Coastal Survival

Survival TV

2011-06-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Great meeting with a TV company today, fingers crossed for a commission!

Bad weather Bass

2011-06-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

Although the bad weather meant cancelling a fishing course, I just got a few hours in before the blow and caught a nice big bass 5 meters from the shore. Fingers crossed next weekend is better weather.

Rod and line fishing course
http://www.coastalsurvival.com/courses_rod_and_line_fishing.html
Coast Hunter course
http://www.coastalsurvival.com/courses_coasthunter.html

Rod and line fishing from the shore

2011-06-10T01:14:00.000-07:00

The weather has forced us to reschedule this weekends survival course, force 6 on shore winds and rain!

New tents for St Gabrials

2011-06-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

Good news new 2 man back packer tents for use at our new venue at St Gabrials in Dorset, under Golden Cap, the highest hill on the south coast and one of the best reefs by a long shot, cant wait for the next Coast Hunter course on the 18th/19th June (3 spaces available) www.coastalsurvival.com

Coast Hunter Coastal Survival Course

2011-05-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

Just put a Gill net and some prawn traps out of the reef. Rabbits and Pigeons in the bag , all ready for tomorrows Course http://www.coastalsurvival.com/courses_coasthunter.html
The seaweeds not looking so good and the shellfish have been wiped off the rocks by the resent high seas!

Coast Hunter Coastal Survival Course

2011-04-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Just made the advanced preparation's for this weekends course http://www.coastalsurvival.com/courses_coasthunter.html

Off to set some traps and nets tonight by the light of the moon!

2011-03-11T09:41:00.001-08:00

Press

Coastal Survival School featured 5th in Lonely Planet Magazine's 52 best weekend courses in the world.

Lonely Planet - February 2011 (page 108)

52 best weekends courses.

5. Born Survivor

If you'd like to make like Ray Mears for the weekend, head to the Welsh coast. On the the Llyn peninsular, the Coast Hunter course will bring out an latent hunter-gather skills such as identifying edible plants, and spear fishing. The style of the instructors ensures that the purpose of the course is squarely on having fun and picking up knowledge, rather than on hard-core endurance, but you will be camping out (having learnt how to set up camp yourself, of course) A good nights sleep is guaranteed, however, after a dinner of seaweed risotto cooked to perfection with oysters and whelks over the fire (£125; coastalsurvival.com).

New! Coastal Survival courses

2011-01-24T12:55:00.000-08:00

New! Master class
Coastal Nomad - 1 day Coastal Trekking Course
Location: Dorset. UK.

Light weight trekking and coastal bushcraft course, set over approx 12 miles of isolated shingle beach. This survival course takes you through the essential survival equipment and bushcraft skills needed on a light weight coastal trekking experience. Along the way you will learn about plants found on remote beaches for food and first aid, also fishing to supplement the usual rations. Finding and collecting fresh water will be covered as will cooking on drift wood fires.

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Completely Coastal - 5 day survival course
Location: Hebrides Islands - Scotland - UK

Completely Coastal is a 5 day survival skills course that will include all of the various survival skills and activities that are covered through the many courses we now offer.
This will allow you the chance to experience and practise a multitude of fun and informative coastal survival skills, in some great and remote locations, hopefully adding to enrich the whole experience!

Subjects and activities to be covered on the course include:
Coastal Shelter construction and locations.
Coastal fire and charcoal making.
Coastal fresh water (finding, producing and collecting).
Coastal foods and medicines from land and sea (foraging).
Coastal fishing from land and small craft (boat or kayak).
Coastal hunting with nets and traps (conventional and improvised).
Coastal castaway - survival experience (ship wreak scenario with minimal kit).
Coastal trekking and navigation.
Coastal cooking and preserving.
Tides, moon phases and weather.

All course participants will be provided with a personal all round wilderness fish kit, including rod and reel - Your to keep at the end of the course!
Accommodation is a mix of tents and location shelters. Both can be provided at no extra cost, you will need to bring a sleeping bag and mat, along with adequate clothing and foot wear suitable for 4 seasons and the duration of the course.

Food will be a mix of your wild foraged and hunted foods, along with a few stores from the ration pack (if needed). You wont go hungry!

Your more than welcome to bring any kit you feel you will need on the course, as well as any food (refrigeration is not available).
We want you to be comfortable, relaxed and happy! The only restriction is on the 'Castaway Survival Experience' when you will learn to survive with some basic kit and only what you can hunt, forage or scavenge!

Instructors will be present at all times and lead the skills demonstrations as well as be there to help you with all hands on activities.

We are linked in with an establish remote outdoor centre for this course, that will provide parking, a kit storage area and shower block, along with some great kayaks, boats and plenty of local knowledge!

This course is suitable for all skills levels and requires no previous experience!

Group bookings, special rates and bespoke dates are available on request. This course requires a minimum of 6 and maximum of 10.

This course location requires a ferry crossing to be reached by foot or vehicle (not included) - Please enquire for operators details.

Please read our Terms and conditions

Course fees per person £375.00.

Next course date - Monday 18th until Friday 22nd of July 2011 (to be confirmed)

2010-06-05T14:57:00.000-07:00

Finally got permission to use a new venue in Dorset, it offers some of the best shore foraging on the south coast - new dates coming soon between July and October - the water quality is not that great at the moment around Lyme Regis and has caused us to cancel some event sorry to those of you that were affected.

Mackerel

2010-06-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

Many mackerel in easy range of the shore to be caught

Latest Feed back

2010-04-23T11:17:00.000-07:00

Our greatest of thanks to you both, for a wonderful weekend, I think we’ll be back for more. As promised a quote, I will also post a couple of tweets sometime today. The pictures will be packaged and send on a DVD later this week, I promise.

Best

C & D

“Many, many thanks for an outstanding weekend of knowledge sharing/learning, fun, coupled with great food which was caught by understanding and using sustainable, simple (once you’ve been shown) survival techniques and traps. The Seaweed risotto with wild picked salad was a revelation. Denise & I left richer for the experience”

message:
Big thank you to Fraser and Tom for a brilliant weekend last week (Nick's stag group).

I'll be in Dorset for a week after the wedding and will be foraging and cooking wild (whilst expending as little energy as possible - as I've been taught).

Thanks again.
Corin.

Fraser:
Thanks for an excellent stag do last weekend. Everyone from the party agrees it was great and want to get together for a coastal version, maybe in the autumn.
I particularly appreciated the mix of survival skills, other discussions, and anecdotes, which made the vast amounts of info easier to absorb, and put the foraging etc. into context, not just an academic study weekend. Also it was a good laugh.
All the best.
Nick.

Hello
Really enjoyed last weekend (16-18th April - Nick's stag do - near Axminster).
Excellent work done by both Fraser and Tom.
Thought that there was a good balance in the emphasis - enjoyment/learning. Maintaining an 'edge' on things with constant reminders that we are supposed to be in a survival situation but without shouting at us like pretend soldiers. Enjoyed the view of food for both fuel and for pleasure. Fraser is a legend. Great to have him share his rich and varied knowledge from various previous lives. I guess this kind of thing is something that is vanishing from modern life (especially urban living)- the sharing of wisdom and techniques through demonstration and great stories to both illustrate and entertain. I really appreciated the fact that F. didn't hold back on his opinions about the failings of modern society and especially the food supply industry. Stuff that needs saying... whether to a receptive audience or not. Not to overlook Tom who also did a great job.
My mates and I all agree that we came away with plenty to think about regarding our lifestyles, and the future. But on the whole had a really good time and a great laugh.
Many thanks and good luck with all your various activities. All power to you.
Andy Tait.

Smoking fish and meat

2010-01-30T13:57:00.000-08:00

Coastal Survival.

Smoking Fish.

The Art of curing and smoking fish is a valuable most useful skill in times when fish are abundant and plentiful, allowing them to be conveniently stored for leaner times through the long and often stormy condition that make both coastal fishing and foraging almost impossible. Not only does smoking help the fishes potential to be stored for much longer periods of time, compared with fresh fish. Smoking allows for a wonderful an unmistakable aromatic flavour to develop. These days smoked fish is most commonly seen in gold foil backed packets in shops and supermarkets, Kippers and salmon being the first ones that spring to mind. They will not come close to the taste of your home smoked fresh fish.
The smoking process lends its self well to ‘oily’ fish such as Herrings, Mackerel, Salmon and Trout, as oily fish are rich in sources of protein and thus degrade at a faster rate than a ‘white’ fish. This is not to say that only oily fish are suitable for smoking. Any fish that is acquired, if fresh will lend its self well to being smoked if cured correctly. The moisture content or proportion of water in the tissue structure is usually greater with white fish and requires curing for longer. Extracting more of the water content helps the process, because smoke finds it hard to penetrate water.

The processes of smoking.

There are two types of smoking ‘Hot’ and ‘cold’, both use different techniques but the principals are basically the same, in the fact that smoke is generated from a combustible non toxic material such as wood chipping, shaving or saw dust, and that the smoke is allowed to slowly pass over the fish. The differences are that with cold smoking, the smoke is generated out side of the main chamber containing the fish, here by allowing the smoke to cool before passing over the fish curing it slowly. Alternatively with hot smoking the smoke is generated inside the main smoking chamber and the fish cooks as it smokes. The most suitable woods for smoking materials are from the trees that bear a fruit. The most common being the Oak, different mixes and blends are used by discerning smoke houses to create unique and delicate flavours. I would recommend any of the following woods. Oak, Apple, Cherry, Ash, Beach or Hazel. Try your own combinations and taste the difference. Dry seasoned wood should be used where possible, standing self seasoned timber is ideal. Small dead twigs, sticks and leaves will work just as well. (as will dried sea weed).

Note: never use treated or painted timber as Toxic fumes may be created when burnt or heated.
Never use saw dust from an un know source or from the process of mechanical machinery such as a Chain Saws. The lubricants used on the blade may taint the food , possibly leaving residual residues .

Making a smoker.
Smokers can be made out of virtually any thing, including cardboard boxes, old fridges, barrels and old food oil drums. If no man made materials are to hand, naturally available recourses are just as good with Stones, turfs and small logs being used to create the smoking chamber.

Making a cold smoker is slightly more complex than a hot smoker but the rewards are worth there weight in gold. The flavour is lighter and more delicate, with the fishes ‘shelf’ life extending longer than its hot smoked relative. The flesh remains a pale translucent colour that is firm to the touch. To make the cold smoker you will first need two suitable receptacles, the first will be the smoke generator, the second the main chamber containing the fish. The two chambers are joined with a length of tubing or pipe. This can be passed through cold water if available. A good two meters of pipe should belong enough to allow the smoke to cool sufficiently before passing over the fish.

Making a Hot Smoking is a fairly simple task after the preparation, and cure have been applied. Light the fire inside the chamber allowing the smoke to pass directly over the fish. The smoke is still hot as it does this and cooks the fish as it smokes. Although it is cooked and smoked it will not keep for as long as the cold smoked fish. This is because the smoke has not had chance to penetrate deep inside the flesh. The time it keeps for is dependent on the temperature its stored at. A cool airy place is recommended. The fish can be hung to air dry or raped in grease proof paper in the fridge or larder. Never use plastic rapping.

Note: avoid using any thing that used to contain non food stuffs, especially if it displays a picture of a skull and cross bones. It would have contained harmful and poisonous substances ( It may belong to a Pirate :) either way leave well alone.

Times and cures.
Curing is the process that takes place before the smoking, removing the water and helping to flavour the fish. The cure can contain herbs or spices that have anti bacterial and insect repelling properties such as fennel, pepper , bay and juniper. The main base of the cure usually always contains salt and some times sugar. Scandinavian and Baltic cultures often add pine needled to the cure and also use them to store the fish in. The Pine wood is also used to smoke the fish giving it a strong flavour almost disinfectant like.
The time the fish will need to be left in the cure will depend on the size of the fillet, or the type of fish. The cure is either a wet brine cure or a dry rub usually consisting of equal quantities of both salt and sugar. For a wet cure or brine the ratio of salt and sugar to liquid is usually 300 grams in 1 litre of liquid. The liquid can be water or even cider, beer, or wine. Try adding combinations of you own favourite aromatics to create you own unique flavours. The fish fillets are rubbed with the cure or soaked in the brine for usually 10 to 30 minutes with the bigger fillet the longer the time of cure.
The dry rub must be washed off before smoking. In both cases the fillets must be dried well with a clean cloth.

Preparing the fish.
Ensuring you use fresh fish is absolutely is vital, if your unsure of its origin a good rule of thumb to check freshness is to close your eyes and smell the fish. If its smells of fish or ‘fishy’ its probably already decomposing some what and thus un-fresh. Fresh fish has a delicate clean smell of the ocean.
Fish can be smoked whole or cut to produce fillets. First you will need to clean the fish in clean water and remove the scales by rubbing with the back of a knife from the tail towards the head, short firm strokes are best to ensure all the scales have been removed with a final sweep to be sure.
Scaling is best done out side or in water as they have a habit of sticking to any thing they make contact with. If your fish is whole the stomach or ‘guts’ must be removed, this is done by carefully entering the tip of you knife into the anal vent and pushing as you cut up towards the head. Try not to go into deep with the point of the knife or you will split the guts open, don’t worry if you do its just a bit messy. Clean out with the cavity and remove the gills either by pulling or cutting them out. To fillet the fish cut in behind the first fins behind to head until you reach the spinal column, then turn the knife through 90 degrees and trace the knife along the spine bone cutting back towards the tail until the fillet is removed, turn the fish over and repeat the process. Finally trim off any undesirable parts such as fins or sharp spines. The fish is now ready for the cure. Fillets can be tied with cord or string to be hung later or skewered on to a sharpened clean stick.

The posses of smoking is both a valuable and rewarding skill that allows for preserving sources of protein and creating some thing that tastes truly wonderful, a far cry from the stuff in the gold foil packets! If you haven’t got room to build a small smoker or want to practise at home there are several small ready made kits on the market that will do the job.
Note: Always ensure you use a well ventilated area when smoking.

By Fraser Christian.

Courses for everyone

2009-12-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

Coastal survival school , courses are suitable for all skill levels, individuals and Groups of up to 12 can enjoy having fun learning valuable skills. The UK Coast line is a beautiful and sometimes wild environment, with an abundance of wild food, fish and shellfish. Learn how to collect, catch and cook them, along with the other essential skills needed to both Survive and enjoy the great outdoors.