Wilderness Survival and Medicine
After a few weeks of training Matt West and Tyson Rowley have attained cave man status!
Tyson and Matt are enrolled in the Wilderness survival class which meets once a day to learn the ancient methods of surviving in the outdoors without modern comforts such as tents and food. They have been training hard on their string making skills, fire making skills and plant recognition skills.
Today Matt and Tyson had a new challenge which was to make a primitive mechanical device to drill through something or to use in the process of making fire. They went to work immediately bringing out a sketch pad and drawing out plans of how it would work and what materials they would use. The design came out to look something like what is called a pump drill. The Natives of many cultures would use this for drilling through wood. As their idea developed I began to tell them about how other cultures discovered this method and what ideas led to the final design for them.
Their design was finally done and it was time to bring it to life so we headed out into the Chilean woods and cut some bamboo. Once cut the boys got to work making string and finding the perfect rocks for their weighted ends. Sitting in a sunny field, reciting their herbs and remedies they finished it off and gave it a test run. It worked excellently. A true reproduction of what was actually used hundreds of years ago.
As a teacher is was cool to see these guys work through a problem and come to a great solution. It was super fun to watch that process for me. That’s it for now. Tomorrow it’s a plant day, maybe learning what plants make the best string, maybe what plant will cure you of Guardia, either way we’re going have some good fun. Hope everyone is well.
Best,
Tino Specht
Tino Specht teaches video 1&2, video productions as well as the Survival and Herbology class for the New River Academy along with being the schools athletics coach. Tino is sponsored by many Companies, these include Dagger Kayaks Zoar Outdoor Shred Ready Helmets, Level Six Clothing H2O Paddles and last but not least, Teva Footwear.