Showing posts with label Les Stroud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Les Stroud. Show all posts

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A Conversation With Les Stroud | The Backwoodsman

The March/April issue of the Backwoodsman Magazine, a primitive survivalist publication, featured a full cover picture of Les Stroud on a river raft with his digicam bandanna from the Peruvian Jungle. The article title, “A Conversation with Les Stroud”. In the write-up Les is asked several questions, which he answers quite extensively. I will sum up the question and answer session for you here.


Q: Does Les Stroud believe everyone should know survival skills because an apocalypse is coming?

A: Les doesn’t worry about any apocalypse, he believes that learning and practicing survival skills should be done because one is passionate about it. It is a way of life. Les believes survival skills are not necessary for all people, i.e. city dwellers, but that the personal discipline and personal skills necessary to be a survival expert are universally applicable.

Q: Does Les Stroud think that Survival should be a public education requirement?

A: “Absolutely.” Les beieves that presenting children with the problems encountered in a survival situation help stimulate their personal confidence and ability to overcome adversity.

Q: What brought about the differences between Survivorman and Beyond Survival?

A: Les was passionate about the way his native survival coaches lived and survived when he was touring the world doing the Survivorman show. Thus, he developed a show where he lived among native groups of people and explored their ways of life and survival, Beyond Survival.

Q: Does Les Stroud feel more spiritually connected to nature after his Beyond Survival experiences?

A: Beyond Survival re-instilled Les’s connection with nature which he lost during the labor and time intensive making of Survivorman. Les believes he was more in tune with nature before starting Survivorman and making Beyond Survival allowed him the opportunity to rediscover his connection to nature through the native tribes he lived with.

Q: Who inspired Les Stroud to become Survivorman, and how did he learn his survival skills?

A: Les Stroud started learning survival like most people, a weekend hobby and local college survival seminars turned into a way of life. Les’s favorite survival company? Prairie Wolf, owned by John and Geri McPherson. In Canada his closest survival friends include David Arama and Doug Getwood.

Q: What’s the down-low on Les Stroud’s new album and multi-media tour?

A: The tour will be an emotional and spiritual journey through all of Les’s experiences around the world fostered by his Surivorman and Beyond Survival shows. It will not be a concert, but a conjunction of film and music which bring together all of Les’s favorite and most meaningful experiences.

Q: How does Les Stroud feel he influenced the mainstream view of survival skills and outdoorsmen in general?

A: Les Stroud believes he walked the line between filmmaker, and survival instructor. He claims to not be perfect at either skill set but believes that his position between the two extremes enabled him to bring survival skills into the mainstream. Les Stroud believes that it’s not necessary to be a hardcore outdoor addict or gear junkie to enjoy what he does, and he made this apparent to the general public. Les regrets that now the survival genre of television and filmmaking now has gone the way of all other filmmaking. It’s surrounded by drama, controversy, and bickering among the rather disconnect and ignorant masses. Les says that his background off the screen, as a normal guy, was one of the best things going for Survivorman.

Q: Does Les Stroud believe that anyone will top Survivorman in the outdoor filmmaking arena?

A: Survivorman took an intense amount of effort to produce physically. Setting and carry all of his own filmmaking equipment (upwards of 50 lbs), it was physically exhausting. The most important part, though, was his passion for filmmaking. Les thinks that his utter devotion to filmmaking and his passion for the outdoors are a combination that will most likely never be seen again.

Q: Will Beyond Survival run a season two?

A: Les is confident that there will be more than just the multi-media tour coming up in the near future. This neither confirms or denies a second season but promises us something in the future.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Les Stroud | Gemini Award 2009



Unfortunately Les didn't win Best Host at the Gemini Awards. He remains one of the most under-appreciated television show hosts. Check out that Tux though, suave.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Les Stroud Divorce

I am a huge Les Stroud supporter, and I have recently noticed a search trend showing googlers looking up things like "Les Stroud Died" and "Les Stourd Divorce".

Les Stroud (Survivorman) is not dead!
He just released the Temagami in association with Helle. There is absolutely no reason to believe he is in anything but fine health. (Unless he has Giardia again).

Les Stroud is Divorced!
I originally believed Les Stroud was not divorced. A reader pointed me to his personal blog where a tiny entry is the only mention of his "separation" that I can find on the net. Les Stroud is, in fact, no longer married.

That's your Stroud News Update for the day. Get out there and adventure!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Les Stroud's The Temagami Knife Review


Video Released 4/19/2011


NOTE: This article was written prior to the release of the Temagami as an analysis of the (then) released information about the knife. The Adventure Lifestyle Blog has received the Temagami and will release a new and current full review of this knife soon. Suffice it to say that a lot of the speculations I made herein are now irrelevant and incorrect as the final production version of this knife rolls off the line. Watch the video above to see the knife and our video review, released 4/19/2011.

Funny that I just posted on Bear Gryll's partnership with Gerber. I got an email from Les Stroud today offering pre-sales on his knife: The Temagami. This isn't a surprise, the knife has been in the works for quite a while. Les chose to partner with an international knife maker from Norway. The country chosen to do the work instantly buys my confidence, Norway is a European company with a good reputation and superb craftsmanship. The company, Helle, is one I have never heard of but it doesn't matter too much what company produces the knife so long as they follow good bladesmithing procedures. The Temagami appears to be a good knife. According to Les's site the knife has a "birch handle that's oiled with linseed". I like the look of a good wooden handle on a non-serrate carbon steel blade. Especially since they chose to put solid brass rivets in with it! Birch isn't the most durable wood ever but the colors compliment the brass and polished high carbon steel. 


Les's site also claims the blade is made of "carbon steel laminate". We can only guess as to what they actually meant by this but I assume that what they're getting at is trying to convince people that the blade is made of folded high carbon steel. Hooray! Oh wait... The necessity of folding steel to distribute carbon content equally died with the invention of the modern process of making making steel. Is it necessary to fold modern compounds of high carbon steel to make a better blade? Absolutely not, and if you're under the impression that a folded steel blade is better than one that isn't... well please go do your research.


They included "custom groves on the back of the blade" to facilitate fire-steel striking. That's not a bad idea, really, but first of all it's "the spine of the blade" not "the back". Second of all, where's the grooves on the spine where the tang meets the handle? I've had these on previous knives and they increase one's ability to handle the knife significantly by adding a good friction point to prevent slipping of the thumb. Speaking of slipping... a smooth wooden handle is prone to slipping of the hand on any stabbing actions. There's a rather small out-crop of wooden near where the bolster should be on this knife that acts as a slight barrier between the handle and the dangerously sharp blade, but not much. That's a little concerning, but if one handles the knife responsibly it should prove to be little problem.


The tang is almost a full-tang, in fact it's so close that I would rather just call it a full tang. You can see that it tapers narrow at the end because it's not visible through the whole witch of the pommel of the knife. This does not mean the knife is any weaker than a true full tang knife. It's obviously got a wide tang that protrudes back several inches through the handle as we can see that the two (I'm guessing here) 3/16" brass rivets are spaced a good distance apart and must both travel through the tang to sandwich the handle to it. It most likely then tapers slightly upwards and ends (where we can see it) at the pommel. The lanyard eyelet is a third, well placed, rivet. not only does it provide a place to put a lanyard, it gives the Temagami a third rivet in it's already beefy full-tang handle. Really solid construction if you ask me!


Les's decision not to include serrations gets this knife another thumbs up in my book. I hate serrated knives! What a waste of blade space. If I could somehow get my hands on the exact specs of the steel used for the blade and the heat treating processes they followed to manufacture these, I would be more confident in my review of this knife. However, let us assume that they heat treated this steel perfectly, and furthermore that the steel used in the blade is of the proper quality (this could be one of any number of different steel types). If we assume this to be true, then I would say this knife is a winner. Les Stroud's Temagami Knife gets five stars in my book.


You can pre-order this knife now from his website, available Feb 26th for $180 excluding shipping. If you're thinking about ordering this, let me tell you a secret... It's not worth the price. Unless you're ordering it for the sole reason that it's got Les's name on it, you'd be better off investing your money elsewhere. There are plenty of comparable knives for less money. But there are also plenty of poorer quality knives for more money... So I leave the decision for you, readers.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Spooferman Fire-Starting Winners Announced

spOn January 11th, 2011 the winners of Les Stroud's Spooferman fire-starting video contest were announced via email and posted to the spooferman website there were three winners and three honorable mentions. Apparently Les Stroud and his team didn't like my video :( but I'm sure you guys all did. You can find it here . The winners of this Spooferman contest received various promotional items from Les's personal line of gear and apparel as well as some camera equipment from Sony. Some very NICE camera equipment if you ask me. Bes Proud came in first, followed by Fire Quest, and then Stress Loud. Go ahead and hit up the Spooferman page and watch the winners.

Spooferman Fire-Starting Contest Winners

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Beyond Survival: Les Stroud

    Friday, August 27th 2010 at 10pm marks the premier of Les Stroud's new Discovery channel TV series: Beyond Survival. Yes, you can bet I will be canceling all of my plans to catch the premier. Apparently this show has been created around the idea that the indigenous peoples of different cultures around the world are the last true masters of survival. I suppose this is most likely true, or at least pretty close to the truth. As long as they can show me how to survive better than Bear Grylls, I'll be satisfied.
    Hints of his new show have been leaking out since the end of Survivorman Season: 3 which, by the way, was his best season of all. It truly makes me sad that we won't be seeing any more Survivorman. Although imperfect, that show was engaging and educational. The first real survival show out there, and I respect Les all the more that he pioneered it into the mainstream. I have mixed feelings about watching the indigenous peoples and their cultures and rituals as Les has made it clear that the culture of these societies will be featured on the show. While I maintain a healthy respect for native culture, it's never been something that interests me to learn about on film. Hopefully the new show will preserve all the best of Survivorman and roll it into a new package. We will all find out in two weeks.
    Keep in touch with Les, yes I have a man-crush on Les more than most people. However, his stuff is quality and engaging. Here are a couple links:

Les's Video Blog
Les Stroud's Official Site
Dress up like Les
Spooferman: Pretending to be Les