I just got back from a 90-minute class with Gene Ward from Survival and Outdoor Safety SOS . He had a free class at Sportsman?s Warehouse in Goodyear, AZ.

Gene is a former Air Force Survival Instructor. I believe he taught in Panama and Hawaii. Gene is into complicated shelters with clear plastic sheeting, zip-ties, and duct tape. He had one sitting out front of Sportsman?s Warehouse. It was collapsed from a light wind. In fairness he was not able to tie it down on the concrete.

I got there a good 30 minutes late. He was talking about getting water from transpiration. Putting a clear plastic bag over a tree branch. I think he must have talked about shelters before I arrived. There were few questions from the audience. I asked him about using two mirrors for a target located away from the sun. He showed us how to use only one mirror. I dropped the second mirror from my PSK. He has neon orange gaffers tape. I don?t see where it is any stickier that duct tape. But it is highly visible. I wrote on it with my space pen and ran water on it and rubbed it. The text stayed nice and clear. I am replacing my notepad of Rite-in-the-rain paper, small roll of orange tape, and REI small roll of duct tape.

Gene makes a hand made, tin foil wrapped, hot liquid Vaseline cotton ball he sells. He said it is like a candle. How big the flame is depends on how much cotton you pull out. He said it could last up to an hour. He said he has about a half-ounce of Vaseline in there. He also sells a ferro rod with a pitch wood handle with a piece of hacksaw blade attached. The cotton ball is so saturated that his ferro rod won?t light it. He shaves some fat wood on the cotton ball to light it. In the store with no wind the flame from the fat wood barely got the cotton ball going. I showed him my Boy Scout Hot Spark and Altoids strips tin holding two Coghlan?s Emergency Tinder. The size difference was significant. His stuff has to be carried in a pack. Mine takes up little space in my pocket.

He had two knifes, an old model LeatherMan Wave and a red SAK with a saw. He said the saw was the most useful blade in a survival situation. He did not use the back of the saw on his ferro rod.

He sold several of his survival kits and kit items. I bought the gaffers tape and 4 of his large clear trash bags. I wanted to try them out and they are not available in stores.

While I was in Sportsman?s Warehouse they had the Doug Ritter?s PSK. They also had the mirror, Sparklite, and Fox 40 Howler as separate items for sale. I bought the Fox 40 Howler. There are 2 in the package for $6.50. What a deal! That is cheaper than buying 2 mini Fox 40s at Sports Authority. Replaced my cut down mini Fox 40 with the Howler in my pocket.

I?m glad I went!
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I went to Gene Ward's paid 2 day seminar. It was an OK course. He claims to be a US Air Force Global Survival Instructor. Never heard of that. I do agree that his shelters are overly complicated and required a lot of cable ties. He does show how the bow drill works and can get most people in the class making fire. I was not impressed with his navigation skills or teaching ability in this area. In the class that I went to, he was asked some questions pertaining to the Southern Hemisphere and didn't seem to know the answer. I thought that it was strange for a "Global Survival Instructor" Also, his compass teaching seemed to generate more confusion than it helped. I'm alway skeptical when an expert is weak in an important area.

I learned to use a bow drill in the class so it was worth it for me in that regard.

S.

I have this recurring nightmare. I'm on a dayhike and somebody asks me ( expert) to demonstrate some deadfall or I.D. a LGB (little grey bird.) My strategy is to plead the need for a toilet break, run behind a big bush and shake it vigorously while quickly thumbing through my SAS GEM or Peterson field guide. We are all products of other's efforts. Gene Ward comes from the USAF, and remember an elephant is a mouse built to MILSPEC, ergo the complicated shelter. I recently co invented the Origami folded rock tarp deployment. NO, you won't see this as an addendum to the excellent tarp resource onsite. We were cold, stayed out later than we should have and the crowded canyon trailway anything but conductive to a geometric, textbook perfect tarp. Even I know enough not to tie paracord to Poison Sumac <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> We sort of wrapped it around us it like a Taco Bell Burrito made by a first day employee. I think 2 day courses are rediculous beyond very, very basic instruction. Instructors are under a great deal of peer pressure, competition and simple hubris to make everybody a 'snake eater' for $99.99 If you learn something new consider it time well spent. There are lots of instructors in AZ. My favourite Is Reevis Mountain School. It is a magical place and you have fun too.

My family and I have been to several compass classes held by the Phoenix Park system. They also seem to make it complicated instead of making it simple and usable. I had my first compass class in the Army in 1973. They had us pace and learn how to take a bearing. We were then sent out in teams. We were given a paper with points, distances, and compass directions to the next point. It was big fun. Since then I have always had a Silva/Brunton base plate compass. I have taught my 4 boys how to use a compass. They would not let them have the compass until they could demonstrate how to use it. They had to tell the difference between true north and magnetic north. They had to set their compass to magnetic north and point to true north. They had to orient a map with the compass taking declination into account. Then they had to pretend they were at one point on a map and had to get to another point. They had to plot the compass direction on the map and then adjust their compass and point to the direction they would have to go taking declination into account. Once they did that I let them have the compass. They are all in Scouts.
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What? Their web site looks like happy hippie land??? Is it a survival school? <img src="/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Reevis Mountain School

OK. This looks better.

Survival Skills (at RMS)

When: May 5-9
Price: $168.00
This is a comprehensive desert skills event. Experience life on a working homestead in the mountains of the Superstition Wilderness while acquiring wilderness skills and nature awareness in a desert environment. Skills covered: wilderness healing of venomous bites and stings; rope and string made of natural fibers; bow & drill primitive fire making; knife sharpening; all natural emergency first aid; and so much more. Meet new friends, eat home grown food, enjoy evening campfires ? a unique, life enriching experience. Discuss preparedness for the years ahead. Four days.

I wonder if Gene Ward has anything to do with this:

http://www.globalprinciples.com/

BTW, does every single, solitary business in America HAVE to have a Mission Statement? How on earth did they get along without them for all those previous years? And why all the BS now? (grumble, grumble, mutter, mutter...)

Sue

because in the past they just DID things instead of stacking mountains of papers and forms on things they would like to do.

Reevis is very much a 'new Age' community. Peter and his staff are also very ethical, caring and knowledgeable. I first became aware of Reevis years ago when a friend attended. This chunkhead complained bitterly about no caffeine, guns and evening campfire chats about reincarnation. I could never teach this guy bowdrill firemaking. Peter succeeded in a few days. I figure an industry full of cammie clad snake eaters, born again furtrappers and 1/64th chippewa medicine men offering sweat lodge vision quest- native skills weekend seminars for $300 ( for another $50 you receive your animal guide and spirit name) can make room for Reevis. The location, staff and knowledge gained make you fervently hope there is reincarnation <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Gene said that water from transpiration does not require water treatment. I pointed out that you often end up with insects in the water. He came back with the fact that many people on the planet eat bugs. I have read that to eat bugs you need to cook them first to kill the bad bacteria they harbor. Anybody have thoughts on if you need to treat the water before you drink it? I asked Cody Lundin about water when he was at REI and he said right after a rainstorm when you find water pooling on rocks that you do not need to treat that water. Beyond that I suspect you need to treat all water if you can. I once saw Cody on TV say that if you find water and you cannot treat it to go ahead and drink it. You should be rescued within three days and you can get medical treatment for it when you get back.

Any thoughts on buggy water?

I asked Gene if SAR looked for people at night. He did not know, but there was a SAR guy seated next to me. He said that they do often search at night. I asked if a strobe light would help them find the missing person. He said that would be very helpful. I don’t often see strobe lights mentioned in survival kits. I wonder if I should carry one.

Any thoughts?