Dual Survival

i finally caught the first episode via youtube, yesterday... i thought it was okay.. like most folks, i didn't care for all of the nagging that Dave was doing.. staged or not, we all know that Cody knows his stuff,(Dave included) regarless of how he approaches things and the way he lives his life reflects many cultures over thousands of years...
 
Having watched the show on youtube I was rather sad at how badly DC behaved and the comments that he made. I have liked most of his youtube uploads and am now wondering which is the real man.
Cody in contrast seems a very pleasant and well educated man.
 
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Cody is a real kickass individual in real life. As was obvious in the show he has reasons for what he does.
 
SPOILERS! DON'T READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE SHOW AND WANT TO SEE IT FIRST BEFORE DISCUSSING IT.

I think the show was more balanced than some people give it credit for. It's obvious that the situations are a bit contrived, but they have to be if the stars of the show are to impart any meaningful information, and if there's going to be any entertainment. For one thing, the need for food isn't that urgent. Unless they started out their adventure without having eaten for a week, they could have gone for days without worrying about what to eat. Their primary concerns should have been warmth, shelter and water, which I thought they addressed very well.

Cody started out well, grazing as he gathered. There's definitely advantages to that strategy. Dave did a major comeback by hunting and bringing home some real meat, as well as showing how to improvise and utilize whatever you may have at hand, such as cutting the bladders off the bottom of their raft, and making a spear from his paddle. Remember, he brought back water with that bag. That's a major accomplishment in a survival situation. People criticize him for sharpening and fire hardening the paddle, but I suppose the spear is for bigger game, like small dear, and the paddle edge was for smaller game, such as the porcupine he bludgeoned. Yea, he could have made a spear from the wood on the island, but the paddle is already dry and seasoned and the paddle edge makes an excellent bludgeon.

Maybe he was planning on spearing Cody with the paddle if things got too heated. ;-)

Apart from Cody being a very experienced outdoors kind of guy and knowing what he's doing when it comes to living a primitive lifestyle, I agree with Dave regarding any partner in a survival situation not taking care of his feet and risking over exposure to the cold. I admire Cody a lot. I've read his books and he's one of my heroes, but I wear the finest footwear I can afford.

However, I also agreed with Cody about Dave leaving in the middle of the night, with a makeshift torch that could only have lasted a few minutes at best. It's obvious that the need for food couldn't have been that dire and I'm sure that situation was contrived.

Cody's shelter was trick stuff, and Dave certainly recognized that. I'm sure he knew what was up before he even entered the shelter. I have no doubt the whole tension between him and Cody is entirely contrived to give interest to the show, and I like it so far. Don't be surprised if Dave makes Cody look a little lame in the next episode, and their one-upmanship will probably trade off from episode to episode. I'm looking forward to more entertainment, and I hope the show gives both men, and their respective takes on survival, more exposure to the public.
 
shangchi108 said:
Dave did a major comeback by hunting and bringing home some real meat,
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I hope that it wasnt a canned hunt ie. where the porcupine was caught and set free at the right place and at the right camera angle for dave to bludgeon. The disclaimer at the begining at the show states that situations might be presented for the duo so they can show some techniques.

Personally im strongly against canned hunts like the idiots who travel to Africa to shoot a hand-reared gazelle walking around in some enclosure. (Not comparing our duo to those ppl!!)

Thankfully Dave spoke about how to kill it humanely :thumbup: and i really liked how Dave cut the heart and ate it raw to ingest the porcupines spirit, and how they spoke of honoring the kill by using every single part of the creature. That is true respect for mother nature and the creatures that inhabit it. :thumbup:
 
kmm said:
I hope that it wasnt a canned hunt ie. where the porcupine was caught and set free at the right place and at the right camera angle for dave to bludgeon. The disclaimer at the begining at the show states that situations might be presented for the duo so they can show some techniques.

Personally im strongly against canned hunts like the idiots who travel to Africa to shoot a hand-reared gazelle walking around in some enclosure. (Not comparing our duo to those ppl!!)
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Well, even Cody admitted that one of his videos was contrived. It was a video showing how a dead fall works, and the animal that he 'found' in the trap on the video had actually been killed the day before.

With these kinds of shows, there's only so much time for production. The producers can't afford to pay people to sit around and wait, with cameras and mics in hand, for some animal to enter a trap so the hero can eat it. Les Stroud got around that limitation by being his own production crew, but that meant that when you saw him walking down the trail, he had actually walked down it before to set up the cameras, then walked back, then walked down so he could film himself, then walked back to collect his camera gear, then continued walking. That's a lot of production work for one guy, and a lot of extra walking, but it does cut down on costs and allows him to film whatever he's trying to film in his own time.

So, the point is, it probably was a canned hunt. It could have taken days for them to have found a porcupine to kill, and unless the production crew are also hard core survivalists, I doubt they would have put up with that.

At least the porcupine had a sporting chance to get away. I hope he wasn't restrained in any way. I hate canned 'reality' shows, too, but sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do to make a show, or you don't do it at all.

kmm said:
Thankfully Dave spoke about how to kill it humanely :thumbup: and i really liked how Dave cut the heart and ate it raw to ingest the porcupines spirit, and how they spoke of honoring the kill by using every single part of the creature. That is true respect for mother nature and the creatures that inhabit it. :thumbup:
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I agree entirely.
 
I liked the show, and based on the first episode I would say Cody seems to have an use the long term skills and Dave kinda like a survival grenade , good skills but seems to have short term applications.
 
mkhop said:
I liked the show, and based on the first episode I would say Cody seems to have an use the long term skills and Dave kinda like a survival grenade , good skills but seems to have short term applications.
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How would you have done it differently?
 
I think the show was a good one. They seemed to be more of the kind of friends that might poke fun at each other then anything else. The thing about bare feet it seemed to me more that they said that to set up for the explantion about the benefits of walking bare foot. Does anyone realy belives that Dave needed to be explained about how the shelter works?? I think his Q and the explantion was done more for the viewers. So the reasoning about walking out at night. As Dave said so himself while walking out there.
I have no doubt that Dave would have giving Cudy the pants or the shoes if he wanted it. The show seems to be part staged to get a point across which they done very well.
Cant wait for the next one. Atlist there were no stupid heroics done like jumping in a water hole or running down a steep hill with loose gravel. Like most people said Survival is boring with alot of hard work.


Sasha
 
The one thing I think is really contrived and bogus is Cody's bare feet. Yeah, yeah, I know, his mitochondria can kick all our mitochondrial asses. But the video clip above just demonstrates what I'm saying. It plainly says that aboriginal (?) peoples have adapted to arctic temperatures over many generations, but Cody is trying to do it in only one (paraphrased). BUT, the people that actually LIVE in arctic weather and should be adapted if ANYONE is, WEAR SHOES! Or at least insulating footwear (mukluks?). They don't walk around barefooted in shorts, or with just wool socks on their feet. As much as I gotta respect the man for what he stands for, and his abilities, (especially his survival abilities), that just ain't right.
 
rockspyder said:
The one thing I think is really contrived and bogus is Cody's bare feet. Yeah, yeah, I know, his mitochondria can kick all our mitochondrial asses. But the video clip above just demonstrates what I'm saying. It plainly says that aboriginal (?) peoples have adapted to arctic temperatures over many generations, but Cody is trying to do it in only one (paraphrased). BUT, the people that actually LIVE in arctic weather and should be adapted if ANYONE is, WEAR SHOES! Or at least insulating footwear (mukluks?). They don't walk around barefooted in shorts, or with just wool socks on their feet. As much as I gotta respect the man for what he stands for, and his abilities, (especially his survival abilities), that just ain't right.
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Yep, and they caught him once or twice standing on spruce boughs with one foot in the air trying to warm a bit.

Doc
 
rockspyder said:
BUT, the people that actually LIVE in arctic weather and should be adapted if ANYONE is, WEAR SHOES! Or at least insulating footwear (mukluks?). They don't walk around barefooted in shorts, or with just wool socks on their feet. As much as I gotta respect the man for what he stands for, and his abilities, (especially his survival abilities), that just ain't right.
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To be accurate, Cody walks around in several pairs of wool socks in progressively larger sizes so they fit over each other. I would say three pairs of thick arctic wool socks would probably equate to a pair of mukluks.
 
The guy walks in bare feet pretty much everywhere. Sock's are just his way of putting on shoes. Besides, wool socks with their ability to provide thermogenic reaction with water to create heat makes sense. The guy has gone a decade or more not wearing shoes, why would anybody just expect him to start now?

I think it is interesting how they put them in the worst situation possible on the first show. Water, wet and cold. Even they had shots of Dave shivering and complaining about it being cold, the two of them seemed pretty damn comfortable.

Wonder if the camera men got to partake of the porcupine? Also, you gotta wonder where the camera guys are staying. Do they have a nice Woods expedition tent with a stove and comfy down bags :D

I do like how the show does take the time to explain things about process and the how it works through editorial and via the conversation of the two stars. I don't think that it is trying to capture the same realism that Les did, but its format does allow a lot of educational content. The drama is just what it is I suppose. Even Les had to stick in a drama moment in everyone of his shows and people still claimed it was boring.

I don't know much about Dave, but from a little bit of research on Cody he is appears t be the real deal, teaches his school and lives off the grid in his sustainable home. He even admits he's a bit hippy in lifestyle, but hell, that guy lives what he preaches. Plus that 'living in tune with nature' business just resonates with me. I already live completely out of tune with nature, so his idea seems like something to aspire to.
 
kgd said:
The guy walks in bare feet pretty much everywhere. Sock's are just his way of putting on shoes. Besides, wool socks with their ability to provide thermogenic reaction with water to create heat makes sense. The guy has gone a decade or more not wearing shoes, why would anybody just expect him to start now?

I don't know much about Dave, but from a little bit of research on Cody he is appears t be the real deal, teaches his school and lives off the grid in his sustainable home. He even admits he's a bit hippy in lifestyle, but hell, that guy lives what he preaches. Plus that 'living in tune with nature' business just resonates with me. I already live completely out of tune with nature, so his idea seems like something to aspire to.
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Ahhh... so THAT's what I've been doing wrong! All these times that I've had cold feet while out hunting, I should have dumped water on my wool socks instead of keeping my feet dry! <slaps forehead> ;)

I'll buy what you (or actually Shangchi) said about several layers of wool being equivalent to mukluks, since I don't know that the traditional mukluks are water-resistant to work that well in wet snow conditions. But I'm not buying the thermogenics of wool. I've lived too many wet-snow winters. Yeah, wool is the best insulator when wet (other than neoprene), but it isn't as good wet as it is dry.

Plus, going barefoot for 20 years in Arizona isn't the same as going barefoot 20 years in Nova Scotia.
 
Not sure how this will be any different from Man vs Wild or Survivorman...with the exception of sticking 2 men out in the wild somewhere instead of 1...
 
viva la said:
Not sure how this will be any different from Man vs Wild or Survivorman...with the exception of sticking 2 men out in the wild somewhere instead of 1...
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I think it will be different because it combines elements from both shows. It has the reality and no nonsense of Survivorman and the great camera coverage and commentary of Man vs. Wild. I think it'll do well. When they were scouring for participants, I thought it would showcase two different survivalist with each episode. That would have been interesting too. I would like to see Les Stroud given the freedom of survival without having to man a camera in the process.


rockspyder said:
Yeah, wool is the best insulator when wet (other than neoprene), but it isn't as good wet as it is dry.
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You are correct, sir.... it isn't as good wet.... but the properties of wool (including thermogenic reaction) have made it THE best natural fibre for the cold. The best part about wool is that once it reaches its saturation limit, just wring it out and it starts all over.


rockspyder said:
Plus, going barefoot for 20 years in Arizona isn't the same as going barefoot 20 years in Nova Scotia.
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Great point. I have seen Cody wearing footwear mocs and gaiters, I think,(with shorts and a T-shirt, of course:rolleyes:) in cold environments before... he is not above that. I think that he was pushing the limits on footwear (or the lack of) to make for a better show.

Here is a cool tv segment....
[youtube]i4f5w-kVWgU&feature=related[/youtube]
 
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