Ultimate Survival

[kram245]

Mainly for our American freinds, our TA special forces can join direct entry, unlike the regular SF where you have to serve in another unit for a few years first. So in the TA SAS there are quite a few 18 and 19 year old troopers. Thats not to say its not a hard selection, as it is, but they can have a warped perspective on military life, and have missed out on the humdrum tedium of regular military life that can be very character building! The combat survival course that is carried out on selection is classed as an instructor course, so by completing it, you qualify as a a combat survival instructor. I would imagine that was what his publicist has woven from his limited military C.V to make it sound a bit sexier. All this said, they do turn immature 18 year olds away and tell them to go and get a bit of life experience, so they do look at phsycological make-up. Have'nt seen the programme mentioned, by the way, cheers, Mark

 

[JDilling]

The ran that show as "Man Vs Wild" here in the USA. I'll concur that Bear definetely does a lot of things that are questionable to downright crazy to say the least.

7 floating 12 or more miles down a glacial melt river and not being hyperthermic

IIRC, he was wearing a PFD under his clothes. As I recall reading, there was some precautions that took him 'out of character', but was required to do such by the PFD. I bet they wanted to protect their investment.

In another episode, Alaska, he'll go through bear country unarmed. He relies soley on flight and avoidance, despite admitting that another man had recently been killed in the vicinity. An unnecesary risk IMHO. He also passes up oppertunities for grabbing extra foodstuffs when he has the oppertunity.

He also concedes to being wrong, at times which is nice. In Costa Rica, he gets sick from drinking water he didn't purify (boil). Later he admited (on air or otherwise, I forget) that he should have boiled it. And in transversing terrain, rivers, and waterfalls (especially) he takes a lot of unnecesary risks. Usually he does a good job of letting viewers know that his way is not the safest, and that there is a definite way around it, albeit more time consuming and safer.

He's entertaining to watch. Not always accurate, but fun none the less.

 

[Nathan Sturgess]

By reading his Website he eems a bit of a Ranulph fienes wannabe

 

[Greg]

Yeah I agree with you Nathan he seems like abit of a wannabe!
As an answer to his age as a combat survival instructor, SAS boys get fast tracked on to military courses to ensure the regiment has the right amount of qualified guys to operate at peak efficiency all the time, so it is feasable that he was an instructor at that age.
Frank Collins (R.I.P), who wrote 'Baptism of Fire' joined the SAS at 18yrs old and was the youngest guy operating during the Iranian Embassy Siege.
It just goes to show how good and how well those guys are trained!!
But during Bear's program he took way too many risks that the average joe would probably have got him/herself killed doing....

 

[sharp88]

i hate him :twak:

 

[oldsoldier]

Bear is somewhat of a joke in the US. Now, I am not taking away that he knows what he's doing, or is tough, or whatnot. But, the things he does, well, would probably kill you as likely as save you. Running downhill, drinking water unpurified from a stream, eating maggots off of a dead carcass...these are irresponsible, & show people the wrong thing. They need to do some on land nav, signalling, and firebuilding.
We all want Les Stroud back!

 

[Voivode]

Bear is somewhat of a joke in the US. Now, I am not taking away that he knows what he's doing, or is tough, or whatnot. But, the things he does, well, would probably kill you as likely as save you. Running downhill, drinking water unpurified from a stream, eating maggots off of a dead carcass...these are irresponsible, & show people the wrong thing. They need to do some on land nav, signalling, and firebuilding.
We all want Les Stroud back!

Now that I've watched all the episodes of "Man vs Wild" (as it is called over here), I've got an opinion.

I certainly wouldn't be doing what he is doing; However, I'm pretty sure that this is purely for entertainments sake, and most of the viewing population won't end up in Africa wringing elephant dung for water or in most of the other situations he is placed in. That being said, those that do are probably in one of two classes:

a. Average Joe who, as soon as he realizes he's in trouble, panics and forgets everything he ever knew about surviving, good or bad.

and

b. The minority, who keep their head and will go about the business of surviving/signaling/escaping.

Now, the individual that has only this program as his mentor is most assuredly in group a, and will more likely than not get into worse trouble than the things portrayed in the show well before those situations come up. I'm willing to bet that Average Joe isn't going to be attempting to scale any waterfalls, will probably give up on fishing well before he catches anything, and will probably be scared absolutely crap-less if he tried to climb into a crevasse to descend a glacier.

In the end, as far as I'm concerned, if somebody dies in the wilderness it won't be because of this show.

Also, Survivorman Season 2 is apparently on it's way. Yay!