Bear & Les: Pros & Cons.

[Sarge47]

Yeah, you read it right! Bear is demonstrating one thing about surviving in this recent downturn in the economy...he's making a very good living...shoot, just buy one of his knives!

BTW, the "anti-flaming" was directed towards members flaming each other!

I don't call Bear an "entertainer" at all! I'm an entertainer, & I don't see him as one! Les, on the other hand, is an entertainer because of his musical ability, as well as an outdoor skills teacher...Bear is a lunatic! But he's a RICH lunatic!

[Camp10]

I read Sarge's post this morning and I thought I would spend a little time and come up with something positive to say about Bear....I have nothing. As I have posted before, I think that he will someday have his "Steve Irwin moment" and then there will be stories about how many risks he took and how foolish it is to call what he did survival.

[rwc1969]

I don't think either one of them could live in the wilderness for a year without modern tools and such. Les didn't do it without modern tools and he and his wife had dysentary the whole time they were out there....until they started purifying their water and his wife lost her baby.

I saw the show SOS yesterday and it had a guy in the jungle that seemed to know his stuff pretty well. I'd almost rather see a show like that bringing different guys in all the time to get a broader view of survival skills and wilderness living.

In all honesty, I don't even watch much TV and just saw that SOS show yesterday for the first time. I think Bare and Les are old news now and it's time to move on to greener pastures....like the internet where we don't have to be bombarded with subliminal advertisements, biased media and annoying reality show advertisements.

[FVR]

I call Bear a POSER!

[Canadian-guerilla]

Les uses a Buck 119, a knife that anyone can buy within a reasonable distance
while Bear uses a " custom " knife that costs $600+

which one would a regular joe identify more with ?


as stated before, Les is not afraid to destroy his equipment to survive ( which IS the bottom line )
and also advocates " scrounging " and finding new uses for old garbage


i like to think of these two as the tortoise and the hare

slow and steady wins the race

[billdawg]

Bear-
Pros
-Does show the extreme side of things, and tells you to always be thinking of a way to get out.
-Does give good tips, ie: follow rivers, talks about different flora and fauna.

Cons-
-Is always running, and over-exerting himself, which is usually a no-no.
-More of an adventurer than a survivalist
-Does too much crazy crap, that is entertaining, but to someoone with little skills, could be dangerous.

Les
Pros
-Is by himself, so relies primarily on himself to survive.
-Shows how to use tools and equipment better IMO.
-Shows that it isn't always easy

Cons
-I haven't seen any SM shows in awhile, so I can't recall anything that jumps out at me, that would be dangerous.

All in all, they are both entertaining shows, and can give regular people some skills if they want. The biggest thing I think they both do well, is making sure you have the right attitude to survive.

[Rick]

Hey Billdawg, how about surviving your way over to our Introduction section and give us the pros and cons on you?

http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...ead.php?t=7813

[dscrick]

1. Tenderfoot watches entire season Man vs. Wild on DVD
2. Equipped with the survival wisdom of Bear Grylls, new canteen and $600 knife, said Tenderfoot embarks on Epic adventure through the Rockies.
3. Testing his skills at every turn and emulating his hero Bear Grylls, Tenderfoot jumps from 40 foot cliff into a bone chilling mountain lake.
4. Upon entering the water, tenderfoot makes contact with submerged aspen log at approximately 40 mph, shattering left fibula.
5. Struggling not to drown in the 35 degree water, Tenderfoot swims to shore and drags his soggy carcass up on the beach
6. Realizing the lake is above the treeline and there is no tinder/kindling/fuel for a fire, Tenderfoot attempts to crawl to lower elevation.
7. Darkness falls, temperature drops to 25 degrees. Tenderfoot goes hypothermic and dies.
8. Scavenging Grizzly finds Tenderfoot carcass and eats it.
9. In episode 25 of man vs. Wild, Bear Grylls finds canteen & knife eerily similar to his next to large pile of grizzly scat.
10. Puzzled, Bear Grylls squeezes liquid from grizzly scat into spare canteen, which he drinks after the next commercial.

The End

[finallyME]

1. Tenderfoot watches entire season Man vs. Wild on DVD
2. Equipped with the survival wisdom of Bear Grylls, new canteen and $600 knife, said Tenderfoot embarks on Epic adventure through the Rockies.
3. Testing his skills at every turn and emulating his hero Bear Grylls, Tenderfoot jumps from 40 foot cliff into a bone chilling mountain lake.
4. Upon entering the water, tenderfoot makes contact with submerged aspen log at approximately 40 mph, shattering left fibula.
5. Struggling not to drown in the 35 degree water, Tenderfoot swims to shore and drags his soggy carcass up on the beach
6. Realizing the lake is above the treeline and there is no tinder/kindling/fuel for a fire, Tenderfoot attempts to crawl to lower elevation.
7. Darkness falls, temperature drops to 25 degrees. Tenderfoot goes hypothermic and dies.
8. Scavenging Grizzly finds Tenderfoot carcass and eats it.
9. In episode 25 of man vs. Wild, Bear Grylls finds canteen & knife eerily similar to his next to large pile of grizzly scat.
10. Puzzled, Bear Grylls squeezes liquid from grizzly scat into spare canteen, which he drinks after the next commercial.

The End

You forgot to mention the large bell he found in the scat, and the strange pepper odor that eminated from the scat.

Oh wait, never mind. You said the bear ate him after he died.

[dscrick]

You forgot to mention the large bell he found in the scat, and the strange pepper odor that eminated from the scat.

Oh wait, never mind. You said the bear ate him after he died.

LOL. Might have been funnier if the bear ate him before he died

[sgtdraino]

I don't have enough viewing experience with Bear to give pros and cons.

My favorite pro for Les, is his constant stressing that people in survival situations do NOT over exert yourselves. He's constantly striving for a balance between getting things done, but not blowing himself out. I remember a few episodes when he was worried about sweating too much.

[Rick]

I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. This is me down on one knee in homage to the great bear. I will never doubt you again......weeeeeelllllllll.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Small...6873834&page=1

[Ted]

I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong. This is me down on one knee in homage to the great bear. I will never doubt you again......weeeeeelllllllll.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Small...6873834&page=1

OMG! WTF! Let me finish that for ya Rick....Weeeeeelllllllll, you have read Sarges sig quote from Albert haven't you?

[lucznik]

Bear:
Pros:
1. He has produced many moments of sheer hilarity in my home. A hearty belly laugh can be good for the soul.

2. As mentioned in another thread; my children and I watch Bear together and I allow them to point out his mistakes and stupidities. We then use this as a catalyst for discussions about what he could/should have done that would have been safer, smarter, and better.

Cons:
His constant stream of unwise, unsafe, and unreasonable activities (running, jumping, swinging, climbing, cave exploring, (literally) eating crap and drinking pi$$, etc.) has already been mentioned. I would add to this list the following:

1. I don't care for his constant focus on eating. You can survive weeks without food and yet, from the moment he starts his "survival challenges" he's out chawin' down on whatever vile thing he comes across. This laser-like focus on eating suggests to me a person who has never gone a single day without a meal and thus mistakenly associates hunger with starvation.

2. I also don't really like the WAY he eats. He always bites down on things so as to make sure the explosion of pus and guts is as visible and gross as possible. If I tried to eat that way at home, my wife would kill me.

3. I don't like his constant referral to his "special forces" training. Edward was in the special forces for only a short time before he broke his back in a skydiving accident and he spent the rest of his time in military service in hospital. Coming back from such an accident is not small feat and he deserves props for having accomplished it, but that doesn't alter the reality that he never was a actual operational member of a special forces team. He was a patient.


Les:
Pros:
1. The information is generally good. I have never seen him do anything that I thought was way out of the bounds of reason. He doesn't always make what I think would be the best choices, but his choice isn't inherently wrong - just different.

2. He shows his failures, especially those that involve him not being able to acquire good food sources. He also has eaten a few things that were a bit on the nasty side, (old rotting fish, grubs, etc.) but, at least he cooks them and tries to make them as edible as possible.

3. He did stage scenes, but they were at least staged by himself and performed by himself. No film crew, no safety net, no "leaping without looking."

Cons:
1. He can sometimes whine a bit too much. Especially when he's hungry, thirsty, and/or tired. This is reasonable as we all get that way when enduring difficult circumstances but, it can be a bit of a turn off for the viewing audience.

2. Not so much in his later seasons but, quite frequently during his earliest episodes he spent a lot of time lecturing about how he hated to "denude the forest of anything" or how he loathed the killing of any creature. All that just sounded hollow, trite, and a bit hypocritical as he was usually saying it while in the act of stripping off natural resources or killing something for his dinner.

3. His show is no longer being produced. Whether he quit or was canceled I don't know but, his absence from the airways is very apparent and only gives Bear that much more opportunity to teach people how to commit suicide through stupidity.