February 22, 2019 at 4:52 p.m.
natural reaction
Living, and surviving, the dream
natural reaction
By Jacob Friede-
The star and host of the National Geographic channel's TV show "Primal Survivor" travels around the world to make films of epic adventures.
He has been in some of the most remote places in the world. He has survived off the land in the Australian outback, the Arctic Circle, and the Sahara Desert.
He's spent time with the indigenous people of Tanzania, Panama, New Guinea, and Morocco, and he's braved the Himalaya mountains, the Scandinavian wilderness, and the Pacific Ocean.
Now Audel can add the backyard of the youth center in Lac du Flambeau to his list of outdoor adventures.
Audel and his best friend Greg Weiss, of Cornucopia, Wis., were in Lac du Flambeau last weekend teaching winter survival skills to kids at the youth center.
Weiss is a friend of the center's director Jen Coleman, and she decided to ask the guys to come to Lac du Flambeau to help the kids break up the winter monotony.
"A lot of kids go outside in the summer and they go fishing and camping," Coleman said. "But in the winter everybody's all crammed up here and they don't really know what they can do outside"
They do now.
Audel and Weiss took the kids snowshoeing and ice fishing, taught them tracking skills, explained how to find insects in winter, how to build fires, and how to construct a shelter out of snow.
Both men are experienced survivalists who met while teaching for Outward Bound, a school in Oregon that specializes in outdoor and survival education for kids and adults.
At Outward Bound, Audel and Weiss took people on multi-week rafting and mountaineering trips and taught everything from outdoor cooking to knot tying to rock climbing.
"We ran some of those courses together. That's how we got to know each other really well and we've been best friends ever since," Weiss said.
And while the guys only had a couple days with the kids in Lac du Flambeau, Audel said he noticed an impact.
"It was really cool just building their snow shelter, or quonset hut," Audel said. "Because I like seeing the kids all of a sudden turn into a finely oiled machine. They're just working as a team and it was just cool to see them do that. Watching everybody help each other, but all working for an end goal and having a blast at the same time. They were totally loving it."
Lac du Flambeau eighth-grader Jose Retana agreed. When asked what his favorite part of the weekend was he said, "Sleeping inside that igloo that's out there. I liked it until I got cold."
And while they may have been a bit nippy, four kids did make it the whole night in the hut.
"I think they were cold," Audel said. "I don't think they would've survived the night without it though."
Audel, who was also once a high school biology and art teacher, got his interest in survival skills while on a trip to Ecuador after graduating high school.
"I was in such a remote place I was just hanging out with indigenous people," Audel said. "It was great for me to hang out with them because they knew where all the animals lived and they could show me everything. I also saw how they built all their houses from the natural landscape. They built their own boats. They hunted for their own food, and I had never really been exposed to that so much and so I got really into it. That just became my lifestyle."
Audel got his start in front of the camera by making education films as a teacher.
"When I was a teacher I started making little science/education films," he said. "They were super cheesy, really hammed-up, but they became pretty popular on YouTube and stuff and then National Geographic saw them."
Audel, who has filmed three seasons of "Primal Survivor," says he greatly enjoys being able to pass on outdoor knowledge to kids, just like indigenous tribes have done for him, and he believes his time with youth could leave a healthy impression.
"If you can get them to be comfortable to where they don't think that they need $800 worth of crap to go outside and stuff and then if they're just out and they remember that one weekend that was fun, they're going to go out more and more and build upon that," he said.
For Wesley Wolfe, a Lac du Flambeau seventh grader, Weiss and Audel's visit strengthened an already healthy interest in the outdoors.
"Actually, I have been doing that stuff," Wolfe said. "That was really cool that these guys came because I like surviving out in the woods by myself."
For Retana, it was Audel himself who was fascinating.
"Just in general meeting him," Retana said. "It was super cool meeting him and getting the opportunity to spend time with him."
And the bond between friends that forms while in the outdoors, like the one between Weiss and Audel, became evident amongst the kids as well.
"My favorite part was building the igloo and the best moment was when we all met each other in the middle, because it felt like we accomplished something," Retana said.
Audel noticed the same thing.
"There was definitely a brotherhood going on," he said. "They definitely were like, 'yeah let's try this in the spring.'"
Audel hopes to one day do more seminars like the one in Lac du Flambeau because the adventure of teaching youth is as rewarding as doing his show.
"I love it," he said of his National Geographic TV show. "It's great. It's my dream job. But being with kids is also my dream job, too."
The Youth Center in Lac du Flambeau is open from 3:15 to 5 p.m. for first through fifth graders and from 3:15 to 8 p.m. for sixth through 12th graders during the week.
On the weekends the center opens at noon and closes at the same respective times.
Jacob Friede may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].
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