Thursday, November 14, 2013

Survival Gear - Great For Outdoor Activities, Too

While it's important to be prepared for emergencies and natural disasters, the items you find in survival kits are also useful for a multitude of outdoor activities. In fact, they may have their greatest value as everyday items... at least until a major emergency or disaster actually occurs.It makes sense when you consider the requirements for both emergency and everyday uses. The survival gear's design meets the needs of both. After all, survival gear is designed to be lightweight, compact, durable, and multi-functional - just what you need when you want to travel light and fast, and be prepared for anything at the same time. The first aid kit alone makes it a smart take-along.Thus, it makes good sense to carry a spare kit with you for a variety of outdoor activities. Throw it in the back of the car on the way to the kids' games. Keep it aboard the boat while boating with the family. Take it along for camping with the Scouts or with the family. Use it in any snow sport or activity: downhill or cross-country skiing, snowboarding, or snowmobiling. Don't get caught off trail without some sort of emergency communication and location tools. And the same goes for hiking and other activities in the woods. Take it to the beach or to a picnic, or to the annual company outing. There's no limit to the practical, everday uses of the items designed for survival kits.Finally, it's important to be sure everyone in the family knows how to use the different items in the kit so they can be prepared for a variety of situations, just as you are. Teach the kids what each item is for and when and how to use it. This, of course, is vital to the effective use of survival gear, whether it's for everyday emergencies, or for those major emergencies we all fear.It's easy enough to dismiss the idea of needing a "survival kit" for emergencies and disasters, because we tell ourselves that such catastrophes will never happen to us. But when we consider how useful "survival gear" can be in our everyday outdoor activities, it casts a different light on things. It allows us to envision a very useful "preparedness" we may not have considered before. The very same characteristics that make survival gear useful for survival make it equally useful for outdoor activities on an everyday basis.