Design your own Wilderness Survival School

Instructing anything boils down to the instructors skill in teaching. YOu can be an expert in anything but if you cant teach its lost on the students.

Research adult education techniques and practice. The first few times you instruct should NOT be with paying students. Survival is an experiential learning forum and the less the instructor talks the better.

Make sure you have liability and insurance coverage applicable to your area. Many times this cost makes it a non viable business if thats your goal.

Make sure you have some kind of accreditation or affiliation with an official group related the subject as when its time to defend yourself in court you can cover your ass.

There is a lot more to teaching survival than just cashing checks and trudging off into the woods. Safety is the #1 factor and you must have failsafes in place in case things go wrong. Are you first aid qualified? Do you carry backup gear for emegencies. Do you have an evac plan and have notfied athorities of your location and purpose?

You have to settle on the course content and its goals. YOu must make sure your students understand what they are paying for ie; bushcraft vs modern survival etc... ARE you truely able to teach the subject inside and out as many students come in knowing much aboutt he subject, maybe even more than you!
DO they have the gear for worst case scenario?
Any medical conditions that may cause you problems. Do you have the medical training and gear to deal with those problems?

Consider your location for safety and resources and good access if help is needed. Are you allowed to use the land? Do you have an environmental plan to minimize your impact on the area?

Are you a registered business with insurance? If not you could be personally liable for injuries.

So you see its not a simple matter of content to run a course but a full on business that needs researching and planning.

Content is the least of your concerns.

Got that T-shirt ;)

Skam
 
Skammer, if you're referring to the project I'm thinking about, I want to thank you for your input, your points are well taken. I've already thought about most of them and you've raised a few new ones. For instance, while I have all that woodland at my back door, the site is just 1-1/4 miles from the nearest fire station that has EMT/ambulance service. Safety is certainly my prime consideration.

I'm not planning to teach a "survival" course. I'm planning to teach basic camping skills for the inexperienced with an emphasis on how they might be used in a survival situation. I have no intention of putting anybody in a risky situation. That's for more advanced survival courses taught by somebody else. My idea is low impact, low stress.

I'm giving this idea some time to see if it has legs. I have a lot of people to talk to, a lot of research and prep work to do. It would be nice to think I could start this summer, but next year is a more realistic time table...if I decide to do it at all, after all my questions are answered.
 
Coldwood...that's it, teach skills in the form of "mini-clinics"

Make it a series.
Weekend 1 = Fire Clinic , Weekend 2=Shelter Clinic , Weekend 3=Water and Food prep, etc, etc, etc.

Then based on popularity/requests, repeat the more popular ones.

"How to use basic equipment"
-Knife safety and usage
-Propane equipment
-alchohol stoves
-Compasses
-other stuff.

Start small. Try the local Cub Scouts. Offer to give them a 4 hour "learnin" on a topic that will help them toward a badge or achievement award.

"Outdoor awareness" for a local school group.

Just thinking out loud and throwing out some stuff.
 
Skunk, that's exactly what I was thinking about, each weekend a different topic (or two topics per weekend) but I was initially thinking of marketing it as a six weekend block. But that's probably too big an investment in time and money for most people. I like your idea of mini-clinics a whole lot better. It's more manageable. I have a couple of friends who are very active in scouts, I'll run this by them.

I can also offer this through the local community college. They put out a catalog of summer adult ed programs every year, mini-clinics by anybody who has something unique to teach. I taught a couple years ago on woodworking for adults, using tools and machinery at the nearby air base hobby shop.

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it. ;)
 
SkunkWerX said:
Coldwood, I'm with you, I'm 46 yrs old, gettin slower each day.
I was trying to make the point that maybe someone somewhere, wants to go to that extreme, but Bow and Drill firemaking would be at that very, very far end of the spectrum to me, same as being dropped nekkid with pen knife. :rolleyes:

My hat goes off to Coote and anyone who can make fire with a bow and drill.
I've read that they etimate there are only about 500 people in the US that can do so on any regular basis. I am NOT one of them.
Click to expand...

I didn't read this thread when it was first posted. I just read it tonight and I was going to save it until you get that first coal (anytime now) and then RUB YOUR NOSE IN IT! :D And BTW, Skunk, I wish I was 46 again!


One other thing to consider - when you get this coal, you will have achieved it by learning off written words on the internet, not with personal, in your face, instruction. If you were here in person, you would already be toasting marshmallows, but this way is markedly more difficult. You will get it. Of this, I have no doubt. The only thing that will defeat you is if you quit trying. This is not a pep talk, only fact. In fact, I think you've already done it, except the tiny, newlyborn coal was not nourished properly.

And Coldwood, if you do decide on Cambridge, let me know and I'll bring the fire making equipment on the Sunday.

Doc
 
Skunk better hurry up and do it cuz I'm just a few steps behind him :) I went out to my wood pile yesterday and batonned out a 1/2" slab of maple for a hearth, and a hand piece; also cut out a green limb for a bow. I'm having a hard time finding a straight stick for a spindle. My intention is to make all parts out of raw material except for the paracord. Worse comes to worst, I'll use a hardwood dowel out of my shop. I guess it's not unreasonable to consider carrying an 8" hardwood dowel in your backpack going into the wilderness.
 
Coldwood said:
Skammer, if you're referring to the project I'm thinking about, I want to thank you for your input, your points are well taken. I've already thought about most of them and you've raised a few new ones. For instance, while I have all that woodland at my back door, the site is just 1-1/4 miles from the nearest fire station that has EMT/ambulance service. Safety is certainly my prime consideration.
Click to expand...

I hope it works out for you sincerely as its a worth while hobby.

Just remember, no matter how low impact or stress broken bones and serious injuries can happen in any environment. I had a women with a compound fracture of the forearm who fell stepping over a small log. You never know.

1.25 miles from a road could be a 8 hr evac out by a SAR team as most EMT's will not enter the woods for liability and safety reasons.

These are the types of issues that need research.;)

Good luck!:thumbup: :D

Skam
 
Coldwood said:
Skunk better hurry up and do it cuz I'm just a few steps behind him :) I went out to my wood pile yesterday and batonned out a 1/2" slab of maple for a hearth, and a hand piece; also cut out a green limb for a bow. I'm having a hard time finding a straight stick for a spindle. My intention is to make all parts out of raw material except for the paracord. Worse comes to worst, I'll use a hardwood dowel out of my shop. I guess it's not unreasonable to consider carrying an 8" hardwood dowel in your backpack going into the wilderness.
Click to expand...
I would avoid hardwood. You want wood, as a rule of thumb, that you can dent with a finger nail. I like cottonwood. Soft maple (silver maple) works some.

See http://cavemanchemistry.com/oldcave/projects/fire/fire3.html
 
skammer said:
I hope it works out for you sincerely as its a worth while hobby.

Just remember, no matter how low impact or stress broken bones and serious injuries can happen in any environment. I had a women with a compound fracture of the forearm who fell stepping over a small log. You never know.

1.25 miles from a road could be a 8 hr evac out by a SAR team as most EMT's will not enter the woods for liability and safety reasons.

These are the types of issues that need research.;)

Good luck!:thumbup: :D

Skam
Click to expand...

Skam is right although maybe a little exagerated. We did a 1.5 mile roughland evac with 3 seperate rope systems in just over 2 hours. The wheel (and 2 of MS!!) makes all the difference.

Most GOOD SAR teams HAVE EMT's. If not, they can be more of a liability than an aid in a roughland evac situation..

Around here ALL the ambulance services have RAT (Reach and Treat) teams.
That really helps out. Check to see if your area has that available

Have THAT tee shirt.. Gave it to Goodwill..
 
Thomas Linton, thanks for the tip and the link. Right now I'm experimenting with woods that are immediately available around me...that's what I would be faced with if I had to do this for real, in the wilderness. I'm looking at this project as a challenge I would be faced with if I had nothing more than a knife, paracord, and the raw materials in the woods around me.
If the maple hearth board doesn't work out, I have a piece of white birch to try. Today I found a downed wild cherry tree that had good straight limb sections for making drills.

This afternoon I got all the parts together and gave it a few whirls and burned in the cup, got some smoke. Then I cut in the notch. Tomorrow I'm going for fire ;)

(Man, this thread is really going in two different directions, isn't it? :eek: :) Tomorrow I'll start a new thread on my bow 'n' drill experiment)

Thanks Mike and Skammer for your input on EMTs and rescue work...something I will certainly check out before I start bringing people onto my property.
 
Coldwood said:
Right now I'm experimenting with woods that are immediately available around me...that's what I would be faced with if I had to do this for real, in the wilderness. I'm looking at this project as a challenge I would be faced with if I had nothing more than a knife, paracord, and the raw materials in the woods around me.
Click to expand...

I'm experimenting with woods that are immediately available around me...that's what I would be faced with if I had to do this for real

Coldwood, that's exactly why I am trying the way I am. We are thinking alike. Develop a skill, [x] yes. An experiment? definately.
Now, I don't really ponder being nekkid in the woods, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell anyone :D
But, I can easily justify having a knife, I have one all the time, even if it's a pocket knife. Big difference over having nothing. The cordage?
Well, I always wear shoes, especially in the woods, so, there is the cordage, in the laces. The wood HAS to be indigenous to where you are.
Besides that, no other luxuries.

I can understand the romance of fabricating really nice hearth boards and spindles, and having them in a backpack, but, for me, it's not about that...if I have my pack, I have Fire x10. Well maybe x6. But I have lots of fire.

No, it's more of an experiment on survival, being able to pick natural woods, indigenous to my location, Use my knife and my "bootlace" and start a fire.
If I can...then YAY for me. IF you can, YAY for you!
But, it's also like any other survival assumption, we can't assume to have the best, driest, most suggested wood within reach. We have to do with what is available.
I kept myself to about a 3 acre area of woods in my quest for materials.
It's not only an experiment, it's a "controlled" experiment, for me, at least.

When we get this, (We'll get this, for sure), then, and only then will I buy some cedar, or whatever wood, and go into the woodshop, with the bandsaw and planer, and drill press, and tablesaw, and fabricate some fine peices of hearth wood for us.
Until then, it's us, our knives, our bootlaces, and the wood mother nature has been so kind to drop at our feet. :thumbup:

I took tonight off, so you can catch up! ;)
Once you saw smoke you knew you had it, right?? :thumbup:


Doc, funny stuff! :p For me it's about having the time. Right now, holidays are over. We've had some rain days. I've been low on chores, so timing was the key.
A month from now I may so busy I can't see straight. So, it's just an ooportunity at the moment. Making kydex sheaths was on the list, but, I was lucky enough to learn that pretty fast, so I made some time for friction fire.

I am always working on a project and/or teaching myself something, it just depends what is on the list and where.

You are correct Doc, I"m real close, maybe already had an ember, Coldwood is right behind me, we WILL get this. For sure.
I'm not a quitter, so it will happen. Now if it takes me 4 weeks to conjour my first real campfire flame, then, my experiment tells us something right there. But, if after getting flame, if it becomes easier and easier to get it, then that also tells us something. You can see where I am going with this.
There will be a real hypothesis and theory once we are done, regarding "fire by friction in a survival situation".

Coldwoods input will probably be parallel to mine, so we should be able to draw some reasonable conclusions.
 
Rescue Mike said:
Skam is right although maybe a little exagerated. We did a 1.5 mile roughland evac with 3 seperate rope systems in just over 2 hours. The wheel (and 2 of MS!!) makes all the difference.

Most GOOD SAR teams HAVE EMT's. If not, they can be more of a liability than an aid in a roughland evac situation..

Around here ALL the ambulance services have RAT (Reach and Treat) teams.
That really helps out. Check to see if your area has that available

Have THAT tee shirt.. Gave it to Goodwill..
Click to expand...


No exageration, Been on many simple looking evacs that take hrs to go a couple hundred yards. If you are carrying litters it takes a loong time from injury to road.

The point of this is however, never assume because you are relatively close to help that help is close.

SKam
 
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