Is Bear Gryll's Insane?

originally posted by: Murgatroid

originally posted by: Death_Kron
That wasn't really the point I was making...

You asked a question, I gave you the answer...

Most lunatics that I know of don't live in £30 million flats or buy their own private islands off the coast of Wales.

This is true, point taken.

It would of been easier to say the fella is bonkers

originally posted by: stormbringer1701
Bear is legit. but the stuff he does is not base line survival tactics. it's about an adrenaline rush and ratings more than anything. A lot of the stuff he does is the opposite of what you would really do if you really wanted to take a rational approach to survival. That would be never take risks that you can avoid without jeopardizing you survival.

He does know his survival stuff but good survival is usually boring and does not make good TV. They do stage stuff. there is no point in actually enduring survival situations when you or your crew do not have to. Besides he has paid his dues. Meaning he has done the stuff that they stage (like staying the night in an ice shelter) why should he do it again when he doesn't have to? I'd high tail it for a hotel too if given the choice. it does not mean i cannot construct, use and survive in various types of survival shelter.

Probably the best reply so far. Good points all around

originally posted by: grey580
The guy is insane.

However he has a pair of brass ones on him.

I saw him kill a deer using a tree, shoelaces a pocket knife.

I saw McGuyver do the same thing thirty tears ago.

Yeah, the show is garbage, like his endorsed chineese knives and crappy camping gear.

Survivorman's pretty cool though.

I have had a personal hatred of Bear Gryll ever since I saw one episode of his garbage show. I watched more and more episodes just to confirm that the guy is a complete moron and nearly everything he says is going to get you killed.

Man vs Wild is for entertainment purposes only, and should be advertised as such (hopefully it is).

The only good information on Man vs Wild is a lesson in population control.

The show is showing you in as many ways as they can how to survive.
could he find a way across a icy river he crossed? sure..hell, he could probably walk a few steps to the road and get in the car
But what he is doing is showing you how to cross yourself should you need to..
Why take clothes off? because once those clothes are wet, you will freeze to death in them..but, if you take em off and cross, then on the other side, you got dry clothes waiting for you..if you got a fire, you got heat coming right off it without having to go through icy water clothes..this is how to deal with hypothermia 101.

In a survival situation, you eat when you can, when there is food, especially if you are on the move like he always is.

Climbing the highest point can show you where civilization most likely will be and save days off your travel if you start walking towards the right spot..yes, the higher the better..highest tree, hill, etc.

I haven't seen him drink too many questionable water sources (outside of moisture from elephant crap..that one was gross, but he was showing what to do when you are pretty close to death in Africa..so, acceptable there.

What he is showing is extreme..and lots of what he does is meant for extreme situations, when if you find yourself in that situation can consider if things get desperate..the stream that goes on for seemingly ever that you desperately need to cross (remove the clothes for faster warming up on the other side), or been gone for weeks and haven't had a bite, but plenty of bugs around, etc.

If you want to watch a very casual experience of basic sit and wait survival, watch survivorman. he parks himself for a week and just teaches you how to survive in the general area, setting camp, traps, etc. Far less risk taking, more relevant to survivalist camping.

a reply to: ghostrager

Less kinda went a little crazy in the last few years. Even going as far as claiming he heard big foot a few times.

The guy has talent, and unreal survival skills but he kind of went off the radar for a bit. I think in order to be a true survivor man you need to be a little off the charts.

My lad likes Bear's shows and his books.
He got so into it I got him a copy of Lofty Wiseman's book too, so he could learn it properly..


My all time favourite survival bloke was Les Hiddings. Absolute magic his shows were.

a reply to: SprocketUK

Good on you.... Lofty Wiseman knows.... it may be boring to a TV producer, but there's more meat in his book than the entire catalog of Bear's TV ventures...

bare grillz is utter bollox . he should just jump the shark and join the " jack-ass " team

originally posted by: JacKatMtn
a reply to: SprocketUK

Good on you.... Lofty Wiseman knows.... it may be boring to a TV producer, but there's more meat in his book than the entire catalog of Bear's TV ventures...

Too right. He was mates with the father in law, so getting it signed was a doddle too

My personal favorite survival tv show is Man Woman wild - a married couple where the husband is a former US special forces, and the wife is a tv journalist. The nice part about it is that it feels like a fairly realistic show - he makes most of the decisions and teaches her a variety of survival techniques, but the focus is always on what's safe. The interesting part of the show is the dynamic between them. If he's doing something risky, she will nag him about it, and if she's being a wuss about hunting or eating something, he talks her through why she has to do it.

a reply to: Death_Kron

If you want "real" survival, watch Les Stroud. If you wan't heart pounding entertainment, watch Bear Grylls. Not gonna take anything away from the guy, he has balls of pure steel but you don't want to be doing what he does.

Ya he's crazy. Crazy for the money he makes from doing those things.

Good rule of thumb:

If it's on TV, it's crap.

Just remember that and you'll be fine.

I like Naked and Afraid.

originally posted by: grey580
The guy is insane.

However he has a pair of brass ones on him.

I saw him kill a deer using a tree, shoelaces a pocket knife.

No you didn't. You saw a dead deer. you never saw the kill. all staged for tv mate.

need we say more..

Bear Doll

a reply to: JacKatMtn

First of all, Mr Grylls does not do survival in his back yard as a matter of course. He does it all over the damned place. The wilds of the Amazon, the foothills of the Himalayas, stuff like that. His familiarity with the fauna and flora of our whole planet are both pretty impressive, and I am sure he is more than aware, when he munches down on most things, what is, and is not appropriate eating. Also, he has conditioned his body to deal with certain stressors, which you and I might fail to cope with with as much aplomb.

Furthermore, with his being able to be dropped most anywhere, and get from A to B with no map, he has to be able to navigate using whatever he can see. In a forested area, that means either climbing a tree, or climbing a mountain or cliff face, to figure out what lies ahead. Rivers, streams, other mountains, any detail on the landscape that might indicate an area worth hiking through, or an area worth avoiding, will help him plan ahead so that he does not loose energy and time, on bad paths, or on going in totally the wrong direction.

We are not talking about a guy who is going to march back to his cabin, crack open a cold beer, roast up some of the game he just shot with his hunting rifle, and do a winter in the hills with a log fire and a generator. We are talking about a fellow who can be dropped anywhere on the planet with no idea where he is going to land up, and live through it. That is an entirely different prospect to going to woodland you know well, where every crevice in a rock and every cliff face the eye can see is known to you.

a reply to: TrueBrit
Yeah. Not only that, Bear Grylls was Chuck Norris’s stunt double.