Walking talking encyclopedia.

When the police needed help tracking down Raoul Moat, the called Ray, not Lofty. Says it all really.

Well said.

@@richbuilds_com Ray was the one who advised that Gazza should bring some chicken, cans of beer and a fishing rod. Top man.

You do realise Ray Mears has never been in the Military and started teaching The SAS survival when lofty Retired 🤔 whereas lofty has been in the SAS as long if not longer than Ray Mears has even been teaching survival 😂

I was told by someone who's met him that he's am arrogant prick off screen

@@master_Blaster91 There’s always stories about public figures, I always reserve judgement until I meet - I hope he isn’t though.

@@master_Blaster91 yeah but for every public figure out there you'll find somebody who insists that person is an arrogant prick. You really can't be sure

No ego???? He tried to trademark the word Bushcraft after training with Mors Kochanski. Mors properly blew him off since he literally wrote the book "Northern Bushcraft" (to distinguish it from the Australian southern bushcraft). Mors has since re-titled the book "Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival".

that's actually a very well articulated observation.

Fantastic story! I also loved that book when I was a kid.. such fun building camps in the woods. Greetings from England and Happy New Year to you..

Got that book from the library twice, then bought it. Still got it. Still use it. A treasure trove of good information! Ray's got some good youtube vids out, and Coalcracker bushcraft is good... but it will always be John Wiseman for me!

He definitely has more knowledge of survival than I can imagine..... whether or not he has more knowledge of survival than Lofty Wiseman can imagine is a different question altogether - I'm sure he can imagine quite a lot!

@@K1lostream not taking anything away from lofty but ray mears taught the sas survival skills for 10 years, so I would imagine ray is more knowledgeable imo

@@K1lostream Ray Mears can start a civilization from. Scratch. Lofty Wiseman is a survival expert from a military point of view. So survive long enough to be picked up by SARS. Ray Mears will out survive Wiseman any time of the day. He has been preaching and practicing bushcraft and primitive living for over 40 years now. That is the difference between survival and bushcraft. Survival is staying alive long enough for the search party to come and pick you up. Bushcraft is living and being comfortable in the woods with limited equipment but making the equipment out of the woods with what you can and live in the woods confortably.

@@alphabears6342 Well said.

Yeah, but he could live off his 'reserves'!

The size of his head mustn't help@@HighWealder

Exactly that’s man hasn’t experienced hunger for decades 😂

You dont know what your talking about, lofty is not a big mouth like the others, i would estimate of the 27 years head did more life threatening than the others put together, survival for publicity is not the same as living off the jungle desert at deaths door with thousands of the enemy wanting to behead as happened to three troopers.

well said that man. My thoughts exactly.

Couldn't agree more.

Fan boy!!

mate, ray is ok but lofty really is the man.

I'm just sticking up for him, this Lofty fella seems to think it's ok to bash other survivalists, some who have achieved much in the worlds of survival and bushcraft.

have you seen lars monsen? he's really good too

+Matthew Smith There is probably some truth in that. However, Lofty """HAS""" served in the REAL DEAL 22 & reached the dizzy highs of being the YOUNGEST W.O.Class 1 . & served all over the globe. & not the week end warrior brigade. Saturdays and Sundays (S.A.S) I have seen B.G. at two talks, peddling his ""TAT"" & on BOTH of them, he""" intimates""" that he was Regular full time 22 Reg. SAS when he was 21 reg TA. It was only when a lady in the audience challenged him directly did he admit that he was a TA Reservist ( all be it a S/F) one. I later found out her husband & son Were serving & had served with 22. Nice lady.

+Belfastchild I bet that lady doesn't get any crap from the locals! LOL

she was a very quiet unassuming lady who was just annoyed with all the LIES Grylly that were pouring from this boy scouts mouth. She said that ALL of the regular members of 22 looked upon & treated BG as a T/A """WALT'''

Lofty is bloody hilarious and I'd bet money Bear and Mears would totally agree! The SAS aren't easily offended..

I don't get what your implying Belfast, its irrelevant if by is reservist or lofty was regular soldier, both reservists and regulars have in recent times played with their blood for this country it should not even be an issue raised, I have personally seen unprofessional reg soldiers and really shit hot reservists show up so called professional soldiers, its swings and rounabouts

I agree... bead just does it. no questions asked. Ray mears enjoys it more, but beat grylls is awesome!

***** Good point, but I think Ray Mears has more than what you just described. He has whole different episodes and a series dedicated to survival.

A well documented rebuttal.

***** 'nowt' further to add - Is thee from up North in the UK?

If you're stuck on a desert island with no way off, you build a house. If you're just lost somewhere you survive on the way back to civilisation..

@IIWII Yeah, and part of the appeal of Ray Mears is his respect for indigenous people and their skills. One of the regular features of his show was him trying him to mimic the actions of the experts and their laughing at him and showing him again how to do it properly, it really foregrounded their skills as you knew he was moderately handy and you looked again at what they were doing realising they only made it *look* easy - it showed a more generous nature than this guy not able to view the field they share as anything other than a competition, so that he has to big himself up at any opportunity. For all his undoubted achievements, he sounds like a schoolboy. Ray Mears explored the idea in his work of survival techniques in lots of ways, anthrolopologically, historically, as well as practical how to. He never made it into a pissing match.

" SAS troopers how to survive in the bush" oh, I thought a large percent was in tropical conditions. Having more than one edition of Mr Wisemans SAS survival book, I would say it is clear that a lot is about jungle conditions and of limited practical use for other places or situations. Also, there are some differences on miliatry survival trainings compared to others as the first tends to focus on combat situations. Yes, there are overlaps also, but in general you want to be found by anyone in the civilian peaceful context and not be found be "anyone" in the millitary non-peaceful context. Some military instructions probably had to adjust a lot when having with civilian scope after their active military carrier.

+James Moore Its called having a sense of humour.... :-)

+steppenwolf ..Ur right..So many are rude,ignorent wth a smart mouth but when sumone tells them a home truth to their face,they cant handle it,have a hissyfit..I found nothing rude at all wth comments..Perhaps it's a generation thing..Everyone's so fragile and over sensitive these Days(except on the Comp)

Given his service and qualifications, Lofty has the right to judge people in his field, BUT, like all old soldiers, they're a very arrogant intolerant lot... Ray didn't serve, he was rejected from the Royal Marines because of his eyesight problems. Ray's life goal is to teach people to respect nature and be comfortable living out in it. His Woodlore Bushcraft school has been going for almost 40yrs ! He's succeeded in teaching thousands of people to become ambassadors for his respectful methods and pass on those skills to others. That makes him worthy of respect in my mind..

Ray before lofty any day.

***** Reasonable safety as in "you could do this if you really needed to and it won't kill you".

Cristi Neagu Finally someone who understands it!

+Cristi Neagu So ... where does overnighting in a travel lodge fall into that?? ( as B/G's team have done)

***** 1. Bear Grylls did that *once*. When his kid was born and his wife travelled to a nearby town so he can see his kid. WTF is wrong with you? Are you that desperate to badmouth someone? 2. It's not like Ray Mears spends each and every night sleeping in caves on cold stones and under rotten trees. 3. Even if Bear Grylls never spent one night in the wild, what's your point? It's a show that's meant to teach you about the wild and survival, not about what Bear Grylls can and cannot do. Frankly, all you people screaming out this "he spent a night in the lodge" argument are grasping at straws.

@Hugh Jarce He spent one night in a hotel with his *family* and his *new born son.* *ONCE.* The fact that you let a one time uncommon event overshadow everything else he did, after all this time, i might add, shows how unreasonable you are.

Haha not to be recommended.

+Ice Hockey is Pretty Pretty Good I wouldn't bet on that.

Really. You now where Arctica is ? Beeing in a ice block does not mean you survived. :)

Sonja S Arctica was an ancient continent which formed approximately 2.5 billion years ago in the Neoarchean era. Whats your point? Lol

Exactly!!!

@Tabourba cry more. Fukin snowflake

Les is the top bloke down under,I used to love Bush Tucker Man,great series.Loftys expertise covers all situations whereas Les Hiddins is more specialised in that way.Both top blokes.

@@redpillnibbler4423 Totally agree with you there mate 👍.

If we are talking about the same book, I would say a percent of it is of very little practical value for many readers. Like the parts on jungle survival for example.

It depends on the food. Most vegetables and salt water fish..yes. kangaroo meat is full of parasites and must be cooked, as must snake meat.

Wrong: 23 SAS IS a Reserve unit, but the Regiment was mobilised in it's entirety to serve in Afghan in 2008. Three killed by IED. It was widely reported upon, because a woman, Intelligence Corps soldier, Cpl Sarah Bryant , was in the Land Rover to engage with Afghan women, was also killed in the blast. 23 served very well in Afghan. and SAS reservists are routinely called up as individuals or teams to supplement 22.

Not as significant as you'd like to think.

They have an episode togheter,in the Walkabout series of Ray Mears.

haha idiot

fartunique It's called dry humour.

Antipodean33 That's why the selection process is so brutal...to sort the men from the boys. A couple of guys died on the process three or four years ago. Sad. Sadder was the press focusing on the two dead and not the rest who _did_ survive!

When sas or military guys go stalking with my dad who's a gamekeeper, he makes a mockery of them, they all miss their shot

+Deaglan Madine Apart from serve in the Regular army U.K. Special forces ( Lofty Wiseman being a former 22 Reg R.S.M) & not 21TAVR claiming by intimating he was 22reg.

lofty Wiseman has been doing this for years - criticising his peers , he was saying the same stuff 40 years ago about a fellow survival instructor and SAS man Eddie Magee ` could`nt survive in tescos` same old mantra , Ray mears is one of the nicest calm most humbeling man you will ever meet

Well said!

Yea you might learn how to get lost in the wrong desert

As a kid in eastern europe,growing up in 90's and early 00's,we had two educational channels: Discovery and Animal Planet. I used to like Steve Irwin,but now,i realize he was a dork. Picking animals up all the time,his kid over the fence and all kinds of "crickey" things...And i've heard that his zoo is kinda way over the top commercialized-even his father Bob,is outta the scheme,and the family...He was in a sort histrionic like Bear Grylls... Now,Ray Mears,on the other hand-let's say that i still watch his shows. In a way,he made me fall in love with your country-especially his series,Walkabout. I dreamed of going far away,and luckily enough,i managed to do quite that,even to your own country. Fantastic place,a piece of europe at the end of the world... Btw,i love your cinema,especially Peter Weir's movies. Proposition was awesome too,and a few weeks back i saw that classic Sunday,too far away! I hope one day to revisit Australia, and New Zeeland also. Take care,and have fun.