Dual Survival- TV review

 

There is a new show on the Discovery Channel (well one season old now).  It is called Dual Survival.  It stars Dave Canterbury and Cody Lundin, two wilderness survival experts.  These two guys know what they are talking about.  They create a team structure that is great for survival situations.  Most people don't go into the wilderness alone and seeing the team dynamic is great.  The best part is they don't always agree or use similar tactics in a given situation.

Dave Canterbury

Dave Canterbury is an US Army trained sniper.  He hunts and trains in the Midwest.  Canterbury teaches survival classes for a living, mostly in wooded wilderness areas.  His army training comes through in his 'get something done' attitude.  He loves to eat "four legged furry critters" and not much else.  In his eyes Mother Nature is the enemy and one must do anything they can to combat and over come her in a survival situation.

Cody Lundin

In contrast to Canterbury we have Cody Lundin.  He has little to no formal training.  However he lives what he preaches.  For over 20 years he has lived in a mud dug out home in the Arizona desert.  The minimalist lifestyle is what he trains to students as well.  He collects rain water, composts his own waste, and grows his own food.  The first thing you notice about Lundin is he doesn't wear shoes or long pants.  (In the first episode the two are stranded on a small island in Nova Scotia in January.  Lundin wears shorts, sweatshirt, and wool socks).  You might imagine that he is some sort of hermit, however he is pretty in tune with the modern world.  Tree huggers annoy him as well as the uneducated.  In his survival he uses the Earth instead of fighting against it.  Living the way he lives, he claims, is how he gets in tune with and respects the Earth.
All in all this a great survival show.  The two men do have a support team and are put into situations to simply display survival techniques, but this doesn't spoil anything for me.  It is great to see what these guys get themselves into and how they get out using all their combined skills.  They also have a short 30 second segment in each episode that gives a quick tip for the climate they are in.  These reasons make this my new favorite survival TV show.  Seeing how two people react to the elements, situation, and each other simulates (I think) a more likely survival situation.

In case you were wondering I prefer Cody.

Check out the first season on Netflix and some clips at discovery.com