I am an Eco-Challenge fan. I look forward to watching it every year. Last night I saw the first episode of Eco-Challenge 2000.
I was appalled.
78 teams are racing this year. A number of them are novices. Novices?!? What are novices doing in what is billed on Eco-Challenge’s website as “the world’s toughest expedition race”? In previous years, teams had to have competed in several other adventure races before they could qualify. They trained together for months and years. This ensured a high quality of competitor who could handle a gruelling race. One year, a team of US Navy SEALs entered, and got spanked the very first day. That’s how tough these racers are supposed to be. Why the change this year? I think I know.
Last night we saw a team get lost, swim miles out to sea and have to get picked up by Search and Rescue because they didn’t read the race instructions. And do these inept fools go home? NO! They’re allowed to continue racing, to see if they can finish the course. After, that is, we’re treated to inspiring footage of tears and bitter recrimination between teammates. So much for the spirit of competition.
And let’s not forget the novelty act of Team Playboy Extreme (“The Bunny Team”). Is such a cheap trick necessary? I can’t wait for checkpoint 17, when the Bunnies must compete in the “Eco-Challenge Wet T-shirt Contest”. Don’t get me wrong. Women who pose for Playboy are not necessarily any less capable of competing than anyone else who hasn’t trained for this race. But when Owen West had to carry his teammate’s backpack while she complained of blisters because she wasn’t wearing any socks, I’d had enough.
The Eco-Challenge has always been exciting enough without having to rely on such cheap tactics.
Clearly, the move to the USA network and Mark Burnett’s revelatory experience with the vile but lucrative “Survivor” series, have killed the Eco-Challenge. The pursuit of ratings has turned an uplifting show about competition between elite athletes and the triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity into a sad parody of itself.
I remember the early days of eco-challenge. Back when they did the challenge in British Columbia, they let teams continue on after they were disqualified. They even let teams reform out of the remaining members. They had no official standing, but they were still interesting to watch.
As for the quality of the teams, with the minimal prize money that is offered, perhaps they’re having trouble drawing experienced adventure racing teams to fill out the whole challenge. I myself enjoy seeing the over-optimistic inexperienced ones get spanked, but I still have to admit that if I finished alive after 48 hours of what they do, I’d consider it a triumph.
But you do make some good points. I enjoyed eco-challenge more when it was on Discovery Channel. I also liked bigger blocks of episodes, at least 2 hours, not these 1 hour slots they’re using.
But I did admire the Playmates ability to repair their boat after they (carelessly?) had a hole knocked in it, and sail on to their destination after nearly sinking.
Yeah, they’re not what they used to be, but it still beats “Survivor”.
Don’t knock the Bunny Team!!! At last, the Eco-Challenge has a little EYE CANDY to keep me interested! (And my hands busy.) That is, until they started picking bloody leeches off their legs…EEEEYYYEEEHHHEEWWWWW!!!
Yes, Discovery did it better, but I’d watch Eco-Challenge over Survivor any day.
I really love the Eco-Challenge. I was surprised at the added “drama” of it this year. Mark Burnett is clearly trying to play off the success of Survivor.
I still love it anyway. I think it’s the REAL “Survivor”-- none of this sissy “voting off” by the other people! NATURE votes you off! Screw up and you could die or suffer major injuries or sickness…not like Survivor, where if you screw up you don’t get the lobster dinner and the trip to the Great Barrier Reef.
[nature voice]
You insolent fools! Think you can walk through Borneo without any socks! A pox of leeches on you!
[/nature voice]
Well, lets see now, in the last 2 episodes, there was one emergency chest decompression for pneumo/hemothorax, and there was the guy who watched a leech crawl up his urethra. Sounds more than tough enough for me. And the bunny team lasted 4 days. Hell, 4 days of that and I’d be in the ICU.
Look on the bright side. Here on the Discovery Channel they are only profiling the Canadian teams. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am proud to be a Canadian, but I would like to see some of the other teams, not just these three.
At least the team that swam out to sea, got disqualified, and continued with three members finally dropped out last night. That woman was such a whiny bitch. The Playboy team was a joke, but at least they were having a good time. You’re right, Qadgop, they did pretty good considering the course, but look at the lead teams. Oops! Wait a minute…you can’t look at the lead teams, because they never show them!
Not exactly true. We finally got to see the lead teams in the last half of last night’s episode. Now those are some hard human beings. I wonder what happened? They couldn’t have run out of loser footage.
Speaking of the leech up the urethra, didn’t Cecil more or less debunk the candiru fish-up-the-urethra story? Doesn’t that throw a little doubt on this tale? Why would the little bastard wiggle up there, even if he could get up? All he needs is a patch of skin with an ample blood supply. There’s certainly no need for him to go spelunking.
Yeah, what’s up with the fucking lead teams? Discovery always focused on the leaders (with a few rookie teams thrown in for laughs) and you really got to know the competitors after a day or two. Now I don’t even recognize 'em. Too bad that old grizzled Kiwi didn’t race this year (well, if he did they sure didn’t show him.) The Bunny Team was a cute gimmick but I could have done without those bickering losers from Team O.A. – those guys were too Survivor-like for comfort.
As for the leech-up-the-willy guy, he may have lied about it but why would he? I was amazed that the medics didn’t think it was all that serious…“Just drink lots of water and pee 'im out, the leech will engorge itself eventually.” Yikes…talk about TMI.
Leeches up the urethra wouldn’t surprise me at all, I’ve extracted them from under foreskins and inside labial folds. And the Candiru post by unka Cecil made no reference to leeches or other invertebrates at all. From what I know of leeches (and yes, we did get some training in them back when I went to med school) they love moist, warm, dark places, they exude a topical anesthetic, so you don’t feel them, especially on mucous tissue like the glans penis, and they’d probably be right at home inside a penis. My considered medical advice would have been; pinch the penis snugly but not too tightly, so it can’t get into the bladder (hopefully the guy had a little benign prostatic hypertrophy to make the journey a little tougher), drink gallons of fluids, including coffee, to try to piss it out, and pray it works! I can’t imagine the closest place to get a cystoscopy done in Borneo.
Otherwise I enjoyed the show last night. I don’t mind the people who can’t hack it and decompensate, I imagine the worst of them could do better than I. And I consider my stamina to be pretty good. Showing the human cost is what makes it interesting, otherwise its just a bunch of iron men and women doing tricks a la the Schwartznegger films. For god’s sake, mountain biking in the mud for 50 miles in 90 degree weather with 100 percent humidity would destroy me in 30 minutes!
Ugh. Thanks for the insight, Qad. And right at lunchtime, too. Gross.
I always thought the point of Eco-Challenge was to watch a competition between very very very good athletes, a la the Olympics. The human story was always a big part of it (ah, Robyn Benincasa, how do I love ye…). But I think the human story of the best athletes is far more interesting than the pissing and moaning of some also-rans.
I’m as lazy a slob as the next guy, and impressive as the novice athletes are under the circumstances, I’m more interested in seeing what the really good athletes are doing. If I want to see weekend warriors get stomped, I’ll go watch a local 10k run.