Latest Happenings and Student Testimonials

Jan. 24th.

I don't think many people watched this as it aired at the same time as the President's State of the Union Address but I had a minute ( actually more like 30 seconds) of fame on the Discovery Travel Channel. It was the "Hidden City" episode.  I took the film crew out in the swamps and showed them how early travelers might have survived while traveling through the Everglades. It was fun.


Jan 21st-22nd.


Jan 14th-15th

Hunter/Gatherer Course. Great weather and an equally great group of guys and gals made for a very fun two days. We made stone tools and weapons, cordage, pine pitch glue, bow drills from scratch, played with blow guns  and atlatls. On our foraging/edible plant walks we found a, as yet unidentified fruit that I'll need to research. ( Dean Green?)

December:
Boy Scout Troop 238 joined me for a 2 day Hunter/Gatherer class. The weather was near perfect and we managed to squeeze a lot of different skills into the two days. Troop 238 practices traditional scouting so we put together a course outline that covered some of the more difficult and advanced skills to keep inline with their advanced training level. In addition to learning and practicing skills like cordage making, stone tools and weapons, friction fire making, pine pitch glue making the Scouts got to try their hand at throwing Atlatl darts and shooting blowguns. We also made some jerky over the fire that went quite well as an appetizer for their evening meal. The Troop put together a very nice video that details a lot of our activities. It's at this link if anyone is interested: Troop 238 Video

Oct. and Nov.

Our Nov. 19th-20th Wilderness Survival Class went off without a hitch - I'm talking about weather. Except for a little sprinkle just as we were finishing up Sunday afternoon it was a great weekend. Beside the basic 7 essential skills we played  around with friction fire making, flint and steel and I broke out a couple of Atlatls and and darts and two blowguns for our group to practice some primitive skills with. Just as a note and for the first time ever, I think ever single adult that attempted to make fire with the bow drill did it their very first try. As an added bonus our 4 younger students made a very nice, free standing natural shelter that proves once and again  with just a little basic training and instruction kids will usually out preform adults when it comes to creativity and ingenuity.


Just had a great weekend with Cub Scout Pack 822 from Palm City, FL. The Webelos worked toward and earned their Naturalist, Outdoorsman and Forester badges. We had great weather, those pesky mosquitoes left us alone and we even had time left over to play with Blowguns and Atlatls. Although not a requirement for any of their badges the boys built a very nice, free standing natural shelter using  materials collected from the surrounding area.



In early Oct. I managed to get away and spend some time in the mountains of Colorado. Among other things I tested using a garbage bag as a emergency shelter in very cold weather ( click on Blog link above) and also played around with some different types of dead fall triggers. We even got a few inches of snow while I was out there which I really enjoyed. Some highlights of the trip were a visit to a mining claim at the top of a mountain pass ( we were thinking of buying it) and doing some rock hounding for precious stones and gold prospecting along some of the mountain streams.

So far Oct. and Nov. have been very productive months. We've had  Wilderness Survival Classes almost every weekend, some with private groups and some open to the general public. The end of Oct. and the first week in Nov. we got tons of rain which closed  some of our favorite hiking and training trails but I'm very happy to report it's just about dried out now. Our training and camping site, although soggy in low places, remained  plenty dry enough for use.

I've added some primitive skills to the basic Wilderness Survival course: friction fires, flint and steel, blowguns and atlatls - just to spice things up and add to the basic skills provided. Although we don’t go into as much detail  with these skills as we do during the Primitive Skills you'll not only learn the basics you'll get some real world hands on experience

September

It's finally starting to cool off a little in South Florida so I'm starting to put together a class schedule, probably starting with a Wilderness Survival Class in mid Sept. If I have your email address you'll get a notice soon. I've added a couple of new classes this season: Tracking 101, and Survival Tracking and Trapping (this was by popular request) and possibly Primitive Cooking.  If you are interested in either of these let me know and I'll put you down for a class. I'll be doing several Hunter/Gatherer classes also. These fill up very fast and I need to limit the number of students so it will be first come, first serve..

History Channel Filming.
I just spent the better part of the morning tromping around and through the parts of the northern Everglades swamp helping a TV production company understand how early settlers could have survived while traveling through the "River of Grass".  I was able to find and explain the uses of several different common edible plants and managed to point out some sources of protein: snails, frogs and fish mostly. I demonstrated how to build a small but efficient fish trap that could have been used and some general insight into how anyone traveling through the area could have managed despite the obvious difficulties encountered. It was a very fun experience for me and hopefully I'll have a link some day and be able to post some video.

August

Real Men Outdoors Partnership

Real Men Outdoors: www.realmenoutdoors.com  has asked me to  become their lead Wilderness Instructor and to join the Real Men Outdoors Board of Directors. Real Men Outdoors is an organization that uses the “wilderness experience” to teach fundamental qualities such as responsibility and accountability, which they believe are missing in many of today’s youth. The organization works with a wide range of young people, but its main target is young men ages 13 to 18. Some participants are sent to the camp by resource officers, schools or churches, and are taught survival skills such as fire building, shelter construction and navigation. On the 475-acre camping ground—also home to wild turkeys, wild hogs, snakes and foxes—they must hike, canoe, fish, run a military like obstacle course and cook all their meals. 

One of RMO’s goals is about them learning to work as a team, about them being accountable and being able to move outside of boundaries that they thought they were locked into.

Oxbow Nature Center Summer Camp

I’ve just completed a week long summer camp assisting the instructors and staff at the Oxbow Nature Center in Port. St. Lucie, FL.  My hat is off to Wren Underwood, Amanda Thompson and the Center’s Director, Sandra Bogan for organizing and conducting one of the most fun and informative survival camps I’ve ever had th e honor to participate in. The kids were taught basic wilderness survival skills, learned to throw  atlatls and rabbit sticks and demonstrate their skills with blowguns. Eac h student got a chance to make friction fire with a bow drill ( they got to take a complete bo w drill set home to practice) use signal mirrors, learn to use a compass and map and last, but not the least, they each helped build their own natural shelter.  As an added bonus each student was taught to make a military style bracelet from paracord that they can wear and show off their cordage skills.

July

Firefly Gathering - Primitive Skills Rendezvous

My wife  and I  were privileged to attend  and totally awed by the number of primitive skill workshops offered and the level of instruction at this annual primitive skills  rendezvous in the mountains of North Carolina.  There were at least 80 different workshops being taught each day. You name it – there was a workshop. Soap making, brain or bark tanning,  bow drills, baskets, fermentation, trapping, survival basics, canning, bow and arrows, flutes, primitive weapons and on and on.  The instructors were world class.  Natalie Bogwalker, Zev Friedman, Peace Weaver, Janell Kapoor, Juliet Blankespoor, Doug Elliott, Hawk Hurst,  Alan Muskat, Scott Jones, Bill Kaczor, , Clint Corely, Joel Wind Fox Boyle, Steve Torma, Coyote and White Eagle to name just a few.

We were honored and sometimes humbled  just to meet and associate with this caliber of , in my opinion,  masters of primitive skills. A lot of these folks don’t just teach these skills – they live them. No electricity, no running water, no flushing toilets – no problem. These guys don’t need it - don’t want it.

Did I learn any new skills? You bet your boots! I try to attend one or two of these Primitive Skills Rendezvous each year and I never fail to learn and sometimes master a new skill. That’s what it all about. While sitting in as a student  or teaching there’s always something new to learn.

APRIL-  I just got back from a very fun trip to the mountains of Eastern Tennessee and North West Georgia. I was invited by the fine folks at the Mendin Fences Farm to teach their inaugural Basic Wilderness Survival Course. The owners Vic and Linda provided us with three square meals each day and we slept in their bunk houses. We'll be scheduling more of these so if anyone is interested in spending some time on a farm in TN keep your eye out for the next scheduled class.

The wife and I also attended the Earth Skills Primitive Skills Rendezvous in N. Georgia. They do this twice a year folks and I think this was their 25th or so year. There's no better venue in the Country to learn from some of the best instructors in the world. White Eagle, Snow Bear, Raven, Coyote, Doug Elliot and on and on. Basically we camp and  spend each day attending various workshops on everything from black smithing to tanning hides. There's something for everyone and no matter how advanced your skills - there will be something new to learn. ( I thought I knew how to sharpen knives). Pon (my wife) made a Capote from a wool blanket that she'll be wearing and showing off for years.

Dennis Storm 

Dennis Storm is a TV-Host for Dutch MTV, where he hosted the shows "Summerbase" and "Late night live show".  Later he became a part of BNN where he hosted the controversial TV-shows "Try before you Die"  and later,  he did a travel show, called "Weg met BNN". In 2008, he was one also of the celebrities who appeared  in "Ranking the Stars" (where a group of ten celebrities have to rank themselves based on questions,  like "Who is the most arrogant" and "Who is most likely to cheat on their partner"). Dennis was here in Florida to film a segment on wilderness survival using a format very similar to Les Stroud’s” Survivor Man” series. Hank was asked to scout and then secure a remote location for the  filming and provide Dennis with survival training. Hank was able to give Dennis the training he needed  to spend 6 days surviving only on edible plants and by fishing and catching small game.

Hank recently conducted a Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit Badge class for BSA Troop 567. To earn their Merit Badges Scouts are required to build and stay overnight in a shelter they build themselves. Using natural materials the Scouts built two and three man shelters that gave them the shelter they needed to survive a very rainy and wet night.

Jacqui Dewiler, Associate editor of “ Hemispheres” and “Go”  Magazines joined Hank and a small group of survival students for a Basic Wilderness Survival Weekend.  Jacqui traveled from NY City to sunny and warm Florida while researching and preparing an article on survival schools.  Jacqui was writing a first person travel article about what it's like to take a survival camp and  stay overnight in a structure you've created yourself. The article is scheduled to appear in the June issue of AirTran’s in-flight  magazine “ Go”.  Although now a resident of New York City Jacqui showed her Florida roots by building and sleeping in a natural shelter she made entirely from natural materials.

                                   
The Fort Pierce Magnet School of Arts  hosted a fire starting demonstration by Hank as part of  its’ Survival  Field Day.  Sixth – eight graders were treated to  hands-on examples of modern and primitive fire starting techniques. The students
got to experience and try their hand using Fire Steels, Flint & Steel, Magnifying Glasses, Solar Lighters and even a Bow Drill.

Hank was invited to give a 4 hour lecture for the Oxbow Eco-Center,  a St. Lucie County environmental learning center. The Oxbow Eco-Center is a place where young and old alike can discover the mysterious and hidden life of the forest and river. The Oxbow Center was conducting a Survival Month awareness theme and asked Hank to share his expertise and demonstrate his  skills at fire starting. Hank demonstrated the Bamboo Saw, the Plough, Hand Drill, Bow Drill and Flint & Steel techniques  plus gave a short history of early man’s discoveries and advancements in fire making.




Hank has entered an agreement with the Port St Lucie Police Athletic League  (PAL) to provide basic survival training for its kids. The classes will be scheduled for weekends and will be a two day basic survival course.  There courses are provided free of charge as a means to get our younger generation involved in outdoor skills and activities

 

Student Testimonials

Hank,

Thanks for a super weekend. I've attended other courses, one in FL last year, and there's no comparison. I learned things the others never mention. The bowdrill  instruction was a blast. I've never seen anyone make fire that way before. The others talked about it but I've never seen them actually do it, especially in under 20 seconds. What's really cool is that after your instruction - I can do it.  I did a demo for my friends and they were blown away. Thanks again. I'll be back for more. Marlene say hi also.

John S.

Hank,

Thank you so much for having us last weekend. The boys loved it as well as all us adults. I know I learned much. My son Logan says it was the best campout ever! I know we will come camp with you again soon.

Jarrald Woodcock

Pack 822 – Wolf Den Leader

Hank,

Thanks so much for a great weekend.  All the kids and parents had a great time.  We couldn't have picked a nicer weekend to have the campout.  Ty learned a lot and had a fantastic time.  I've studied a lot on the subject and learned many things also.  As a former fighter pilot I can't tell you enough what an honor and pleasure it was to meet you and spend the weekend in the woods learning and refining outdoor skills.  I especially enjoyed getting a chance to use the bow drill.  I have seen it done numerous times in videos and read about how to do it, but nothing compares to actually trying it in the field.

From all my experiences growing up in the woods of Tennesee and USAF SERE and studying over the past decades I learned many things about my own personal survival kit from your briefings with the kids.

Thanks for your service to the country and to all those that fly in harms way.

I look forward to taking some of your other classes in the future.

Hank --

Thanks so much for the great education in the Basic Wilderness Survival Skills weekend.  You are not only immensely knowledgeable about wilderness survival skills, but your personality and teaching style are very effective for communicating to others; keeping your students interested; and facilitating retention of that knowledge. Your educational personality style is among the best I have encountered:  easy-going, friendly and understandable while communicating solid, important subject matter in a very organized manner.  Your individual coaching and working with all of us students on the individual skills, and  in the presence of each other, further enhanced our knowledge and helped us all get to know and appreciate one another. 

 

I have years of experience hiking, backpacking, camping and bicycle camping, yet I believe I doubled my knowledge base in two days with you.  It was not just that I acquired new specific skills (fire-making, plant identification, shelter-building, no-nonsense knots and so much more).  I also finished the weekend with an enhanced mindset:  I will more than ever be aware of the specifics of my surroundings, taking them in not just to appreciate nature as before, but with an awareness of the utility of nature’s many components in surviving the wilderness with minimal equipment.   I hope your prospective students will understand that your courses bring three important, distinct attributes: easy, skilled teaching method; many, useful specific skills and hints; and a new, refreshing mindset to living in the wilderness.

Thanks again for the education and the great, super job you did.  I look forward to the next course!

Byron Magbee

Tampa, FL

Dear Hank,

Just wanted to thank you again for the 2 Day Wilderness Survival Course last weekend.  I am a very "happy camper!"  As a 40 something year old woman who traveled alone, I felt very safe and comfortable.  As a somewhat experienced camper and hiker, I learned navigation skills, water purification, how to build an emergency shelter and how to beef up my personal survival kit.  I would highly recommend this course to any one who wants to do the outdoors right, from beginner to somewhat seasoned!  Thanks for making it interesting and personable for old and young, regardless of experience level.  There was something good for everyone.  I also would like to say how much I enjoyed the other campers!  Don't know if he had an especially great group, but I really enjoyed the fellowship and comraderie!  I'll be back for Primitive Workshop  and I'm sure my better half will be with me!  I'll practice with the bow between now and then.  The adventure was the perfect "reset" button that helped me get away from work and worries, and enjoy a fresh adventure for the weekend.  Thanks again for a great job!  Laura

Dan,
I went to Hank Fannin's survival class last weekend, the 13th and 14th, I have done other classes in the past and found Hank to be a fantastic instructor, very knowledgable and a genuine survivalist. His teaching is designed to interest and intrique at the same time. I was very, very happy with the whole set up, from the time I arrived till sunday afternoon when I left. I would have spent several nights out there learning all that  Hank has to offer, the weekend goes so fast, and you and your boys will come away from the class with skills that can be very valuable in these trying times. Believe me, its not only a great time in the woods, but worth every dime!!!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did, I will continue to keep in touch with Hank and plan on taking more of his classes in the near future.  you wont regret taking the coarse.   Have a good one and e-mail me back when you complete the class if you want and let me know what you think.     sincerely, a fellow woodsman, Raymond Balles.

Hank,
Just wanted you to know that our group had a great time and I hope we weren't too wild for you. We learned so much and had so much fun that we are certainly planning on some future classes. Please let me know when you schedule one of those primitive classes.  The whole gang wants to come. Say hi to Pon for us also and thank her for the cooking tips. Sarah and the Gang

Hank,
We made it back home without any further car problems. Thanks for that phone call and offer to help. My son and I had a great time and want to thank you for your patience. Also thanks for the loan of that sleeping bag. I didn't think it would get that cold. Let me know when you have your next primitive skills workshop. My wife will probably come along next time. She's very interested in learning bushcraft after we told her all we learned and did. I'll recommend your class to anyone and hope to see you again this summer. Dan and Rob

Hank,
I can't thank you enough. My kids had a great time and now they are actually interested in something besides video games. Jacob has showed that arrowhead he made to everyone, even took it to school yesterday. Todd has me looking everywhere for things to make more cordage from and he's getting really good at it. I told a group of parents about you and the classes you offer and I'm sure several will be calling to schedule. Thanks again and keep me on your mailing list. Todd Sr.

Recent Newspaper Article in the Palm Beach Post:

There are no tribal councils, and nobody gets voted off when he can’t accomplish some challenge.

They’re not on a Pacific island or in the African jungle; they’re on 100 acres of sabal palm, slash pine and grassy fields west of Hobe Sound.

Participants in the Green Earth Survival School are not TV-type “Survivors”; they’re learning real outdoor skills that might help them survive outdoors: how to build a fire, build a shelter and navigate in the wilderness.

Louise Cunha, 67, of Stuart was one of 14 students taking part in a recent two-day, camping on-site, survival skills class. She was paying particular attention during the orienteering class as Hank Fannin, the school director and instructor, showed students how to read and use topographical maps and global positioning system units.

“I’m taking the class as a way of preparing for an overnight, off-the-trail backpacking trip I’m planning this summer in Vermont,” Cunha said during a break. “This kind of knowledge is vital to the success of my trip.

“I know I need to be in good physical shape, but mental ability is even more important.”

A member of the Tropical Trekkers backpacking club, Cunha said she’s been hiking since I was a kid in Vermont. She’s hiked around Lake Okeechobee by herself and has taken part in the Atlantic Ocean-to-Lake Okeechobee hike.

“And I’ve been lost before,” she admitted.

Fannin prefers to call his class “Outdoor Awareness” to avoid connoting the image of survivalists in a post-Armageddon world.

“A lot of people have no outdoor skills at all,” Fannin said. “I did a class with a church group recently, and two of the people in the whole group had ever been camping before.”

Fannin teaches students to survive by using modern tools such as matches and cigarette lighters, topographical maps, compasses and GPS units.

Fannin also teaches an advanced course, “Primitive Survival,” in which the only tool is a rock.

“Starting with just a rock, you learn three core skills,” he said. “First is making stone tools. With the tools, you learn how to strip fiber and make cordage. With the cordage, you can make a bow drill and learn fire building.”

A native of Kentucky, the 63-year-old Fanin said his early knowledge of the outdoors came from hunting, fishing and trapping as a young boy. His serious training came from the military: nine years in the Air Force and its mountain, jungle, sea, desert and POW camp survival schools as well as combat tours with air rescue and special operations units.

He later was an instructor at the Pine Barrens Survival School in New Jersey and said he has “traveled all over the world, picking up native survival skills.”

Now a Port St. Lucie resident, he started Green Earth a couple of years ago, teaching weekend classes every month or so.

“The first thing I teach is what every Boy Scout learns: be prepared,” Fannin said. “The second most important thing to learn is how not to get lost, how to not get in a survival situation in the first place. Finally, if you do get into trouble, I teach how to get out of it.”

Fannin said Florida is one of the toughest places to navigate in the wilderness. “You can’t climb to a high point and figure out where you are.”

That shouldn’t be a problem for Jan van der Baan, 33, and Melodie Rene, 23, both of Delray Beach, who were at the class to prepare for a two- to five-day hike up Pico Duarte in the Dominican Republic, at 10,164 feet the highest mountain in the Caribbean islands.

“We’re going to be roughing it, and we wanted to be prepared,” Rene said.