A Survival Tips and Techniques Blog | UrbanWoodsman.com

I’m a 17 year old female and a little nervous about it. I still have 2 months to prepare for it, and I’m worried about how fit I’ll need to be and the experience in general…

There are some who say that the star of the television program Man Vs. Wild, Bear Grylls, is a fraud. I am not one of them. I think he has a lot of skills and training. He probably can climb and swim better than most of us, and more easily chokes down scorpions and worms for food. But he also sets a terrible example in almost every program, doing things that nobody in a survival situation should do.

For examples, I’ll refer to just one program, the one in which he parachutes into the Montana wilderness. He starts by dropping into a lake because there are supposedly no other open areas to land, other than the grassy stretches the camera can’t quite exclude. Obviously this is done for show, and choosing to get wet in a survival situation in the mountains of Montana would almost always be a bad idea.

To get to lower ground where it will be warmer, he then runs down a slope of loose  rock. Scree-running may be fun, but if you are truly lost in the wilderness, the last thing you want to do is risk injury. This is just plain foolish.

The Waterfall

Grylls then follows a stream, which isn’t a bad idea. But when it becomes a seventy-foot waterfall, he assures us that the best way to proceed is to climb down the slippery dead tree leaning against the cliff between the two parts of the falling water. The tree doesn’t quite reach the bottom, so a ladder of sticks and para-cord is made, which still doesn’t quite get him to the bottom.

I missed the last part (right after a commercial), but it is safe to assume that Bear Grylls did his trademark jump into unknown water to finish his descent. All you have to do is imagine a sharp point of a stump or rock just under the surface, right between where your legs will go into the water, to understand why this is a bad idea. Don’t jump into water when you can’t see what’s there.

Of course, soaked again, Grylls must start a fire to dry his clothing. Now you have to ask it the time spent building a ladder, descending a slippery dead tree, swimming out and drying off for hours really saved time versus finding a safe way around the waterfall. In fact, I can tell you from experience that it is very rare to find a waterfall that doesn’t have a relatively quick and safer route around it versus climbing down it.

The Rest of The Story

Bear finds a lake that is several miles across, and decides, without really explaining why, that it’s important to cross it rather than follow the shore. As in many episodes of Man Vs Wild, he runs into the water fully clothed, ignoring the common sense rule to keep clothing dry when in a wilderness with cold nights. He finds a broken canoe in the muck and cleans it out, patching the holes poorly.

Almost across the lake using a kite made from the remains of his parachute, the canoe is full of water and capsizes, soaking him for the fourth time that day.

Later in the program things get really ridiculous when Bear decided that rather than finding a safe way into a deep gulley (which he thinks he must enter), he’ll create a “zip line” and slide over to a tall tree. I won’t get into all the details, but he uses a grappling hook made with a deer antler, and a cable he found by an old homestead. Hooking onto a tree with an uncertain attachment and climbing out over a deep gulley on a thin cable is clearly reckless and unnecessary, to say the least. Anyone with modest abilities could have found a safe route down and been waiting for him at the bottom long before he completed this asinine maneuver.

Along with other reckless actions I probably forgot, he eats uncooked grasshoppers, risking parasites while standing next to a perfectly usable fire. He later climbs at least 100 feet up a train bridge over a meadow, in order to follow the train tracks, rather than simply walk along them below. He even throws a chain over the lip at the top and swings out into space to climb up, with no idea what he hooked the chain on. Of course he probably knew, had safety crews up there, etc, but that wouldn’t be the case in a real survival situation.

Did I mention the death-run out of the narrow train tunnel by the whole film crew, ending in them jumping to safety just as the train came through? Man Vs Wild is entertaining.  Bear Grylls is fun to watch. But it seems likely that people will be hurt if anyone in a true wilderness survival situation follows his advice or example.

When you are trying to purchase seating for your outside eating area there are several factors necessary for you to consider. When furnishing your outdoor dining area there are some big differences from furnishing the other eating areas, which makes it a very unique challenge for some cafe owners to locate the correct pieces. Simply follow these pieces of advice and your outside restaurant dining area will look awesome, and you will quickly create a professional look and feel.

Tip 1.

Firstly you have to determine the exact size your outside area will be. This means width, plus length. You need these figures for several reasons, including working out how many tables, chairs, and stools you will need. If you have to use only chairs to go with the tables, then you will need only chairs and tables. If you are going to set up a bar also, then you need to plan for an area with your bar stools, tables and maybe poseur high tables.

Tip 2.

If you are thinking about your furniture for outdoors one of the best options you have is outdoor contract aluminum chairs. This type of furniture is specifically made for outside and they are extremely durable, plus they are made for contract use so you can be sure they will survive years into the future. You don’t want to buy cheap, fragile pieces that will fall apart all the time. Cheap pieces are prone to rusting and will usually need continuous repairs, which will overtime make them extremely costly. It’s important to Select a supplier to work with that has great customer service and great top quality products. The best contract patio chairs that are ideal for outside use comes from Milan in Italy, so remember to ask a prospective supplier where the chairs comes from. When deciding on outside furniture a bad supplier can cost you lots of extra money in poor quality, broken pieces that are of inferior quality.

Tip 3.

Because aluminum chairs does not tend to be easy to move around, you can want to consider buying some swivel chairs in order to make it quicker for the customers to pull the chairs out. It can also be more comfy because chairs and bar stools can just rotate easily, instead of having to be picked up and moved around. This is one of those small things that your customers will notice and definitely appreciate. You must remember that ease of use is always something that your customers remember themselves as they are deciding where to eat. The last thing you want is to be forgotten about because of annoying furnishings – that is never an attractive sign; you should always keep the furnishings as easy to move as possible to help the customers.

Tip 4.

You may want to think about matching the style of your inside tables and chairs with your outdoor furniture by selecting aluminum furniture with wood trimmings. If you are selecting a matching color and design of wood it will create a very natural flow through one area of the restaurant to the other. Many restaurant operators take this into account and opt to follow this method because it greatly improve the complete look of the entire establishment. While this does increase the initial financial investment, the benefits in the quality of the furniture can be well worth the increased cost|extra expense.

Tip 5.

You should always be looking pieces that are very comfy. There is often a widespread misconception that metal seating is not at all comfortable and this is not always true. Good pieces that have been well considered design and are of good quality can be almost as comfy as other pieces. There is no reason why aluminum seating should not be comfy. If you get to a point where you are unable to locate pieces that are as comfortable as you would like, continue to look as you can almost always end up finding some perfect furniture|exactly what you need well within your budget. All it takes is some searching. Remember, this comes back to customers that are comfy are likely to stay, open their wallets a bit wider each visit, and even visit more often. All of this results in more money is generated from a purchase that has to be made regardless, so why not get the biggest results possible from the customer?

I am looking for a book similar to the US Army’s Survival Manual. However, the Army’s survival guide does not have a section on urban survival. I live in a major city and want to get information on where to get water, food and shelter in the event I run out of supplies in a war, financial collapse, governmental take-over or natural disaster. I like the book “Steal This Book,” but the information in it is very outdated from the 1970s. Anyone know of some comparable books? Thanks.