Lee Flohr
Life Reporter

It was a small newspaper advertisement and a desire for adventure that brought Les Stroud, TV’s ‘Survivorman’ to Humber to train for a career in outdoor education.

“I thought this is me, I could do that,” Stroud said.  “I was just beginning a new life of outdoor adventure and that was one of the first things I saw.”

Stroud completed his certificate in outdoor education, a part-time, seven course program at North Campus.  

Stroud took a course in wilderness survival where he said he learned the foundations for what would become his career.   

“I was looking for whatever I could do, learn, or experience in adventure,” he said.

Since graduating, Stroud has created two successful television shows – Survivorman and Survive This, as well as written a bestselling book on the same topic.  In addition to putting together a touring musical about survival, Stroud is also getting ready to leave for Borneo, Southeast Asia, in order to film a piece for Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

Students hoping to get an experience like Stroud can take four, three-hour classes before they are taken into the wild at the Moon River Basin near Georgian Bay. There, they apply their newly acquired skills in a simulated wilderness survival situation, said course instructor David Arama.  

“It’s pretty realistic,” he said. “We do go in with very little gear. The idea is to go in with what’s on your back.”
Arama first takes students to the woodlands in the Humber arboretum to teach them how to build shelters, using only leaves and dead wood.  They also learn how to build fires and choose wild edibles like berries when stranded in the wild, he said.

Such skills allow people to survive when lost or stranded in the wilderness, Arama said.   “Studies have shown that people who practice something have a better chance to react without panicking.”

Arama said his classes usually have about 15 students, though fewer than half go on to complete the outdoor education certificate.

“About three-quarters of people take the course for interest and adventure,” Arama said.  “We get outdoor enthusiasts, professionals and other types of people who might be going to work in remote locations.”

Wilderness survival skills student Dr. Carrie Bernard’s obsession with Les Stroud and Survivorman drove her to enrol in the course.

“We went to the Outdoor [Adventure] Show and saw this course,” said Bernard, 43, of Brampton, who enrolled with her husband. “And when we were there they said this is where Les Stroud first took his course too.”

She said her time spent working for Doctors without Borders in Uganda opened her eyes to living away from the comforts of home, where she often said she had no power, no access to roads and was often under fire.

“It wasn’t this kind of survival,” Bernard said.  “It was thinking on my feet, trying to figure out what to do, and not sure what’s happening next.”

Bernard said they plan to take more courses, including winter camping, a course offered seasonally.