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About Wild

At Wild, our mission is to introduce people to survival skills as a means 

to get back in touch with an inherent part of themselves.  Each course is designed to ignite a passion in you for nature and self-sufficiency while also providing a world-class education on how to keep yourself and your loved ones safe and alive in the harshest environments.

Bow Drill Friction Fire in the Redwoods

Our Story

 Tom McElroy has taught Survival and Primitive Skills to more than 15,000 students worldwide over the past 23 years.  During his twenties Tom spent an entire year living 'off the land'.  He built and lived in a shelter made from forest material, rubbed sticks together to make fire, purified water naturally and hunted, fished and gathered his own food.  Subsequently, Tom went on to become one of a small handful of instructors to teach at the world-renowned Tracker Inc--Tom Brown's Wilderness Survival, Awareness and Tracking School.  
       Tom has taught everyone, ranging from young children to avid hunters, outdoor enthusiast and elite military groups such as  Seal Team Six.  He has consulted for numerous TV shows, news programs, Hollywood movies and has also been featured on the Discovery Channel.  Tom is a nationally certified EMT, Wilderness EMT, and holds a bachelor's degree in Anthropology and Geography from Rutgers University and a Master's in International Policy related to Indigenous Peoples from the University of Connecticut.   During his course of study, Tom was fortunate enough to travel the world learning the old ways from a myriad of remote indigenous communities.  He hunted with blowguns in the Amazon with the Huaorani tribe, ran through Copper Canyon with the Tarahumara (Raramuri), lived with a tribal shaman in a palm-thatched hut a hundred miles off the coast of Sumatra, spear-fished with the Aborigines of Northern Australia,  trekked through the Baliem Valley of Papua New Guinea, the Tibetan Plateau, the Andes of Peru, French Polynesia, Sumba Indonesia, Indian Himalayas and the Costa Rican Jungles.  Throughout all of these experiences, Tom has developed a different way of living, a different perspective of the land, and the realization that experiencing survival-living changes the way people approach their entire lives.          

 

Living with AmanDiri in the Mentawais, in Siberut Indonesia

Wild in the Media

Our Partners

Agawa Canyon Saws
Hennessey Hammock
Honda Consulting Speaking Survival
Mier Dry Bags
Discovery Channel Consulting Health and Safety
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