Bear Grylls: Chief Scout

Yas786 · 18 May 2009 at 12:22

Love Bear even though i think hes prat for faking is survival shows but at least he makes them entertaining...congrats to him getting the nomination though.

jamief · 18 May 2009 at 12:30

Orange Peel said:
Is this based on anything more than what you've read or been told?

Interested to know what survival knowledge you have or what you're basing this on.

Some of Grylls advice - i.e. raid a bees nest (if you saw him do it, you'd realise he expended more energy doing it that he would recoup by eating honey), and then suffer some near life threatening reaction to bee stings.

His program is entertainment - the advice he gives is more or less useless; biting heads off live snakes and eating them is done for show rather than because it is a useful survival technique.

a1ex2001 · 18 May 2009 at 12:32

Basher said:
I don't think he'd be too bothered as long as young boys were involved.

Nothing like a little unfounded acusation is there? Even wikipedia the home of botched amature biographies doesn't manage to accuse him of anything.

_Jimlad_ · 18 May 2009 at 12:32

what's all this Ray Mears talk - he's a dull goat who eats berrys. bear rips snakes heads off

Basher · 18 May 2009 at 12:39

a1ex2001 said:
Nothing like a little unfounded acusation is there? Even wikipedia the home of botched amature biographies doesn't manage to accuse him of anything.

There's lots about it on Wikipedia.

Baden-Powell "…consistently praised the male body when naked. At Gilwell Park, the Scouts' camping ground in Epping Forest, he always enjoyed watching the boys swimming naked, and would sometimes chat with them after they had just 'stripped off.'"

The more I've looked into his life, the more convinced I've been.

KiTBoH · 18 May 2009 at 12:48

When it comes down to it, their scouts. They're not there to learn survival skills, they're there to do something fun and have a good day out.
If Ray Mears did scouting I'd be bored ****less, I still find half of his programs ridiculous :/

I'm pretty sure Bear Grylls has a basic knowledge of survival in the wild and it's definitely better than most peoples. IMO he's a much more interesting person than Ray Mears.

The faking of the show doesn't bother me either. It's a TV show, if it turned out anything like the Ray Mears one it would be resigned to Dave and played on repeat week in week out. It's meant to be entertaining and it is.

randal · 18 May 2009 at 12:48

Basher said:
There's lots about it on Wikipedia.

Really? The Wikipedia page I read said this on his sexuality:

Robert Baden-Powell's sexuality has been studied by two principal modern biographers, who have concluded that Baden-Powell may have taken an erotic interest in men. Jeal, although he claims that Baden-Powell was a "repressed homosexual", admits that no documentary evidence exists to prove that Baden-Powell ever acted on his sexual orientation. Baden-Powell is thought to always have remained chaste with his Scouts, and did not tolerate Scoutmasters who indulged in sexual 'escapades' with their charges.

A third biographer, William Hillcourt, who collaborated with Olave Baden-Powell in the writing of Baden-Powell: The Two Lives of a Hero, makes no mention of any homosexual tendencies and said of Baden-Powell's courtship of his future wife, "From the moment Baden-Powell met Olave [aboard the ship Arcadia in 1912], his mind was filled with thoughts of her. His whole being was stirred as it had never been before."

For someone who claims to be citing a source, you missed a pretty big one there chum.

Basher · 18 May 2009 at 12:50

randal24 said:
Really? The Wikipedia page I read said this on his sexuality:

For someone who claims to be citing a source, you missed a pretty big one there chum.

Read the other sources. There are some stating he was homosexual some stating he wasn't. Persoanlly I believe the ones stating he was.

leaskovski · 18 May 2009 at 13:09

Von Smallhausen said:
The Territorial Army has an SAS contingent, namely 21 and 23 SAS Regiment which each have 4 squadrons. They are staffed by civilians as the TA usually is but senior ranks are from the regular 22 SAS Regiment.

As for Bear Grylls, I think he is a good choice although I thought Tefal would have been the top choice.

Intresting, so was he a senior, or was he just a 'regular'

lynchy6789 · 18 May 2009 at 13:12

I don't see how you lot can call him a Phony as it takes a huge amount of effort and skill to climb Everest at 23.

It's a tv programme why would he risk his life for entertainment?

All in all its good entertainment

Ray Mears just bores me too death aswell.

There is also another guy who does survivor programmes where he films himself, is it survivor man?

Von Smallhausen · 18 May 2009 at 13:17

leaskovski said:
Intresting, so was he a senior, or was he just a 'regular'

Wiki says that he served in 21 SAS(R) and was a trooper ( which I understand is the same as an army private ) and was also a survival instructor and a patrol medic.

Participant · 18 May 2009 at 13:19

DampCat said:
just because someone has some kind of title, in this case "been in the special forces", doesn't make him immediately qualified to dish out that experience to children...I am aware that Grylls has experience and is capable of teaching these things.

So your argument is that just because he's got a label, that label doesn't make him suitable. I understand that. I just don't see how it adds any value, since it's blindingly obvious to anyone with half a brain that just calling someone something, 'don't make it so'. However nobody even said that he'd be great just because he was in the forces, so you're arguing with yourself.

starfighter · 18 May 2009 at 13:22

This is a joke, Ray Mears is about 300000000000000000000000000000000x better.

cheets64 · 18 May 2009 at 13:31

Ray Mears would have been better, he learns the skills of many cultures to survive and live off the land, Bear Grylls just jumps in and goes reckless, If I had the choice of them to survive in the desert or jungle it would be Ray Mears.

lynchy6789 · 18 May 2009 at 14:02

however you would most likely die of boredom being with Ray Mears and could really stand spending hours in the jungle looking at Rays nice short shorts?

I would rather be jumping down waterfalls, white water rafting then sleeping in a hotel for the night then back to the same spot the next day.

Just wondering i watch most of Bears survial programmes and does he always sleep in a hotel every night as i have seen episodes where he is in Jungle or sleeping under rocks and it seems that he has been there all night? OR is that would you are lead to believe?

Sime · 18 May 2009 at 14:05

cheets64 said:
If I had the choice of them to survive in the desert or jungle it would be Ray Mears.

Aye, theres more meat on Ray Mears aswell...

Dave85 · 18 May 2009 at 14:06

Get stuck with bear in mountains and you might survive a week, get stuck with ray you can live for years and walk out when your ready bigger than when you went in.

Ray is a legend. bear is entertainment. Scouts need a name so its a okay choice.

Dj_Jestar · 18 May 2009 at 14:08

Basher · 18 May 2009 at 14:12

DAvE18 said:
Get stuck with bear in mountains and you might survive a week, get stuck with ray you can live for years and walk out when your ready bigger than when you went in.

Unlikely. You would probably kill yourself due to the boredom.

a1ex2001 · 18 May 2009 at 15:16

Basher said:
Read the other sources. There are some stating he was homosexual some stating he wasn't. Persoanlly I believe the ones stating he was.

Yet your orgional statment didn't imply he was a homosexual but a peadophile? Nice backtracking.

I don't care if he was gay straight or a bit of both, implying that he abused the kids in his charge is unsubstatiated gossip and very unfair on one of the two greats of British History.