Survival Skills

I recently went on a bike ride through downtown Cambridge and Boston with my friend Rob who is what you'd call an "urban forager." Rob knows his local trees better than anyone I know. As we stopped to take breaks […]

What are the essentials for "survival?" In our recent posts we covered shelter and water. Now for one of our favorites...fire. Here's one of my favorite fire skill memories... I'll never forget one of the most intense hours of my […]

Shelter is at the core of what gives us a sense of safety, security, confidence, and protection. It is central to the mindset of perseverance, which is one translation of the Japanese term "nin", as in ninja. Imagine if you […]

Brace yourself ninjas. I'm about to bum you out. But if you stick with me, there's rainbow unicorns at the end. I promise. Chi, sui, ka, fu, and ku. These form the foundation for the San Shin or Gokui kata […]

In a recent post by Dai Shihan Mark Roemke, he told the story of going to the island of St. Croix for five days of testing survival skills. He ended that post with this nugget of wisdom... "It’s good to […]

I once asked the Grandmaster of ninjutsu, Hatsumi Sensei, "When do we learn the survival techniques like building survival shelters, making fire, fishing line and cordage, trapping animals, hunting and other survival skills?" He told me that he was never […]

Over twenty years ago I met a young instructor at the world-renowned Tracker School, run by Tom Brown Jr. He was teaching bow and arrow making, among other skills. I was blown away by his attention to detail and craftsmanship. […]

In our last post, we interviewed renowned tracker and naturalist Jon Young who introduced the world of bird language to Sensei Roemke. Bird language reveals how listening to birds can teach us the art of invisibility on a landscape. In […]

Most people have heard of the four basics needs for survival: shelter, fire, water, and food.  Let's zero in on one of them...water. I remember one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had with fresh water in the […]