Surviviorman rules

[catscratch]

Anyone else a fan of this show?

I missed it the first time around since I don't watch TV but I'm catching up now. Les Stroud is truly amazing, musician, survival expert, writer, filmmaker, and a remarkable TV personality to boot with endless charisma. He films everything himself, no camera crew, nothing is faked like Man vs. Wild, just genuine survival techniques with a bit of humor thrown in. Les doesn't do anything excessive, and his escapades don't always work and sometimes he has to bail and call in help. Still, I've learned a few nice tricks, and the show is massively entertaining.

[robm321]

I love that show. Too bad he's done with it. He's a regular guy that never goes overboard. He gets impatient, gets scarred, screws up, and that's what I like about it. Very entertaining.

Man vs Wild dude has some pretty crazy credentials, but I always get the feeling like he's trying to prove something or has this underlying insecurity that drives him to accomplish things rather than just wanting to play his role in the show. Plus he's a lunatic. Tell us that we can drink our piss. You don't actually have to do it... freak!

Les is great! And the original.

[dsavitsk]

Indeed

[catscratch]

Yeah Bear does some fun stuff, but since he's with a camera crew there is no psychological element to what he's doing. With Les though you can really see the mental effects of survival, and that makes the show much better and more impactful. Plus he doesn't do anything that anyone in his position couldn't potentially do. Which isn't to say that he isn't entertaining, on the contrary watching him do just about anything is great because of his humor and charisma.

Tell us that we can drink our piss. You don't actually have to do it... freak!

I don't think you should drink urine in a survival situation. It usually dehydrates you even more. Plus there are toxins in there which have been removed from your body for a good reason; putting them back into your body can lead to some serious problems. If you're drinking urine chances are you are already dehydrated, which means that water content will be lower and toxin content will be higher. Les made a urine distillation still in one episode to get fresh water without the toxins and that is a pretty cool idea, but the amount of water you'd get from that is pretty small. But better than nothing.

Which is not to say that people haven't done it historically, but often for other reasons than survival. Siberian shamans that used Amanita muscaria for divination purposes drank their own urine. The theory is that muscimol is converted by the body into an active metabolite which is then partially excreted; drinking the urine gets more of the active metabolite back into the body and increases the potency of the mushroom.

Not something I'm keen on doing myself mind you; sounds a little dangerous to me, not to mention disgusting. But people certainly have done some disgusting things in the pursuit of getting high.

And speaking of getting high...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVbXdkxdX3I

[LFF]

Yeah Bear does some fun stuff, but since he's with a camera crew there is no psychological element to what he's doing. With Les though you can really see the mental effects of survival, and that makes the show much better and more impactful. Plus he doesn't do anything that anyone in his position couldn't potentially do. Which isn't to say that he isn't entertaining, on the contrary watching him do just about anything is great because of his humor and charisma.

That's exactly why I love that show!

[Pars]

I hadn't heard that Les was done doing Survivorman... bummer as I liked that show. I can certainly see how it could be hard on you though when he put it in perspective of having 25 weeks where he basically had starved

[robm321]

I don't think you should drink urine in a survival situation. It usually dehydrates you even more. Plus there are toxins in there which have been removed from your body for a good reason; putting them back into your body can lead to some serious problems. If you're drinking urine chances are you are already dehydrated, which means that water content will be lower and toxin content will be higher. Les made a urine distillation still in one episode to get fresh water without the toxins and that is a pretty cool idea, but the amount of water you'd get from that is pretty small. But better than nothing.

I'm with you on this one, but Bear would disagree: