Unplug from the grid.
Build your own independence.

A note from the founder

My off-grid and survival experience and training isn't a hobby I picked up, it's how I was raised. From a very young age, I was violently trained in off grid living, survival, prepping and the outdoors by my father, who was a Green Beret and Army Special Forces (Airborne) soldier, and a violently angry man.

Growing up we lived off-grid for years at a time, heating and cooking with wood and propane, hauling our own water, lighting the house with oil lamps and the fireplace. Mostly because my dad was a “prepper” and hated authority. It was a very difficult environment to grow up in.

I grew up hunting, fishing, camping, and being trained by my violently abusive father for 17 years. It was a living hell growing up in that house. But…

Despite the abuse, I learned how to deal with it, and I was learning real survival skills like hand-to-hand combat, hunting and tracking, long range shooting, military history, tactics and strategies, overland navigation, escape and evasion tactics and asymmetric warfare, among other things.

Back then, my dad was what we would call a “Doomsday Prepper” today, and we grew up in an extremely strict religious cult-like environment.

That was my life for seventeen years until I fought back against the violent abuse and moved out. I floated around for 12 years until I finally cut ties with my family for my own well-being in 2004 and moved to California, started my own family, and grew a successful business.

I've spent every decade since my toxic childhood, growing my off grid living and survival knowledge, skills and experience and sharing it with millions of people.

Fifteen years ago I made the decision to start writing about off-grid living and survival to help others on their off grid journey while making a living doing what I know and love.

Twelve years ago I launched the Off Grid Living magazine, and five years ago I grew it into Off Grid Living & Survival™ and founded our off grid community of 1.9 million off grid people strong. This is the largest off grid community in the world, and over the last 12 months (as of this writing) we've had 70M+ real people visit our online community.

In the 15 years since I started sharing my knowledge and experience with the world I've published thousands of articles, essays in the off grid space, millions of words of real-world, proven, field-tested off-grid living and survival knowledge, systems designs, off grid stories and hard-won lessons.

My work has helped millions of people start their journey to go off grid. My goal was simple, to help folks achieve their off grid dreams while making a living helping folks on the journey to go off grid.

My extensive knowledge, experience and work is published across the internet, and it speaks for itself.

Every issue of my Off Grid Living & Survival™ magazine is that same real experience, put to work for you. Subscribe now and learn the skills and systems to build the life you want and achieve your off grid dream.

— Eric Wichman, Founder