Season Two Talk: Brand New Contestants, Same Old Bears

[SRTouch]

3 hours ago, seasick said:

Jose honey..let's get crackin'  You started building this boat on day 15--the purpose was to get your gill net to deeper waters to catch the salmon run.  (honestly you probably could have used the leaf boat for that.)  day 24 and you are still futsin' with it.   It's not going to the Smithsonian.  Make do for now and get to the salmon.  Tedious to watch while the salmon wave goodbye..

Agree 100%. It was interesting to watch for a little while, but good grief, just get something that works and get going if you're going after the salmon. In a couple months, you can come back and finish you kayak when you have animal hides. I've been trying to remember what Lucas used last season. I think it was canvas, rather than what Jose is using. Sure, canvas is not 100% water proof, but would be much stronger than a poly tarp.

Anyway, I'm still pulling for Jose to make it to the salmon run and get a mess of fish. Now that I've given up on Nicole building a smoker, Jose is our only chance for smoked fish. I'd be interested not only in the construction of the smoket, but in the wood they have you choose from. I've always heard evergreens are not good for smoking and that seems to be what they have primarily. 

[ProfCrash]

There are 600 pound oak trees washing up in Dave's bay. Oak is good for smoking.

[HurricaneVal]

I think Jose is a deep thinker for whom every action  must.  be.  meaningful.   Which is fine at home, but in this environment, his quest for utter artisanal perfection is standing in the way of progress, and he is quite literally missing the boat.  I haven't seen, or we haven't been shown, any attempt by him at food gathering or talk of food gathering that didn't involve his boat of wonder.  So, I'm kind of getting the sense that he's one of those people who do one task at a time--and they do that one task very well--but there is no interrupting that task, no multi-tasking, no taking a break to handle other necessities of life.  The task will continue until the task is completed with utter perfection.  Then off to the next task...  This is perfectly OK, except he's going to starve to death like that kid who lived in the bus in Alaskan wilderness pursuing his off the grid lifestyle.

Nicole is a natural teacher, so she does great in front of the camera.  Would I want to be her friend?  Eh, probably not.  The constant cheery lecturing would get on my nerves pretty damn quick.  She certainly went into this with the right skillset. and coming from Oregon, she's already familiar with the things one might find foraging in a PacNW forest and shoreline.

David, David, David...you're another obsessor like Jose, but in a far less effective way.  Look for another place for your gill net.  #1 it is obviously in the wrong place since it never catches any fish, there should at least be some sort of fish or crab stuck in it, there's more out there than just salmon.  #2 it is obviously in the wrong place because you keep getting logs stuck in it.  Study the currents, realize that where you put the nets is where flotsam and jetsam floats in.  This will not stop.  You can move all the logs as inefficiently as you want, they're going to come back.  Move.  Your.  Nets.

Justin...when you said you always intended to climb that mountain on day 22, I thought you were full of bullshit.  I figured you were so close to tapping out with your flooded camp that you made that up, and basically you were just going to do the grand gesture of climbing that mountain to honor your fellow veterans to then be able to tap out with some sense of accomplishment.  So just because it happened to be day 22 when you gave up, then "day 22" turned into your target date.  Then you blew me away when you connected day 22 with the statistic that 22 veterans commit suicide every day and my heart just dropped to the floor.  You go climb that mountain.  You go climb that mountain real good.  22 is too few days, and too many deaths.  And I am glad you overcame that potentially game ending injury and came back from your emotionally fraught climb re-energized and determined to move your camp.  I hope you made a difference.  I hope you continue to make a difference.  I hope your new camp is fantastic, and not too far from your beach gym and rope swing.

Fucking Larry.

[SRTouch]

19 minutes ago, ProfCrash said:

There are 600 pound oak trees washing up in Dave's bay. Oak is good for smoking.

Hmmm, I thought he said they were cedar, but it wouldn't be the first time I heard something wrong. I know people sometimes use conifers for flavoring, but I always heard the resins were too much if that's your primary fuel.

[ClareWalks]

3 minutes ago, SRTouch said:

Hmmm, I thought he said they were cedar, but it wouldn't be the first time I heard something wrong. I know people sometimes use conifers for flavoring, but I always heard the resins were too much if that's your primary fuel.

I thought cedar too. They've mentioned how well cedar floats before, it is amazing that such heavy logs that appear quite dense can do that.

[SRTouch]

4 minutes ago, HurricaneVal said:

Fucking Larry.

By golly, that's who was missing! Hope he's feeding himself on his new beach - assuming he hasn't burned it up.

[ProfCrash]

Cedar probably tastes yummy as well.

[piequinn35]

Please give us a better edit for Jose, show us his shelter, what he's eating not just the freaking boat. :))

I'm beginning to like Justin and Nicole more than I like Jose (just give us more of Jose, history ok?!)

David. I hope it gets better for him. :(

Actually I missed fucking Larry. 

[seasick]

I have little doubt that the producers/directors can--and do--communicate some of their show needs to the participant.  I do not think it was just happy luck that on day 23 Nicole gave us a tour of her surrounding area and an edibles lesson.  (Very interesting btw)  Since they always move forward (at least that is what they indicate)  on the timeline they do not have the luxury of grabbing some of Nicole's cool stuff from previous days.   Nicole could have done the same on say, day 15 and it didn't happen to make the cut.  My guess is they see the footage from the previous weeks and will make suggestions if need be.

I cannot believe the weather they are having there. It's beautiful.   The first 15 days of season 1 it rained 13 days--and they weren't occasional showers..most days it Rained!!   I saw a glimpse of Jose's camp last week   Ep7 and froze frame to see what was in it to make sure it wasn't his cook camp.  Thought I saw his sleeping bag and lots of stuff.  it was a very basic tarp-over similar to Tracy''s from what I saw.  He better get moving on that too if the weather turns--and stays foul which is the norm there on VI.

[mythreecents]

2 hours ago, SRTouch said:

Hmmm, I thought he said they were cedar, but it wouldn't be the first time I heard something wrong. I know people sometimes use conifers for flavoring, but I always heard the resins were too much if that's your primary fuel.

He did say cedar, which is great for smoking. Cedar planked salmon, yum. 
Trying to figure out why I haven't been enjoying the most recent episodes as much as the earlier ones. For some reason, I am having trouble seeing them as individuals, and telling some of the them apart. I don't know if I'm not paying enough attention, or it's the editing (some week seeing them, some weeks not), but I totally thought that Mike & Randy were the same person and had to go home to Barbara leaving behind the board games and personal sized sweat lodge and boat. Then I realized one guy has long hair, too late. 
And I confuse Effin' Larry and Justin until last night, when someone said they missed Effin' Larry so I knew that guy had to be Justin. (Loved that he did that climb for veterans with PTSD, love that it re-energized him). 

Jose & Nicole stand out for obvious reasons, their personalities are unlike anyone else's on the show. And Limpet Man depresses me listening to him. Go home, Limpet Man. 

So, whether it's from the editing, or me not taking notes, I have much less investment in the cast than I thought I would at this point (with above noted exceptions). 

I too would like to see more of the footage of the camps, the how and why of certain things. I understand the point of the "but they are ALONE" vs "but it's SURVIVAL SKILLS" argument, and think there could be a better balance in editing between the psychological stressors of being truly alone, and the how-to practical aspect of setting up camp in the rainforest. 

And yes, please, History stop with the "cliffhanger" treatment. You can only see Nicole whisper "Look, it's a bear" so many time before going yes, yes it is. I think there's enough to sustain interest without the manufactured drama. 

[Vicky8675309]

I love Nicole but she has the best site--no struggles and her first experiment with her gill net is instantly successful. She just walks out to her net every day and gets fish to eat and picks some greens. Her attitude prevents it from being boring but she has it easy by luck (her site and luck with the net and a good stream) . No struggles or hardships to overcome. Whereas Jose has to build a boat to get to plentiful fish. He is planning for long term thriving whereas she lives day to day and even threw back a fish instead of preserving it. I didn't think I would like Nicole but I do like her but she is not my winner so far.

Jose or Justin FTW but I'm ok with any of them winning it---even gloomy David since he is in it for the money in addition to whatever clarity or personal growth he can acquire

[holly4755]

I don't know if Nichole is lucky or just talented. Her site has lots of bears, but they are busy eating and she stays away at a good enough distance. others might have been terrorized at the thought. she is careful to announce herself, not sneak around them. She put her gill net where the bears were, others might not do that. She tries to eat a balanced diet not just gorge on fish. And apparently she is comfortable filming herself where Jose may be used to someone else filming him. 

I would not be surprised if the teams are encouraging the contestants on the weekly visits - more of this video more of that one. don't do this one. I think that is why we are getting Jose films, perhaps we are seeing what interested him on season 1 he liked it so he expects we will like when he does it. But even I could see that boat is too narrow, great for moving through the water, not so great at being stable.  Heck a raft would be good enough. Too bad he didn't get Mikes tub - you noticed that Mike thought about stabilization. 

The days are slowing down so we are probably close to losing another person. 

[meep.meep]

I didn't watch the previous season - are any of the locations the same?  It does seem like some people lucked out, and others have real stinker sites.

[Quilt Fairy]

One thing Nicolle seems to be doing is actually fitting into the ecosystem. Or perhaps she's just seeing where she is on the food chain. You can tell she's a field biologist, she doesn't just know there are bears around her, she knows who they are: "That's the male. Normally there's a mama and 2 cubs but that's the male."  Arguably she can do this because she lucked out on her site and doesn't have to struggle to find food every day, but I find it a nice change from the guys.

 

ETA:

Quote

I didn't watch the previous season - are any of the locations the same?  It does seem like some people lucked out, and others have real stinker sites

Same general area, but different sites.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Quilt Fairy

[LittleIggy]

Noah built the ark in less time than Jose is taking with the canoe! ;-)

[Vicky8675309]

Nicole has fairly level ground with fish filled stream. She just had to not be stupid with the bears which she has so far been able to do (she didn't run from them despite what the editing wanted us to think). Good for her but she got the best site. I like her but she hasn't had to struggle or over come anything major (no shitty terrain, no huge bodies of water with hard to find fish or logs messing up the gill nets or waves messing with the nets, no long trips needed to find plentiful fish, no ground water seeping up the floor of her shelter, etc....). Easy ride for a competent survivalist. Great attitude and skills but also lots of luck and no struggles. I want the winner to have to work for it, overcome obstacles (broken gunwales, flooding or something) and to have something more than just skill and luck without any real work (more then the basics). Maybe if she built a smoker or something to prepare for a long term stay more then just day to day survival..... I need more from her to win if she and Jose (or Justin) last the same amount of time. Despite all this, I like her but so far she is not my "winner". But I like her attitude and skills/competence...

[MostlyContent]

Well, for the first time, Jose mentioned his hunger (several times in this episode).

Now we know he's not set up in sweet spot like Nicole.  

I'm still team Jose.

So the editing wants us to believe that Jose takes a dive in his boat.  I'll believe it when I see it, as so far all the "OMG, this is going to happen" has been bullshit.  

[SRTouch]

5 hours ago, MostlyContent said:

Well, for the first time, Jose mentioned his hunger (several times in this episode).

Now we know he's not set up in sweet spot like Nicole.  

I'm still team Jose.

So the editing wants us to believe that Jose takes a dive in his boat.  I'll believe it when I see it, as so far all the "OMG, this is going to happen" has been bullshit.  

Good point about the manufactured drama turning out to mean diddly. How many more times are the editors going to try to create a cliffhanger when Nicole sees a bear? Last time it was a cut away as she says "look it's a big male, and he's coming this way". Then when we come back to her she's all "look he going back in the woods". Certainly didn't stop her from venturing in the woods to check things out - she just exercised caution, calling out to make sure not to sneak up on any bears in the process.

I have a feeling Jose's dip into the water will be something similar. Trying to create drama for the viewer, while Jose passes it off as nothing. More of a testing to see how stable it is as he's learning its handling. I expect him to calmly get up, dry off, say he pushed it a little too far, and he'd better not do that again, then get back in and paddle away. Sort of like when the wood on the frame cracked and he sat down and commented on the beauty of the scene.

Course, it could be a shocker like Tracy. He tips over, his spirit is crushed when he realises his kayak is a total failure and colossal waste of time, and he reaches for the sat phone and ....

nah, don't see it happening. I'll go with a zen moment, then he gets back to work.

Edited June 18, 2016 by SRTouch
Clarification

[holly4755]

13 hours ago, meep.meep said:

I didn't watch the previous season - are any of the locations the same?  It does seem like some people lucked out, and others have real stinker sites.

they are given a large area so they don't bump into each other, the areas they land in is not all there is.  Did Nichole land in the sot or did she scope out the place before settling down? Look at Larry, who struggled with that hill, then one day decides to look for a better spot and finds a flat clearing.  last year the guy built the leaf boat because he could not find fresh water where he was, but yet another guy was drinking brackish water because that is what he found, they had to take him out for poisoning himself. 

 

Luck has something to do with your location but it is a large plot you are given to avoid others, no one saw luke paddling around in his boat last year.  The idea is find the best place to set up permanent camp. check out your environment before you just accept this liitle land, this might be very well why some thrive and others sink. 

again this is from an arm chair critic who has nver gone camping in her entire life. 

[candall]

Cheerful, upbeat Nicole is blessed with a good spot, but when I try to mentally switch the players around to the different campsites, I just can't feature Nicole ever sitting there trying to collect the energy to pull on her other sock.  Or the men with less fortunate campsites waving hi to the bears on their way to score some licorice root for a tummyache.

I agree, though, there's a lot of disparity between the locations--maybe too much.  I remember from the first episode, thinking the man stuck on the steep incline got really screwed from "the luck of the draw."  And the configurations where no gills ever come within a mile of your gill net are pretty harsh as well.

Do people still mention what a shame it is the shellfish are off limits because of the red [something] toxins?  Since hunting/trapping game doesn't seem like much of a winner, the extra food rations didn't really compensate for losing the shellfish, in the long run.  Looks like success largely depends on being able to catch a fish.

 

Adding:  oops, Holly just scooped me that Larry was the man with the hilly terrain.  Good for you, Lar!

Edited June 18, 2016 by candall

[ClareWalks]

30 minutes ago, holly4755 said:

Look at Larry, who struggled with that hill,

I was like "who? Oh, FUCKING Larry!" I'm starting to consider that his full name thanks to you hilarious dudes :)

[Scaeva]

Nicole got a lucky draw with perhaps the best campsite of the bunch, but her lasting as long as she has isn't due to just luck. Her camp may border the salmon superhighway, but with that also comes a lot of predator activity. There are a few contestants from both seasons who if they had Nicole's site, would have panicked and tapped at the first encounter with bears, or they would have relocated to a farther site where food resources might be more scarce. She also seems a bit more knowledgeable about the wild edibles of the region than the others, and from what little we've seen of the shelters it looks she may have the best.

Speaking of campsites...

Has anyone who recently watched Season 1, noticed whether any of the camp sites were used in both seasons?

I'm also wondering now whether the Day 1 taps from both seasons, might have been dropped off in a site where food was plentiful, but we didn't see that because the bears that attracted spooked the contestants.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Scaeva

[humbleopinion]

We will never know how "golden" Desmond's pick was in terms of his campsite.

What if it had unicorns protecting the perimeters from predators, fish jumping out of a fresh water stream into your frying pan, fat furry animals running directly into any sort of trap set?

With the flattest, softest forest floor on earth.

But Desmond didn't have the cojones even give us a glimpse.

Season 1, one contestant tapped out because he was sure the wind would fell a tree on top of him.

Another Season 1 aloner couldn't deal with the forest sounds without a gun in his hands.

His jumpiness and lack of firearm caused him to tap.

[Joan Z]

I have no problem with the editing that jose get although i would love to see him doing other stuffs but this is just another reality show. Masterchef US have contestants with the glasses, or guy with the hat, girl with bow on her head. In Unreal, the prod team labeled the girls the villain, the wifey, the desperate mom or whatever. So I'm pretty sure Alone do this kind of thing too. I mean, last season we have lucas the creative guy, then we have sam and alan with their mice and slug fest. This season, we have the foul-mouthed larry, justin the veteran, Mike the creative one and nicole the biologist who knows the edible plants and love being part of the ecosystem. Most of the time when they show nicole, it's always when she's checking her gillnet and seeing bear. We haven't seen much of what else she's been doing. Just like the gloomy and starving david, they focus a lot on his backstory and starvation but on blade forum, David said he did other stuffs (i can't remember what) that they didn't show but the editing make it seems like all he did was staring at the ocean and whining to the camera about his starvation. And for jose, he's the boat guy so the editing focus on him building the boat. 

Edited June 18, 2016 by Joan Z

[SRTouch]

2 hours ago, Scaeva said:

Nicole got a lucky draw with perhaps the best campsite of the bunch, but her lasting as long as she has isn't due to just luck. Her camp may border the salmon superhighway, but with that also comes a lot of predator activity. There are a few contestants from both seasons who if they had Nicole's site, would have panicked and tapped at the first encounter with bears, or they would have relocated to a farther site where food resources might be more scarce. She also seems a bit more knowledgeable about the wild edibles of the region than the others, and from what little we've seen of the shelters it looks she may have the best.

Speaking of campsites...

Has anyone who recently watched Season 1, noticed whether any of the camp sites were used in both seasons?

I'm also wondering now whether the Day 1 taps from both seasons, might have been dropped off in a site where food was plentiful, but we didn't see that because the bears that attracted spooked the contestants.

Exactly. We saw folks tap because they "heard" predators. The first time we saw Nicole scouting her beach and stream she saw the mama bear and 2 cubs. Instead of freaking out, she was like, "oh bears! Must be something to eat here! Ah, sea asparagus! Wonder if that's what the bears over there across the stream are eating?"

We'll never know about Desmond's site. He freaked because he heard noises and saw bear scat. Instead wondering what the bears were eating, he retreated to the beach as far as he could get from the "eerie" woods and called for pick up. From what we saw, his area was fairly flat, much better than Larry's drop off point, and fairly open. We'll never know how good or bad his site might have been.

Similar thing with last season's first day tap out. Like Nicole, he had a mama and cubs sharing his area. Like Desmond (although he came first), instead of thinking he might be in a resource rich environment, he decided the predators were too much. Much easier to understand his tap out, he had two or three actual sightings, and bears investigating his shelter while he tried to sleep.

Guess the fact that Nicole has been in the African bush studying lions means she understands predators and has decided she has lived around scarier critters than those on VI. And, while I'm thinking about it, she gave me the biggest laugh of either season when she heard the bear cubs playing and went to see if two sasquatch were having sex in the woods.

[holly4755]

I had no idea that the bonus videos for alone  were on Youtube - found a bunch opf them,. I was looking on the history channel site and could not find them there.

https://www.google.com/#q=youtube+alone+history+bonus

 

got to see H\Jose's camp and he is eating sea snalils and I am thinking - red tide - don't eat it!!

Edited June 18, 2016 by holly4755

[SRTouch]

4 hours ago, candall said:

I agree, though, there's a lot of disparity between the locations--maybe too much.  I remember from the first episode, thinking the man stuck on the steep incline got really screwed from "the luck of the draw."  And the configurations where no gills ever come within a mile of your gill net are pretty harsh as well.

Well, here's my thing about Larry and his crappy drop off point. He stumbled around on the edge of the cliff, and eventually set up a temporary camp with fresh water stream practically flowing through his shelter. We've seen people quit because they didn't have fresh water, this season we saw David suffering dehydration and last season we saw Mitch building a raft to hunt for water and that other guy settle for drinking brackish water and having to tap out - and here Larry has water from day one. Then he scouts in two directions, and finds a marginally better site. Problem is it's on the side of a cliff and he ends up having to put in steps to get up and down to the beach. Two weeks go by, and he doesn't bother to complete his scout of the area until a mouse invades his shelter. Turns out, if he had just finished his scout days before he would have found much a better site - or at least potentially better site, as we haven't seen him lately.

[Quilt Fairy]

20 hours ago, meep.meep said:

 

I didn't watch the previous season - are any of the locations the same?  It does seem like some people lucked out, and others have real stinker sites.

 

Same general area as S1 but different sites. That's per the History channel website.

Holly, thanks for the link to the video of Jose on Youtube. That was perfectly acceptable footage. Why the hell didn't that make the show?

Edited June 18, 2016 by Quilt Fairy

[candall]

2 hours ago, SRTouch said:

Well, here's my thing about Larry and his crappy drop off point. He stumbled around on the edge of the cliff, and eventually set up a temporary camp with fresh water stream practically flowing through his shelter. We've seen people quit because they didn't have fresh water, this season we saw David suffering dehydration and last season we saw Mitch building a raft to hunt for water and that other guy settle for drinking brackish water and having to tap out - and here Larry has water from day one. Then he scouts in two directions, and finds a marginally better site. Problem is it's on the side of a cliff and he ends up having to put in steps to get up and down to the beach. Two weeks go by, and he doesn't bother to complete his scout of the area until a mouse invades his shelter. Turns out, if he had just finished his scout days before he would have found much a better site - or at least potentially better site, as we haven't seen him lately.

All good points.  Sounds like the locations have a much better balance of dis/advantages than I realized. 

 

I let too much time go by between the first two episodes and the last two.  Now I can't remember what was happening to which person from back when they were all an anonymous jumble.

No brains, no headache!

[Jipijapa]

So, let's admit it to ourselves... we really just want to get to the part with the wolf.

Whenever that is.

[Scaeva]

21 minutes ago, Jipijapa said:

So, let's admit it to ourselves... we really just want to get to the part with the wolf.

Whenever that is.

I'm looking forward to that just because I think wolves are beautiful and interesting animals. I'm expecting that to be History Channel fakeout of some sort though, both because that's how History rolls, and because IIRC the camera never moves or shakes during the wolf's charge. I think it was having a go at a stationary camera rather than a human.

I caught part of a documentary about bears two weeks ago that was filmed in British Columbia, but there were parts that focused on other animals in the region. One was a subspecies of wolf known as Coastal Wolves, that are smaller than the big bison and elk hunters from places like Yellowstone. I wonder if that might be the animal in the footage, since someone thought it looked more like a dog than a wolf in an earlier post in the thread. If so they're apparently almost like a marine animal. The narrarator in the doc said they've been spotted swimming 10 or 12 miles out to sea between islands, in search of food.

[Quilt Fairy]

39 minutes ago, Jipijapa said:

So, let's admit it to ourselves... we really just want to get to the part with the wolf.

Whenever that is.

Speaking of wolves and bears: wolf stalks woman and dog for 12 hours and then bear comes along  Some people are saying that it's a fantastical story, but I can't think of any reason the woman would make this up.

[rainsmom]

On 6/16/2016 at 9:08 PM, cooksdelight said:

At the same time, I wonder if she was put in that area so she wouldn't have to struggle for food and nourishment. Anyone else have that cross their mind?

 

 

It occurred to me, and then I remembered that they drew lots way back at the beginning, and that's how it was decided which person got which campsite. Sure, they could have renumbered her site based on what she chose, but I think that would come out. "Odd, on the map the sites go 1, 2, 3, 7, 5, 6, 4..."

[humbleopinion]

Am sorry to say that my faith in the editors of Alone have waned this season with all the faux drama that wasn't present last year.

My cynical self thinks the stationary camera that piques the wolf's interest probably was baited with fresh meat by producers filming stock footage to spice up Season 2.

Say it isn't so.

[rainsmom]

I don't think the camera is stationary. Watch it again. The camera is moving before the wolf jumps.

[ClareWalks]

I also vote for stationary camera that the wolf somehow knocks over at the end. Because what kind of balls would you have to have to just stand there filming a wolf charging at you while remaining totally still?

[Ina123]

I think if most of the guys drew the spot that Nic jas they would be too wary of the bears to do what she does. They may have moved.

we haven't seen enough of Jose to really make much judgement. I think je is being meticulous because he is thinking long term.

[holly4755]

and then you look at David who sees he set his Gillnet in a place where the water ends and expects the fish to swim in where the logs settle down instead of trying a different spot on the water. The contestants have a shore line, it is not only one spot to use and it might be the worst spot along the beach. Now David has a sharp drop off section where he fished to the right, but it looks like he has more beach to his left where he was trying to drag the log  to, he might do better off there in deeper water.  I think I heard Nichole saying the water was a lot deeper where she set her net than it looked like when we see her checking for fish at low tide. Maybe his gill net is set too high, he did say6 all he knew about gill net fishing is from what he saw on season one.

My point is that some people may be struggling because they are not doing things right as well as not scouting out their area. 

Edited June 19, 2016 by holly4755

[Joan Z]

Nicole is really lucky with her site. She's eating well while the rest of the guys are starving.

If i were to go on a survival adventure with one of these people, i would definitely choose nicole. With her knowledge,  i know i won't be starving! Mike or Justin probably be my second option. Mike can thrive in the wilderness. while his Barbara talk seems sweet and romantic at first, it will get old fast. Justin seems to be a fun guy but I'm gonna give him a good kick in the arse if he ask me to workout or hike when I'm starving. 

[ghoulina]

I agree with those who say Nicole may have lucked out with the best sight, but there are other factors at play. Having bears that close, and often, absolutely would have made other contestants tap. And I also agree that some of these people didn't scout out their ENTIRE sites well enough at the start. Isn't Larry on his 3rd camp by now? He could have been there from the start. 

Nicole remains my favorite. I just love her attitude. She seems like a person who just really loves life. And I appreciate how much she wants to be part of the eco system out there, not just observe it. She should be smoking fish. But somehow her letting that fish go was just so touching to me. 

Justin was impressive as hell. I hate war and what it's done to our men and women and I really admire his dedication to the vets. I really hope his journey has been inspirational for someone. I was totally expecting him to quit after his hike, so I'm very glad to see him trying to regroup. I hope either he or Nicole wins. 

But I think Jose will probably win because he is going to be building that damn boat well into 2017. 

David, for some reason, didn't bug as much this week. 

[Joan Z]

Found david's post on survivalistboards

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We only knew we were going back to VCI at bootcamp, about a month before orientation on VCI. All of us used that time to study the island. I treated my study like a full time job, but there is much to do in a short time once you know where you are headed. I had to beg, borrow and steal cold weather gear (all mine was tropical) and there is much to do closing up your life so you can leave for an indeterminate time.

People seem to get hung up on the “trained expert” disclaimer. Understand, that is something the show puts up there, not something we claim for ourselves. In areas where I have a lot of dirt time, I will hold my own with anyone. My experience base is from Central Brazil (10 years teaching survival, rainy season lowland jungle, dry season scrub country, tropical alpine) and eastern Pennsylvania Appalachian Mts where I grew up. Outside those areas I am a high level student, as anyone with experience would be if suddenly dropped for the first time in a new ecosystem. You can learn a great deal with study, but only a portion of that will translate into your strategy once you arrive

Here's another one from the same board 

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Some points about the show...

The editing heavily influences your perception of our experience and mindset. For instance, they show me messing with my gill nets a lot because that was the most challenging/frustrating part of my learning curve. Have you seen my 18-inch high raised bed topped with a thick Hemlock mattress? No, maybe because it was spot on perfect and didn’t generate drama? It did generate sundown to sunup sleep. 

You can only set, check, and maintain a gill net at dead low tide giving you about a half hour to deal with it. What was I doing the rest of the day? Just because they don’t show me harvesting bull kelp, limpets, hand catching crabs and eels, eating Salal berries, checking/baiting set lines, and active hook and line fishing, doesn’t mean that didn’t happen. In the last episode they did show a large Bull Kelp head hanging in the door of my shelter.

It is very easy to mentally transplant resources from one contestant’s zone to another. Randy had a forest of small trees and made a cabin. I had mainly mature trees and saplings less than 4 inches in diameter were at a premium. I had enough poles to make a raised bed and frame for my tarp. My original log lean-to idea got scrapped about 20 minutes after arrival. I’ve seen many ideas here that would have been utterly unworkable given the resources and conditions I faced and anyone here with the experience to propose them would have discarded them just like I did. You have to adapt and focus on the principles of how you want to live and be flexible about the specifics of how that is going to look.

For me that meant sleeping off the ground under a dry roof, with a large stock of firewood in my shelter, on demand fire, water from a rain catch that I didn’t have to boil, passive fish gathering systems up and running, and a growing knowledge of my terrain. I had all that by day 21 and most of it by day 6, but all that didn’t create drama so it got no airtime.

We all knew going in that we would be alone, as well as tired, hungry, cold, and wet. Normally if I was “alone” I wouldn’t talk about those things at all, but for the benefit of the viewers I chose to open up about the mental impact it was having. You can’t see on video that my hands were numb or that I hadn’t had a solid meal in days. I chose to talk openly about what was going on inside and if that makes me a wimp, so be it.

I would love to stay and answer questions but I really can’t due to time. I just wanted to take an hour or so to give some red meat to chew on.

Criticism doesn’t bother me, especially from people who know what they are talking about. I know you would make very similar choices given our circumstances and limitations. Maybe you would do better and maybe not. I do know that those of you who are very good in your home range would face a vertical learning curve just like I did and all of your frustrations and mistakes would wind up in an episode or two. I hope you enjoy the rest of the episodes. 

Dave McIntyre

[Vicky8675309]

39 minutes ago, Joan Z said:

Found david's post on survivalistboards

Here's another one from the same board 

Thanks! That was very informative. I watch a lot of reality tv and try to keep an open mind about editing but sometimes I still get tricked (I did about David)

[SRTouch]

2 hours ago, Joan Z said:

Found david's post on survivalistboards

Here's another one from the same board 

Guess all that he says makes sense. Nicole's food gathering probably get air time because she takes the time to name and describe the plants, telling us what medicinal properties different plants have. Sort of like Mike and his tutorial about sea plants, and Jose carving his air horn and constructing his canoe - no matter how much they film, the editors will pick and choose what they want us to see. According to David's post, wood gathering was a big deal for all the contestants. Unless they're entertaining while they're gathering firewood, we'll never see them pick up a stick. We got to see Mike build his wood drying rack and sort his wood because he made it entertaining. MK was laying in a wood supply and building a cook shelter. I wonder how much of it we would have seen had she not cut her hand.

As others have already pointed out, this show is not about survival techniques so much as the effects of being alone, and that is reflected in the editing. Course that doesn't excuse the editing creating false drama.

[riverheightsnancy]

Yeah, Jose talked a lot about editing as well in his videos on his Facebook page. I don't know about anyone else but it seems this season is just different somehow. Perhaps it is that second season knowledge? Last year was so surprising. There was no template. Towards the end, all of the guys seemed competent to win. We all had our favorites, but there were all worthy.  Most of those guys are fairly tight lipped about all of it. There were major attempts by Cooksdelight to interview Alan and to answer those burning questions that we all pondered last season, all to no avail. 

This season, seems really different. We have at least 2 contestants (that I am aware of) actively posting lengthy videos and blogs about their experience and commenting on the show as it is shown. And while there doesn't seem to be any outright anger, there does seem to be subtle undertones for viewers to remember "the editing" and that it is much harder than we think it is. Jose has taken great strides to really say positive things about every one else  and that their choices are what they felt were appropriate for their individual situation (I like that about him) and that all of them are really skilled in many areas. Maybe it is just me. Does anyone else feel like it is different or a little "off" this season? I agree about the manufactured drama especially with Nicole. What, do we need to reinforce that she is a woman and because she has a vag is inherently in more danger? Stop it! This show doesn't need that. This show is great without all that. That is why many of us became fans last season. The thread was so much fun last season.  Producers, stop the fake "drama"!

[Vicky8675309]

41 minutes ago, riverheightsnancy said:

Yeah, Jose talked a lot about editing as well in his videos on his Facebook page. I don't know about anyone else but it seems this season is just different somehow. Perhaps it is that second season knowledge? Last year was so surprising. There was no template. Towards the end, all of the guys seemed competent to win. We all had our favorites, but there were all worthy.  Most of those guys are fairly tight lipped about all of it. There were major attempts by Cooksdelight to interview Alan and to answer those burning questions that we all pondered last season, all to no avail. 

This season, seems really different. We have at least 2 contestants (that I am aware of) actively posting lengthy videos and blogs about their experience and commenting on the show as it is shown. And while there doesn't seem to be any outright anger, there does seem to be subtle undertones for viewers to remember "the editing" and that it is much harder than we think it is. Jose has taken great strides to really say positive things about every one else  and that their choices are what they felt were appropriate for their individual situation (I like that about him) and that all of them are really skilled in many areas. Maybe it is just me. Does anyone else feel like it is different or a little "off" this season? I agree about the manufactured drama especially with Nicole. What, do we need to reinforce that she is a woman and because she has a vag is inherently in more danger? Stop it! This show doesn't need that. This show is great without all that. That is why many of us became fans last season. The thread was so much fun last season.  Producers, stop the fake "drama"!

I agree with everything you said except I'm not sure about the first season since I haven't seen it yet (I'll have to wait since this thread talked about it a lot so I have to wait until I forget much of what was said here....lol but I will always remember the winner was a guy and that he ignored his dog at the end). 

Edited June 20, 2016 by Vicky8675309

[ghoulina]

I don't really pay attention to any of these people outside of the show, so I can't really comment if that aspect seems different this year. For me, what's different about this year is that people are more capable and/or prepared. We have contestants making it a lot further and doing a lot more. I don't really see any editing giving away anything, but then again, I've never been good at picking up on those things. On the Survivor forums people are always talking about how they can tell ____ is going home that episode and I'm the naive girl in the corner who's almost always fooled. LOL! But I could still see any of these 5 winning. I expected Larry and David to be gone by now, and they're not. I figured Mike would stay out there a lot longer than he did. I do wish they would show us more of these things that people like David are saying they leave out. Since I don't follow these people on SM or read other forums or anything, I'd otherwise have no idea that David has a really cool sleeping space or is doing other things as far as food goes. Maybe they ARE crafting more of a "story" this year, and aren't too keen to include things that don't fit that narrative. 

[ProfCrash]

I think we are all aware that editing plays a huge role in these shows. David's camp has been shown a bunch and he seems to be in good shape there. I noted the bed and other things he had set up that indicated he was in good shape with his build. Food has been an issue and he has been upfront that he knows nothing about Gill net fishing.

Jose's edit, like everyones, is going to be influenced by what he has filmed. David, Justin and Larry have been pretty open about their issues and their struggle to stay int he game. I respect that. It cannot be easy to stare at a camera and tell folks about your divorce and how devastated you are. Justin's discussion about the vets and his push to make it to day 22 for his hike was very honest. He also admitted that he thought he might have folded after the hike but that it renewed his sense of purpose. God knows we know when Larry has been frustrated.

Nicole has discussed the death of her step son and we have seen her respond to her the bears in her area. As others have said, a large number of the contestants would have tapped with that type of bear activity. Nicole has managed it and thrived.

Jose has built a boat.

Look, you can blame editing all you want but the editors can only work with what you give them. That goes 100fold for this show. I think David's edit is moving in a more sympathetic direction. It is clear that he was/is depressed and the food issue is a problem but he never seemed to be in a bad place when it came to all the other elements of survival. OK, the tree fire was a bit rough. hehehe

Justin had his beach gym that he built and a positive attitude before the hike. He had the flood but he focused on the hike during that mess and seemed to do fine after the hike. His new camp looks to be solid.

I don't know what Jose is up to but I am assuming that if they have taken the time to show Justin's gym, Mikes football game and bowling ally, David's tree fire and Nicole's plant lesson, that Jose has not recorded similar footage or we would see it. Obviously, I could be wrong about that but what incentive do the editors have to hide that type of footage from Jose when they show it from others?

I don't think anyone has got a particularly bad edit and I am impressed that half the contestants are still in this thing. I just want to see all of them in action and I am struggling to find a reason why Production would not be showing more of Jose.

[holly4755]

On season 1, I believe it was the second place finisher that walked past his dog and we should not forget his wife had a baby while he was gone he had not seen yet, so I kind of understand that. if it was not refilmed because they missed it.

As to  this season, I believe it was Larry, who set the tree on fire, heh. in his third camp. I thought he was going to lose that one too. . 

they do seem to be focusing on different things this year most likely because people are capable of building good camps. no challenge there. So they are focusing on food. Also we are in the third week and 5 people are still there, not like last year. Things are different. so far, I am not bored, so the editors are doing something right. I watch each show at least 3 times to pick everything up. and like everyone else , I wish I could read the white print  in the comments show.

[ClareWalks]

Just now, holly4755 said:

On season 1, I believe it was the second place finisher that walked past his dog and we should not forget his wife had a baby while he was gone he had not seen yet, so I kind of understand that. if it was not refilmed because they missed it.

Sam's wife was still pregnant when he got home. Thank god, he didn't go out there, miss his son's birth, and not even win the money.

[mythreecents]

Okay I'm just gonna wade into the Land of Strange Theories here. The footage of the wolf leaping at someone doesn't look at all like a wolf to me, it looks like a dog, wagging tail and all. I think (drum roll please) it's the WINNER'S dog coming to greet the WINNER when the team comes to tell the winner the news. Now all we have to do is find out which of camptestants has a dog. Brilliant, what? 

Or you know, it's a coastal wolf...whaddo I know? 

I don't, however, think for a second that Nicole's campsite was a given based on her medical state, sex, or what ever. I think she's thriving because of her mindset. While the rainforest may be completely different than the African savannah (or wherever she did the lions thing), her mindset of being part of the ecosystem and respectful but not terrified of her companions in it is what's setting her apart. 

And I just feel the need to stick up for poor Desmond for tapping out, again, as I see his name has come up. I would have made fun of him too, but for our own experiences. We moved out here to VI just 2 years ago, as I said way back upthread, and stayed for the first month in a cottage on a beach that could easily be in one of the campsites. Let me tell you, these woods can be eerie, and completely unlike the forest in the rest of the continent (and certainly on the Eastern seaboard). The denseness of the growth, the sheer enormity of the trees, the untangible aura of prehistory, it's a very different feel, and I can see someone who's completely at home in other wilderness being thrown for a loop here. ( Come to think of it, that's another edge for Nicole, being from the Pacific Northwest this is not unfamiliar to her).