BOSS, The Boulder Outdoor Survival School: An Evolution in Survival and Primitive Living
Saqqara Aleister
November 04, 2007
The sun rises every morning, can you smell the sunshine? With all your hurried e-mails, dropping the kids off at school, microwaving your first cup of coffee for the third time and getting to work three minutes before your boss, take a minute to smell the sunshine, to admire that flower that fought so hard to break through all the cement on your office patio.
People today live in a dizzying world of high tech gadgets, 2.5 kids, four bosses, two cars, fifteen meals a day, t-ball, dance class, naps between meetings and rarely finishing the front page of the Sunday paper. Push back away from your desk and look around, remember when you were a kid, you stopped to breathe, you enjoyed the sunshine, learning new things, going on adventures {even to the grocery}. Remember what it was like to make things, that ashtray in art class, even if your dad didn't smoke it was always an ashtray. Remember when mom use to have dinner cooking when you got home from school, how you wanted to learn to cook like mom. There were always healthy snacks, healthy food, healthy play time, when did the healthfulness of years gone by vanish from kids lives, from our lives.
Today's children get almost no physical education, almost no nutrition classes, they are more or less taught to fear going on adventures, fear other culture's differences and will tell you that the United States has no culture. Places like Japan, France, England have more culture then the US. The only thing they learn about the Native American culture is when they hear about them in history class. Then there is BOSS, The Boulder Outdoor Survival School, founded in 1968 BOSS delivers life-changing, wilderness experiences without dependence on modern technology. You won't get to use the latest GPS, that fold out bed or even that four person tent stored on the top shelf of your garage, behind the Christmas lights.
At BOSS you stop to breathe. Depending on the course you choose, a 28 day field course where you head into the desert of Southern Utah with only a few selected item, like a poncho. This is where that fear of the adventure turns into the exhilaration of childhood learning, experiencing new things. You learn to live like the traditional native Americans of the area lived. No tents, no backpacks or cell phones. You can start at one of the courses offered at BOSS' Slickrock Gathering, 7 and 14 day primitive living skills courses. Things like Textiles, Medicinal use of Plants and Primitive Pottery. Each course introduces you at a slower more easy pace to the BOSS benefits.
The BOSS curriculae references the cultures of Native tribes like the Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, and Apache. Food at BOSS could be viewed as traditional to the culture, things like lentils, rice, quinoa, amaranth, oatmeal, carrots, potatoes and vegetarian bouillon. Students prepare their own meals and allergies to certain food can be dealt with when signing up for your course.
The President/CEO of BOSS, some of you may have seen on television, Josh Bernstein, host of the hugely popular "Digging For The Truth" on the History channel. A staunch environmentalist {he drives a Australian troop carrier converted to drive using used vegetable oil}, and passionate educator who enjoys teaching, weather it's about BOSS itself or other cultures through the shows on "Digging for the Truth", which he left this year after his third season to be able to produce/host his own shows in a lucrative, multi-layered deal with Discovery Networks.
But BOSS is also run by thirty-five, what Josh likes to refer to as "hardy souls" who have the experience in cultures ranging from Malaysia to the Arctic. All BOSS staff start as students, even the CEO started as a student, taking his first course nineteen years ago and was sold. He describes being attracted to the rugged simplicity of the BOSS curriculum and the staggering beauty of the Utah landscape and the community of the instructors and has never known a more honest, hard working group of people where it's a pleasure to be part of the BOSS family. Staff are required to complete the BOSS Apprenticeship program and are selected for their sound judgement, strong leadership, interpersonal and communicative skills. Along with their knowledge of traditional arts and crafts. They all have wilderness medical training and take required refresher courses every year.
Josh describes the BOSS philosophy as one that has deeper levels then just the survival skills, they simultaneously expose adventurers to the wisdom of traditional cultures, the power of nature and the strength of the human spirit. Which in his recent travels has helped greatly, he, knowing that if he reached inside and focused he could get through the daily grind, saying, "The human spirit has a tremendous capacity for growth and adaptation, it doesn't matter where you are, the city or the wilderness".
The educator in Josh comes across vividly when he talks, be it on "Digging for the Truth", in e-mail or if he's speaking to his New York high school alma mater, Horace Mann. He enjoys awakening people to new perspectives of life and at BOSS that never ends. First day to last you have your hands into every aspect of the course you're on, be it pottery, where you will be digging clay to firing it or learning how to use every part of an animal for food, clothing, tools ect.
Josh and that for matter BOSS has a passion for teaching through cultural and environmental respect and in personal development through exploration. His staff lived vicariously through his travels which he hopes broadened their interests in other places and people. He believes life is a journey to be embraced and BOSS reminds people of that in a unique and powerful way, explaining, " I am passionate about education, weather on the BOSS trail or television, because I believe we are all here to create, learn, explore and discover on a daily basis".
You ask what BOSS isn't, BOSS isn't some type of military survival or youth intervention program. BOSS is not a cake walk, you will be pushed to what you think your limits are and create new limits for yourself and your body so it's not for passive people, you will be involved and it's not a risk free experience, mother nature is harsh and unforgiving, learning to live with what nature offers is key to living in a world that tries to confine you to that desk.
Wake up to the sun rising over the most beautiful rock sculptures mother nature can create, you smell sunlight and feel the warmth on your skin, lean back and just breathe.
People today live in a dizzying world of high tech gadgets, 2.5 kids, four bosses, two cars, fifteen meals a day, t-ball, dance class, naps between meetings and rarely finishing the front page of the Sunday paper. Push back away from your desk and look around, remember when you were a kid, you stopped to breathe, you enjoyed the sunshine, learning new things, going on adventures {even to the grocery}. Remember what it was like to make things, that ashtray in art class, even if your dad didn't smoke it was always an ashtray. Remember when mom use to have dinner cooking when you got home from school, how you wanted to learn to cook like mom. There were always healthy snacks, healthy food, healthy play time, when did the healthfulness of years gone by vanish from kids lives, from our lives.
Today's children get almost no physical education, almost no nutrition classes, they are more or less taught to fear going on adventures, fear other culture's differences and will tell you that the United States has no culture. Places like Japan, France, England have more culture then the US. The only thing they learn about the Native American culture is when they hear about them in history class. Then there is BOSS, The Boulder Outdoor Survival School, founded in 1968 BOSS delivers life-changing, wilderness experiences without dependence on modern technology. You won't get to use the latest GPS, that fold out bed or even that four person tent stored on the top shelf of your garage, behind the Christmas lights.
At BOSS you stop to breathe. Depending on the course you choose, a 28 day field course where you head into the desert of Southern Utah with only a few selected item, like a poncho. This is where that fear of the adventure turns into the exhilaration of childhood learning, experiencing new things. You learn to live like the traditional native Americans of the area lived. No tents, no backpacks or cell phones. You can start at one of the courses offered at BOSS' Slickrock Gathering, 7 and 14 day primitive living skills courses. Things like Textiles, Medicinal use of Plants and Primitive Pottery. Each course introduces you at a slower more easy pace to the BOSS benefits.
The BOSS curriculae references the cultures of Native tribes like the Anasazi, Fremont, Navajo, and Apache. Food at BOSS could be viewed as traditional to the culture, things like lentils, rice, quinoa, amaranth, oatmeal, carrots, potatoes and vegetarian bouillon. Students prepare their own meals and allergies to certain food can be dealt with when signing up for your course.
The President/CEO of BOSS, some of you may have seen on television, Josh Bernstein, host of the hugely popular "Digging For The Truth" on the History channel. A staunch environmentalist {he drives a Australian troop carrier converted to drive using used vegetable oil}, and passionate educator who enjoys teaching, weather it's about BOSS itself or other cultures through the shows on "Digging for the Truth", which he left this year after his third season to be able to produce/host his own shows in a lucrative, multi-layered deal with Discovery Networks.
But BOSS is also run by thirty-five, what Josh likes to refer to as "hardy souls" who have the experience in cultures ranging from Malaysia to the Arctic. All BOSS staff start as students, even the CEO started as a student, taking his first course nineteen years ago and was sold. He describes being attracted to the rugged simplicity of the BOSS curriculum and the staggering beauty of the Utah landscape and the community of the instructors and has never known a more honest, hard working group of people where it's a pleasure to be part of the BOSS family. Staff are required to complete the BOSS Apprenticeship program and are selected for their sound judgement, strong leadership, interpersonal and communicative skills. Along with their knowledge of traditional arts and crafts. They all have wilderness medical training and take required refresher courses every year.
Josh describes the BOSS philosophy as one that has deeper levels then just the survival skills, they simultaneously expose adventurers to the wisdom of traditional cultures, the power of nature and the strength of the human spirit. Which in his recent travels has helped greatly, he, knowing that if he reached inside and focused he could get through the daily grind, saying, "The human spirit has a tremendous capacity for growth and adaptation, it doesn't matter where you are, the city or the wilderness".
The educator in Josh comes across vividly when he talks, be it on "Digging for the Truth", in e-mail or if he's speaking to his New York high school alma mater, Horace Mann. He enjoys awakening people to new perspectives of life and at BOSS that never ends. First day to last you have your hands into every aspect of the course you're on, be it pottery, where you will be digging clay to firing it or learning how to use every part of an animal for food, clothing, tools ect.
Josh and that for matter BOSS has a passion for teaching through cultural and environmental respect and in personal development through exploration. His staff lived vicariously through his travels which he hopes broadened their interests in other places and people. He believes life is a journey to be embraced and BOSS reminds people of that in a unique and powerful way, explaining, " I am passionate about education, weather on the BOSS trail or television, because I believe we are all here to create, learn, explore and discover on a daily basis".
You ask what BOSS isn't, BOSS isn't some type of military survival or youth intervention program. BOSS is not a cake walk, you will be pushed to what you think your limits are and create new limits for yourself and your body so it's not for passive people, you will be involved and it's not a risk free experience, mother nature is harsh and unforgiving, learning to live with what nature offers is key to living in a world that tries to confine you to that desk.
Wake up to the sun rising over the most beautiful rock sculptures mother nature can create, you smell sunlight and feel the warmth on your skin, lean back and just breathe.
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