My first fire

When I was first learning how to make a bow drill fire it was a long and painful process. I would practice in the backyard but I would always hit a dead end and give up frustrated. I practiced nearly every day for a long time and I would learn a little more about how to make it work better each time I failed. A year went by and I felt pretty confident with bow drill despite the fact that I had never gotten a fire.

One day, after another frustrating practice session I went inside and saw a blog post about a guy who wanted to learn how to make a fire with bow drill. I read his blog and saw his pictures and criticized everything he was doing. His drill was way to skinny and his form was terrible. It was obvious that he had no idea how to do bow drill. However, after three days of practice he was able to get a fire.

I was pretty torn up about the whole thing. I had been trying for a year and I probably did know more about bow drill than this guy and yet he could get a fire and I couldn't. I left the computer and drove over to my friend's house. As I was driving and thinking about this whole thing I really got upset at myself for being so critical of this guy and then this word hit me: Arrogance. Immediately chills ran down my spine and I knew that if I went back home right then I would be able to make a fire. I didn't know why but I knew something had changed in me and that I could do it now.

The entire evening hanging out with my friends I was distracted and couldn't wait to go home and see if this was true. When I got home around 1am I went upstairs to the third floor where I would sit and practice hand drill (hand drill is more difficult than bow drill - generally people learn hand drill after they have gotten a fire with bow drill). I could practice on the third floor because there had never been any risk of me actually getting a fire. I rarely ever made smoke for that matter. Well I sat down to practice and I got a coal, blew it into fire and had to throw it out the window. I was overwhelmed with adrenaline and amazement that it actually happened. The next morning I went outside and got a bow drill fire on my first try.

This experience could be easily written off as coincidence or some little psychological thing. But to me it was magical. It felt like I was given a gift from a different world. And also a story that I can share with people as they are struggling to get their first fire.