Late on weekend nights, I keep finding myself watching Man vs. Wild. Last night, he dropped out of a helicopter and swam over to a deserted island in the South Pacific. He explained how to get on shore without smashing on to the rocks. Then he collected some coconuts, fell some bamboo, weaved some palms and made a raft. He drifted on the raft until he was able to attract attention of a ship by reflecting light off of his knife and he was safe. At one point, he jumped in the water for a swim and accidentally attracted the attention of some tiger sharks. He spent some harrowing minutes with tiger sharks bumping against his raft. I still catch my breath a little when I am swimming freestyle and the floor of the pool falls away from me in the deep end.

Clearly, Bear Grylls is a little crazy. I did notice that he was born in ‘74 and attended Eton College. I wonder if my sister’s good buddy JD knows him. They could be old school chums. Maybe that’s how JD got his tough guy smarts and calm demeanor.

(Image from Bear’s blog)