Ray Mears vs Bear Grylls

Who is a better survivalist? plus knife input

  • Bear Grylls

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • Ray Mears

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    1
Ray for knowledge, but I respect the fact that Bear takes care of his body and is in good shape. Ray looks like if he can't find anything to eat he goes and grabs 3 big macs.
 
Bear Grylls is an entertaining guy but he's not even in the same league as Ray Mears when it comes down to survival knowledge.
 
I don't see a Chuck Norris option. When Chuck goes into the wilderness, it is the wilderness that struggles to survive.
 
If you are going to be somewhere for more than a few days, then you are going to have to expend calories making processed foods. It has to be done, or you exaust all of your local resources.

This is why any native culture that has permanent settlements practice some form of horticulture. Anyone who sees those calories spent as needless isn't thinking long term - which, again, is the difference between Bear and Mears.
 
Magnaminous_G said:
Bear Grylls is a celebrity making money. I'm sure he knows a bit about it all because of his background, but he doesn't hold a candle to Ray Mears. And his show is heavily scripted for a suspenseful TV experience. It is well-known and admitted by himself that he sleeps in hotels between shoots.

That about sums it up.
Click to expand...

He really admitted it? Got a link?
 
No comment necessary, the real folks know who wins in the end. :D
 
I cast my vote for Ray Mears, but as i think about it i believe the two options have very different approaches to 'survival'.

Ray Mears is gonna give you skills to help you live as well as survive the current life-threatening situation - and as comfortably as possible. I believe Grills' perspective, aside from his TV antics, is about showing how to escape - to 'survive' long enough - to get back to civilization - SERE - and that's all he would have learned in the SAS.

I believe Grills is easily in better physical condition which allows him to do the stunts he does. However, if faced with a bad situation, i'd be happy to have Ray in my camp!!! If he got boring, at least i'd be able to sleep - a highly under-rated commodity in a survival situation!!!
 
I think that recognition of the two very different approaches for survival is pivotal starting point for me..................................... Whereas Mears focuses on a lot of retro stuff, and indeed it can be interesting, little pertains to what I think of as likely survival scenarios for me. True, the wild foods stuff could be useful, and perhaps some medicinal plant knowledge, but a lot of it for me is just like the Paleo-learners forums – interesting for it's own sake but not much beyond that unless I invoke one of those BS end of the world just missed us and we need to start farming from scratch things. I don't think there's anything wrong with that in fact I found this stuff interesting. And I'm sure the same as many of you I enjoyed making bows and arrows when I was small and tanning skins and all that. In fact mah woman still has a fur quiver I made full of porcupine quills I turned into dip-in pens. So I'm not knocking Mears and what he is into when he does his thing, I just think it pales in comparison to Grylls who comes across as much more progressive and up to speed with modern techniques and gear.............................. In realistic survival scenarios to me; plain crashed whilst on holiday, boat starts to sink, up a mountain and either me, or my mate, or both are hurt, I'd want the progressive guy next to me................................ Beyond that there is plain 'character', and whilst I don't know either of them personally one of them always comes across as upbeat and in good humour. I require that in a team mate. Grylls seems to manage that whether he is out with a party of young scouts or even with wilfully obstructive celebrities, as he was yesterday when he was out with Johnathon Ross – a show in which Ross had began with a claim that he was going to show him who the daddy was and Grylls would soon be relegated to beta. Result, they had a chuckle. And that pattern repeats. By contrast Mears has turned up on an afternoon TV book reading thing a whole bunch and he comes across as just plain dull. Same when they barrow him on to some of the many TV cooking shows. That's all well and good I suppose, and there is some merit in the idea of sleeping through a bore, but on balance I prefer folk that have skills at keeping team moral high. In short, if I'm stuck down a cave send down Grylls with some proper SRT gear and a sandwich and leave Mears at the top making a rope of nettles and humming kumbaya with a birch bark anything.
 
[video=youtube;3UpSlpvb1is]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpSlpvb1is[/video]
 
'tis. I recall quoting this bit years ago - "'I know all the inside stories because we've had the same crew on a lot of things so I could really go to town but I don't want to. He's a great guy and he does a great job and it's so silly to get into a catfight.' "
 
baldtaco-II said:
.... In realistic survival scenarios to me; plain crashed whilst on holiday, boat starts to sink, up a mountain and either me, or my mate, or both are hurt, I'd want the progressive guy next to me
Click to expand...

Yeah, me too...

The "progressive" guy who sleeps in 5-star hotels as soon as the day's shoot is finished (during which he is surrounded by paramedics, real survival experts, and a camera crew). Mmhmm... I guess I'd prefer that to actually roughing it with Mears. Pfft.
 
verisharp said:
Who has more knowledge regarding nature? Who is the better survivalist? Who would you trust more in a survival situation?
Click to expand...

If I want good company and a morale boost, I'll take the SI bikini team over Bear any day.

Ray Mears has devoted his life to being the answer to the above questions.
 
Magnaminous_G said:
Yeah, me too...The "progressive" guy who sleeps in 5-star hotels as soon as the day's shoot is finished (during which he is surrounded by paramedics, real survival experts, and a camera crew). Mmhmm... I guess I'd prefer that to actually roughing it with Mears. Pfft.
Click to expand...
Be clear in that I was a tad disappointed when I found out that's the way they chose to present that Grylls show too. As you may have noticed recently I'm not disposed to suffer individuals that aren't man enough to admit their errors at the best of times, and flat out Walter Mitty / liar types aren't worthy to suck mah dog. If Grylls as an individual repeatedly lied and misrepresented the facts to me there's no amount of bunches of flowers or signed photos or anything he could send me that would demonstrate the necessary contrition. I'd be photoshoppin' the fecker and signing him up for all sorts of stuff as a minimum. That's almost a reflex. So I can understand why there is still a bit of animosity toward him from folk that really immerse themselves in the illusion of TV. I guess that's natural to some extent......................................It would be unfortunate if in answering this post someone gets the impression that I am defending Grylls or that I am even a fan. I am not. I think I've been quite voiciferous about all the TV celebrity gurus in the past and the planks that put them on a pedestal and that includes him just as much as Mears with his chainsawn wood or that pair of clowns out hunting tethered wildlife. I accept that the production of one of his shows was misrepresented, and that sux, but it is only a question of degree 'cos it is TV and they are all at it. So let's get that squared away quick pronto..........................................................The way I came to my answer rests on more than just a simplistic grasp of the way a celebrity was portrayed on one TV series. It's much bigger than that. It may well be because I'm a bastard but unless you are a friend of mine I view you just as much of an object with properties as I do vehicle wreckage. I could find a use for Ghandi. It may only be as a draught excluder but exploit those properties I will. In answering this question I drew from every little bit of information I know about those two guys, some of that is based on a single target TV series they did and some of it is not. No matter. I assume that smart folks would be making similar sorts of evaluations about the properties of those two guys. Their evaluations may lead them to a different conclusions, I don't care. The only thing I really care about is that we are able to discuss these sorts of things here with some degree of objectivity without a plummet into fanboyism and the regular stream of infantile characatures that have so often plagued this forum. We'd all be better off trying to dowse for information with a bent coat hanger or watching the Tellytubbies for insight than biting into that.
 
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baldtaco-II said:
I think that recognition of the two very different approaches for survival is pivotal starting point for me..................................... Whereas Mears focuses on a lot of retro stuff, and indeed it can be interesting, little pertains to what I think of as likely survival scenarios for me. True, the wild foods stuff could be useful, and perhaps some medicinal plant knowledge, but a lot of it for me is just like the Paleo-learners forums – interesting for it's own sake but not much beyond that unless I invoke one of those BS end of the world just missed us and we need to start farming from scratch things. I don't think there's anything wrong with that in fact I found this stuff interesting. And I'm sure the same as many of you I enjoyed making bows and arrows when I was small and tanning skins and all that. In fact mah woman still has a fur quiver I made full of porcupine quills I turned into dip-in pens. So I'm not knocking Mears and what he is into when he does his thing, I just think it pales in comparison to Grylls who comes across as much more progressive and up to speed with modern techniques and gear.............................. In realistic survival scenarios to me; plain crashed whilst on holiday, boat starts to sink, up a mountain and either me, or my mate, or both are hurt, I'd want the progressive guy next to me................................ Beyond that there is plain 'character', and whilst I don't know either of them personally one of them always comes across as upbeat and in good humour. I require that in a team mate. Grylls seems to manage that whether he is out with a party of young scouts or even with wilfully obstructive celebrities, as he was yesterday when he was out with Johnathon Ross – a show in which Ross had began with a claim that he was going to show him who the daddy was and Grylls would soon be relegated to beta. Result, they had a chuckle. And that pattern repeats. By contrast Mears has turned up on an afternoon TV book reading thing a whole bunch and he comes across as just plain dull. Same when they barrow him on to some of the many TV cooking shows. That's all well and good I suppose, and there is some merit in the idea of sleeping through a bore, but on balance I prefer folk that have skills at keeping team moral high. In short, if I'm stuck down a cave send down Grylls with some proper SRT gear and a sandwich and leave Mears at the top making a rope of nettles and humming kumbaya with a birch bark anything.
Click to expand...

I agree morale is important but that doesn't trump all the stupid things he does. You can laugh all you want as he leads you to your death. Bear is a thrill seeker and in doing his stunts he's acquired some skills but no more then anyone else who's an adrenaline junky doing the same things. However, I wouldn't pick Mears either. I don't try to craft the perfect tent pegs when I'm camping all relaxed. I'm sure as heck not going to start in a survival situation.
 
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