Thread: Minimum pack contents

Originally Posted by Ranger 888

It was actually a very good teaching technique..the course participants were instructors who taught their "clients" about survival kits, but had never actually used one...how much credibility would they have? The fact that most of them decided they needed to change the contents of their survival kit when they got home proves the message was conveyed to them.
I managed an instructor group for 22 years, and recruited people who had done the hard yards, had done dumb things in the bush and learned from them. I wanted course participants to be able learn from the instructor's experience. I had a favourite mantra: Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from poor judgement. One of my instructors, a former Urewera culler, had developed hypothermia as a 20 year old and nearly died, 30 metres from a hut. He would tell the clients on a course the story of his near miss, sitting in the bush, leaning back against a tree, and have the whole group spellbound by the saga. So here was a man who had mana, that you knew you should listen to. Compare him to a bushcraft instructor I saw who took a session on hypothermia by reading aloud the contents of a pamphlet on the subject. Who had the most credibility?
Barry the hunter: if you had stormed off and gone back to the camp...the doors were locked! The course organiser had covered that! He was the legendary Bob Badland, MSC Firearms Programme Manager for ages, and one of the best hunters I ever came across.

Bob Badland now theres a blast from the past - had quite a bit to do with him - but still would not have expected people to camp out overnight on any course I ever ran - just me - to much could go wrong and quickly - but then so many of the groups I took were school age - bit young to chuck in deep end - I used to spend a lot of time getting them to get a fire going and what would burn and what would not