If you ever find yourself stranded on a tropical island, it might not be so bad. With the right survival skills you can set up shelter, hunt animals, collect water and prepare food to keep you alive. One important part of survival though is to not expend too much energy. Food will be scarce so you need to maintain that energy for the important things. Opening a coconut is one of those things that can take up quite a bit of energy…but it doesn’t have to.
Using nothing but mother nature, you can easily learn how to open a coconut. No knife, machete, or hammer needed. Check out the simple tutorial, from King of Random, below.
You’re on an island so finding rocks shouldn’t be too difficult. Place the coconut with the pointed side facing up between several heavy rocks. It should stay in place with very little wiggle room.
Step 2: Find the biggest rock you can carry.
Seriously, just grab the biggest rock you find and take it over to where the coconut is.
Step 3: Smash the coconut.
Use the powers of gravity to smash the coconut with the heavy rock. Be careful to not hit yourself. Bring the big rock down on the coconut a couple of times, flip the coconut over so that the flat side points up, and smash it once more.
Once a few cracks appear in the husk, you’re done with the rock smashing.
Step 4: Remove the husk.
Stick your fingers into the cracks of the husk and pull it off.
Remove all of the fibers and save them. They make great kindling.
In case you don’t have access to a wide array of rocks, you can always just use one of our knives, axes or even a bow to open your coconuts. Check them out at our Survival Life store!
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Last update on 2023-01-31 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Perhaps you have already did this: Do an article on how to tell directions (i.e., North) when outside in the wilderness day and night. Methods can include using your watch’s hour hand and pointing it at the sun to tell which direction is north; locating the Big Dipper at night to locate the North Star.
Dave, that made me laugh real hard, years ago my son and I were trying to open a coconut, we were in the kitchen and the coconut was on the floor. We used a hammer and it skidded across the floor. That was the last straw, we laughed and laughed some more. If we had real need of it, I guess there would not have been so much laughing. The rocks and identifying parts on the coconut will make trying to open another one a little more intelligent. Now who is going to climb up the tree to get a fresh coconut, my old bones can not handle the vertigle challenge of my youthful days.
Having seen many of the wrold’s beaches the one problem I see with this, many do have rocks? Coconuts wash up on beaches here in Southeast Texas coming from Mexico I recon, but there are no rocks on our beaches..
To save all the fluid, one of those 3 dark spots is soft, made of the coconut meat. Punch a hole in it and drink all the fluid out before cracking the nut in half..
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Anonymous
January 24, 2018 at 1:08 PM
Perhaps you have already did this: Do an article on how to tell directions (i.e., North) when outside in the wilderness day and night. Methods can include using your watch’s hour hand and pointing it at the sun to tell which direction is north; locating the Big Dipper at night to locate the North Star.
Dave
January 24, 2018 at 2:15 PM
Good article. I’m waiting for the ones, in the future, that will have a ‘pull tab’ to open them.
Juanita Randall
September 30, 2018 at 11:25 PM
Dave, that made me laugh real hard, years ago my son and I were trying to open a coconut, we were in the kitchen and the coconut was on the floor. We used a hammer and it skidded across the floor. That was the last straw, we laughed and laughed some more. If we had real need of it, I guess there would not have been so much laughing. The rocks and identifying parts on the coconut will make trying to open another one a little more intelligent. Now who is going to climb up the tree to get a fresh coconut, my old bones can not handle the vertigle challenge of my youthful days.
LongHaul
September 27, 2018 at 8:57 AM
Rocks are tools.
Capt. Denis
September 27, 2018 at 3:37 PM
Having seen many of the wrold’s beaches the one problem I see with this, many do have rocks? Coconuts wash up on beaches here in Southeast Texas coming from Mexico I recon, but there are no rocks on our beaches..
Keith Rouleau
October 4, 2018 at 1:03 PM
To save all the fluid, one of those 3 dark spots is soft, made of the coconut meat. Punch a hole in it and drink all the fluid out before cracking the nut in half..
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