Man VS Wild

[tcpip4lyfe]

Anyone ever watch Man Vs Wild on the discovery channel? Bear Grills is probably the most hardcore person I've ever seen.

[rudder]

He is crazy for sure... I do love the show though!

[Tundro Walker]

Holy Crap this is a great show! Much better than Survivor Man.

The cool thing is, Bear doesn't just do the average stuff you have to do to survive, he goes above and beyond, doing stupid things like

1) drinking water out of elephant dung to survive (!)

2) jumping off a cliff into a rushing river and then riding the rapids miles downstream (and almost suffering hypothermia while at it)

3) Eating raw zebra flesh off a zebra carcass left behind after some lions feasted on it (and he was so casual about it..LOL!)

4) making a raft and riding it down river into the raging ocean, then ditching the raft (!) and swimming a quarter of a mile or so back to the shore to find safety

This guy is awesome. It'd be cool if he offered weekend or week-long survivor courses.

[juxtaposed]

... Survivor Man.

I like that show.

[teet]

I like that show.

I concur. I stumbled upon survivorman a little over a year ago. I have just recently started watching Man vs Wild.

I like both shows (which is kind of weird, considering I've never even been camping), but I really like the fact that Les Stroud (aka survivorman) is truly on his own, without a camera crew. Not only is he having to endure 7 days in extreme environments, he's also having to lug around heavy camera equipment and set up shots.

-teet

[kerry_s]

lol, i stopped watching when he drank the elephant pooh. i was eating when i saw that, after that i was looking on the floor at everything i was eating. it's not that it made me sick, but it groosed me out and made me laugh to fricken hard. :p

[Tundro Walker]

The main reason I don't like SurvivorMan is because his food scavenging sucks. He goes out of his way to find the most outlandish crap that takes forever to prepare or cook, wasting valuable time and energy when in a survival situation. I mean, the one show where he caught snails, then had to boil them in his hat. The other show where he found some water tubur, cooked it for hours and got sick eating it. Meanwhile, there's all kinds of other plants and insects he could be eating if he'd just kick over a rock. Plus, he takes jerky and granola and stuff with him. That's not very genuine.

Bear has a camara crew follow him, but they don't interfere unless he's in absolute life-threatening danger. He only has the clothes on his back, and in some cases (depending on how harsh the environment is), he's allowed a few other amenities, like a knife, or canteen or such. He has to catch his own food, water, etc. He's eaten grubs, insects, all kinds of stuff...and his familiarity with edible plants seems to far exceed Stroud's. He not only scavenges edible plants, but finds ones for medicinal use, too. I just think he's better at using nature to his advantage. However, he does go above and beyond the call of duty, doing things other folks wouldn't do sometimes (like plunging into an icy river).

[mips]

Nothing special about that guy. There are way tougher people in africa that eat worse things than you can imagine & have a real fight for survival lifestyle everyday, unlike this guy that does a few days for a show.

I can understand someone from a western country being in awe but the guy has done nothing to impress me. Have met tougher more impressive people.

[fuscia]

there are some vids on youtube on SAS training. he probably views doing this show as a vacation compared to what he probably went through during training.

[mips]

there are some vids on youtube on SAS training. he probably views doing this show as a vacation compared to what he probably went through during training.

I'm not much into this reality tv stuff but if you want to watch something good then have a look at:
SAS Desert: Are you tough enough?
SAS: Are you tough enough?

[Tundro Walker]

I'm not much into this reality tv stuff but if you want to watch something good then have a look at:
SAS Desert: Are you tough enough?
SAS: Are you tough enough?

Oh, c'mon...that's like extremes of human endurance type stuff. Survivorman and Bear are at least showing what normal folks might be capable of doing (you know, like the 99.9% of folks who would flunk SAS training, much less even get to it in the first place).

Of course, if the average joe or jane really wanted to learn how to survive comfortable in the wild, they should probably hook up with some Aborigines or something. Some researchers were studying the Aborigine diet when they were in "civilized" cities vs. out in the wild living the way the usually do. While in the city, they gained 30-40 lbs, but out in the wild, they lost it all while actually exercising less..lol! It was just a matter of getting back to their acclimated diet. The researchers were stunned, because these guys spent like an hour, maybe two each day rounding up some food, and that was if they really wanted to feast. Most of the time, while they were just trekking from way place to another, they'd just kick over a rock, eat some insects, find a few edible bushes to eat, etc. Literally 2 mins, and they had their meal and were off again.

[mips]

Oh, c'mon...that's like extremes of human endurance type stuff. Survivorman and Bear are at least showing what normal folks might be capable of doing (you know, like the 99.9% of folks who would flunk SAS training, much less even get to it in the first place).


Well the people here seem to think he is way extreme. I'm just saying there is nothing that impressive about the show. The SAS Desert shows are not that extreme either but good to watch and it is civilians going through their paces trained by SAS members.

[Erdaron]

It is my understanding that most people die under wilderness conditions because their either have no idea what to do or they panic and do something stupid. Bear is great at keeping his wits about him and knowing how to use his environment to his own advantage. And somehow still enjoys it and has fun. He may not be extremely extreme, but he still gets my respect for the way he handles his challenges.

The dude slid down a glacier with a broken skiing stick.

He caught a snake, and then carried it alive and wrapped around his arm for almost a day because he didn't want it to spoil.

This man is hard, whatever you say.