Dave Whipple (Bushradical)

Dave Whipple is an outdoorsman, and a popular YouTuber.

He has more than a million subscribers on his YouTube channel, ‘Bushradical’.

Dave is also a motivational speaker and appeared on ‘Alone’ reality TV show.

Introduction-

David Whipple (Dave Whipple) was born on 8 February 1976; he grew up in the middle of lower rural Michigan, amongst Amish.

He did his schooling from Morley Stanwood High School in Michigan.

Dave has a brother, Ryan Whipple, and a sister.

Ryan is also a YouTuber, his YouTube channel, ‘black spruce,’ focuses on outdoor projects.

Reading ‘Survival’ and ‘Danger’ books of Ben East influenced Dave towards outdoors and survival.

Career & his first YouTube channel-

Since finishing high school, Dave has been a concrete tradesman, specifically a cement finisher, and his job involves pouring concrete.

He also worked as a cement contractor and did foundations and slabs; he also built and sold many houses, and cabins; he flips musical instruments.

Dave loved playing guitar, and singing in his rock band, ‘The Atomic Honkies.’

In 1999, he worked as a caretaker at the Starrigavan Campground in Sitka, Alaska; then, he moved to the Aleutian Islands in Alaska and became Remote Caretaker of a remote homestead for seven months.

On 7 January 2014, Dave started his first YouTube channel, ‘whip’s cheap guitars’; currently, he isn’t active on this channel.

In 2000, he and Brooke met Neil Eklund, who at that time was operating a 40 by 70-foot log raft on the Yukon River, and they got an opportunity to work on the log raft.

From 2014 to 2015, Dave worked at National Geographic; from 2016 to 2017, he worked at History television network on the Alone series.

In 2018, he started making and selling regular knives and ulu knives.

The first off-the-grid cabin-

In 2001, Dave and Brooke built their first ever cabin on their two-acre property outside of Fairbanks, Alaska; this was the first property that they ever bought, and it cost them $6,000.

They built their 12ft x 12ft cabin with the timber logs on their property, and during construction, they lived in an 8ft x 8ft tent.

At that time, Dave was working as a cement finisher in Fairbanks, Alaska; Brooke was working as a Recreation Director at Chena Hot Springs Resort in Fairbanks.

It took them three months to build the cabin, and they lived in it for two and a half years; the total cost of 2-acre land and building the cabin was $7,970.

Thanks to this cabin, Dave learnt a lot of skills, became confident, and developed a positive perspective on living off-the-grid.

Later, they purchased multiple properties, and built cabins on them.

In 2021, Dave and Brooke bought an 80-acre remote wilderness property near Lake Superior; in 2023, they bought an abandoned off-grid cabin near their property.

Affording off-the-grid lifestyle-

Since the beginning, Dave has been living frugally; he never had a car payment and used to buy only used vehicles which he could fix himself.

He built his cabins with only the money out of his pocket, without any bank financing and thanks to this, he stayed free from mortgages; he used to sell his cabins in cash sales.

All the above-mentioned things helped Dave to stay debt-free, and his multiple streams of income greatly helps him live off-the-grid.

He prefers living off-the-grid as it is more affordable, as here, he doesn’t pay power, water, TV and heat bills; also, off-the-grid is more peaceful and laid back which allows him to focus on doing creative things, like working on his YouTube channel.

Appearing on History television network-

In 2016, Dave along with Brooke participated in the Alone season 4 on History television network.

They competed in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada and lasted for 49 days but weren’t able to win.

‘Bushradical’-

Dave observed the success of ‘My Self Reliance’ off-grid cabin lifestyle YouTube channel of Shawn James, and as he too was into the off-grid lifestyle for many years, he decided to start his YouTube channel.

So, on 27 January 2017, he started his YouTube channel, ‘Bushradical.’

Dave had a huge collection of off-grid lifestyle videos clips, and he plugged those clips into his YouTube videos; he also started showcasing his new cabins, and as the off-grid has been a popular niche on YouTube, his channel became successful.

As of January 2024, he has 1.05M subscribers on his YouTube channel; he earns from advertisements on his YouTube videos.

Dave uses a Canon Vixia HF G20 camera, and uses a MacBook Pro, and edits his videos with iMovie.

Illness-

In 2006, at 30, Dave developed severe stomach pain, lost 40 pounds, and got hospitalized.

He was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, but in 2008, a CT scan revealed that he was suffering from scar tissue bowel obstruction; eventually, he lost a lot of weight.

Then, a surgery was performed upon Dave in Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and he recovered.

Personal life-

Dave met Brooke at the Ferris State University; at that time, he was a guitarist in a rock band, and she was the lead singer of another rock band, ‘Dive.’

They fell in love and got married on 12 October 1998 on a beach in Jamaica.

Much like Dave, Brooke Whipple is also into outdoors, and has a popular YouTube channel, ‘Girl in the Woods.’

They have a son, Mickey, and a daughter, Belle, who too are into the outdoors.

Dave loves travelling and has travelled extensively in Alaska (he lived in Alaska for six years) and also travelled to Canada.

He is tall at 6′2″.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Dave Whipple?

Share with me in the comment section below.