The Risks of Our Hobby

[Broke]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269688,00.html

It makes me wonder why they wouldn't let him fill the bottle he had in his pack? If this is supposed to be a "survival course", I would be filling up whatever I had available REGARDLESS what the instructors said.

 

[Squidders]

Hard core survival isn't my thing... i'm not about that at all... my bushcraft is comfortable and laid back. This is as relevant to my hobby as a formula 1 crash

 

[Goose]

Hard core survival isn't my thing... i'm not about that at all... my bushcraft is comfortable and laid back. This is as relevant to my hobby as a formula 1 crash

I agree, but that course isn't survival it sounds more like a trial.

 

[Tadpole]

I think its relevance comes from the knowledge that the next time someone goes on a bushy course, and mentions it to someone not in the “know” the first thing you're going to hear is “don’t you know that (lots of) people(s) have died doing bushcraft courses”. I get the same sort of reaction from people when I’m sitting in my garden making stuff. Friends say “wow do the police know you having that weapon” try explaining to them that is knife is not a weapon unless it is used as a weapon is like trying to explain to them that WWF is not real wrestling.
Put something, anything, in the press and the collective hive mind of sun readers all think that it is gospel. “Knife crime is up”, only it’s not, “bushcraft is dangerous” only it’s not.

 

[Squidders]

I agree, but that course isn't survival it sounds more like a trial.

Actually Goose you're quite right... more of an ordeal than a course where you would learn skills. I guess there will always be times though that strip away the layers of comfort to reveal who you are when it really does hit the fan. I'd like to know who I am in that situation... but not enough to pay $3500 and die

Tadpole, I think bushcraft is many times more dangerous than a lot of hobbies, we play with fire, many many many sharp things and we stumble aroud in the woods at night to pee. We practice what we can to make ourselves safe but accidents happen and a stamp collecting accident will be a lot safer

The type of "actvity" mentioned on the legendary sensationalist CNN (chicken noodle news) is far removed from what most folk here would practice. If I am met with remarks about the dangers, I can easily point out that what I do is not the same as pushing the envelope and going to the max blah blah. At the end of the day though, there will always be those who wish to suck the joy out of life and remove our freedoms and there will always be us... the non conformists, enjoying every minute the way we want to.

 

[Tadpole]

Tadpole, I think bushcraft is many times more dangerous than a lot of hobbies, we play with fire, many many many sharp things and we stumble aroud in the woods at night to pee. We practice what we can to make ourselves safe but accidents happen and a stamp collecting accident will be a lot safer

when I was at school a guy who collected stamps nearly choked to death on a stamp hinge thingy, it was quite cool, he went all shade of blue before a teacher spoilt our fun...
(what.. what I was 9 forheavensake
my FIL makes model airplanes, and in the last two years, (the time I've been back messing about with wildcamping/bushcraft0 he has cut himself more time than I have, had his ribs cracked, (a toy plane crashed into him) set fire to himself, blown up several planes, set fire to a field, stabbed himself with a hot wire. Since I have known him, several of his friends have crashed in to crowds of people, broken bones, lost fingers eyes hunks of flesh. yet he thinks me carving spoons in my garden as far more dangerous than his 'hobby'
Train spotting is perfectly safe until some one fall of a platform and breaks his neck. ( the platform a Crewe is treacherous , treacherous I tell you)

 

[BOD]

I'm not sure that you can say it is not bushcraft. Of course, some people may take it as a personal challenge and not care about the bushcraft.

In OZ there as a well known survival / bushcraft course called The Walk. It is about 200 km long depending on the route you take and takes place in the Pilbara an arid zone in the outback the size of France.

You and a small group 5-7 max. are given a map and compass and a small survival kit (the Australian Army one) what you wear and sent off. You locate your water , scrounge for your food and make your own plans. You get a radio to call for help and advise the directing staff who do NOT accompany you on the trip on your intentions.

You are encouraged to think smart, conserve energy, travel at night not the afternoon, sleep by day etc. Your bushcraft skills determine how comfortable you are. You lose up to 10 kilos.

Being Australia, the walk ends at a pub

However you have to qualify for it by doing an advanced survival course in the desert and then be invited back.

 

[scanker]

Lots more discussion of this here.

 

[Squidders]

when I was at school a guy who collected stamps nearly choked to death on a stamp hinge thingy, it was quite cool, he went all shade of blue before a teacher spoilt our fun...

I would pay anything to see this kind of thing! ANYTHING!!! hehehe

 

[Dunelm]

I have looked at several of the BOSS courses over the years and even had discussions with the wife about my attending one as a "40th birthday present" (in 5 years!) but even before reading this I was perturbed by the slightly zealous new-agey attitude of their literature and the gung-hu atmosphere that seems to pervade not just the staff but the clients.

I agree with what's been said above - walking through a blazing hot desert with no water is the absolute antithesis of what I consider "bushcraft" to be and that sort of masochistic I-can-take-more-pain-than-you bull is not for me.

 

[Tengu]

Well, that is interesting

What attracted you to BOSS??

 

[Dunelm]

Well, that is interesting

What attracted you to BOSS??

Probably Utah. Living in the dank and misty hills of Durham I've had the hots for deserts since reading "Dune" as a kid. There is a very bleak and harsh beauty to them, espescially the wind carved canyons of the US south west.

However - whilst the deserts of Utah still draw me I feel less inclined to pay top-dollar to BOSS for the priveledge of dying in the dust.

 

[Sickboy]

What did the other people on the course learn? That not drinking enough can kill you? maybe they knew that anyway. How about power mad, blue sky thinking cowboy's aren't the best people to drag you across a desert? Maybe they new that too? Even for the armed forces this would be extreme, so who thought it would be a good idea for mere mortals with something to prove to themselv...... enough of the rant
Basically "letting" someone die on your watch while your supposedly looking after them is poor form whatever your job, even if you have to make them cry to earn your bonus and extract wordship from your collegues.
If any body want's to push themselves to the limit without the long flight too Utah then feel free to p.m me, i have a sauna, handcuff's and a large piece of bamboo waiting :twak: :aargh4: