About California Survival School

Dan Baird, Head Instructor

Dan Baird is one of the world’s leading Back-country Primitive Survival Experts and Guides.

Dan regularly travels and lead’s survival training and exploration trips to some of the most remote and hostile places on earth. As Head Instructor of the largest survival training school in the U.S., Dan is responsible for wilderness programs that field train more people in wilderness survival than any other.

In addition to being a leading back-country primitive survival guide, Dan is also a certified Medical Wilderness First Responder, a FEMA/DHS trained National C.E.R.T. Instructor, and a member/trainer of Law Enforcement Search and Rescue (SAR) teams across California.

Dan has been featured for his remote guiding and survival expertise in the media with National Geographic, History Channel, Forbes, Good Morning America, and many more.

Dave Holladay, Lead Instructor

A founding instructor for Boulder Outdoor Survival School and one of the most experienced primitive survival instructors alive, Dave Holladay has been practicing and teaching primitive living skills for going on 40 years.

Dave has provided survival training and mentorship to the biggest names in survival television, including Bear Grylls (Man V. Wild), Cody Lundine (Dual Survival), Les Stroud (Survivorman), Matt Graham (Dude, You’re Screwed!/Dual Survival), and more. He has also been a survival skills consultant on major motion pictures including: Jeremiah Johnson and Castaway with Tom Hanks.

A native of Arizona, Dave has lived and traveled throughout the southwestern United States and once walked from Mexico to Utah overland with nothing but the clothes on his back.

An expert on living off the land in the American Southwest, Dave also has considerable knowledge of primitive living practices throughout the rest of the Americas from traveling throughout Central and South America since childhood.

For over 30 years Dave has routinely led primitive-adventure trips through Copper Canyon Mexico alongside the Tarahumara Indians. He is proud to be their friend and an advocate who supports their efforts to preserve their cultural identity and traditions.

Matt Graham, Lead Instructor

Matt Graham is one of the world’s premier survival adventurers and primitive living skills teachers. A well-known TV presenter, Matt has hosted Discovery Channel’s “Dual Survival”, “Dude, You’re Screwed”, and “Bushcraft Build-off” among others.

Matt Graham grew up near the ocean in California by winter, and had a summer cabin in the mountains where his father who was a big fan of Euell Gibbons, taught him about edible plants and hunting. Moving on to Yosemite Valley at age 17 Matt took up Mountain Running and Climbing, spending long stretches deep in the backcountry.

He also had mentorship from Miwok elders and a naturalist who lived in the valley. At age 23, Matt ran the length of California on the pacific Crest Trail (1,700 miles) in 58 days. Eventually he became a noted primitive skills expert and hunter gatherer, once spending 6 straight months in the wilderness alone without contact from town.

Matt has been leading Hunter Gather style courses for more than 30 years and is someone who has a unique skill set to learn from.

Dr. Theresa Emmerich Kamper, Specialist Instructor

Dr. Theresa Emmerich Kamper is a veteran of History Channel’s Alone(Season 8) and BBC 4’s Surviving the Stone Age, bringing over 25 years of expertise in primitive technology and traditional living skills. Raised in the wilderness of Wyoming, she mastered brain tanning by age 12, a passion that evolved into a distinguished academic career. She holds a master’s in Experimental Archaeology and a PhD focused on the microscopic analysis of prehistoric skin artifacts from the University of Exeter.

Beyond the screen, Dr. Emmerich Kamper is an honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter and the author of Determining Prehistoric Skin Processing Technologies. Her professional portfolio includes an internship with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and collaborative research with the EU-funded Openarch project.

Today, she operates globally, teaching traditional tannage and experimental archaeology across Europe, North America, and the Near East.

Cat Bigney, Lead Instructor

With over 20+ years of guiding and survival instruction experience, Cat Bigney is one of the most accomplished and prominent wilderness survival and traditional living skills instructors in the world.
Cat has hosted her own survival/adventure series for National Geographic – “The Great Human Race”, and also acted as Lead Female Consultant for Bear Grylls’ “The Island”. Cat has also been featured on Discovery’s BushCraft Build-off, Ed Stafford’s “First Man Out” and more.

Reza Allah-Bakhshi

Reza Allah-Bakhshi is a world-class adventurer, journalist, photographer, and survival skills instructor who travels to the far reaches of the world to learn primitive living skills directly from indigenous cultures that still use them on a daily basis and to tell their story. Reza’s pursuit of ancestral knowledge has taken him to study under masters of primitive living in the Philippines, Mexico, Africa, Peru, and across the United States.

As a conflict documentarian, Reza has put his life on the line to document conflict in warzones, including Sudan and Ukraine.

Reza is a regular contributor to SWAT magazine and other outdoor/survival publications, where he publishes articles on survival gear and tactics. An Orange County native, Reza loves to explore the local mountains of his Santa Ana home and has become adept at identifying the plants and animals that are useful to survival in his home range. Reza is also a certified wilderness first responder.

Rob DuBois, Specialist Instructor

Rob DuBois is a security consultant, public speaker, performance coach, and retired Navy SEAL. He was also labeled a “smart power authority” while advising the Iraqi general in charge of intelligence in Baghdad. Rob is the author of the singular book on global security and effective society from the point of view of a boots-on-ground practitioner: Powerful Peace; A Navy SEAL’s Lessons on Peace from a Lifetime at War.

Rob has worked in more than 30 countries, representing every climate on earth, and survived in all of them. His primary work in the SEAL Teams was “special reconnaissance” — the art and science of walking through, and observing from within, enemy territory…without detection. In 2015, Rob DuBois successfully completed a primitive crossing of hundreds of miles of Serengeti in National Geographic’s “MYgrations.” He is the Founder of Impact Actual, and works anywhere on the planet. Rob’s vast professional expertise has been invaluable in helping California Survival School build and support training programs for members of the U.S. Armed Services, retired Military Veterans, and other outdoor professional organizations.

Kap Te’o Tafiti, Lead Instructor – Traditional Island Survival Skills Specialist

Hailing from Samoa and based in Hawai’i, Kap is one of the world’s foremost traditional island survival skills specialists. As Head Cultural Ambassador of PCC Hawaii, Kap is a world- class “edutainer”, who educates, and entertains millions of people annually.

Kap is also Head Instructor for Hawaii Survival School, our sister school in the Hawaiian Islands dedicated to teaching both traditional and modern island survival and living skills

Kap is especially known for his abilities with friction-friction fire, wild foods, traditional cooking, fire-knife dancing, and more. Kap is also highly sought after as a media consultant, with involvement as a cultural specialist for Moana, as well as working with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson during “Fast & Furious presents: Hobbs and Shaw” on Oahu.