In Defense of Todd Standing

Well somebody has to do it (defend Todd Standing, that is). His mother wont return our phone calls and and his sister has denied all knowledge. The first part is a joke and the latter is true. For the record, Louis Standing was very kind and polite both times we contacted her.

No, no! Its not us, we are not in the defend Todd Standing Camp. In fact, he is one of only two individuals we continually mock here; Tom Biscardi and Todd Standing. These two controversial characters are considered hoaxers by some, and there is not much tolerance for hoaxers in this community of Sasquatch searchers. Nor should there be.

With that said, we also know how smart our fans are and they can form their own opinions. The gist of his letter is Adrian Erickson bought all of Todd Standing's films and material and that is why his site and youtube channel disappeared. We have mentioned our concern with with the Erickson project purchasing Standings materials before.

Below Richard Stubstad references our post titled Todd Standing Jumps the Shark, and takes the time to defend Todd. Let us know what you think. Without further ado...

My name is Richard Stubstad, and my rather intense but admittedly limited involvement in the bigfoot or sasquatch world is briefly summed up at the following link:

http://www.footprintsinyourmind.com/Richard_Stubstad. Basically, what I did both before and after all the hoopla about Todd's purported "Jumping the Shark" is research at least what could be fairly conclusively researched, and either confirmed or denied.

Firstly, Todd didn't really Jump the Shark; his footage etc. was bought out and he was therefore forced to shut down his Sylvanic.com website as it originally existed. Actually, this would support the theory that many of you seem to have that he is making "tons of money" from his work (hoaxed or otherwise). I don't really know how much money he has made, in total, to-date. I do know however that his work is continuing, but now with better equipment in his possession. I also believe (but do not know for sure) that the amount of money he's made to-date is FAR less than what he has spent over the last several years on either taking real videos of sasqaui (the plural of sasquatch) or hoaxing these videos & pictures.

Eventually I purchased for a whopping $5 each all three of Todd’s videos and had a look-see myself, as did several of my "bigfooter" friends. After some time expired (a month or two after the release of Video 4), I finally called Todd up there in Edmonton and had about a one-hour conversation with him; not so much to find out whether his stuff was hoaxed or not (he’d of course say it wasn’t hoaxed, regardless) but just in case it wasn’t hoaxed, then what about some of the details that you folks have brought up, and other details no one mentioned yet? While his explanations to my questions seemed a little outlandish, well, so is the idea itself of a hominid called sasquatch, so what did I know? I for one have never seen one, or even seen anything I could mistake as a sasquatch. Ergo, does sasquatch exist? Does a wolverine exist? Maybe the former, definitely the latter, even though I’ve never seen either.

Todd and also his wife also explained to me that it wasn't even Todd's camera that he used on "Expedition 4"; it was his stepson's camera and he didn't bother to check the date on it, let alone reset the date before he departed on this purported one-man, half-cocked as he probably was.

Next, I can report what I got out of the conversation, over and above any conclusions about whether or not his stuff is the real deal: Todd is a very spiritual guy, with a whole lot of “faith” in what he calls the First Nation peoples—the American Indian tribes. He has obviously relied on the history and knowledge that these Native Americans possess, even though most of their history is not recorded in writing but rather has been passed down through oral traditions. He also relies heavily on the First Nation folks' knowledge of the wilderness, both regarded bigfoot and otherwise. Conclusion: Todd is definitely a kind-of “romantic” and is quite an eccentric, at least on European-American terms and maybe even on anyone’s terms. Having said that, I still don’t have much of a clue whether his stuff is the real deal or not—after all, once again, I wasn’t there!

I also asked Todd whether he gathered any supporting evidence during his Video 4 expedition, for example something we could extract DNA from, such as hair roots or swatches of blood. “Well, no,” Todd explained. He “didn't really believe that DNA sequencing could be carried out that would prove or disprove the existence of such a creature, so I didn't bother to look for any evidence apart from the video footage and pictures from his stepson’s camera.” He also didn't bother to cast any tracks, and in fact I doubt if he had any plaster of Paris with him—too much stuff to carry along on a one-man wilderness trek, to be sure.

I beg to differ with him on the DNA part of what he said, and I told him so. He said that he could try, this year (2011), to get some hair (with roots) at least. We'll have to wait and see, then, if he does so. He said he would, but I don’t really know if he was serious (let alone honest).

Last but not least, when the folks on the various bigfoot forums who claim to “know” that Todd Standing actually hoaxed some or all of his materials, I did check out the assertion that his purported Search and Rescue of October 2010 was also hoaxed. I did this with the help of a forensic-type friend of mine who is also peripherally into the bigfoot-associated business, and he (or she) quite easily found the following local newspaper clipping:

RCMP Report

Columbia Valley Pioneer October 22, 2010 Edition (Weekly regional newspaper)

Submitted by Staff

Sgt. Marko Shehovac

Columbia Valley RCMP

• On October 19th, Columbia Valley RCMP were contacted regarding a man who was dropped off in the back country and had not returned. The 37-year-old from Edmonton was dropped off in the Mitchell River area, off Settlers Road, approximately 47-kilometres from Invermere, on Tuesday, October 12th. He had arranged to be picked up from there on Sunday. When he failed to return he was reported missing to the police on Sunday night. Invermere Search and Rescue were contacted and while searching for the man, discovered his sleeping bag. No other equipment was located. Police were aided by a police service dog out of Cranbrook. On Tuesday, October 20th, additional Search and Rescue from Kimberley and the RCMP helicopter arrived to continue the search. At approximately 10 a.m., Search and Rescue came upon the man, who was unhurt. He explained that he had been unable to get back on time for his pick up. The Detachment would like to thank both Invermere and Kimberley Search and Rescue for their assistance in resolving this matter.

While the above newspaper clipping doesn't really prove anything about whether Todd Standing hoaxed his Video 4 or not, it does mean that at least part of what he maintains towards the beginning of the video happened, and DID in fact happen, pretty much as he explained in his now off-line Video 4. It also shows that the RCMP et. al. apparently withheld his name—unless there was, all of a sudden, someone else of the same age and hometown as Todd's, and on the same exact date who was also "rescued" in the same general area? Or: unless I'm actually hoaxing the above newspaper clipping? If you'd like a web link to this very clipping, please contact me by email (Stubstad@VenturaMail.net) and I'll send you the link, just in case you really are such a die-hard skeptic that you believe I'm in on the so-called "obvious" Todd Standing hoax(es) as well?

Best of luck to all of you, whether you are a bigfoot believer or not. It is certainly true that much of the existing evidence HAS been hoaxed. I personally doubt that ALL of it has. The best quality film or video evidence—the P-G Film and the Todd Standing footage—well, I don't really know for sure and I probably never will, since no DNA exists that can be associated with either.

Richard Stubstad

Ojai, California