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n 2001, 40-year-old adventurer Les Stroud took a few cameras into the Canadian wilderness to film himself roughing it for a week on minimal food and water. The then-unknown survivalist wrote, videotaped, and starred in what was to become his own show, Survivorman. He found the location, hauled his own supplies, set up the camera, did a take, and then repeated the last two steps until he compiled enough footage for an hour-long show. Stroud’s style was DIY through and through. There was no crew or director. He did it himself, or he didn’t survive.
Since his debut, other extreme travelers have come onto the scene, dividing most of the adventuresome audience between Stroud’s practical survival style and that of young English buck Bear Grylls, with his action-packed, Indiana Jones-esque escapades. “What these other guys do isn’t really survival,” he says.
As he’s gotten more established, Stroud now works with a slick post-production staff, though he still hosts and shoots the program by himself in the wilderness. And although he could afford to work with a top director, he still prefers to make his own show because he wants to capture a real survival experience—as opposed to the other Johnny-come-latelys. Yet Stroud maintains he isn’t concerned about anyone else. After all, no one else has the Stroud got the idea to film himself in the wilderness DIY philosophy that his show embodies. Bring a camera, after watching the reality show Survivor. He realized shoot it, and just make sure your battery doesn’t freeze. that the show had little to do with actual survival “If that happens, there’s no show,” he says. Still, when techniques and more to do with making dramatic tele- pressed, he underscores his point by quoting a seemingly vision. So he decided to film his show alone to prove strange source: singer Barry Manilow. what it takes to be a real survivalist. There were no breaks or off-camera tents, nobody to offer a Snick- “You know what he said? If you’re going to write music or ers if he really needed it. Stroud did everything by cut an album, don’t listen to the radio. Write your music, himself because he had to. Because that’s what real your album. Make it real. Make it your own… That’s the path to creative freedom and expression.” a survival is—DIY or die.
Photos by Carl W. Heindl