ray mears????

[AUSSIE]

redcollective,

Kendall just near Port Macquarie, what about you?

 

[arctic hobo]

Long before Ray Mears was a TV person he was Ray Mears the adventure, and Ray Mears the teacher, unlike some people he walks the walk as well as talks the talk. He learnt bush craft the way we all hope to learn, by going out and doing it. Back in the 1990s he spent six months with his then girlfriend Ffyona Campbell walking into (to pick up the Landrover Ffyona Campbell had been forced to abandon at the border due to a major war going on at the time) and out of some of the harshest areas of Africa. Ok so she admitted later that in some of the American bits she hitched a lift, but no one can Ray didn’t step up to the mark.

This is the area people get a bit iffy about. There are various stories (hoped they wouldn't come up, but someone is bound to bring them up now you've said that) about Ray and his teaching, and not all of them are good. Not sure if all are true, but if any are, it's not a good look

 

[Greywolf]

What appears to be going on (IMO) is that there are TWO Ray Mears, let me explain.

Ray Mears 1, TV celebrity, author, teacher and Guru to some. A self made man who has hit a winning formula, Bushcraft and entertainment produced for the TV watching masses. The Ray Mears that the critics are bashing.

Ray Mears 2, A man who makes mistakes like the rest of us. Inside him a love of what he does and an itch to teach others the things he has learned through his own experience and have worked for HIM. The Ray mears that sees the critics for what they are...Paid to be critical (at least I hope thats how he sees them)

I know which one I see him as


Greywolf

 

[morch]

I agree with you there Greywolf. Watchin him on TV certainly made me get off my a**e and get back out into the countryside. If he makes a good livin out of it then good luck to him.

 

[Neiltoo]

In the world I live in, everyone is entitled to an opinion.

 

[redcollective]

redcollective,

Kendall just near Port Macquarie, what about you?

Up outside of Lismore west of Byron. - towards Whian Whian... currently residing in the UK...

 

[NickC]

Books are not meant to tell you everything - experience is far more important. If you want to know how to fell a tree ask an professional to show you. You will learn more than any book can explain. Just like lighting a fire with a bow drill - I had tried and failed until somebody taught me (RM and Woodlore).

A word of warning - I have felled more trees that your average person and it still goes wrong occasionally. I once put the sink cut in and everything appeared OK until I started the backcut and the whole base of the tree exploded and the Scots pine hit the ground a bit sooner than intended and not quite in the direction expected. Luckily nobody or property was damaged. If your intrested to know why the tree had velvet top fungus (Phaeolus schweinitzii).

If you dont need to fell the tree leave it alone.

Nick

 

[AUSSIE]

"Up outside of Lismore west of Byron. - towards Whian Whian... currently residing in the UK..."

Man you are sick!! You gave up God's own country to go live in the UK!!

Wow she must have been one awesome looking babe!!

I know Kyogle and Nimbin naturally, how far from Kyogle is that???

 

[innocent bystander]

Uk - the country that populated Australia, and a good many others.
Also the one that beat Australia at Rugby this afternoon.
Australia - the country we didn't want anymore.

 

[Bushpig]

Well, i've not read all of this post but I think I get the jist, to me Ray Mears makes excellent programs that inspire! He is a great ambassador for bushcraft, and for the love of the outdoors in general, we are all lucky to have his knowledge so readily available for us. He comes across as being very thankful for his life and his craft and promotes a more spiritual aspect thats so lost in the majority of our society.



Boooshpig

 

[The Joker]

Well, i've not read all of this post but I think I get the jist, to me Ray Mears makes excellent programs that inspire! He is a great ambassador for bushcraft, and for the love of the outdoors in general, we are all lucky to have his knowledge so readily available for us. He comes across as being very thankful for his life and his craft and promotes a more spiritual aspect thats so lost in the majority of our society.



Boooshpig

Well said.

 

[AUSSIE]

[B]Australia - the country we didn't want anymore. [/B]



Gee I wish someone would tell all the sponging Pommy Backpackers who over stay their Visas!!

innocent bystander so you guys won the Rugby today??? Wow awesome!! Now you know what it feels like to be an Aussie every day of the week!!!

 

[Tony]

I know it's friendly banter but be careful

 

[AUSSIE]

Hi Folks!

Look sorry if I touched a raw nerve or something! But all I was doing was talking to a fellow Aussie who happens to live very close to me relatively speaking! As it is just so highly incredible that given we live in such a vast, mostly uninhabited wilderness, frontier type continent that the other Aussie actually had a notion of my location by my mention of a species of native tree that he made a casual enquiry about my place! On further learning of the awesome location that this chap came from I was just so shocked and probably more curios as to why he actually moved from this place to live in the UK!!

I'm really glad you guys won the rugby! I'm sorry about the reference to the backpackers and maybe us colonial bushcrafters should just quietly disappear back into the Aussie bush where we belong!!!

 

[Tony]

There were no fingers pointed It was a generic statement to a few people so don't worry about it.

This is one of those threads that makes me very wary as it's often close to the line. Everyone needs to be careful, Ray's a good bloke and he's done a lot for Bushcraft....more than a lot. I'll stick by the rules about making slanderous comments, for the most part everyone's been very good but make sure it doesn't deteriorate.

 

[Adrian]

I've read this thread with interest. Over the years(about 37) since I started going out and about in various bits of wild country, I've seen a wide number of different approaches to similar problems - none of them wrong, just different. I did complete the basic survival course at Hereford very many years ago(about 30) and it was made clear that there is rarely one right way, just the way you first learned followed by the ways you subsequently see others use and which might work better for you. I've read any number of outdoors books in that time, and seen how what was received wisdom today, in 10 years becomes distinctly suspect, and I've rarely seen ANY book able to accurately describe fully and completely the application of a practical technique!
Mr Mears programs and books got me interested in going back out to the woods again after a long break when other bits of life had taken over, and I had the good fortune to go on a Woodlore Fundamental Course in September (belated thanks to the instructors Lawrence, Dave, Willow and Netty - all excellent!). It was a great, although hardworking , experience. I met Ray Mears at that course, and he was impressive.
The dedication to and love of Bushcraft that he shows on tv is there all of the time, and he doesn't just teach what he knows, he listens to others' views or "take" on any aspect of the craft. He is the first to tell you that he is still a learner himself, and is always learning and developing his knowledge and skills. He is not an all-knowing god, but he IS a serious enthusiast about the subject and happy to confirm that even on tv it doesn't always go right the first time - they just don't have time to show the several tries which didn't work! He should be respected for the excellent work he has done in both popularising Bushcraft and it's various applications eg to nature watching and applied archaeology, and also for lifting the public perception of bushcraft practioners from being a bunch of "SAS/Rambo wannabees".
(climbs down off soapbox)

 

[Abbe Osram]

Some of the problems are not in the subject (Mr. Mears) but in the fact that a forum invites to too much speculation and to too much talk. Everyone knows that if you are out a lot, getting cold, getting confused what to do first, trying to remember what you just learned in a book about how to light a fire when its wet and raining, the soft feeling of panic when you are lost for the first time, the great feeling getting out, getting the fire going etc etc. If you meet a person who just came out of the woods with that experience fresh in mind and start talking with him about "what do you think about Ray Mears" he is likely to say; "Who cares, he has his live and I have mine". If we would argue about Les Stroud and his Survival program and how that man is not looking so professional as Ray Mears because he looks confused etc. He would probably say; “I know how the man must have felt being out there alone, I was confused too. Then he would ask you, if Mr. Stroud made it out alive, you tell him yes, and than that’s it for him. He made it then there is nothing to talk about.

A forum in the worst case can be like a pub where people are standing with a glass of beer in their hands having heated discussions why their boys didn’t break fast enough through the enemy lines in Falkland, why this and that way was wrong and how this and that was a right decision. Everyone gets in an argument and fight but none of them is out in the dirt enough to know deep down in their heart that it actually doesn’t matter to split the hair about such stuff.

If there is Life there is hope!
Yours
Abbe

 

[bambodoggy]

I'm sorry about the reference to the backpackers

No worries about your comment Mate and certainly no offence taken...and if you'll allow me to retort... if your backpackers weren't all over here then it would be a site harder to buy a drink in London....lol...three cheers for the Aussie bar staff! lol lol lol