These 15 contemporary survivalists will inspire you to improve your survival skills.
Each of these survivalists were chosen because they have publicly influenced survivalist culture for the greater good. Many listed here have inspired others to get prepared and improve their chances of survival. The order is arranged by the Survivalists’ audience size, influence and impact on the wilderness survival community.
If you think we missed your favorite survivalist, let us know in a comment at the bottom.
1. John “Lofty” Wiseman
John “Lofty” Wiseman is the author of The SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the WIld, in Any Climate, on Land or at Sea and remains the seminal work on survival available today. Wiseman served in the Special Air Service Regiment for 26 years and saw active service worldwide. He was also an instructor a the Survival Training School for 22 SAS at Hereford, specializing in all aspects of survival training. Today his survival methods and philosophy are applied at the Tureways Survival School where he uses his 50 years of professional survival experience to train survival instructiors, consultants and civilians.
2. Bear Grylls
Bear Grylls has established himself as the branded expert for survival and outdoor adventures on an international stage. Bear currently hosts Discovery Channel’s Emmy nominated Man Vs Wild and Born Survivor TV series which is one of the most watched shows on the planet, reaching an estimated 1.2 billion viewers. He spent 3 years in the British Special Air Service and became the youngest British climber to successfully climb Everest and return alive at only 23 years old.
3. James Wesley Rawles
Author and editor of Survivalblog.com, James Wesley Rawles has become one of the most respected members of the online survivalist community. His in-depth guides cover survival topics ranging from Survival Logistics (“Beans, Bullets and Band-Aids”) to Disaster Preparedness. He is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer with 20 years of experience as a journalist and technical writer. He is also the author of “Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse,” a full length survivalist novel.
4. Les Stroud
Les Stroud is best known for hist hit TV show “Survivorman” – one of the most popular and highest rated shows on Discovery Channel in the U.S. He has been credited with starting the new genre of television known as ‘Survival TV.” Stroud is also author of the bestselling books Survive! – Essential Skills and Tactics to GEt You Out of Anywhere – Alive! and Will to Live.
5. Cody Lundin
Cody Lundin is an internationally known professional survival instructor with more than 20 years of teaching experience. He can be seen on the Discovery Channel show “Dual Survivor” along side of Dave Canterbury. Lundin spent two years living in a brush shelter in the woods where he honed his outdoor preparedness skills with very little gear or assistance. Now he teaches modern wilderness survival skills, primitive living skills, urban preparedness and homesteading at the Aboriginal Living Skills School in Arizona. He is also the bestselling author of two books on survival and preparedness: 98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive and When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes.
6. Dave Canterbury
Dave Canterbury is co-host of the hit Discovery Channel show, “Dual Survival.” He has more than 20 years of combined military and civilian survival experience. Canterbury is a professional hunting guide and tracker. He teaches wilderness survival at Pathfinder Training School in Southeast Ohio. He is also the author of The Pathfinder System: A Common Man’s Survival Guide.
7. Tom Brown Jr.
Tom Brown, Jr. is America’s most acclaimed outdoorsman, and a renowned tracker, teacher and author. Tom spent ten years wandering the wilderness throughout the America’s with no manufactured tools pefecting the skills of tracking, wilderness survival and awareness. He has earned a repuation as “The Tracker” by using his skills to find lost people and fugitives from the law. Now these skills can be learned firsthand at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School which is the largest of its kind. Tom has authored 16 books on tracking, awareness, nature observation and survival, including The Tracker, Grandfather, The Vision, The Way of the Scout and a series of field guides which have sold over a million copies.
8. Ray Mears
Ray Mears has become recognised throughout the world as being an authority on the subject of Bushcraft and survival techniques. His down-to-earth approach, passion for survival training and the empathy and respect he shows for indigenous peoples and their cultures has made him an influential survivalist. He has become a household name from his numerous televison series including: Tracks, World of Surivial, Extreme Survival, Bushcraft Survival and Wild Food.
9. Mykel Hawke & Ruth England
Mykel Hawke & Ruth England have greatly influenced the survival community with their TV show “Man Woman Wild.” Together, they take on some of the most forbidding and remote locations around the world. They are dropped into each spot and they must survive as a team for four days and nights, with only a knife and the clothes on their backs. Mykel Hawke is a former Special Forces Survival Expert with over 20 years of combined military and survival experience. He has traveled the world learning how to operate and survive in unique situations. He is the author of Mykel Hawke’s Green Beret Survival Manual: Essential Strategies for Shelter and Water, Food and Fire, Tools and Medicine, Navigation and Signaling, Survival Psycology and Getting Out Alive!.
10. Tony Nester
Tony Nester is an instructor at Ancient Pathways, a wilderness skills company specializing in desert sruvival and primitive technology. He has over 20 years of experience teaching outdoor survival and guiding wilderness trips. Nester has been featured in numerous media outlets including on NBC News, Travel Channel, Maxim Magazine, New York Times, and the Discovery Channel. He is the author of four book son outdoor survival and writes a popular monthly column for Outside Magazine.
11. Mors Kochanski
Mors Kochanski is an author and survival expert who has built an international repuationa as a leading authority on the skills necessary to survive in the wild. His popular book Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills & Wilderness Survival teaches the practical knowledge that outdoor enthusiasts need to survive and even enjoy the wilderness. Mors has acquired an international following and has instructed for both military and civilians in Canada, the US, UK and Sweden. He is well known for saying “the more you know, the less you carry.”
12. Jack Spirko
Jack Spirko is the author of the Survivalist Podcast, a daily online audio show about self sufficiency and self reliance in the modern world. He gives survivalist advice based around a few basic guiding principles. These include minimizing debt, protecting the environment, alternative energy, and smart frugality. He constantly inspires his listeners to live life to the fullest and take control of their own destiny.
13. Rich Johnson
Rich Johnson is one of America’s best-known survival experts. While spending a year living in the wilderness, Rich honed his outdoor skills by building primitive shelters, making simple traps, testing ancient fire making techniques, and improvising primitive tools and equipment. His book, Rich Johnson’s Guide to Wilderness Survival is filled with common-sense applications of field-tested methods to handle emergency situations in the wilderness in a calm, low-stress fashion. He has also published more than a thousand articles and numerous books.
14. M.D. Creekmore
M.D. Creekmore is a full-time blog writer at the survivalistblog.net which helps people prepare for an uncertain future on a budget. His blog is one of the largest and most popular prepardness sites on the web. By following his guidance, Creekmore belives that you can be practical, live effeciently wihtin your means and take positive, incremental steps towards preparedness success – all with minimal finances. He is also an emergency prepardness consultant and author of The Dirt Cheap Survival Retreat.. In true survivalist fashion, he lives off the grid in a 26-foot travel trailer using a 1,000 watt generator and a small solar set-up.
15. Laurence Gonzales
Laurence Gonzales is the author of Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, the first scientific book on survival. Gonzales’ exploration of what separates those who survive from those who die may be one of the most important survival texts in a decade. His book is a must read for anyone even remotely interested in the subject of survival, and highly recommended to anyone interested in why we do what we do as we go through life, meeting the daily challenges that are often only a hair’s breadth away from disaster.
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Who do you think is the most influential Survivalist today? Share in the comments below.
