Bear Grylls

[Tourist]

As has been pointed out a broken back is a case of degree's of broke. Bear broke his in 3 places and spent time laid up. How bad it was and where he did his healing all has to do with how well he can function now.

I have 2 slipped discs and still sky dive and other things. I know a friend of a friend in the military who had a broken back, he complained about persistent back ache and eventually the medics x-rayed him and found a broken vertebrae. He naturally compensated for the break with his muscle development, whilst he had his 'bad back' he was deployed, did some military parachuting and took part in a lot of active training. I know of at least two sky divers that have had technically broken necks that are now healed.

Survival expert: Check out what I said above about the TA SAS. At the three year point which Bear had reached he had just about finished his training. Never mind being a survival instructor he had probably only done his CS training along with the rest.

Climbing Everest: Definately an achievement, with £15K you too could do it if you were so inclined. A New Zealand company has set ropes all the way to the summit and it is available to anyone with the will, inclination and dosh.

 

[Templar]

Almost like this kind of course: http://www.gosere.com/

Yeah mate thats the thing...

I still get shivers when I remember doing "prone to capture training"


Cheers,
Karl

 

[Wayland]

The guy just seems to be a bit of a Walt to me....

 

[Spikey DaPikey]

AHEM ............

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=470155&in_page_id=1770

 

[Tourist]

Sunday Times (online), 22 July 2007.

TV 'survival king' stayed in hotels

TO LIVE up to his public image of a rugged, ex-SAS adventurer, it must have seemed essential for Bear Grylls to appear at ease sleeping rough and catching his own food in his television survival series.

But it has emerged that Grylls, 33, was enjoying a far more conventional form of comfort, retreating some nights from filming in mountains and on desert islands to nearby lodges and hotels.

Now Channel 4 has launched an investigation into whether Grylls, who has conquered Everest and the Arctic, deceived the public in his series Born Survivor.

The series, screened in March and April and watched by 1.4m viewers, built up Grylls’s credentials as a tough outdoorsman. In a question and answer session on Channel 4’s website, he recalls how station bosses pitched the venture to him stating: “We just drop you into a lot of different hellholes equipped with nothing, and you do what you have to do to survive.”

But an adviser to Born Survivor has disclosed that at one location where the adventurer claimed to be a “real life Robin-son Crusoe” trapped on “a desert island”, he was actually on an outlying part of the Hawaiian archipelago and spent nights at a motel.

On another occasion in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains where he was filmed biting off the head of a snake for breakfast and struggling for survival “with just a water bottle, a cup and a flint for making fire”, he actually slept some nights with the crew in a lodge fitted with television and internet access. The Pines Resort at Bass Lake is advertised as “a cosy getaway for families” with blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

In one episode Grylls, son of the late Tory MP Sir Michael Grylls, was shown apparently building a Polynesian-style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo, hibiscus twine and palm leaves for a sail.

But according to Mark Weinert, an Oregon-based survival consultant brought in for the job, it was he who led the team that built the raft. It was then dismantled so that Grylls could be shown building it on camera.

In another episode viewers watched as Grylls tried to coax an apparently wild mustang into a lasso in the Sierra Nevada. “I’m in luck,” he told viewers, apparently coming across four wild horses grazing in a meadow. “A chance to use an old native American mode of transport comes my way. This is one of the few places in the whole of the US where horses still roam wild.”

In fact, Weinert said, the horses were not wild but were brought in by trailer from a nearby trekking station for the “choreographed” feature.

“If you really believe everything happens the way it is shown on TV, you are being a little bit naive,” he said.

Channel 4 confirmed that Grylls had used hotels during expeditions and has now asked Diverse, the Bristol-based production company that made the programme, to look into the other claims.

“We take any allegations of misleading our audiences seriously,” said a spokeswoman for the channel.

The latest suggestion that Channel 4 may have breached viewer trust comes as the broad-caster’s supervisory board prepares to issue new editorial guidelines to suppliers in order to stamp out alleged sharp practices that mislead viewers.

“Born Survivor is not an observational documentary series but a ‘how to’ guide to basic survival techniques in extreme environments,” the spokeswoman said.

“The programme explicitly does not claim that presenter Bear Grylls’s experience is one of unaided solo survival.”

Nevertheless, the disclosure is likely to disappoint fans of the Eton-educated adventurer, who at the age of 23 became the youngest Briton to scale Everest. Just two years before that he had broken his back in three places after his parachute ripped during a military exercise.

On screen he has emerged as a natural performer, with stunts such as squeezing water from animal dung and sucking the fluid from fish eyeballs.

Grylls could not be contacted for comment this weekend as he was trekking in the Brecon Beacons with his four-year-old son.

 

[crazyclimber]

tbh I haven't seen many of his programmes, but I remember seeing one a while back where he was parachute into a rainforest and had to work his way back to civilisation. Amongst the more memorable thoughts were 'what the f*** is he doing abseiling down a waterfall with a vine' and 'why, when a broken leg or twisted ankle could kill you, would you run at full speed down a slippery river bed'.
Now he seems a decent guy. I like his sense of humour, and he's got some notable achievements under his belt. Youngest Brit to climb Everest etc. But I wish he'd either stick to record breaking or create some GOOD 'survival' programmes - one that don't encourage stupid and risky behaviour in the outdoors

 

[BIG-TARGET]

Well, most of my skills I've learned from Hood's Woods http://www.survival.com/

Worth every penny!!

 

[Zammo]

Looks like his TV career might be cut short after these revelations. Unless he can go on to make a series which isn't so staged.

 

[BIG-TARGET]

Looks like his TV career might be cut short after these revelations. Unless he can go on to make a series which isn't so staged.

But BEWARE!!

Truth only serves a world that lives by it!!

 

[spamel]

Well, most of my skills I've learned from Hood's Woods http://www.survival.com/

Worth every penny!!

I like his style of presenting, especially when he gets a bit tongue tied and laughs it off! It makes it more natural, and his little witicisms are great.

The cave lady is pretty hot too!

 

[sharp88]

If anyone looked at the papers today - it said he rarely ever actually camped out, most of the time staying in hotels. It also said that he coreographed his 'stunts'. Hes a grade-A donut n makin alot of money.

 

[Dougster]

If anyone looked at the papers today - it said he rarely ever actually camped out, most of the time staying in hotels. It also said that he coreographed his 'stunts'. Hes a grade-A donut n makin alot of money.

Yep, he's the one making the money. There is a means of changing channels people.

 

[Celt_Ginger]

Bear (real name Edward) Grylls. I'm not a fan. Apart from the fact that he gives out bad advice, a lot of his "stunts" are staged. he used stuntmen to do a lot of the stuff. Aparently, he dosen't sleep out, but stays in hotels. The desert island programe was made in Hawawii with a motel just along the beech, the night he was attacked by a "real" bear was in fact a member of the crew dressed up, he employs survival experts to keep him right, etc etc etc. Then again, it is a C4 programe, so we should expect to be fed a load of rubbish. He has told his viewers such a load of BS, it makes me wonder what else he has claimed he has done that is fantacy.

 

[Zammo]

Bear (real name Edward) Grylls. I'm not a fan. Apart from the fact that he gives out bad advice, a lot of his "stunts" are staged. he used stuntmen to do a lot of the stuff. Aparently, he dosen't sleep out, but stays in hotels. The desert island programe was made in Hawawii with a motel just along the beech, the night he was attacked by a "real" bear was in fact a member of the crew dressed up, he employs survival experts to keep him right, etc etc etc. Then again, it is a C4 programe, so we should expect to be fed a load of rubbish. He has told his viewers such a load of BS, it makes me wonder what else he has claimed he has done that is fantacy.

Did he really have someone dressed as a bear, hah ha. Did he look like this?

 

[Matt Weir]

Did he really have someone dressed as a bear, hah ha. Did he look like this?

You know what Zammo? You're not far off the mark there ...

Looky here

 

[h2o]

i think bears ok does some silly climbing that i wouldnt and runs to much,but if i was lost in uk id go for help but in miles of untamed wilderness id stay put and wait.Afew people have slagged him off but he has climed everest and was in the sas so he must know somestuff surely but if i was gonna make a programme id give people a little bit more tuition ray mears style ,with a few more features on trap building fishing the slightly more advanced skills not just fire lighting and how to roll up a tarp.

ps any film makers want such a great entaertainer survival expert im considerably lower priced than bear ,only require travel expensises to these great locations and a bit o beer money .

 

[Shewie]

I didn`t opt for either of the poll options because I`m somewhere in between the choices.

I think some of his survival advice should be taken with a pinch of salt, it`s a bit too "Les Stroud" for me and I wouldn`t go out of my way to watch his stuff to be honest.
But on the other hand I`ve read a number of his books and some of his achievements on land and sea are worthy of some recognition for any person.

I think sometimes he gets a hard time on here, just my opinion mind.



Rich

 

[Zammo]

I think he gets a hard time everywhere after it was found out he was kipping in hotels and eating big macs off camera.

 

[GreenmanBushcraft]

Not my cup of tea. Always bugs me when people fight against nature all the time, much better to become part of it IMO.

Kris

 

[Injati]

Watched a couple of the episodes again the other day. And it doesn't get any better the more you watch it. Really very disappointing.