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.
How To Open A Coconut With No Tools
Step 1: Situate your coconut in a bed of rocks.
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.
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Step 5: Split coconut shell.
On one side of the coconut you'll find three markings: two “eyes” and a “mouth”. Between the eyes is a line that runs across the coconut.
Smash the coconut on a rock perpendicularly across this line.
A clean crack will form.
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Step 6: Open and enjoy.
Open the coconut and enjoy the water and meat.
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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Editor’s Note – This post was originally published on December 12, 2016, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
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.
Good article. I’m waiting for the ones, in the future, that will have a ‘pull tab’ to open them.
Rocks are tools.
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..