Aaron Phillips doesn’t spend much time in front of the TV. As the man behind Life Survival, an outdoor program that combines conservation with adventure, he’s made it his life mission to keep as many people off the couch as possible.
By sharing his wild adventures with his loyal followers, it didn’t take long before the BBC and the Discovery Channel took notice. Since then, he starred on “Naked and Afraid” (and conquered that challenge), was a location scout and consultant for various Discovery Channel projects, and acted as a guide for the production crew of Animal Planet’s “Extinct or Alive.”
“The focus is always connecting people with nature!” he says.
And while his career path has always been on the outdoors, it wasn’t until Phillips turned 40 that he realized something was missing from his active lifestyle – scuba diving.
“My wife and I waited a long time to get certified as I am now forty years young, but I feel fortunate I was able to take so many people with me on this journey,” he says. “This was an adventure and an eye-opening experience. The youngest person in our class was 12 years old, and the oldest was in her seventies. It was so refreshing to see folks of all ages enjoying the adventure together.”
That enthusiasm wasn’t missed on his local Florida dive shop either.
“It has been a pleasure bringing the other 70% of our planet to Audrey and Aaron’s life,” says Paul Shepherd, owner of Seminole Scuba. “They are so into nature it is easy to get them excited – however, they have only just touched the surface with the PADI® Open Water course. Now the adventure begins!”
With that, Phillips hasn’t wasted any time jumping into Florida’s springs and rivers.
“People seem to enjoy my videos on the rivers, and now they can enjoy a whole other world that exists under the water,” he says. “Recently, we started diving rivers for fossils, so I imagine you’ll see some epic dive adventures popping up on the Life Survival front over the next year!”
Among those epic dive adventures, Phillips plans to host two custom-guided river adventures in Florida yearly.
“We’re going to bring in instructors from all over the country to share their knowledge of both primitive and modern survival,” Phillips says. “Each adventure addresses the interests and skill levels of our clients. From fine dining riverside to four days in the swamp with nothing but a knife, there isn’t much ground we don’t cover!”
And now that he’s added the underwater realm to his world, that ground area just got a lot larger.
Interested in joining Phillips and his team on their next adventure? Visit lifesurvival.net or reach out to Phillips directly on Instagram @philliclefile or Facebook @aaronphillipsgetoutside.