I found it interesting that they say "From the creator of Survivor ..." now, vs. when they started Survivor and they said "From the creator of 'Eco-Challenge'" ..."

Let's not forget that he ALSO created The Apprentice, but we'll say no more about that here

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Let's also not ignore that iron cowboy is competing. No mention of ellipticals just yet

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I just saw Josiah Middaugh is on Team Out There, glad to see real tri talent on one of the competitive teams!

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I watched it and enjoyed it, but aside from a few good teams, it seemed that the rest were there for compelling TV. Don't get me wrong, it was a grueling event and everyone on the team had to be endurance athletes at a good level to be able to finish (although a lot did not finish). I was especially impressed by an 8k through the jungle where the only way to get through it was mostly in a body of water at 52° f. One guy that went through that at night ended up with severe hypthermia (no one had wet suits) but they were able to get him back to racing after a few hours.

I submitted an entry for an all-triathlete team for next year's Eco Challenge Patagonia. Hopefully we get in. The team is super-strong. All beast mountain runners and tough as nails.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

I was thinking the same thing... I used to love watching the early years of Eco Challenge, and it was cool to see many of the same faces this year, but up there for years. I'm less surprised at a more watered down field this year, because it's been a while since there has been something that was Eco Challenge level as being a super bowl of adventure racing, so it's kind of fallen off the radar a bit, and has been very niche. I bet that they have tons of applications for Patagonia next year (and with a decent field). My one kind of regret was saying no when I was invited to try an adventure race back in the day (before they canned the Eco-Challenge), I was super interested until they told me who was one of the people on the team, who I would have had to canoe with, which was a hard stop for me...

That said after watching it, the idea of doing some sort of adventure race might be creeping back onto the bucket list...

My one complaint about the coverage was that they barely covered a few of the contender teams, but gave lots of coverage to some of the pack fodder (I get it that some of them were OG adventure racers, but now in their 60s... or that they had great feel good stories), but they could have easily added an episode or two, and spent more time on the teams that ended up in the top 8, because only a few of them factored into the coverage much...They had the footage, they just didn't edit it in...

I felt bad for some of the teams too, doing that crazy waterfall climb, and then Bear Grylls hitting them with a downdraft from his chopper as he dramatically explained what was going on. Why was he not in a command centre at the check points, and they weren't using a drone (certainly that would have been cheaper than a chopper)...

I also wish they had called it Eco Challenge, rather than the World's Toughest Race... I saw the listing on Prime and saw that it looked a lot like Eco Challenge and started watching before realizing that it was actually Eco Challenge, just with a lame dramatic name...

Kind of thought this was the thread, but had no idea since the title wasn't the same as the show.

Having done a lot of this stuff in the Army...I have no idea how this scratches an itch for y'all.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I watched every episode over the course of the weekend and I can tell you that for as much as I think I'm a pretty tough dude, there was a heck of a lot of grit in some of those "average dude" teams, and I would hope that if I were ever presented with those challenges, that I'd be half as rough-and-ready as they were.

I was also surprised it didn’t pop up here.

I loved the old eco challenge. Loved it.

I thought this was good fun TV. It is TV but I thought it was nice they didn’t focus on in-group squabbling and make it like his other shows.

I am inspired to try a local adventure race. With no cold water. Lol.

I thought swimming through the cold water section looked horrendously hard and miserable. I was happy to not be there doing that. Also I never ever want trench foot. That looks awful.

I interviewed Sonja Wieck and Jeff Leininger separately for my podcast. I think there’s a lot of people applying for Patagonia.

Not me though. Brrrrr.

Team Stray Dog and Team Endure ...with Mark Macey stole my heart.

I submitted an entry for an all-triathlete team for next year's Eco Challenge Patagonia.//

When I worked for the Eco Challenge in Morocco, a team of age group triathletes won the race then. And that was back when it was more a competition. I remember thinking that I could easily have put a team of pro triathletes together to win this thing pretty easy. Not that folks were not rough and tough, just there wasn't really a premium on selecting folks for speed over water and land, more the adventurer/cross fit kind of person. If you pick folks that can incorporate the adventure aspect and also have the Ironman training background, you will do very well.


On the very first event(after the camel ride debacle) they had a run/swim/run/swim/run that was really short swims. The best teams did a couple hours+, a couple teams did not finish the course before dark and had to finish the next day. I did the entire course in training one day in 45 minutes. So as long as guys like me(and you) dont get lost, we crush the teams that come over..

Damn Monty, is there anything you haven’t done in the endurance world? 😜

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Let food be thy medicine...

I was mistified at how badly the teams handled swimming the river in Fiji. Even the triathletes dog paddled. On girl, Sonja Wiek (sp?) who used to be a genuinely fast AGer on the iron cowboy team kinda-sorta figured out a way to tie the packs so they could swim, but then they really just continued dog paddling. She took at least a few swim strokes and did a little back stroke, but she tied the pack too short to her. My mind was blown. 4 miles of dog paddle in 52 degree water.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Ya, swimming is the least proficient skill among the adventure racers. One of my jobs in Morocco was to try and drown proof the folks for the kayak leg. They had to swim out about 100 yards through 1ft surf, round a buoy, and then head back. I would say that 1/3 of the competitors had to be coached and did it several times before they could make the super lax time standard. The middle 3rd were proficient dog paddlers, and the top 1/3 could actually swim a tortured freestyle, except for the team of really good age group triathletes of course.

But the worst part was getting them all able to right a kayak, pump it out, and then climb back in, all in deep water. That was two days of super basic kayak 101. You would think if you are coming to a race with 52 miles of kayaking, with 6 portages in and out through surf, you would at the very least come with that skill. The lifeguard team of 11 guys that came over for this one event, reduced virtually everyone in the race, some 5 or 6 times. It got so bad with a lot of the teams, that me and one of the Aussie helicopter pilots would paddle the boat out for them through the surf, a zodiac would then bring the team out to switch places with us and paddle to the next stop. It was great fun for me and the others, but it got really hairy on the last day and over 20 teams had to quit(but they let them continue with a big time penalty) and we rescued 90% of the teams that tried to finish in the 10ft surf/35mph wind, and 51 degree water.

All those outside help rules got thrown out the window, along with 20+ of the kayaks that were never recovered. Otherwise they would have had no race to film, and eventually make a very dynamic and interesting show out of..

For the upcoming eco challenge Patagonia, 8 weeks before the race every competitor needs to have professionals sign certificates of proficiency for them in kayaking, rappelling, rope ascending (jumaring), and horse back riding. Also each team needs two people certified in first aid/CPR and one certified first responder.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Never seen it. I assumed it was some non-competitive gimmicky thing. Kinda like where Ultras are at or going.

Mark Burnett can eat a bag of dicks.

Seems like they did this whole thing so Grylls could look cool standing on the outside of a Helicopter

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

haha - I said the same thing to my wife about Bear....

like I get his shtick - but it got super annoying after a while. Why does he need to be walking around with a fully loaded backpack (complete with a machete) and a climbing harness at all times? although my wife has a huge crush on Bear so I dont think she minded.....

like others said - I could have also used a bit more focus on some of the competitive teams. I think the New Zealand Team was almost the only top 5 team that had any screen time (other than a couple seconds at the checkpoints)

Also the captain for New Zealand was a machine. His freaking boat was sinking and he sounded super calm and relaxed. His interviews at some of the really hard stages were hilarious - everyone else looked just destroyed and he looked totally fine and was like "i'm starting to get a little bit tired....."

I haven't seen it, but the competitive teams seem like they were there cuz well... they had to be to make it look like a real race.
Everything else was contrived and scripted for reality TV. I can't stand Bear Grylls.

Nathan Fa’avae is pretty much The Godfather of adventure racing. He is a stud. He was a runner, triathlete, and mountain biker before he took up adventure racing. And all this done with atrial fibrillation and three surgeries to deal with that.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

This is my first time watching an eco challenge, but did it seem to anyone else that the rules were very flimsy? Oh I’ll just hire this guy with a couple horses. Oh I’ll ride this burro through the jungle instead of hike it. Build a raft? Screw it, hey local kids, wanna build a raft for me? Yay!

I enjoyed the series, just didn’t understand the rules. Perhaps just good for tv?

I thought NZ should have been out of the race when they called for a rescue. Likewise, if riding a horse is allowed, it would seem logical to just hire horses for everyone.

I was thinling the same thing, but it sounded like the boat that the producers supplied fell apart on them. I'd imagine since it wasn't a boat they made and it didn't fail through fault of their own, then they could get a rescue.

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Strava