I have a friend who went to a "survival shcool" in Idaho for a week. He didnt learn anything of value, in my mind. They taught him the bow and drill, which no one there was able to make fire with. They had him make a shelter with a tarp, sleeping bag, blankets and air matress, no lean to or debris shelter. Didnt teach him anything about finding water or treating it, or identifying edible plants, they did show him a horrible version of the figure four dead fall. Didnt teach him and "camp crafts" except how to make cordage, which he also wasnt good at. Didnt teach him signaling or rescue stuff. Didnt teach anything as far as Im concerned, is this typical or did he get ripped off?
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Friend ripped off at survival school
- Thread starter wade
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2005
- Messages
- 241
My Boy Scout Wilderness Survival merit badge trained me better than that, and that was only a few hours a day for a week. For any real amount of money, I'd expect primitive cooking, edible plants, hunting and tracking, shelter making(not the tarp kind), fire starting, and rope making at the very least. How much did he pay for it?
I dont remember the school but I will ask and let you guys know later. Also I didnt ask how much it cost him but it was a five day course and he had to pay for his flight as well. At night he said they would have group discussions about their lives and where they are on lifes path and a bunch of other therapy crap. He paid a bunch of money to go camping, pretty much.
An Air matress?!? Don't get me wrong, when I'm vehicle camping I use one, but then again, I have all the comforts of home.
Air Matresses in a Survival School would be like having your USMC DI place a mint wafer on your pillow at night, ain't hapnin.
It may have been the Target/Walmart school of Camping? Where you laod up on $200 worth of Coleman and EddieBauer gear.
If some of us lived closer we could run a hell of a survival school, everyone taking a chapter and really teaching some skills.
Like Kevin the Grey, he could teach "Arrow retrieval and Stinging Insect Control".
Seriously, don't we picture a wilderness survival school as a place where you are only allowed the bare essentials, and put into situations under supervision and taught how to cope with them.
Fire making, debris shelters, first aid, food prep , orienteering, ...there is so much it would take a 2 week course to get through everything in any kind of detail.
I vote RipOff.
Air Matresses in a Survival School would be like having your USMC DI place a mint wafer on your pillow at night, ain't hapnin.
It may have been the Target/Walmart school of Camping? Where you laod up on $200 worth of Coleman and EddieBauer gear.
If some of us lived closer we could run a hell of a survival school, everyone taking a chapter and really teaching some skills.
Like Kevin the Grey, he could teach "Arrow retrieval and Stinging Insect Control".
Seriously, don't we picture a wilderness survival school as a place where you are only allowed the bare essentials, and put into situations under supervision and taught how to cope with them.
Fire making, debris shelters, first aid, food prep , orienteering, ...there is so much it would take a 2 week course to get through everything in any kind of detail.
I vote RipOff.
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2006
- Messages
- 3,910
sounds like an expensive luxury camping trip.
You could find all that stuff out in about an hour at your local library. Try a couple of these books:
"At Home in the Wilderness" by Sun Bear
"Wilderness Survival" by Mark Elbroch and Michael
" 98.6 Degrees - The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive!" by Cody Lundin
" AF Regulation 64-4 United States Air Force Search and Rescue Survival Training" by U.S. Military, 2002 Metro Books, ISBN:1-58663-722-3
"Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills & Wilderness Survival" by Mors L. Kochanski
"SAS Survival Guide - Collins Gem Edition" by John Wiseman
Save yourself some money and find a good tree to relax and do some reading.
Let us know if you find some other cool resources regarding wilderness survival topic.
:thumbup:
"At Home in the Wilderness" by Sun Bear
"Wilderness Survival" by Mark Elbroch and Michael
" 98.6 Degrees - The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive!" by Cody Lundin
" AF Regulation 64-4 United States Air Force Search and Rescue Survival Training" by U.S. Military, 2002 Metro Books, ISBN:1-58663-722-3
"Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills & Wilderness Survival" by Mors L. Kochanski
"SAS Survival Guide - Collins Gem Edition" by John Wiseman
Save yourself some money and find a good tree to relax and do some reading.
Let us know if you find some other cool resources regarding wilderness survival topic.
:thumbup:
Department of the Army Field Manual 21-76 Survival
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2001
- Messages
- 20,978
Thanks for the list...I've started on two of those...will complete my under-the-tree training a.s.a.p.!
- Joined
- May 25, 2006
- Messages
- 587
if u do go to the bush PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY LEAVE YOUR ABSOLUTLY STUNNING KNIVES AT HOME.... or if u go out in kentucky and lose one in the woods call me and let me know
Didn't your friend ask for the program of thi session in advance? If he did and he was given something that is far and away from he was "taught" (if I can call this thing "teaching") then maybe he can request a refund. I don't think that someone should pay even a dime for what you said he was "taught".
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2006
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- 10,040
sounds like a rip-off to me....:thumbdn: :grumpy:
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2006
- Messages
- 78
i had a serious brain video of the movie the survivors staring robin williams and jerry reed when reading this thread.
great movie
ohh on topic you friend got OWNED!!!
great movie ohh on topic you friend got OWNED!!!
Well from my experience, you always feel kind of rip off with those courts, because you realize there are many things you could have learnt by yourself without a $150/day ex-green beret/indian shaman/ninja master.
For myself, I'd say instructor will help a lot for bow/hand drill.
For anything else, boy scout training was as efficient for free. Or sometimes books.
For myself, I'd say instructor will help a lot for bow/hand drill.
For anything else, boy scout training was as efficient for free. Or sometimes books.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2004
- Messages
- 1,526
I've been to a civilian survival school and it blew the doors off of the "school" that your friend went to. The instructors of the courses I took are retired, career Air Force pararescue, so they know, and live by, their curricula. The class website is: http://www.survivalperspective.com
Sadly, it sounds like your friend was given very little useful information and next-to-no survival skill acquisition. He should look into a refund, if at all possible. Also, let him know that true wilderness survival schools do exist but they evidentally take research to find. Instructors' credentialing and experience, as well as former student feedback, are critically important when evaluating a survival course.
FWIW, any survival school that teaches "survival" based on air-mattress and sleeping bag shelters is not wilderness-oriented. It's a shame that your friend had to find out the hard way. At least he's alive to continue his survival pursuit :thumbup:
Sadly, it sounds like your friend was given very little useful information and next-to-no survival skill acquisition. He should look into a refund, if at all possible. Also, let him know that true wilderness survival schools do exist but they evidentally take research to find. Instructors' credentialing and experience, as well as former student feedback, are critically important when evaluating a survival course.
FWIW, any survival school that teaches "survival" based on air-mattress and sleeping bag shelters is not wilderness-oriented. It's a shame that your friend had to find out the hard way. At least he's alive to continue his survival pursuit :thumbup:
mymindisamob
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2005
- Messages
- 15,214
My kids are taught better than described, in fact my kids can teach better than described. I could teach that and more in my back yard. Heeeeeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, you guys wanna help start a shadetree survival school?
Most in here have done enough reading and research to do some level of training, the books an coursework typically go like this:
Chapter 1: The Survival Mindset
Chapter 2: Shelter
Chapter 3: Fire
Chapter 4: Water
Chapter 5: Food
Chapter 6: First Aid
Chapter 7: Orienteering (getting out)
Beyond that, add some woodcraft /bushcraft/ improvised tool & weapon making and you have a good start on a Course.
I'll teach AirMatress101!
Really, there should probably be 3 levels, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. It would allow people to enter at different levels based on their skills, and also would allow a novice to move through the program, each time building on what they had learned in a prior class.
I would view the "Advanced" course, as "The real thing" , but Instructor led.
Bring your gear, (it would have been checked-out and OK'd during the Intermediate Course) head out into the bush, and perform the learned skills in a fluid manner, proving students competence and knowledge of what to do, and when to do it.
The Begiinner's Courses in any field are always tough to put together, because they must be taught from ground zero. This would mean assuming very little of the student's knowledge and abilities. Imagine taking the time needed to go over "proper safe knife & tool usage".
It would be necessary to do so before any student picked up a sharp object, for fear that blood would be flowing in under 10 minutes without proper coverage of safety issues.
This would be doable with the right staff/personnel and a good location.
Beginner's would need to be closer to "civilized" facilities, Intermediate level could set up a camp within a 15 min. walk from facilities, while Advanced would be hiking "in" leaving civilization behind.
Great idea Mymindisamob.
Chapter 1: The Survival Mindset
Chapter 2: Shelter
Chapter 3: Fire
Chapter 4: Water
Chapter 5: Food
Chapter 6: First Aid
Chapter 7: Orienteering (getting out)
Beyond that, add some woodcraft /bushcraft/ improvised tool & weapon making and you have a good start on a Course.
I'll teach AirMatress101!
Really, there should probably be 3 levels, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. It would allow people to enter at different levels based on their skills, and also would allow a novice to move through the program, each time building on what they had learned in a prior class.
I would view the "Advanced" course, as "The real thing" , but Instructor led.
Bring your gear, (it would have been checked-out and OK'd during the Intermediate Course) head out into the bush, and perform the learned skills in a fluid manner, proving students competence and knowledge of what to do, and when to do it.
The Begiinner's Courses in any field are always tough to put together, because they must be taught from ground zero. This would mean assuming very little of the student's knowledge and abilities. Imagine taking the time needed to go over "proper safe knife & tool usage".
It would be necessary to do so before any student picked up a sharp object, for fear that blood would be flowing in under 10 minutes without proper coverage of safety issues.
This would be doable with the right staff/personnel and a good location.
Beginner's would need to be closer to "civilized" facilities, Intermediate level could set up a camp within a 15 min. walk from facilities, while Advanced would be hiking "in" leaving civilization behind.
Great idea Mymindisamob.