Ron Hood
By Alan Halcon & Dude Mclean
“My dad and I used to go fishing all the time. And he gave me my first rifle when I was about ten. I started hunting about that time, after a nice hunters safety course. I joined the NRA and was in the NRA shooting program”
Little did he know those early experiences with his father would be the foundation for who he is today.
Along the way he joined the Army and after some specialized training was sent to Turkey on the Black Sea for about a year and lived in a remote area with some Kurds for a short time where he observed some of their skills. after that he spent some time in Vietnam where he learned a different type of “survival” training.
“it's a different kind of survival training… it gives you an interest in living when you come closer to death. Survival by definition is living longer than the other guy.”
After the military he took some time off and roamed around the woods for about a year. From there he went to work for a bank repossessing cars. From there he opened his own business as a skip tracer where he used the skills he learned in the military. He decided to go back to school where he earned a Bachelors Degree in History, A Master of Science in management and an Ed.D. (ABD). (An Ed.D. is a terminal degree like the Ph.D. However the emphasis is on education and educational systems. ABD stands for "All But Dissertation" and is a common title.
He taught at two Universities, UCLA for 8 years and California State University, Northridge for 18 years.
Survival Classes
While in a biology class Ron's teacher asked if anyone was interested in helping him put together a survival program (It seems at this time a fellow named Larry Dean Olsen was teaching a survival course at BYU). Ron volunteered for the experimental project. By Ron's senior year he was conducting the survival classes on his own. Because of the success of the program he was approached by a couple of professors and was asked if he would like to teach at the university full time.
While teaching his program at Cal State Northridge, Ron ultimately taught survival skills to over 5000 students. At UCLA he taught another 2000 students, during an eight year stint. All The programs were conducted in the classroom and the woods.
During that time Ron's experience led him to consulting for television shows such as MacGyver. He also designed and field tested product for Jansport.
In 1991 Ron decided to stop teaching at the universities, so he could pursue his own private endeavors.
Hoods Woods
About 1995, with the introduction of digital cameras, Ron along with his wife Karen set out to shoot what would become the first of a series of survival videos, “Spark Based Fire Starting”. At about the same time Ron had the foresight to acquire “Survival.com” on the internet… Hoods Woods was born
Although Ron no longer leads survival courses he still continues to share his knowledge of survival through video. Hoods woods, currently, has 22 videos in its inventory, ranging in everything from fire-making to big game dressing. Hoods woods has won no less then 8 Telly awards for their videos. This is an enormous accomplishment considering that other entries include submissions from companies such as Dick Clark Productions, Touchstone pictures, Dream works, Miramax, Warner Bros, Discovery channel, the Learning Channel, HBO and many others.
The information on the videos is considered, by some of the best in the business, to be the most informative and concise information available to the public. Not only will you learn the skills necessary to help you stay alive there is also a wealth of tips throughout each video. The videos are all shot in the field, far away from the civilized world. You get the sense of survival in the wild. Ron has the gift of being a natural born teacher and the fact that he loves to teach is apparent.
The Future
They continue to produce survival related videos along with other products pertinent to your survival.
As a support system for the videos, the Hoods host an online discussion forum where like minded individuals gather to share and exchange their knowledge and experience with others across the planet.
Ron Hood truly is… the Woods Master!
Visit Ron and Karen Hood
Survival.com