‘Raw-dogging’ a flight? I can’t think of anything worse

Faced with a 15-hour flight, as I was last week, I decided to treat it as an opportunity to catch up on a few recent movies.

Why would you not indulge in watching as much as you can on a long flight?Credit: iStock

Stupidly selecting a seat right near the noisy galley and a crew of flight attendants who chatted all night, my only compensation for lack of sleep was the movie marathon.

I’d missed most of the Oscar contenders this year, so it was a treat to lie back and immerse myself in the best of filmmaking, even if the screen and sound weren’t optimum.

The silver lining for me on every flight, particularly on those airlines with a good selection of movies, including art-house and international productions, is the entertainment.

If there’s anything to look forward to on a long flight (apart from the destination at the end of it) it’s the chance to hunker down and tune in to films I’ve missed during the year.

It’s not really the way directors want us to see their work, but if I like a movie, I rewatch it afterwards on a larger screen.

Often, I’ve loved a film on the plane, only to really dislike it when on the ground – there’s evidence flying heightens your emotions, skewing normal judgment.

I judge the length of flights by how many movies (and some TV series) I can squeeze in. The trip to Johannesburg from Sydney looked like it might be a five or six-movie flight.

I’d also brought along a thick book to read, Marble Hall Murders – A Novel by Anthony Horowitz, who wrote Foyle’s War for TV. (If you’re looking for a brilliant writer, he’s highly recommended, and there are eight of his crime novels to enjoy.)

In the end, I watched five movies, catching sleep in between when I could. Sometimes, I find it’s worth finding a long, boring film to help me nod off, so it’s no real loss if I miss chunks of it. Rom-coms are good, too.

I’ve been astonished at the number of times I’ve been seated next to couples or singles who never once get up during a journey.

My greatest fear is that the audiovisual system will break down (it has happened) and that I’ll finish my book early, with hours of staring blankly at a black screen ahead of me.

Funnily enough, there are really weird people who like to do this.

They call themselves “raw-doggers” or “barebackers” and they abstain from all in-flight entertainment, books or podcasts, choosing instead to stare blankly at a black seatback screen or a flight map, refusing all food and even water for the duration of the flight.

Some even refuse toilet breaks.

Why? Beats me.

It’s supposed to be an Alpha male thing, a challenge that’s about mental resilience and self-discipline. In places on social media where I don’t go, it’s a competitive sport, an assertion of qualities that are supposedly masculine, such as endurance and toughness.

I say “ha” to that! I challenge any man to sit through a long-haul flight with menstrual cramps or a wriggling toddler on their lap.

There’s another group of raw-doggers who see it more as a Zen thing. For them, it’s a digital detox, a way to practise mindfulness.

Frankly, I couldn’t imagine a worse place to meditate than on a plane, what with the crying babies, coughing passengers, turbulence, announcements and the flight attendants flashing you with bright torches in the dark.

But maybe that’s the point of it. If you can empty your mind in these adverse circumstances, you may, in fact, obtain a kind of nirvana.

Sensible people would heed the advice of doctors who say raw-dogging is downright dangerous on a long-haul flight, leading to dehydration or possibly deep vein thrombosis.

While I haven’t found myself sitting next to anyone who stares at the flight path for a whole flight, I’ve been astonished at the number of times I’ve been seated next to couples or singles who never once get up during a journey.

Maybe I’m the freak. Doing leg exercises in my seat, getting up regularly to walk the aisle, drinking lots of water, pulling on compression socks. Headphones, earbuds, neck pillow, books, downloaded podcasts and relaxation music, wrap to keep me warm.

It’s a lot. But I suppose it gives me the sense I can control some elements of the flight.

I imagine that’s what some raw-doggers are doing, too. Taking back some control. Each to their own.

I now, belatedly, can join in conversations about A Complete Unknown or The Room Next Door. But no one ever, to my knowledge at least, has had a water cooler conversation about a flight map.