Dual Suvival - new show

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by kckndrgn, Jun 12, 2010.


  1. kckndrgn

    kckndrgn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Anybody catch it? It was on Discovery Channel.

    It was OK, no "Survivor Man", but it was better than Bear Grylls (IMHO)

    Dual Survival : Discovery Channel
     
  2. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Saw the trailer - came off more like "Dueling Survivalists"....... ?
     
  3. fortunateson

    fortunateson I hate Illinois Nazis!

    Yes. I thought it was great.
    Like you, I put it between Stroud and Grylls.
    I know a guy who won a reality show, and I can tell you that there is a lot of "manufactured drama" in these shows. I could see it in Dual Survival, but not too bad.
    I think "nature boy" was much more skilled than the veteran guy (I forgot their names), but I suppose we'll be better able to judge after a few episodes.

    I like Les Stroud. I thought that was the least dramatized of all the reality shows I've seen. He's got a series on YouTube (a few years old now) about how he's building his off-grid home in Canada. The only bone I have to pick with that deal is, like many survivalists, he's trying to live a 21st century suburban life off-grid with the implication being "you won't have to sacrifice anything!" I don't like that approach. IMO, living off-grid, means simplifying your life and that's not a bad thing.

    I thought that Grylls was a phony from the start. Maybe he has great survival skills, but the show was a fraud - is it still on? And to participate in such a fraud makes you what? JMO.
     
  4. kckndrgn

    kckndrgn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    In a way, that's exactly what it was. You had "nature boy" and the Army guy.

    Yeah, I know much of the "drama" is for show, I try to see past that. Even though I know it's a TV show, I try to look past that drama, sometimes it's hard to do. I'll give the show another episode or two to see what happens.

    I did think the shelter the "nature boy" came up with was pretty neat, though I bet when that fire died down the heat would drop pretty quick. At least you could get a couple hours of good sleep in comfortable temps from it.

    I also would have thought snares would have been better than setting those deadfalls, but that's just my opinion.
     
  5. fortunateson

    fortunateson I hate Illinois Nazis!

    The shelter was a great idea. If your wood is wet and throwing off sparks and coals, it could make a dangerous situation with that plastic though. Hard to tell how far the fire was from the plastic.

    Those deadfall logs looked like a no-go to me. If you can't find large flat rocks -then yeah - snares.
     
  6. pcc

    pcc Monkey+

    I wanted to watch that show, forgot it was coming on. I'm sure they'll show reruns throughout the week.

    That show by Les, Off the grid, is from the late 90's. IIRC it was three 1 hour episodes, it still gets rerun a few times a year. I really enjoyed the show but it was frustrating that they never gave any up front cost information and never did a follow up that I'm aware of.

    I've always wanted to know how much it cost to set everything up at his place to run a comparison to other forms of power generation. Also would like to know what the life of the batteries & solar panels was and how much power the turbine actually contributed.
     
  7. nhfieldrep

    nhfieldrep Monkey+

    I watched it myself and agree. But then again, this is a "made for TV' program and I guess I was expecting to much. I'll watch it again but if there is as much put on their differences and not more on teaching of skills, I'll go back and watch SiFy...:rolleyes:
     
  8. kckndrgn

    kckndrgn Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    "Off the Grid" was on Google video awhile back, not the one that has been aired, but it seemed to be an "unedited' version. He talks about how he got the land so cheap. Prior to him buying it, it was lease out and the guys leasing it were raising some "crops" that they shouldn't have been, just a little MJ. After the guys were busted, they had left, in Les' words "a body sized bag at the bottom of a pond, that I'll have to remove".

    And I'll agree that one of the major shortcomings of that show was there was no real discussion of what they had spend to get their "off the grid" house.
     
  9. tammygotcher

    tammygotcher Monkey+

    forgot this show is up... guess i'll have to look out for the rerun.
     
  10. Byte

    Byte Monkey+++

    Cody has a few books on survival and some videos around the net. He's as hippy as they come. Dave Canteberry is from the Pathfinder School and has some videos on the wildernessoutfitters channel on youtube. He's pretty easy to follow and seems like he knows his stuff.

    Got to watch about half of an episode today where they're trapped on an island. Cody is, of course, out in shorts walking around barefooted. The guy's a bit off somewhere. Dave whacked a porcupine with his oar and splits the heart up. I find it hysterical that Cody won't eat meat raw but loves to gobble up worms and grubs right out of the ground. Dave will eat organ meat raw but not grubs and worms... Two polar opposites in schools of thought.

    I think it will be a pretty good show if they can settle into a rhythm with each other. Hopefully the contrived drama won't get too overbearing.

    Byte
     
  11. Andinse35

    Andinse35 Monkey+++

    Overall I liked the show. For people who don't know the main characers are:

    Cody Lundin of Aboriginal Living Skills School CODY LUNDIN: outdoor survival, *primitive living skills, and urban preparedness courses

    and author of "98.6 The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive" and "When All Hell Breaks Loose"

    Both are good books (98.6 is much better) and I think he knows his stuff.His schools gets high praise from all his former students.

    As mentioned above the military-ish guy is Dave Canterbury of The Pathfinder School

    HomePage and some fame on youtube YouTube - wildernessoutfitters's Channel (he's got nothing on nutnfacny in my opinion)

    If you watched closely there was a disclaimer flashed when coming back from a commercial around the middle of the show, but too fast to read.On another forum members with DVR reported it said:

    Due to the extreme danger, Dave and Cody receive support when they are in potentially life threatening situations, as required by health and safety regulations.

    I think that's fair. At least it's not a Bear Grylls "If it gets cold or I'm tired I'll just skip out with the film crew and stay in a hotel"

    I thought the show was good and the manufactured parts weren't too bad.

    I especially liked the part where Cody basically calls Dave an idiot for going out into the woods at night with nothing but a torch. (probably made up for the show but still)

    As mentioned the shelter was awesome. He got it up to 70 degrees inside and it was around 20 outside!

    I'll keep watching
     
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