Les Stroud v. Bear Grylls

[It's Damn Real!]

If you haven't the faintest clue who I'm referring to, this next bit is for you, otherwise read past to get to the nitty gritty...

Les Stroud is the writer, producer, director, cameraman and host of the television program Survivorman on the Discovery Channel. The program was designed to enlighten it's viewing audience on various survival tips and tools in the event they were to ever find themselves in a similar situation as the ones Stroud willingly put himself in. During the taping of each episode, Stroud is alone and operates all the cameras himself, while his support team monitors from a distance. He is equipped with only his clothes, camera equipment, his harmonica, a multi-tool, and often "everyday items" relevant to the episode's particular survival situation or locale. For safety purposes, Stroud carries an emergency satellite phone and normally has daily radio contact with his support crew that is always within rescue range.

Bear Grylls is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter, as well as an ex-British SAS operative who also spent time in the Indian Army. His program, Man vs. Wild, also airs on the Discovery Channel (in the US), and similarly featured him being dropped into inhospitable places, showing viewers how to survive in the process. The show has also featured stunts including Grylls climbing cliffs, parachuting from helicopters, balloons, and planes, paragliding, ice climbing, running through a forest fire, wading rapids, eating snakes, wrapping his urine-soaked t-shirt around his head to help stave off the desert heat, drinking urine saved in a rattlesnake skin, drinking fecal liquid from elephant dung, wrestling alligators, field dressing a camel carcass and drinking water from it, eating various insects, utilizing the corpse of a sheep as a sleeping bag and flotation device, and free climbing waterfalls among others. Grylls also regales the viewer with tales of adventurers stranded or killed in the wilderness.

Fans of both shows have often argued at length about which is more realistic, which is more entertaining and whether or not Grylls' advice is both legitimate as well as safe – that's what this thread is for. I want to re-enact those same arguments again to see how it fares on this forum.

So what say you, yeah? Who's "better" – Stroud of Grylls? Who's show is more informative? Who's adivce do you trust more? Which show is more entertaining? Which show has taught you more about wilderness survival, and why?

 

[Remix]

Grylls doesn't kip in the wild. He pusses out and checks into the nearest hotel. Now I'm sure some of those are pretty bad, but anybody who adtually sleeps in the wild > Bear Grylls.

In spite of Stroud's support crew being close at hand at all times, he's still a better survivalist than Grylls because yeah, he has a safty net, but that's common sence. He shouldn't have to risk his neck for a TV show, and having people who can save you is a brilliant idea. Hell it's good advice for people who DO decide to do into the wild to have people who know roughly where you are so that if the worst does happen they know where to look.

 

[It's Damn Real!]

Common misconception there, Jimmy. Grylls doesn't "puss out and check into the nearest hotel" the way you're referring to it – the story that broke about him doing so was misleading. He shoots the shows over a weeks span, and in that span no, he doesn't spend every night out with the creatures of the night (no, not the Hardy fans), as there is no reason for him to – in most cases, it's incredibly dangerous for him to do so. Are you suggesting his show is no longer watchable because he doesn't actually sleep in a fucking snow pit in below-zero weather for six nights while showing you how to survive in Greenland?

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I'm sorry, but Stroud literally bitches for 30 minutes or an hour – however long his show is – nothing more. How is that entertaining – listening to a man literally complain for the duration of his program? There's a reason he's cancelled and Grylls is not – Grylls is actually exciting, even if that means he's performing things that are unnecessary to basic survival. Basic survival doesn't sell – the idea behind the show was to showcase a lot of excitement into it as well as to teach users the basics on top of it.

Things I've learned from Bear Grylls:

• Boiling water in an old plastic container is still an effective way of killing bacteria, though the emissions from the plastic are not healthy for you.

• Bullfrogs, once skinned and gutted, can be eaten raw.

• If the only water available to you is dirty, you can stay hydrate by giving yourself an enema.

• Always build your bed off the jungle floor.

• Always boil or cook clams and muscles – they contain too much bacteria to eat raw.

• You can drink your own urine three times before it becomes harmful to you.

• Termites are not only a great source of protein, but combined with a shirt and stick can make for great fishing bait.

• Old dead trees are loaded with insects – most of which are packed with proteins.


Things I've learned from Les Stroud:

• He's cold.

• He's hungry.​

Oh, and I'll gladly take advise from an ex-British SAS operative who served time with the Indian Army and who also climbed Mount Everest over an ex-musician with a fuckin' harmonica.

 

[Dressler]

I have to agree with IDR on this one, Bear Grylls is the better man in this. I've watched both and personally Les Stroud isn't that great. Yeah okay hes "alone" out in the wilderness, operates his own cameras and all of that, but that's more the basic stuff you need to know, that's stuff you can find at a seminar for survival at a local Community Center. The stuff Stroud shows is the basics you need to know, yes its good to know the basics but hell it doesn't make for good TV, hence why he is not on TV anymore.

Bear Grylls at least, although hes admitted to some things being planned and such, shows you the extreme side of being in the worst situation. He gets more in-depth about what could happen, he tells a story. Sure he might sleep in a lodge during the night but fuck with the kind of shit he does I don't blame him wanting to sleep in a lodge 1-2 maybe 3 nights out of 6. The guy eats Camel Testicles, catches and kills and then eats at least 2 deadly/big animals per show and shows you what you can do and makes it interesting. I'd rather watch Bear, who I know sleeps in a lodge for a while, do crazy things and teach me stuff I cant/wont learn at my local survival seminar then some whinny guy sitting there and not doing anything very exciting.