Bush Survival Training -

Matt Davis

Completed the 5 day bushmaster course with Joel and Bush Mechanics Survival Training. Joel is incredibly knowledgeable and a great instructor. It was a great experience and I am looking forward to the next adventure. I would recommend this course (or any of his courses for that matter) to anyone regardless of age or skill level. Joel's knowledge, approach and patience will provide benefit to seasoned veterans and complete novices alike.

Greg Raines

Joel is extremely knowledgeable of survival and bushcraft skills, particularly with his African experience. He is also a very nice person and a pleasure to learn from. In the One-day Survival course, we spent time learning how to prepare and mentally deal with a survival situation, then spent the rest of the day with hands on demonstrations of shelter building, fire making, water purification, distress signaling, and first aid treatment. The beautiful setting in the Los Coyotes Mountains make this one of the best there is. I'm ready for the next course dedicated to fire making skills.

Corey Garrard

My fiance and I completed Bush Survival Training's two-day Wilderness Survival Course. It was awesome.

When you arrive at the gate to the Los Coyotes Indian Reservation you'll be greeted by Joel Van Der Loon, a tall and charming South African who founded and runs the survival school. Joel is one of the hard-to-find people who you will be satisfied simply to be present with. The two day trip would have been worth it if we had done nothing more than sit around a camp fire and hear stories about Africa and various survival-related "close calls." Happily, Saturday evening includes some time for just that.

For those eager to get some hands on experience (we men in the group were very eager to try out our various survival knives) the two day Wilderness Survival Course is perfect. The two most exciting projects (at least for me) were building a shelter and learning to start a fire (using various techniques). Joel will teach you multiple different types of survival shelters, where and when to use each, and then encourage you to set off and build one for yourself. My fiance and I built a two-person shelter which we ended up needing to use as one of our tent poles snapped. (One nice thing about this course is you can bring your comforts [tents, extra food, etc.] and then decide how much it you want to use versus how "primitive" you want to be.) The fire making was equally satisfying. Its hard to describe the joy that comes from a burst of flames after careful laboring to collect and construct all the proper tools for fire making.

We are hooked and plan to take many more course offered by Bush Survival Training.

Randi Ross

So happy I did this!!!
I came into the 'Two Day Wilderness Survival Skills Course' as a novice but I left confident in the skills that I was taught. Joel is a knowledgeable and patient instructor that gives each student comprehensive training at their level. Joel is encouraging and enthusiastic in his training and I was given a solid foundation of survival skills that will translate into any terrain I may encounter. I'm excited to growing upon the skills that I learned this weekend as I continue to explore and experience nature and the wild. This was my first Bush Mechanics course and I know it won't be my last. Thank you Joel for an epic weekend!

Brian

Joel's method of instruction is clear and concise. You get the most amount of knowledge in the least amount of words. I highly value that as a United States Marine and an instructor myself. I practiced new things during the course, yet most importantly for me it was relaying the foundation with like-minded people. Joel is very knowledgeable, humble, and an all around awesome guy. If you are a newcomer to the outdoors, Joel's Essential Survival Skills course is a good start. By Joel's instruction, you will be equipped with the knowledge and skills to be much safer and more comfortable in the unknown arena of the bush.

Dan Watts

I took part in the Desert Survival course earlier this year. it was one of the best outdoor experiences i have ever had, i grew up in Australia and camped in the bush my whole life, lets just say nothing outdoors seems very foreign to me, Joel took my outdoors experience to a new level, I really enjoyed learning how to build drop traps, make fires several different ways, track animals, learnt about edible plant life, and find water making sure its sterile to drink (very important!) He even took time to show me how to make a spear for hunting which was not even built into this course. At night we found a mountain lion tracking us up on the hill above, we could see his eyes when we pointed a bright flash light upon the mountain, we huddled all together by the fire listening to each others stories and continued learning from Joel every moment he was awake, such a cool dude and very patient! Overall it was a great experience, I am looking forward to using the new skills i learned and i hope to complete another one of his courses in the near future.
I highly recommend this experience weather your just looking just get out doors or want to push your survival skills to the next level.

Garrett Eaton

Joel is a fount of wilderness survival and primitive skills knowledge. The primitive skills class was so much fun and I learned a lot, not only from the class, but in conversations with Joel as well. If you're interested in bushcrafting, wilderness survival or indigenous peoples/primitive skills, I highly recommend taking one of his courses. I definitely plan on taking more in the future!

Ryan Crocker

I just got back from the 2 day wilderness survival course. It was everything I hoped for and more! Joel is a friendly and knowledgeable instructor with a great attitude and made this an unforgettable experience. We learned how to make primitive and improvised shelters. Identify valuable resources for sustenance and medicinal use. Collect resources to make fire, and even create fire in some truly primitive ways. I’ll never forget it! I would definitely recommend it to anyone even considering it. I love you ok forward to some of the more advanced courses!