AAR Emergency/BOB meeting in Los Angeles - Feb 22, 2009
Location: Pasadena, California.
This morning we had our "Emergency/BOB Back Pack Meeting" in Pasadena, CA.
Several hide members attended.
Some of the participants included (Taken from their BIO on www.dirttime.com )
Christopher Nyerges is internationally known and recognized as a premiere survival skills instructor and has been teaching “the skills” since 1974 and has taught over thirty thousand students. He is the editor and a writer for "Wilderness Way" magazine and is enjoying the release of his 9th book, "How To Survive Anywhere". Christopher has had over 2500 articles, all related to the survival skills, published in his career. See: www.christophernyerges.com
Alan Halcon is a field editor, writer and photographer for "Wilderness Way" magazine. He is the author of the informative booklet, "The Hand Drill," a member of the City of Los Angeles's CERT Team, FEMA certified in incident command, a Survival Instructor, and a certified instructor/provider for The American Red Cross in Wilderness First-Aid, CPR and Basic First-Aid. Alan is also the record holder at getting a coal with the handdrill... 2 Seconds.
Dude McLean is a former United States Marine and his depth of knowledge of modern and primitive survival skills spans over 50 years. He is a field editor, writer and photographer for "Wilderness Way" magazine, A Los Angeles City CERT Member, and Survival Instructor
My own web site is: www.urbanoutdoorskills.com and I currently offer some classes related to outdoor/wilderness skills adapted to city life.
Around 20 people showed up, some with their emergency back pack and some just came to get ideas for theirs. We also had a few curious people interested by what we did who stopped and asked questions. Overall I think we had a great time!
The goal was simply to meet, share ideas and actually "SHOW" the content of our packs. I think everyone learned something by doing so. The variety of back pack was actually quite fascinating. We had some of the top survival experts in the Los Angeles, some had a more "primitive" approach to their emergency back pack and some had, what I call, a more "Urban" approach with usual gears bought at stores such as "Sport Chalet", etc... Nothing wrong with it (My bag is more Urban/Yuppy-like), just different approaches.
What I found truly interesting is the simplicity of the bags that some of the wilderness/outdoor/survival instructors had. It made me realize how the bulk of their "emergency backpack" was in their own knowledge. I was extremely interested by Christopher Nyerges and Dude McClean's bag. Both have the know-how and ability to survive anywhere and their bags are actually quite simple. Good lesson in itself. Your mind and knowledge is your greatest survival gear.
I learned quite a few things myself. What to add and what to subtract to my bag. I want to think more simple and think "efficiency".
It was also interesting to see what was important for people. Only 3 people, including myself, had a lot of various items related to hygiene (razor, soap, toothpaste, etc...) and I would not change that, for me "feeling clean" is an important factor in survival, even mentally (Feeling fresh/clean is a great feeling). Maybe I can make it a bit smaller.
Another thing I noticed is the fact that Dude, Alan and Christopher did not include food in their emergency back pack. Factually all 3 could easily feed themselves even in a urban environment. I'm actually at a point where I could probably do it as well so I will cut back on the food part but maybe keep some protein stuff.
Things I will add to my bag are: handsaw, compass (as pointed out, it can be useful in a wild fire situation where there is so much smoke that you loose your sense of direction), maybe a slingshot although I usually have a handgun in my bag (Glock 17) and ammo. None of the participant had firearms due to the fact that it was not really allowed in a public park so I don't know how many of the participants would have had firearms in an actual emergency back pack.
Other things I noticed:
I think I was the only one who had a radio (for news). Is it truly needed...I dunno. I'll still keep it, maybe just for entertainment
I had a sleeping bag, most participants were using blankets, one just had a "space blanket".
If you do search on BOB/Emergency back pack on the Internet, you often see posting with huge lists and a lot of postings of "what you need" in such a back pack. A lot of the participants at this meeting are highly trained in survival skills. Their back packs were much more simple than what you see often listed in forums. Food for thoughts. I don't think gears can replace know-how.
I could probably write much more but if I had to summarize what I learned from that meeting is: Think Simple, Think Efficient. Your mind/knowledge is your greatest resource/asset - Never stop learning and training.
Here are some photos of the meeting:
Some of the people attending and bags
Christopher Nyerges and his bag pack
Dude McClean and his bag pack:
Location: Pasadena, California.
This morning we had our "Emergency/BOB Back Pack Meeting" in Pasadena, CA.
Several hide members attended.
Some of the participants included (Taken from their BIO on www.dirttime.com )
Christopher Nyerges is internationally known and recognized as a premiere survival skills instructor and has been teaching “the skills” since 1974 and has taught over thirty thousand students. He is the editor and a writer for "Wilderness Way" magazine and is enjoying the release of his 9th book, "How To Survive Anywhere". Christopher has had over 2500 articles, all related to the survival skills, published in his career. See: www.christophernyerges.com
Alan Halcon is a field editor, writer and photographer for "Wilderness Way" magazine. He is the author of the informative booklet, "The Hand Drill," a member of the City of Los Angeles's CERT Team, FEMA certified in incident command, a Survival Instructor, and a certified instructor/provider for The American Red Cross in Wilderness First-Aid, CPR and Basic First-Aid. Alan is also the record holder at getting a coal with the handdrill... 2 Seconds.
Dude McLean is a former United States Marine and his depth of knowledge of modern and primitive survival skills spans over 50 years. He is a field editor, writer and photographer for "Wilderness Way" magazine, A Los Angeles City CERT Member, and Survival Instructor
My own web site is: www.urbanoutdoorskills.com and I currently offer some classes related to outdoor/wilderness skills adapted to city life.
Around 20 people showed up, some with their emergency back pack and some just came to get ideas for theirs. We also had a few curious people interested by what we did who stopped and asked questions. Overall I think we had a great time!
The goal was simply to meet, share ideas and actually "SHOW" the content of our packs. I think everyone learned something by doing so. The variety of back pack was actually quite fascinating. We had some of the top survival experts in the Los Angeles, some had a more "primitive" approach to their emergency back pack and some had, what I call, a more "Urban" approach with usual gears bought at stores such as "Sport Chalet", etc... Nothing wrong with it (My bag is more Urban/Yuppy-like), just different approaches.
What I found truly interesting is the simplicity of the bags that some of the wilderness/outdoor/survival instructors had. It made me realize how the bulk of their "emergency backpack" was in their own knowledge. I was extremely interested by Christopher Nyerges and Dude McClean's bag. Both have the know-how and ability to survive anywhere and their bags are actually quite simple. Good lesson in itself. Your mind and knowledge is your greatest survival gear.
I learned quite a few things myself. What to add and what to subtract to my bag. I want to think more simple and think "efficiency".
It was also interesting to see what was important for people. Only 3 people, including myself, had a lot of various items related to hygiene (razor, soap, toothpaste, etc...) and I would not change that, for me "feeling clean" is an important factor in survival, even mentally (Feeling fresh/clean is a great feeling). Maybe I can make it a bit smaller.
Another thing I noticed is the fact that Dude, Alan and Christopher did not include food in their emergency back pack. Factually all 3 could easily feed themselves even in a urban environment. I'm actually at a point where I could probably do it as well so I will cut back on the food part but maybe keep some protein stuff.
Things I will add to my bag are: handsaw, compass (as pointed out, it can be useful in a wild fire situation where there is so much smoke that you loose your sense of direction), maybe a slingshot although I usually have a handgun in my bag (Glock 17) and ammo. None of the participant had firearms due to the fact that it was not really allowed in a public park so I don't know how many of the participants would have had firearms in an actual emergency back pack.
Other things I noticed:
I think I was the only one who had a radio (for news). Is it truly needed...I dunno. I'll still keep it, maybe just for entertainment
I had a sleeping bag, most participants were using blankets, one just had a "space blanket".
If you do search on BOB/Emergency back pack on the Internet, you often see posting with huge lists and a lot of postings of "what you need" in such a back pack. A lot of the participants at this meeting are highly trained in survival skills. Their back packs were much more simple than what you see often listed in forums. Food for thoughts. I don't think gears can replace know-how.
I could probably write much more but if I had to summarize what I learned from that meeting is: Think Simple, Think Efficient. Your mind/knowledge is your greatest resource/asset - Never stop learning and training.
Here are some photos of the meeting:
Some of the people attending and bags
Christopher Nyerges and his bag pack
Dude McClean and his bag pack:
