I learned quite a lot from Cody and Dave long before this series ever came about. So, I was quite excited to see them put together in a show. I have to admit to being a bit disappointed, because to be honest, they are doing a lot of stuff for TV. That doesnt mean that I am going to stop watching it though, as I still pick up little things here and there.
I recently had the opportunity to attend Daves pathfinder gathering. If you are interested in hearing more about that, I actually wrote about it for Woodsmonkey.
Here is the article.
At that gathering, Dave gave some of his thoughts on securing food sources. Now, long ago, I think I had a set of unrealistic priorities (like many do) with too much thought about food. I used to carry a fishing kit, a couple extra cable snares, etc. Then, I came to the realization that in your typical 72 hour survival type scenario, food was not even really necessary. My day kit was of course modified accordingly. For the longest time, my thoughts on food echoed Kens comment:
Dave commented on this, and also had other demonstrations that have again caused me to change my thinking regarding food. Trying to paraphrase what he said, it was basically like this.
We all probably eat a little more food that we should. It is just part of our lifestyle. If you go 24-48 hours without food, you will be alive
.sure. But, you are going to be miserable, irritable, cranky, and start exhibiting poor judgment. Judgment that can get you in trouble. Rather than not worry about food at all, why not focus on some easy to gather, low risk food sources. Such as gigging frogs, catching small fish, etc.
Remember, these are all my words, and I am just trying to catch the gist of what Dave was saying.
The approach of gathering grubs and such (like Cody does) is feasible, but as the narrator mentioned, it would take 500 to make a meal! That is a LOT.
Dave even emphasized that you want to 3 inch bluegill, not the 10 pound bass. It is the easy to acquire small things that are going to add up for you. Also, there is the possibility of setting some low energy tribal type traps that do not require all the intricate notch carving that we are all accustomed to seeing. Break a few sticks, set a few traps, and try your luck on rabbit and smaller sized game (forget about hogs and such
What it comes down to (for me) is that I have learned a few key things, that along with a couple key items (that weight either nothing, or require nothing) that can allow me to focus on low energy acquisition of food. And I am very grateful that I learned it.
Long way of saying, it is TV. One thing I learned from the gathering is that there is a huge difference between the TV Dave and the real Dave. Unfortunately, he is not the one that will be able to explain this because he is not able to make YouTube videos for a period of years because of this series.
As much complaining as there is going on, I really think everyone enjoys the drama. If Dave had not gone after those bees, what would we be talking about?
It would have been rather boring for them to say Look a bee hive. Lets go back to camp and sit. We would be all talking about how they didnt do anything exciting
I have no insight to what is going on during filming, but I can speculate. And recklessly at that!
Because of the warning statement at the beginning of the show, you know there has to be medical staff right there with them, and air lift staff on call (as evident by Bears recent incident). There is not as much danger as we would all like to believe. Yes, the bee/honey thing was not wise, and I personally do not think Dave would do that if alone in the same situation. Yes, a lot of bad things could have happened. They were all mentioned, and noted. But, this is TV and entertainment. Hell, if I had that kind of support staff around me, I would have done it!
Learning from mistakes is much more powerful than everything going smooth. If everything were perfect, we would all nod our heads and say this is easy. False sense of confidence.
As a final point showing that we all like the drama, does anyone realized that you missed something HUGE in this last episode? Probably because it is not dramatic, common sense, and honestly taken for granted. But, I thought it was a very powerful thing.
During the pathfinder gathering, Dave talked about his 5 Cs. I was not going to mention it anywhere, because if it was a part of the learning system he sells, I didnt want to let it out. But, he already did on the show, so I figured it is fair game
Dave talks about what you should carry with you, and has his 5 Cs as mentioned on the show. Now, everyone else teaches 10 Essentials or some variation on that. The problem I have always had with the 10 Essentials is that it ends up adding up to a lot of stuff.
If I go out for a little day hike, or to my favorite fishing pond, the 10 essentials seems like so overkill that I am pretending to play Rambo or something. So, a few of the 10 get left behind. Now Dave is not saying anything bad about the 10 Essentials. In fact, his system talks about 10 Cs (which I dont know anything about because I am not a part of the system and that much info was not shared). But the 5 Cs were the things that should ABSOLUTELY be carried with you as a minimum.
If the show went to fast, they were Cutting Tool, Container, Combustion device, Cover and Cordage.
The reason these were selected is because priority number one is maintaining your bodies core temperature. All of these can help you do that in some way or another. Further, they can be recreated in the field, but take tremendous time and energy to do so. For example, lots of us know how to make cordage. Go sit down one day and see how long it takes you to come up with 100 feet of it! If you do that, you will carry some extra cordage with you.
Lets talk about a couple of these items for a few. I dont think I really need to dwell on cutting tool. Container: Metal container. If you are going to carry one, make sure you can boil in it (water purification), possibly cook in it, make char cloth, etc. Sure you can boil in a nalgene, but how many times. You can add a cup to the bottom, but now you have 6 things!
He was talking about the
minimum stuff you should have at all times. Not the ONLY outdoor kit you should ever have. Add to it if you like, but we are talking
minimum here. Combustion: Dave always recommends a method of sure fire. If anything the show has shown, hopefully that friction fire is tough, so why rely only on it. Again, that doesn't mean don't learn bow and hand drills. It means carry sure fire as one of your things on you at all time, and hopefully conserve some energy. We all know the show would be boring if Dave or Cory whipped out a bic that was inside a plastic bag. Cordage: I think I covered that one. Uses for cordage beyond shelter are fishing lures, setting traps, fishing lines or trot lines, etc. Cover: includes the things on your back, but should include anticipated weather changes, or improvising an emergency shelter.
To me, this system is really cool. Because instead of having a kit of 10 essentials which I know I will leave half of it home when I take the kids to the local fishing pond. I have a small 5C kit that fits on my water bottle holder (which I have with me 100% of the time). Not to say that I wont carry more stuff for different purposes, but this is a minimum set of kit that I can guarantee having all of it at ALL times
Any thoughts on the 5 C's Dave mentioned?
After all this, that does not mean that I think the show is perfect or anything. I am still waiting for Discovery to produce a Non-American needed drama, real, yet interesting show on skills of first nations people all over the world. Basically a US version of Ray Mears on Discovery would be great. Discovery needs to learn that we don't need all the drama for a good show. But I honestly think that is catering to us 5% of the population and not a popular sell to the folks making the $$$ decisions.
