My Fan vs Wild Video Entry
Over the weekend, I headed out on an adventure with my Flip Video to capture some footage for the Fan vs. Wild casting.
I know you’ve heard about it. The opportunity to join Bear Grylls on an episode of Man vs. Wild. Step one, you have to be one of four fans selected from perhaps thousands of entries. Next, you’re pitted against the others in a series of wilderness challenges. Only one of the four fans will be chosen to then film an episode of Man vs. Wild with Bear.
What?? Going on an adventure with Bear would be awesome!!
To that end . . . I grabbed by camera and headed out for one of my weekend adventure training sessions. I happen to be in the final weeks of training for an upcoming 24hr adventure race, so these filming sessions didn’t take me out of my way at all.
Well, the raft building was a bit out of the way. But in the end, the materials gathering, raft construction, trek through the pluff mud and paddling my craft down the Ashley River turned out to be a great workout.
Needless to say, I’m hoping and praying that my entry is enticing enough to get me to the next step. We’ll see…
Building a raft from the debris of a boat wreck
The first half of my adventures involved making a raft from the debris of a boat wreck and heading down the Ashley River. Thanks to the abundance of Styrofoam, I was able to keep the construction very light and streamlined. In the end, my raft wasn’t much more than a paddleboard with an outrigger for stabilization.
Barrier island hopping the South Carolina coastline
The next phase of my adventure was a run-swim workout along the South Carolina barrier islands of Folly and Morris Island. I love this workout. It’s one that I’ve done in the past on other islands in the area. A word of caution about swimming across Lighthouse Inlet or any other inlet–the currents can be faster than one can swim, even a competitive swimmer. Know your skill level and know how to read the water and the environment. …and did I mention that the inlets are quite sharky?!
The chances of getting recognized by the Discovery Channel for the Fan vs. Wild competition is probably pretty slim for the sheer number of applicants alone. But it was well worth putting my name in the hat. We’ll see how it shakes out.
Side note: If you’re in the Charleston, SC area and are interested in joining me for some adventures, please leave a comment and we’ll line something up.
Did you submit an entry for Fan vs. Wild as well? Tell me about it and share a link to your video.
- Dominic
You’re probably as anxious as I am to find out who was chosen for Fan vs Wild. As we quickly approach June as well as the announced webisode airing date of August 11, the selection of the Fan vs Wild final four has to be coming pretty soon.
Whether I make the cut or not, I look forward to seeing how the webisodes are presented. Delivering via the web presents so many interactive opportunities for the audience, from GPS tracking and heart rate monitoring to the delivery of supporting information through layers – i.e. factoids on water consumption, plant species, etc.
If you hear something before I do, please leave a comment and link to your source.
[June 10] Bear (@BearGrylls) just posted the following tweet : “hard training session for upcoming Fan Vs Wild programme. Took the crew running. Fun!”
It’s taken a few weeks, but I’ve channeled my anxiety for getting selected for the Fan vs Wild challenge into wanting to watch the show when it comes out. Not quite! I’ll be sure to see who stole my spot, I’m not at piece with it at all. I’ll be venting some energy in some intense adventure training session.
I do hope to hear from someone with more info, though it probably won’t be one of the selected contestants at this point.
…the Fan vs Wild episode finally aired on the Discovery Channel. It wasn’t quite what I had hoped for. As an athlete and active adventurer, I wanted to see Bear put his fans through some serious paces. I wanted to see a grueling, endurance and hardship-focused outing with some capable candidates taking it to their limits.
But then I’m not a producer who understands rating and “good tv.” The storyline chosen was to showcase two non-outdoor, non-adventurous candidates overcoming their personal fears (one of heights and one of water).
As I understand it from some blogs and discussion boards about the Fan vs Wild promo, logistics didn’t quite go as planned. The initial plans for a challenge between 4 candidates didn’t happen – meaning the planned webisode didn’t happen either.
As a web professional, I was really hoping to see the web piece happen. There were an infinite number of possibilities to broadcast, promote, track and generally excite the Man vs Wild fan base at large via the web. I think this was a huge missed opportunity.