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< January February 2006
	Hotline
Survivorman Les Stroud Rugged canoe guide brings reality to reality TV

Forget the Rambo reruns. The toughest guy on television is former canoe guide Les Stroud, star of the Science Channel’s hit series Survivorman. In an era of contrived reality shows, Stroud’s program is refreshingly authentic: Each new episode finds him in a different wilderness environment, surviving for a week with little more than his trusty harmonica and 50 pounds of camera equipment. We reached the 43-year-old canoeist the day after he’d inked a deal for his next series, Off the Grid, which will chronicle a year spent with his family in the northern Ontario bush.

Paddler: Tell us about your life as a canoe guide.

Stroud: I had the dream job for 10 years. Give me a wild wilderness river or a glassy lake and I’m in a state of Nirvana.

Paddler: How did that prepare you for your Survivorman gig?

Stroud: It taught me to be comfortable in the wilderness, and it bronzed up my skin, gave me calluses in the right places and developed the right muscles.

Paddler: How did you make the leap from wilderness guide to television star?

Stroud: From age 16 to 25 I was a rock-and-roller, and to support my life as a rocker I got a job in music videos. I started getting coffee, and within a year I had worked my way up to assistant director. I worked on Rush’s “Big Money,” Corey Hart’s “Never Surrender”—all the big Canadian bands. At 25 I was working at Much Music [the Canadian equivalent to MTV] and I was sick of it. I needed a soul break.

Paddler: Did you grow up with the wilderness?

Stroud: When I took my very first canoe trip I was 25 years old. But when I started I dove right into it and nothing else mattered. My first trip was on the Temagami River in Ontario, and it was the most magical experience of my life.

Paddler: As a canoeist and wilderness filmmaker, you’re following the path of Canadian icon Bill Mason.

Stroud: I was at a survival course in 1988 when the instructor said Bill Mason had died. And I said ‘Who’s Bill Mason?’ After that I bought Song of the Paddle, and when I saw Cry of the Wild I wanted to do what he did—put my canoe in the water just after breakup and not pull it out until Thanksgiving. I’m my own person, but I’m trying to inspire people like he did.

Paddler: What do you think of so-called reality programs like CBS’ Survivor?

Stroud: When it became a big hit in 2001 I was asked to do a lot of radio interviews, and the questions were always about Survivor. So I called [OLN Canada] and said, ‘I’m a filmmaker and I have survival skills—send me out for seven days with a camera and no food and I will come back with a one-hour show.’ Now it’s the number-one rated show in Canada.

Paddler: It must be unnerving for someone who takes solace in the wilderness to be mobbed everywhere he goes.

Stroud: It’s surreal sometimes but I’m a very gregarious person, and I’m a ham. The most amazing thing is when people say ‘Thank you—your show got my kids excited about camping and the wilderness.’

Paddler: You filmed nine episodes, each of which entailed a week in a different hostile environment with almost no food. Did that take a physical toll?

Stroud: Frankly yeah, it was brutal. I came out bruised sometimes, and once I came out with a bad parasite. It took me two years to film the series. And, of course, when the show took off the network told me they want 13 new episodes and they want them delivered in a few months.

Paddler: The only tool you’re never without is your harmonica. Why is that?

Stroud: I’m still a performer and a singer-songwriter, and my best instrument happens to be blowing a good blues harp. I don’t take it apart to make a knife or anything—I just play it. It’s worked out really well except in the Arctic, when I found out it attracts polar bears.