The people who actually run the expeditions.

Derek founded Untamed Tribe to close the gap he watched form over a decade in military service, engineering, and expedition environments — between people who looked successful and people who were actually capable when pressure landed.

He sets the operational philosophy, expedition standards, and progression curriculum across the ETP → EPC → Expedition → Advanced → Guide pathway. His expedition resume spans mountain travel, technical diving, paddlesports, and remote navigation across domestic and international environments. The capability-over-comfort doctrine that runs through every Untamed Tribe program is his.

On expedition, Derek leads from inside the cohort — not above it. Evening debriefs, decision-making coaching, and post-trip AARs are run by him personally on every flagship trip.

Founder statement →

Sam runs the water side of Untamed Tribe — Florida springs cave-adjacent training, paddlesports progression, and the Belize jungle-and-reef expedition operations — and owns the participant experience from application through post-expedition AAR.

If you submit an application and book a discovery call, there's a strong chance you're talking to Sam. The conversation is structured as a fit assessment, not a sales pitch — listen 70%, talk 30%, no pressure to commit on the call. That's deliberate.

Sam also shapes cohort culture: the 8-weeks-out Discord introduction, the pre-expedition Zoom, the gear-check rhythm, and the alumni handoff into the Tribe membership. The mentorship doesn't end when the truck leaves the trailhead, and Sam is the reason that promise actually holds.

Adam holds operational governance and safety authority across every expedition Untamed Tribe runs. He owns the documented SOPs, the Emergency Action Plans, the medical screening review, and — most importantly — the authority to delay, reroute, or scrub an expedition when conditions or readiness don't meet the standard.

That authority is structural, not theoretical. No expedition departs without Adam's pre-trip sign-off on guide credentials, medical kits scaled to the risk profile, satellite comms verification, evacuation contingencies, and weather window. The Garmin inReach on every team and the sat phone with the lead guide are his protocols.

Post-expedition, Adam runs the incident and near-miss reporting loop into quarterly SOP updates. The reason Untamed Tribe can promise risk transparency on every expedition page is that someone is paid to enforce it.

Bryce is the field instruction backbone of the ETP weekend and the EPC progression. Wilderness skills, gear systems, load management, navigation under fatigue, firearms safety where applicable — the practical competencies that separate someone who's "into the outdoors" from someone who's actually operational get drilled by Bryce.

His instructional style mirrors the Untamed Tribe doctrine: demanding without being theatrical. No shouting, no manufactured suffering, no tactical-tourism posturing. The standard is clear, the feedback is direct, and the bar is the bar — whether you're a Special Operations alumnus or a software engineer rucking your first 20 pounds.

Bryce also maintains the field gear inventory, the participant gear lists, and the pre-expedition gear-check protocols. If you show up to your ETP weekend with the wrong pack frame, you'll know about it before sunset on day one — and you'll know exactly how to fix it.