Fashionable bushcraft?

[mark a.]

Ray Mears is loved by pretty much everyone on the planet. There are two books called "Cool Camping". You can buy tents with fancy floral patterns from big-ticket fashion names. And of course there are all the pink wellies, and not just for kids.

So, are camping and bushcraft becoming "cool"?

Is this a good thing? The more people who appreciate the outdoors the better, and hopefully campsites will improve facillities and more will allow fashionable must-haves like open fires. And maybe the pressure of the masses will move England's land access laws to more like Scotland's.

Or is it a bad thing? Will it become a passing fad, where people are more obsessed with "being seen to be outdoors" and buying fancy overpriced gear rather than actually appreciating and looking after nature, and leaving rubbish and remains of campfires all over the place?

I keep on changing my mind on this one...

 

[Montivagus]

I think the more people that appreciate the countryside the better. Trouble is, I see some evidence that most people don’t appreciate it much more than they did but have decided it’s cool to light enormous fires in it and throw their accompanying rubbish into it.
I have some comfort though, in that I see much more evidence of the armchair/pub bushcrafter (all the gear and no idea). It seems they, by and large, are staying in the armchair/pub and not overpopulating wild spaces.
Sad attitude you might say; I’d love to think the countryside could be used by hoards of responsible people all leaving no trace of themselves but the sad fact is this isn’t the reality. The more people that stay at home the better…..leave it to those who know how to exist in harmony with it and treat it with respect.

 

[janiepopps]

I reckon the floral tents and stripey wellies are probably an offshoot of the festival scene. Wellies are obviously compulsory at glasto and for years people have sprayed & painted them as they were always so dull. Tents also got the same treatment with messages & art scribbled onto them. I guess someone sensible cashed in on that!

Having been a hippy with a tent fetish for many years I think its great that camping is becoming cool again (I own one of the books you mention) and thats how I found my way into bushcraft.

So long as people learn to respect the outdoors, I dont think it matters how they got there or where they're going with it. Once the passion is sparked it can only be a good thing for our green spaces.

j

 

[ilovemybed]

There's been a few articles on it in the sunday papers this summer.
I even got an email from Firebox.com selling some guff - and they say it's called "Glamping"

(http://www.bushcraftuk.com/community/showthread.php?t=14209&highlight=glamping)

Daft! But just as long as they don't leave a mess...

 

[Klenchblaize]

Totally selfish I know but in the context of ones enjoyment and likelihood of being granted certain land access permissions (bushcraft and/or hunt related) the more people there are interested in the outdoors the greater the compitition. So no, I don’t see it as a good thing and hope the majority never get further than a garden-based tent erection practice run!

There is, however, one positive thing on the horizon and that is once they get bored with all “the right kit” we get to grab it for a song on e-bay or the local Charity Shop! Not sure that’ll extend to a glut of Ray Mears knives though!

Cheers

 

[drstrange]

I don't think that it goes far enough, why don't Prada start stitchin' knife sheaths, and why doesn't RM release a fragrance, it could be called 'Eau de latrine' or something like that. What we want is D&G knife handles blinged to sparkly bits!

Not.

Fashion: Lots of people wearing exactly the same thing in order to look different as quickliy as possible.

 

[dommyracer]

Its a tough one.

I'm all for more people getting outdoors, as long as they are doing it responsibly and not making a mess / burning the place down

The problem (for us in the UK anyway) is that there are very little places left that don't have loads of people around. The main reasons that I like going to these places is to enjoy the place itself and also to enjoy the feeling of not being surrounded by loads of cars, people and Starbucks.

If everyone starts flocking to the outdoors, it'll soon be full of people, and that's not what I want.

Hopefully all the 'fashion campers' will stick to their organised sites with plush facilities.

 

[Grooveski]

Doc said over on the Access Law thread that the mass of new campers weren't a problem because they'd stuck to roadside locations this year. The pessimist in me says that next year they'll be out again and looking for somewhere quieter themselves.

A good thing? It's good to legaly camp up here these days(although trespass laws in scotland were always a bit blurred anyway). It's good that more folk feel able to get out and about.
The only drawback is that it gets harder to find solitude, but that's nothing new. I notice that while we're all pals here we rarely disclose our favorate locations(and I'm as guilty as the next person of that).

Camping's always been fashionable. The most demented kit purchase I ever made was buying a dome tent when they got trendy. I sold an old force 10 to cover the cost and regret it to this day.

BTW:
Olive green everything, chunky drop point knifes, five axes between five campers.....

Daft, but as long as they don't leave a mess.....


Must we all be branded?

 

[Tadpole]

My main worry is that people will get into bushcraft or camping, try if for a year ie go camping twice and they (thinking they know all there is) start laying down ridiculous laws and throwing their weight about. I see people trying to stop people fishing shooting and the like, the next thing you know is people will try and prevent others from having fun. No fires no knives no wild food foraging. No hammocking, no homemade bendy tents, only regulation issue tents from Harvey Nicks.

We have the limited freedom we now enjoy largely because we (the people who eschew the clutter of once joyfully simple camping sites) are ignored for the most part by the great unwashed masses of the middle class suburbanites. I for one would like to keep it that way.

Twenty years ago camping sites were for the most part simple affairs. A grass field with a shower block and a toilet block, a small shop to buy eggs and gaz. Now TV hookups, power to every tent, play grounds, and 1001 rules, (my pet hate is the rule where you have to pitch your tent in line with all the other tent, even if there is a hurking great stone in the middle of your back all night.)

Bushcrafters enjoy a freedom once enjoyed by wild campers, a sort of do no damage and you will be ignored by all and sundry.
I’d hate to think that in 10 years time there will be official bushcrafting sites with, metal posts 16 foot apart set up ready for hammocks. And Gaz powered ‘fire pits’ complete with electric rotisseries.

 

[Klenchblaize]

My main worry is that people will get into bushcraft or camping, try if for a year ie go camping twice and they (thinking they know all there is) start laying down ridiculous laws and throwing their weight about. I see people trying to stop people fishing shooting and the like, the next thing you know is people will try and prevent others from having fun. No fires no knives no wild food foraging. No hammocking, no homemade bendy tents, only regulation issue tents from Harvey Nicks.

Nicely put and at the risk of being called pompous and self-righteous I belief the penny needs to drop for all too many more.

You could though just call me “consistent”!

Cheers

 

[demographic]

The more people out and about the better, perhaps that way our antiquated access laws might change a bit.

I remember reading years ago that something like 5% of the countries people own over 90% of the land.

Mind I struggle with the idea of Ramblers a bit as they seem to be dead keen on freedom for themselves but not for anyone else.
Mentioning nowt about the lake district and motorbike access, like.

If we are to gain more freedom of access it should be fair and not just for us.

 

[mark a.]

I don't know really know why, but I don't really want bushcraft to be fashionable or too popular. It's partly due to the fact that it's a fairly solitary thing (or at least small groups), so to be surrounded by loads of like-minded people in a once-quiet spot wouldn't be good.

Another reason is that I want all the tips, knowledge and, yes, gear-talk on here to be based on proper reasoning, not just because it's fashionable. For example, one worry I have is that I'm vaguely thinking of getting a new tent, and one option is to get a tipi as they seem to have some great benefits. But when tipis become "the thing" to have in Glastonbury, you start to worry whether you've bought something good or have just followed the crowd down the latest craze.

Yes, we're not going to be ever isolated from that. Look how many people buy Woodlore knives or Gransfors axes. Yes, their reputation is good, but many of the purchases will be because it's "the" thing to have, which may not be a good reason.

Thirdly (and I'm sure there's many more reasons), I like the idea of bushcraft to be "special" and "different". While I'd love everyone to properly understand and appreciate nature - the world would be a very different place if that ever happened - I also like the idea of it almost being my own private hobby (apart from all the people on here of course!)

Ok, I'm waffling now - it's been a long day!

 

[Floyd Soul]

This so called 'fashionable bushcraft' isn't like anything I would call bushcraft. For me, bushcraft is about being comfortable in among the natural world. These people buy expensive equipment that only helps to put a barrier between them and nature when they go out.

Besides,

we'd be spotted by every soul in the woods if we all wore pink wellies wouldnt we?

 

[Big Bad Stu]

I think we should all just carry on carrying on. There are people who do and people who like to be seen to be doing. An example of this was when my mate and I were in the Chamonix valley for three weeks in Summer 1999, in Chamonix there was a lot of very new clean Goretex and fleece kit being worn around town, in Les Houches down the valley there was a lot of grubby well used kit actually being used for purpose rather than to pose in a coffee shop.

The fashionable people will soon get bored and turn their attention to something else. We just get to buy the kit for a song on ebay.

Stewey.

 

[dwardo]

Could be funny if we designed a Gucci style knife with a sheath to hold makeup and credit cards and the designer rat dog. Also a disco ball/portable lazer show on the hilt of your knife with optional integrated BMW 4x4 key plus mobile phone/online shopping utility. All the essentials for the discerning yuppie roughing it.

LOL cant believe whilst spell checking this Microsoft Word capitalised the word "Gucci" what is the world coming to ?

 

[gregorach]

While the trappings of the outdoors may be fashionable, I doubt very few people are going to endure (or rather, enjoy) the realities of proper camping just for the sake of fashion. They may try it once or twice, and some may come to appreciate it, but for the vast majority the prospect of taking a dump in a hole in the ground whilst battling biting insects should be more than enough to put them off...

 

[drstrange]

I agree with Janiepopps' understanding of cool camping, just an abstraction of the fesival scene. I think this is quite obvious to anyone with even a casual eye on popular youth culture.

I probably don't need to make this point, but for what it's worth:

Bushcrafters don't own bushcraft, and as far as I can see the whole bushy thing is a relativley new sub-culture based on the proliferation of ideas presented by RM and the like, through the substrate of popular culture.

T.V. is a communications medium designed for, and supported by Joe and Jane Bloggs of such and such road, Anytown, Essex, UK.

Yes survivalism and scouting existing before RM, I agree but the bushcraft movement as we know it is a recent phenomenon that is hugely influenced by Ray's TV programmes.

What if Ray Mears had decided against sharing his knowledge through TV because he feared that 'ordinary people' would start going into the wilderness? He did share, and ordinary people did go out into the wilderness, and there are an awful lot of those former ordinary people in this very fora.

There is always a danger of cultivating an 'elitist' attitude when people get 'into' things in a more serious way, and the problems that this kind of attitude can manifeast in the individual can outweigh any benefits from practicing bushcraft (gawp, what are you going on about Strange) and this kind of attitude is at odds with the general philosophy of shared knowledge and skills transmission.

This is always the problem with great things. People can't help but get possessive about them.

It isn't an 'us' and 'them' situation. 'Bushcrafters' (what a sad label) aren't any more deserving to recieve and administer the heritage of skills which have taken many thousands of years to accumulate, just because they got into it slightly earlier than others (a mere nanosecond in anthropological time), or just because others don't choose to identify themselves as belonging to a subculture (there are plenty of people who do BC but don't go on about it).

Lets get some perspective, and guard against the proverbial dissappearing act (I hope people know what I mean, this is a family site so I can't be any more explicit)

 

[Toddy]

I didn't know that my living skills and relaxation interests, my ultimate chill out time, were called Bushcraft until I surfed into this forum a couple of years ago.
The skills are ageless, while to specifically take timeout to go and be at one with the natural world is quite a new phenomenon in the scheme of human evolution.

So suddenly it's fashionable...... Having met a fair number of 'bushcrafters' I have to categorically state that we are the most idiosyncratic group of individuals I have *ever* come across, and as any one who knows me is aware, that's saying something! Fashion seems to be something that happens to other people

The fake, the *buy all the kit and they'll believe my authority*' the blood, gore and nature in the raw; the armageddon is happening; the sit on my a**e and pontificate; types just don't get it.
All that's needed is to be part of things, actively participate in some fashion, relish and enjoy (and sometimes wish you were home with a hot bath and a glass of something dry and chilled ) the time outdoors.
Never stop learning, doing, creating; increase the knowledge not hoard it, widen the scope of things not restrict them.

Fashion? Weeellll, y'know, I used to wear hight heels all the time, thankfully I got wise in my old age. Pink wellies at least keep your feet dry.....though not for long if you're working in them
Swanndris, camouflage breeks, shemaghs......does that make OD our gang colours?

Camping used to be much more common than it is now; to be honest most folks will never go more than half an hour from a flushing loo or electricity nowadays; I suspect that there's nothing to worry about, except how cheaply good kit will be available on ebay

atb,
Toddy

 

[Seagull]

What if Ray Mears had decided against sharing his knowledge through TV because he feared that 'ordinary people' would start going into the wilderness? He did share, and ordinary people did go out into the wilderness, and there are an awful lot of those former ordinary people in this very fora.

There is always a danger of cultivating an 'elitist' attitude when people get 'into' things in a more serious way, and the problems that this kind of attitude can manifeast in the individual can outweigh any benefits from practicing bushcraft (gawp, what are you going on about Strange) and this kind of attitude is at odds with the general philosophy of shared knowledge and skills transmission.

This is always the problem with great things. People can't help but get possessive about them.

It isn't an 'us' and 'them' situation. 'Bushcrafters' (what a sad label) aren't any more deserving to recieve and administer the heritage of skills which have taken many thousands of years to accumulate, just because they got into it slightly earlier than others (a mere nanosecond in anthropological time), or just because others don't choose to identify themselves as belonging to a subculture (there are plenty of people who do BC but don't go on about it).

Bullseye!


Ceeg

( I take it that its still ok to quote, hereabouts)

 

[demographic]

Yep, the more folk into it the better, and if we can refrain from the elitist bo*****s it wont do any harm either.

Anyway, as I live in England I reckon mines more like herbaceous bordercraft cos it's sure as hell's not "bush" is it