Dual Survival Returns

Here’s just a reminder that Dual Survival’s third season starts tomorrow, New Year’s Day. It starts with an introduction to Cody’s new partner, Joe Teti, and is followed with the season opener.

For those of you happening upon my blog for the first time, let me say that I am a barefoot hiker. I’ve been going regularly barefoot for a somewhat shorter time that Cody Lundin. But I’m just a hiker and backpacker—I certainly don’t have his survival and nature skills. However, it does mean that I am always interested to see what he does and to watch the show.

And for those who were unaware of the drama leading to the change of partners for Cody, here’s a short recap.

Last April it was announced that shooting would begin for Season Three, but without Dave Canterbury. Dave put out a statement saying that other commitments got in the way. You can read about that when I wrote Dual Survival — Season 3.

However, there was more to it than that. It turned out that Dave had exaggerated his background, claiming military experience that he did not have. For instance, while he did have such things as sniper training, it was not at the level that he had claimed. (This information was floating around on some “bushcraft” discussion boards.) You can see a bit more about that whole to-do in my blog entry What’s Up With Dual Survival?.

So they replaced him, with a genuinely bad-ass military person, Joe Teti (pronounced “tet-eye”, equal stress on both syllables). According to the press release from Discovery, he is a former Force Recon Marine, Army Special Forces “Green Beret”, and was an operative for a top-secret counter-terrorism group.

You can be sure that they carefully vetted him.

The 8:00pm show tomorrow is entitled “Unbraided”, and it is an introduction to both Cody and Joe. There are a few clips on youtube (from the Discovery Network) that you can use to whet your appetite. One consists of Cody discussing Joe:

Another has Joe discussing Cody:

Or, you can go right to the Discovery Network website at see the entire “Unbraided” episode right now! It is here.

For those concerned that they’ll miss the back and forth from Cody and Dave, rest assured. It is pretty clear that Joe knows his own mind, and the tension between barefoot hippie philisophy and military go-get ’em will continue. It looks like it will be a great season.

One other thing I particularly liked was the look at Cody’s house (in arid Arizona). That think, built by Cody himself, is a marvel of natural engineering. All of the house’s water comes from rain capture. Electricity comes from solar panels. And temperature control is maintained from careful design.

Cody talks about the house a bit in his book When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need To Survive When Disaster Strikes, which is a great book that you all should go out and buy (or at least read in your local library).

As an earth home, it has super insulation. It is also situated properly so that in the wintertime, the sun can come in and store heat in his stone floor. In the summertime, the angles are such that the sun does not come in, but nighttime coolness is preserved in various ways.

Here is a picture (from “Unbraided”) of Cody’s property (looks rather hobbity to me!).

Cody Lundin’s House and Grounds

Right after “Unbraided” at 8:00pm (EST) is the season premier, “Mars on Earth”, in the Atacama Desert of Chile. This was actually the third episode filmed, but for some reason they’ve made it the first of the season. There is also a small clip from the show on the Discovery website for Dual Survival, on the efficacy of drinking urine. This shows that the tension on different philosophies has not been lost.

(By the way, I’m with Cody. If I’m going to do something for a psychological lift, I’m going to do something that is also physiologically effective. I go with the science every time.)

Finally, I see that I just don’t get out to hike enough. “Unbraided” gives us a close-up of the callus on Cody’s feet. I get out hiking on average of about 4 miles a week. (Hey, I’m busy with other stuff.) Cody is obviously out there living it nearly full-time, and it shows.

Anyways, I’m looking forward to the new season. They have nearly all the episodes in the can, and some of the places I know they’ve hit include the Nicaraguan Jungle (a volcano), South African Zululand (this is next weeks show: “On the Menu”), and Romania.

Don’t miss it!