Earth Connection of Wilderness Survival and Ancient Skills

Staff Information

Wes Massey is Earth Connection - North Carolina's (EC-NC) Head Instructor and a founder of Earth Connection's North Carolina (NC) chapter which began in 2008. Wes focuses on experiential training as his teaching foundation, spending much of his free time in the Mountains and Piedmont areas of NC practicing primitive and wilderness survival skills. A rigorous teacher and practitioner of primitive/wilderness skills, Wes validates the techniques in simulated survival situations BEFORE he teaches them. Wes sets the highest standards for skill and technique validation, reproducible results, and historical authenticity. He specializes in friction fire techniques, making even the "fire plow" look deceptively easy. Among his teachers, Wes has received extensive training and mentoring from Tim MacWelch and Rick (Hue) Hueston, leading experts in their field and founder/instructors of Earth Connection in Virginia.

Hardee Merritt - EC-NC founder and Instructor sees wilderness survival skills as the driving force behind his personal study in self-reliance. An avid backpacker and adventurer, he began learning wilderness survival skills in the Boy Scouts. Hardee's instructional emphasis is on providing his students with the rudimentary wilderness skills and expertise needed to keep them out of trouble and make their time in the wilderness more comfortable. Hardee Merritt has traveled extensively for outdoor training, particularly studying with Rick (Hue) Hueston and Tim MacWelch, Instructor and Founder of the original Earth Connection school. Hardee also brings more than a decade of teaching experience to his work with EC-NC. As a Fourth-Degree Black-Belt in To Shin Do Ninjutsu and is the Head Instructor and owner of the Chapel Hill Quest Center. Hardee has led classes, seminars, and training of all kinds for adults and youth. Hardee also currently holds a Blue-Belt in Brazilian style jujitsu, and has six years of Mixed Martial Arts training that includes putting it to the test in the ring fighting. Hardee's determination to learn and patient willingness to teach, combined with his passion for the outdoors never fail to inspire his students to appreciate what he has to teach.