well equipped wilderness travelers do not survive the unexpected because they lack the right skills or attitude.
Myself, I like the show and admire Les for his fortitude and skill.

I like "Survivorman" a lot, though I do wish Les (Stroud) would go into a little more detail on some things.

Regarding the space blanket: he showed a night of survival without it where he looked for natural protection from the elements, a night where he used it as it was intended to be used and inside a makeshift shelter, and a couple of nights where he used it as an actual part of a shelter (the shelter he made too close to the river).

The show follows a similar pattern in each episode, blemishes and all. He's good for showing his mistakes just as much as his successes, partly for theatrical effect I'm sure, and partly to show what to do and what not to do.

Even still, survival to a great extent is about the ability to adapt to the situation, and I would almost guarantee that that none of us would make zero mistakes in such a situation no matter how much we think we know about survival. The key is rebounding after the mistake has been made if we’re capable. Hopefully, this is where the part of the psychology of survival in which we are confident in our own ability to adapt because we are well prepared for almost any situation will push us to rebound and turn the situation around. (Jeez I can't write a sentence to save my life LOL)



If you choose to follow the show, you'll also see that Les uses different survival methods from show to show and even different methods within the same show. Regarding this, as someone mentioned before, in the Rockies episode he started a fire with a lens salvaged from a video camera (He was successful in starting the fire in 25 minutes), in one episode he uses a rock and the back of his axe to strike a spark on tinder, in another episode he starts a fire with a gun, in another he uses a hand drill, and so on.

In the same manner, Stroud had gone spear fishing in a few previous episodes and hunted prey on land with a spear as well. Even so, spear fishing in a rain swollen river where visibility is zero, and where a rainstorm up river could cause a flash flood that would potentially sweep anyone away, in water that could cause hypothermia quickly, and in a river where falling on jagged rocks are as much a potential problem as anything else it may be a bad idea for the above reasons and more. If the show covered more than 7 days it may have been a different prospect though.

Equally so the slingshot wasn't very effective, but true to Les' style he showed it anyway. My thought when he tested it by shooting a rock in the river was that he wasn't getting much more speed out of the projectile than if he had thrown it and probably was only a little better off in the accuracy department versus throwing. You'll notice he also took a throwing stick with him. I wish he had commented on that.

In the end, we also shouldn't forget that we who are active in survival forums, training and such aren't the target market for "Survivorman". It's a broad-spectrum setup... Well... As broad a spectrum as such a show could be. There's no one to vote off the island, and no chunk of change to be one by the last man/woman standing... LOL



I had a brief email exchange with Les a month or so ago, and hope to be able to draw him into a more in depth discussion on a few topics. I hope I can pull it off, but then again I'm just some schmoe with an email account. I may try to lure him into the forums.

Anyway, interestingly enough he clued me in to a couple of survival videos he had done previously that are currently available.

To quote briefly from that part of the email (which was more than likely copy/pasted LOL):
"The Survivorman DVD series wont be available until the summer or fall, when it is finished. However 3 other videos available are "Snowshoes and Solitude" an award winning film about the year my wife and I spent living in the bush as if it were five hundred years ago, and "Stranded Winter, Stranded Summer" the two original pilot versions of Survivorman which did so very well for the Discovery Channel. (I paraphrased some of that due to the shear number of hyphens used)

I'm going to order "Snowshoes and Solitude" soon, and will let you good folks know whether it is worth picking up.


In the end, “Survivorman” is what it is, and most likely we’ll not see an in depth show where survival skills can be studied because we are less than a niche market.
I like "Survivorman" a lot, though I do wish Les (Stroud) would go into a little more detail on some things.

Regarding the space blanket: he showed a night of survival without it where he looked for natural protection from the elements, a night where he used it as it was intended to be used and inside a makeshift shelter, and a couple of nights where he used it as an actual part of a shelter (the shelter he made too close to the river).

The show follows a similar pattern in each episode, blemishes and all. He's good for showing his mistakes just as much as his successes, partly for theatrical effect I'm sure, and partly to show what to do and what not to do.

Even still, survival to a great extent is about the ability to adapt to the situation, and I would almost guarantee that that none of us would make zero mistakes in such a situation no matter how much we think we know about survival. The key is rebounding after the mistake has been made if we’re capable. Hopefully, this is where the part of the psychology of survival in which we are confident in our own ability to adapt because we are well prepared for almost any situation will push us to rebound and turn the situation around. (Jeez I can't write a sentence to save my life LOL)



If you choose to follow the show, you'll also see that Les uses different survival methods from show to show and even different methods within the same show. Regarding this, as someone mentioned before, in the Rockies episode he started a fire with a lens salvaged from a video camera (He was successful in starting the fire in 25 minutes), in one episode he uses a rock and the back of his axe to strike a spark on tinder, in another episode he starts a fire with a gun, in another he uses a hand drill, and so on.

In the same manner, Stroud had gone spear fishing in a few previous episodes and hunted prey on land with a spear as well. Even so, spear fishing in a rain swollen river where visibility is zero, and where a rainstorm up river could cause a flash flood that would potentially sweep anyone away, in water that could cause hypothermia quickly, and in a river where falling on jagged rocks are as much a potential problem as anything else it may be a bad idea for the above reasons and more. If the show covered more than 7 days it may have been a different prospect though.

Equally so the slingshot wasn't very effective, but true to Les' style he showed it anyway. My thought when he tested it by shooting a rock in the river was that he wasn't getting much more speed out of the projectile than if he had thrown it and probably was only a little better off in the accuracy department versus throwing. You'll notice he also took a throwing stick with him. I wish he had commented on that.

In the end, we also shouldn't forget that we who are active in survival forums, training and such aren't the target market for "Survivorman". It's a broad-spectrum setup... Well... As broad a spectrum as such a show could be. There's no one to vote off the island, and no chunk of change to be one by the last man/woman standing... LOL



I had a brief email exchange with Les a month or so ago, and hope to be able to draw him into a more in depth discussion on a few topics. I hope I can pull it off, but then again I'm just some schmoe with an email account. I may try to lure him into the forums.

Anyway, interestingly enough he clued me in to a couple of survival videos he had done previously that are currently available.

To quote briefly from that part of the email (which was more than likely copy/pasted LOL):
"The Survivorman DVD series wont be available until the summer or fall, when it is finished. However 3 other videos available are "Snowshoes and Solitude" an award winning film about the year my wife and I spent living in the bush as if it were five hundred years ago, and "Stranded Winter, Stranded Summer" the two original pilot versions of Survivorman which did so very well for the Discovery Channel. (I paraphrased some of that due to the shear number of hyphens used)

I'm going to order "Snowshoes and Solitude" soon, and will let you good folks know whether it is worth picking up.


In the end, “Survivorman” is what it is, and most likely we’ll not see a lot of in-depth shows on TV where survival skills can be studied because we are less than a niche market.

For what it's worth, in my opinion "Survivorman" is a worthwhile show... A great show.

When Les began production of this series he visited ETS and several members assisted him in some segments. A video is just another survival book, subject to the same typos, editing, ommissions and pressures of deadlines. Review some other offerings in survival and other educational eforts. I've sat through another survival tape with several minutes devoted to drinking alcohol, a 'horsewhisperer' who took the term literally and was utterly inaudible describing a leg aid- and that done on the opposite side of the camera!

Well there you go. Les Stroud already knows about this place and I'm a "Johnny-come-lately". <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I feel at home now. LOL

There was another thread on this topic back in September...

<img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />