10 guys dumped on Vancouver island. They all claim to have expertise but I'm seeing some . Guy bugs out because he lost his magnesium rod? Guy cleans a fish in his camp? Dude drinks water and gets sick, bugs out. 5 gone and only on the 4th episode. Think I'd be a little more determined for $500k.

Yeah I'm dissapointed in the show. I was really excited about it at first, but I was let down by all the guys "survival experts" going home before the first week was up. With that being said you don't know what it's like unless your there, but if it's that rough of a location they should have picked somewhere else to have the show. I wanna watch people survive and thrive not go home after the first couple days. I'm hoping it gets better after they weed out the nonhackers.

I was surprised as well when some "Experts tapped out in less than a week". Spent some time at Ft. Lewis Washington and for sure the Pacific Northwest can persent a hole new level of suck but with the 10 items they could take along with mind set of "I am the badest MoFo in the valley" you should be able to last more than a couple of days. I not sure how expert someone is who loses their fire striker, dosen't vet their water supply and so on and so forth. Hell with a pole ax, k-bar and bow with broad head tipped arrows, what for supper, wolf, cougar and bear. Should be interestimg too see who win's the $500k.

I was kinda disappointed when Joe tapped when he lost his fire steel.  His youtube channel is decent  joerobinetbushcraft



That's if you can stand all the Canuk "aboots" he says

I actually like the premise of the show; it’s more realistic than being naked or sky-diving into remote, exotic locations with a camera crew.  It is disappointing that a few I actually like tapped out already.  I grew up in the PNW and very familiar with many of the San Juan Islands and even much of the Olympic National Forest; it is definitely a different and unique environment. Shelter, fire and water are key essentials.

I can only recall doing my ROTC “advanced camp” at Fort Lewis and there were several Midwest and Southwest schools where the cadets couldn’t handle the dense growth, low-to-no visibility and the wet conditions.  There were mentally defeated during land navigation, patrolling and especially when wet and cold.

The biggest challenge for some of these guys is clearly the mental aspect and not the skill; especially for Joe.  He’s a member on another forum and was pretty disappointed in himself, but knew that without fire he would only be surviving a losing battle.  It does go to show that even with gear and skill, a little bad luck can ruin your day or at least defeat you mentally.  Still, I’m disappointed that less than a week of isolation some of these guys are cracking…hell, if I can get a solo trip for a week, I’m ecstatic!  If anything this show demonstrates how the stressors of survival, whether physical or mental, can really make survival difficult.  

I still applaud these guys for taking the challenge.  There are a ton of resources in that area but if you can’t establish a decent shelter to stay dry, maintain a fire or find a reliable source of water…you can be quite miserable.  Add in the mental challenge of the darker forest, constant rain and cooler temperatures and it can be a challenge even without bad luck.

A lot of filming really exaggerates the “threat of wild animals”.  Yes, the black bear and cougar populations are pretty dense, but I think the “threat” is over-rated.  Like anywhere else, you need to maintain your awareness, don’t eat in your tent and I wouldn’t be cooking and eating right in front of my tent.  Sure the contestants don’t have firearms, but they were given bear spray and flares.  I just think the producers used a couple situations and the fears of a few individuals to make it more than what it really is…just my opinion from growing up in that area.  Sure, they can be a threat, but that threat can be mitigated with the only challenge of controlling your own mental fears.  

Again, the premise for the show is sound.  One thing that surprised me is the amount of time these guys spent filming, logistics of battery resupply/exchange every day along with equipment maintenance.  I asked a couple guys and they said it all probably took a couple hours a day…that’s a lot of time spent not performing essential tasks.  Just something to consider and another added “stressor”.  At least someone finally put their gill net to work…that item is worth its weight in gold and provides tremendous payoff!

ROCK6

Look into it.  You will find it is just another scripted "reality" show.

To some degree...editing can manipulate quite a bit.  There are three members of Bushcraft USA forums (Chris, Joe and Sam), their words so take them for what they're worth, but there wasn't any fluff.  They said they took tons of video, but they never saw the final editing (the show).  Everything is scripted to some degree for television, but this was a pretty unscripted challenge based on their testimony.  I would liken it to much of what Les Stroud did in Survivorman, however he had more input to the editing.  TV isn't reality, but I do like the premise of this show...it's pretty straight forward for the most part.

ROCK6

TV will be heavily edited no matter how real the original material was or was not. It's hours and hours from multiple guys chopped down to an hour show. Yes, you only see the dramatic parts not the less dramatic parts of their day.


On the other hand Ft Lewis has hardly any rain fall compared to norther Vancouver Island. As I recall Lewis averages about 3' of precipitation a year while the north end of that island get over 10'. They were dropped in Octoberish after the rains had started. Over in the Oly natl forest they get similar rainfalls (thats about the same amount of rain that the Amazon gets), life wouldnt be easy there with a limited gear list.

I thought  the guy who lost his fire steel bailed early.  I thought not letting them have a weapon for self defense was kind of given the predators in the area. It seemed to me they were trying to kill the contestants. I thought the rescue of the guy who got charged by the bear was kind of lame. Over 3 plus hours to get where you can start hiking to the guy?  Why not place a rapid response team closer  in a more prepared camp site? But it looks like a tough place to be in the rainy season. Why these guys didn`t due more  to collect rain water kind of surprised me.

They must have had a list of survival items to choose from otherwise I think some would have brought a tent. My agenda as soon as I set foot there would have simple walls with a tarp roof and fire. It seems like a few guys couldn't even make a decision of where to settle, just wandered around in indecision.

Guy who lost his fire steel gave up too fast especially since he had a fire going at the time. At least go until your fire dies and you can't make a new one.

I agree, but its as much a competition as it is reality show.  500K for the winner.  Everything is soaked in that place and maintain a fire all the time would be tough.  You could probably do it for a week or so but loosing the ferro rod is a huge blow to moral and what's the point of staying there for 2 months if you only come in second or third.

If I didn't think I had a chance to take home the prize I wouldn't even bother.  I wouldn't be after or interested in any type of fame the show may offer, I would want the cash!  Filming everything would get old quick to.

+1

Another thing to note is they picked a lot of guys who had brand new family's or young ones on the way.  Prior to the competition even kicking off they were probably away from their family's for a couple weeks.  They picked the contestants and location very strategically if you ask me.  I am enjoying the show a lot, and am also a little disappointed they are tapping out so quick.

If we can all take something away from it I guess it would be best to paint all your stuff orange and always keep it on your belt, around your neck, or in your pack!

Its better then a lot of other stuff on TV so I won't complain.  

According to the one Q&A thread on BCUSA that got closed down the producers were really strict on gear.  No extra lanyards, no plastic bag to hold the gill net etc.

Here are a couple of their YT channels:

https://www.youtube.com/user/josephallen19/featured

https://www.youtube.com/user/Nativesurvival/featured

https://www.youtube.com/user/kullcraven/featured

There is some serious truth to this.  I'm a victim of a couple decades of military service where everything gets subdued and camouflaged.  I've really been changing this philosophy for backpacking.  I do like to keep a low profile (hell, even my ULA Circuit pack is in multicam...did you hear that Protus????), but I seriously see the value of high-visibility when it comes to some essential items (knife, flashlight, whistle, compass, fire steel, Bic lighter, etc.).  I've made numerous fires using a fire steel, but as soon as I get my fire bundle ignited, all my focus is on feeding that fire and my knife/tool and fire steel get tossed to the side.  It's a bad practice I need to adjust...

Having lanyards (what we call "dummy-cords") and high visibility fobs make a lot of sense.  Nothing is more frustrating when you can't find a critical item because it blended so well into the environment.  



From everything I gathered, the original "list" was 40-items.  They could choose ten and use whatever they wanted (i.e. knife, but they could bring their favorite custom).  Some things were added and allowed.  Other than the items selected, they were provided a very large canvas tarp and a smaller plastic tarp (seen used to collect rain water)...used for waterproofing their camera gear before they arrived to their sites.  Some didn't chose a tarp because of that.  Also, they were allowed a flashlight/headlamp which was originally intended to operate the video/camera equipment at night, but also used as an illumination tool.  I also saw that a decent first aid kit, bear spray and flares were included for safety (along with their radios).  

Clothing was also left up to the contestant (I would have been dressed and layered up like the Michelin Man) as was their choice of pack.  I think it was Joe that said they had all their kit inspected but it was pretty much left up to the "honor system".  He said all the guys were doing this as a challenge to themselves.  I've never seen survival as an ethical sport and would have slipped in an extra fire steel, Bic, diamond sharpener, needles, razor blade, snare wire...as my old VN Vet Infantry MSG once said, "if you ain't cheat'in, you ain't try'in; and if you get caught, you weren't try'in hard enough".

It was interesting to note that Mitch carried his 25 assorted hooks in a small Altoids-sized tin...which he expertly used to char cedar shavings for better tinder.  Even with the gear and clothing, a lot of ingenuity could be used.  I bet Joe could have used a camera battery to start a fire if he really needed to.  But at the end of the day, I find more value in a show like this (ala Survivorman), as it often shows how simple mistakes can be some of the worst and keyboard bravado disappears quickly when you're deep in the jungle.  

ROCK6

I've been watching, it's a good show.  It's interesting how a few of them quit right off the bat within the first day or two (mostly due to fear of predators) with most of the remaining participants quitting within the first week.  The top 4 made it past the first week to a month and a half before two of them tapped out due to lost mental resolve.  The month and a half mark seems to be a mental breaking point for survivors in isolation as all of the 4 remaining participants were questioning their own resolve and contemplating leaving at that point.  Seems as if the predator situation was only a concern the first few days when they were new in their environment with no established base camp.  Once, they began to get settled in and "mark their territory" they were mostly left alone by the wild life.  The bears are also likely in hibernation mode as they were dropped off in the fall.  

It's interesting how they chose to drop them off in the fall and use the coming of winter and harsher weather as an oncoming artificial constraint to help weed them out.  I imagine it must be ten times as hard to survive there during winter, temperature and food wise.  Though it looks as if it isn't even going to get to that point as the last episode is tonight, and a bad wind storm causes one of the remaining two to quit (most likely Sam).  A month and a half isn't a bad stint for $500k!  I'm sure more people would have liked to participate it if they had thought it was only going to be that long (the History channel states to participants to expect to be in the field for up to a year).  I guarantee you that next season there will be a lot less pretenders and that the participants will stay a lot longer unless the new environment is exceedingly inhospitable.  Some of the worst environments would be sub saharan Africa (the predators), Alaska (the bears), any dessert or arctic environment.    

I would have used the fire he had to dry some wood then make a fire board and bow to keep in the shelter. Dry and ready to go if the fire went out.

Given the wet conditions I don't think it would have been that easy.  Dry after you dried it sure, but the next morning it would be to damp to work.  Even wet conditions in the north east can make friction fire very difficult.

You did see that even their boots and hats were growing mold over night right?  



I bet you he regrets loosing that ferro rod.  

^^^^ He's actually a good friend of mine.