Interviews: September 2007 Archives

I met Steven Knopp when my son and I attended his bowmaking workshop this summer. From that absolutely wonderful experience I decided to do an interview with him for the MastersConnection, focusing on his vast experience with archery and the martial arts. During the interview I discovered what a remarkable and self-made man he is, passionate about so many things. He is a wilderness guide and preparedness consultant, and has for many years taught primitive technologies and survival skills. I wanted to include the other parts of that interview as they are so appropriate for this blog. Enjoy!
 

LOUISE:  The wilderness, nature, self-sufficiency and alternative health, are at the core of your life. When did this begin for you?

STEVEN: It was my way of living from the time of my late teenage years, when I left home, even before I moved out here, and even before I began to participate in RSE.  Self-sufficiency, organic gardening, farming.  I grew up around sovereign, self-sufficient people who did all these things for themselves.  I always did that.

I had a wonderful home way in the mountains in North Carolina.  When I decided to leave there and come to the west coast, I wanted something even more wild and beautiful than what I had there.  I didn't want to go less.  I wanted more.  In particular, when I moved back to Washington state I lived way out in the wilderness along the edge of the Olympic National Park and the Olympic wilderness, I lived as extremely self-sufficiently as you could.  When I moved here I really pushed the whole thing to the extreme edge.  I was a survival instructor and taught survival classes all over the west.  I attended many primitive skills and survival type rendezvous events where other people who teach these things, gather together to learn from each other.  I would teach at these things.  I was a wilderness guide. So when I was not growing all my own food and hunting and fishing to provide for myself, I was taking people into the wilderness and teaching them these skills.

It's been my great love, my passion, my great teacher.  I made the choice to live that way very early on and pursued it.  Now I am comfortable living in any kind of circumstance, from extremely primitive or eighteenth or nineteenth century style homesteading, to modern high tech.  I can really blend all those worlds.  I did it for many years.  I pushed the edge of the envelope as far as you can possibly do it today.

LOUISE:  For you to make known the unknown.  You have traveled to so many places on our beautiful planet and carry this love of the natural world wherever you go.