In the issue of Outside magazine (july 07) there is an article about a kid who planned to spend 40 days on the island by himslef trying to survive without any help but a knife. It was carefully planned excercise with safety measures taken every step (sat phone call everyday to an answering machine, ACR beacon). He took a quick survival course and talked to survival gurus prior to leaving for his adventure. He lasted about 18 days. Couldn't make fire, and his diet consisted on mussels and coconut. Couldn't hunt or fish. Constantly botheresd by flys I think he ordered a supply of mosquito repelent to be dropped on the other side of the island. Island was located somewhere off coast of Panama. Interesting read since this was probably as close to a real survival situation as anyone can get. Also most of use make a statment : "if I had a blade I can survive anywhere" but I think it this kid would have give up his Kabar knife for a box of matches.

So if you are planning to spend $5 to read it there is also a short guide on how to do many handy things in life plus few other nice articles.

I will have to read it when my subsciption arrives. I wonder if he had practiced/perfected some skills beforehand. It seems many folks assume they can make fire without practicing the needed skills and making sure they are able to do it in their backyard first.

I'm too cheap to buy the magazine, but I'm curious if the kid had just *read* about how to survive starting with only a knife or did he have significant practice/experience?

Maybe he watched a little too much Man vs Wild W/ Bear Grylls...

40 days does seem to be a bit excessive, but at least he got a little bit of "professional" "training" before leaving, and had emergency help planned out.

Having been on a few of the islands around Panama, the only one I would want to go to now is Taboga; the bar at the little "resort" there used to make a mean grilled cheese sandwich...

Well, he lasted a few days longer than I told him I expected he would given the level of prep he was doing. Very glad to hear he took my advice to take along a PLB as back-up, just in case. Will have to pick up the magazine to read the whole story.

What was this yourg man's demeanor when you talked to him? Cocky? Respectful? What?

I answer the phone and answer questions when I can and as long as it doesn't do me or ETS a disservice.

My impression was he had limited or no prior survival training experience, which I believe was to be the point of the article.

He seemed sincere.

Having not read the article ...it seems a more representative test than had he spent significant time and effort getting a lot of hands on training. And gives credence to the ideal that "nothing but a knife" could be real hard for anyone but the well trained. And I for one don't have 40 days, or 18 days, or even a week that I can bring myself to commit to such a singular activity.
So, where does that leave the rest of us ? Especially if we have kits store even a few more rudimentary tools ? Sounds to me like our odds of surviving grow exponentially with each tool we can have. This kid seems to me to have been able to show that even some of our more imperfect attempts at making a kit should be beneficial and able to allow us to get by fairly well (depending on the weather etc).
The kid didn't have a flint and apparently had trouble making fire. How much more successful would he have been with the single addition of a flint ?
I'll have to find that article and read it.