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Canoeing
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Lifesaving
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Motorboating
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Rowing
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Small Boat Sailing
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Water Skiing
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White Water Rafting
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Canoeing
  1. Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while canoeing, including hypothermia, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, sunburn, insect stings, tick bites, blisters, and hyperventilation.
  2. Do the following:
    1. Identify the conditions that must exist before performing CPR on a person. Explain how such conditions are recognized.
    2. Demonstrate proper technique for performing CPR using a training device approved by your counselor.
  3. Before doing the following requirements, successfully complete the BSA swimmer test. Jump feetfirst into water over your head in depth, swim 75 yards or 75 meters in a strong manner using one or more of the following strokes: sidestroke, breaststroke, trudgen, or crawl; then swim 25 yards or 25 meters using an easy resting backstroke. The 100 yards or 100 meters must be swum continuously and include at least one sharp turn. After completing the swim, rest by floating as motionless as possible.
  4. Do the following:
    1. Name and point out the major parts of a canoe and paddle.
    2. Know canoeing terminology.
    3. Explain and demonstrate canoe kneeling and sitting positions and the proper use for each position.
    4. Review and discuss BSA Safety Afloat, and demonstrate the proper fit and use of personal flotation devices (PFDs).
    5. Demonstrate how to load and secure equipment in a canoe.
  5. With a companion and using a properly equipped canoe:
    1. Properly carry, launch, and get into the bow of the canoe from dock or shore (both, if possible).
    2. Paddle 100 yards on one side only in the bow position using a single-blade paddle. Turn underway and return to shore or dock showing proper form and use of the bow or power stroke, diagonal draw, and quarter sweep. Repeat while paddling on the other side.
    3. While paddling on one side only in the bow position, demonstrate how to hold water and stop. Show proper form and use of the push away, pullover, reverse sweep, and backwater. Repeat while paddling on the other side.
    4. Change places with your companion while canoe is afloat.
    5. Paddle 100 yards on one side only in the stern position. Turn underway and return to shore or dock while maintaining course and giving proper signals to your companion. Show proper form and use of the stern (the J stroke). Repeat while paddling on the other side.
    6. While paddling on one side only in the stern position, demonstrate how to hold water and stop. Show proper form and the use of the push away, pullover, reverse sweep, and backstroke. Repeat while paddling on the other side.
    7. As bow paddler, make a proper landing and get out of the canoe while following directions from your companion. Repeat in the stern position giving directions to your companion.
    8. Store canoe properly.
  6. While on deep water with a companion, fully dressed and wearing proper PFD:
    1. Jump safely out of the canoe. Get back in without capsizing.
    2. Capsize the canoe, get back in, secure all loose gear, and paddle the swamped canoe 25 yards. Go overboard from the swamped canoe and swim, tow or push the swamped canoe 50 feet.
    3. Empty the swamped canoe in shallow water.
  7. Demonstrate solo canoe handling:
    1. Launch from shore or pier (both, if possible).
    2. Using a single-blade paddle and paddling only on one side, demonstrate proper form and use of the forward stroke (J stroke), forward and reverse sweeps, backwater, stop, pullover, push away, inside and outside pivots, and sculling. Repeat while paddling on the other side.
    3. While paddling on one side only, paddle a 50-yard course making at least one turn underway and one reverse of direction. Repeat while paddling on the other side.
    4. Make a proper landing at dock or shore (both, if possible). Store canoe properly (with assistance, if needed).
  8. While alone in a canoe on deep water and wearing PFD, jump safely out of the canoe. Get back in without capsizing.
  9. With a companion in your canoe and while giving instructions to persons who have capsized a canoe in deep water, empty the swamped canoe over your own canoe and assist the persons in reboarding the emptied canoe.
  10. Discuss:
    1. General care and maintenance of canoeing equipment.
    2. How to rig a canoe for sailing.
    3. The difference between river (moving water) canoeing and lake (flatwater) canoeing.
Top
Lifesaving
  1. Before doing requirements 2-15
    1. Earn the Swimming merit badge.
    2. Swim 400 yards.
  2. Explain
    1. Safe Swim Defense and Safety Afloat
    2. The order of methods in water rescue
  3. Show reaching rescues using such things as arms, legs, branches, sticks, towels, shirts, paddles, and poles.
  4. Show rescues using items that can be thrown, such as lines, ring buoys, rescue bags, and free-floating supports.
  5. Show or explain the use of rowboats, canoes, and other small craft in making rescues.
  6. With a helper and a practice victim, show a line rescue both as tender and as rescuer. Perform the rescue with the practice victim approximately thirty feet from the tender. Use a 100-foot length of 3/16-inch line.
  7. Show that you can remove street clothes on shore (except underwear or swim trunks) in 20 seconds or less. Explain the importance of disrobing before a swimming rescue. "Street clothes" means low shoes, socks, underwear (or trunks), pants, belt, and a long-sleeve shirt. A jacket, sweater, or sweatshirt also may be worn.
  8. Explain the importance of avoiding contact with a victim; explain "lead" and "wait" tactics; and explain why equipment should be used in a swimming rescue.
  9. Swim 30 feet and make the correct approach to a tired swimmer. Move the tired swimmer 30 feet to safety using the following:
    1. Underarm swim-along
    2. Two-person assist
  10. Make rescues on a practice victim 30 feet from shore, using the correct entry and a strong approach stroke, and bringing the victim back to pier or poolside, using
    1. A rescue tube or torpedo buoy
    2. A shirt, towel, or other equipment
    3. A front approach and wrist tow
    4. A rear approach and single armpit tow
    5. A rear approach and single armpit tow, changing to the cross-chest carry

    Discuss the different methods for removing the victim from the water. Choose the appropriate method for your situation. Remove the practice victim from the water and place in position for resuscitation.

  11. Show in deep water your defense against grasps by blocking and escaping. Free yourself from a wrist hold, rear head-hold, and a front head-hold.
  12. Make four surface dives in 8 to 10 feet of water. Retrieve an object on each of the first three dives. Bring up a 10-pound weight on the fourth dive.
  13. Show search techniques as a part of a lost-swimmer drill. Discuss search techniques using mask, fins, and a snorkel (not scuba).
  14. Do the following:
    1. Explain how to recognize and confirm cardiac arrest.
    2. Demonstrate proper technique for performing CPR using a training device approved by your counselor.
  15. Demonstrate proper management of a spinal injury by
    1. Explaining the signs and symptoms of a spinal injury
    2. Supporting a faceup victim in calm, shallow water
    3. Turning a person from a facedown to a faceup position while maintaining support
Top
Motor Boating
  1. Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while motorboating, including hypothermia, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, sunburn, insect stings, tick bites, blisters, and hyperventilation.
  2. Do the following:
    1. Identify the conditions that must exist before performing CPR on a person. Explain how such conditions are recognized.
    2. Demonstrate proper technique for performing CPR using a training device approved by your counselor.
  3. Before doing the following requirements, successfully complete the BSA swimmer test. Jump feetfirst into water over your head in depth, swim 75 yards or 75 meters in a strong manner using one or more of the following strokes: sidestroke, breaststroke, trudgen, or crawl; then swim 25 yards or 25 meters using an easy, resting backstroke. The 100 yards or 100 meters must be swum continuously and include at least one sharp turn. After completing the swim, rest by floating as motionless as possible.
  4. Show you know safety laws for motorboating:
    1. Have a permit to run a motorboat, if needed.
    2. Explain laws affecting pleasure boating in your state.
    3. Discuss with your counselor how the hazards of weather and heavy water conditions can affect both safety and performance in motorboating.
    4. Promise that you will live up to the Scout Boating code. Explain the meaning of each point.
    5. Discuss with your counselor the nautical rules of the road and describe the national and your state's aids to navigation.
    6. Explain and show the correct use of equipment required by both state and federal regulations to be carried aboard a motorboat.
    7. Explain the requirement on federal and state ventilation rules and state why this is needed.
  5. Show you know how to run a motorboat by doing the following the right way:
    1. Get in a boat.
    2. Fuel and check motor before starting.
    3. Start motor and get under way from a dock or beach.
    4. Run a straight course for a quarter mile. Make right-angle turns to left or right. Make a U-turn.
    5. Stop boat. Drop anchor. Raise it. Get under way.
    6. Come alongside a dock. Tie up or beach.
  6. Show how to:
    1. Tie up or take boat from water.
    2. Store gear.
    3. Prepare motor for the winter.
Top
Rowing
  1. Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while rowing, including hypothermia, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, sunburn, insect stings, tick bites, blisters, and hyperventilation.
  2. Do the following:
    1. Identify the conditions that must exist before performing CPR on a person. Explain how such conditions are recognized.
    2. Demonstrate proper technique for performing CPR using a training device approved by your counselor.
  3. Before doing the following requirements, successfully complete the BSA swimmer test. Jump feetfirst into water over your head in depth, swim 75 yards in a strong manner using one or more of the following strokes: sidestroke, breaststroke, trudgen, or crawl; then swim 25 yards using an easy resting backstroke. The 100 yards must be swum continuously and include at least one sharp turn. After completing the swim, rest by floating.
  4. Review and discuss Safety Afloat and demonstrate the proper fit and use of personal flotation devices (PFDs).
  5. Alone or with a passenger, do the following correctly in either a fixed-seat or sliding-seat rowboat:
    1. Launch and land from and to shore.
    2. Row in a straight line for a quarter mile. Stop, make a pivot turn, and return to the starting point.
    3. Backwater in a straight line for 50 yards. Make a turn under way and return to the starting point.
    4. Properly moor or rack your craft. Demonstrate your ability to tie the following mooring knots: clove hitch, roundturn with two half hitches, bowline, and hitching tie or mooring hitch.
  6. In a fixed-seat rowboat, do the following:
    1. Come alongside a dock and help a passenger into the boat. Row 50 feet, stop, pivot, and come back to the dock. Help the passenger from the boat.
    2. Show sculling in good form over the stern for 10 yards. Turn under way and return to starting point.
  7. Alone or with one other person who is a swimmer, tip over a rowboat. Turn it right side up, get in, and row or paddle 10 yards with hands or oars. Tell why you should stay with a swamped boat.
  8. Alone in a rowboat, push off from the shore or a dock. Row 10 yards to a swimmer. While giving instructions to the swimmer, turn the boat so that the swimmer may hold onto the stern. Tow him to shore.
  9. Show or explain the proper use of anchors for rowboats.
  10. Describe the following:
    1. Types of craft used in commercial, competitive, and recreational rowing.
    2. Four common boatbuilding materials. Give some good and bad points of each.
    3. Types of oarlocks used in commercial, competitive, and recreational rowing.
  11. Discuss the following:
    1. The advantage of feathering oars while rowing
    2. How to handle a rowboat in a storm
    3. How to properly fit out and maintain a boat in season, and how to prepare and store a boat for winter
    4. How to calculate the weight a boat may carry under normal conditions
    5. The differences between fixed-seat and sliding-seat rowing
    6. The different meaning of the term sculling in fixed- and sliding-seat rowing.
    7. The health benefits from rowing for exercise
Top
Small Boat Sailing
  1. Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while small-boat sailing, including hypothermia, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, sunburn, insect stings, tick bites, blisters, and hyperventilation.
  2. Do the following:
    1. Identify the conditions that must exist before performing CPR on a person. Explain how such conditions are recognized.
    2. Demonstrate proper technique for performing CPR using a training device approved by your counselor.
  3. Before doing the following requirements, successfully complete the BSA swimmer test. Jump feetfirst into water over your head in depth, swim 75 yards or 75 meters in a strong manner using one or more of the following strokes: sidestroke, breaststroke, trudgen, or crawl; then swim 25 yards or 25 meters using an easy resting backstroke. The 100 yards or 100 meters must be swum continuously and include at least one sharp turn. After completing the swim, rest by floating as motionless as possible.
  4. Describe the boat you will be using for the sailing requirement, naming all of the major parts and the functions of those parts. The skills may be demonstrated on any boat available to the Scout. While no specific sail plan is recommended, it is suggested that the craft be under 20 feet. The boat must have the capability of sailing to windward.

    Tell the difference between keel, centerboard, dagger board, bilgeboard, and leeboard. Explain the purpose of each.

  5. Before going afloat do the following:
    1. Discuss the nine points of the BSA Safety Afloat plan.
    2. Discuss the rules of the road in general and any specific rules or laws that apply to your area or state.
    3. Discuss with your counselor how the hazards of weather and heavy water conditions can affect both safety and performance in sailing.
    4. Prepare a typical float plan.
  6. With the help of a buddy, show you can sail a boat properly by doing the following:
    1. Prepare the boat for sailing, include a safety inspection.
    2. Get under way from a dock, mooring, or beach.
    3. Properly set sails for a course that will include running, beating, and reaching -- the basic points of sailing.
    4. Change tack by coming about; by jibing.
    5. Anchor properly.
    6. Demonstrate the rescue of a man overboard and capsize procedures. Capsize procedures should be conducted under the close supervision of the counselor. A rescue boat should be standing by to assist, if necessary, and to tow the capsized craft to shore. Self-bailing boats are acceptable for this requirement. Extreme care should be taken to avoid personal injury and damage to the boat or its equipment.
    7. Demonstrate the procedure to use in the following: helping others, bad weather, running aground.
    8. Upon returning to your dock, mooring, or beach, properly secure all equipment, furl or stow sails, and prepare the craft for unattended docking, mooring, or beaching for overnight or longer.
  7. Have a working knowledge of marlinspike seamanship and do the following:
    1. Show how to tie the square or reef knot, clove hitch, two half hitches, bowline, figure-eight knot, and mooring hitch. Demonstrate the use of each.
    2. Show how to heave a line, coil a line, fake down a line.
    3. Whip the ends of a line; tell why whippings are used.
    4. Discuss the kinds of lines used on sailboats and the types of fibers used in their manufacture. Tell the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  8. Describe how you would care for and maintain a sailboat and its gear throughout the year.
  9. With the counselor, review sailing terminology; include points of sailing. Discuss various types of sailboats in use today; tell their differences.
  10. Give a short history of sailing in the United States, including its importance in the growth of our nation. Discuss commercial and recreational sailing, including racing and the America's Cup. This requirement may be completed in written or oral form.
Top
Water Skiing
  1. Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while waterskiing, including hypothermia, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, sunburn, insect stings, tick bites, blisters, and hyperventilation.
  2. Do the following:
    1. Identify the conditions that must exist before performing CPR on a person. Explain how such conditions are recognized.
    2. Demonstrate proper technique for performing CPR using a training device approved by your counselor.
  3. Before doing the following requirements, successfully complete the BSA swimmer test. Jump feetfirst into water over your head in depth. Level off and swim 75 yards in a strong manner, using one or more of the following strokes: sidestroke, breaststroke, trudgen, or crawl; then swim 25 yards using an easy resting backstroke. The 100 yards must be completed in one swim without stops and must include at least one sharp turn. After completing the swim, rest by floating.
  4. Know the Water-Skier's Safety Code. Promise that you will live up to it. Follow it in all water work for this badge. Know the safety precautions that must be used by the boat operator in pulling skiers.
  5. Show the following water-skier signals to safety observer in boat: in gear, start, faster, slower, speed required, speed OK, turns, stop, back to dock, cut motor, skier in water. Help others to ski by acting as the safety observer in the boat.
  6. In deep water, show you can adjust binders to fit, put on skis, and recover skis that have come off during a fall.
  7. Make a deep-water start on two skis without help.
  8. Show you can fall properly to avoid an obstacle. Also, show that you can drop handle and coast to a stop without loss of balance.
  9. Show you can cross both wakes and return to center of wake without falling. Repeat three times.
  10. On two skis, jump off the wake. Lift both skis clear of the water.
  11. During a demonstration run, lift one ski clear of the water for 2 seconds. Then do the same with the other ski. Show that you are steady and comfortable on skis at all times.
  12. Ski on one ski for 30 seconds. Show reasonable control.
Top
White Water Rafting
  1. Show that you know first aid for injuries or illnesses that could occur while working on the Whitewater merit badge, including hypothermia, heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration, sunburn, insect stings, tick bites, blisters, and hyperventilation.
  2. Do the following:
    1. Identify the conditions that must exist before performing CPR on a person. Explain how such conditions are recognized.
    2. Demonstrate proper technique for performing CPR using a training device approved by your counselor.
  3. Before doing the other requirements earn the Canoeing merit badge, then do the following:
    1. Demonstrate basic canoe-handling skills by completing the Scout Gate Test within 120 seconds while paddling tandem with a buddy.
    2. Review and compare BSA Safety Afloat and the American Whitewater Affiliation Safety Code and demonstrate your understanding of these principles by answering questions from your counselor.
  4. Identify and explain the use of safety equipment on running water.
  5. Explain the International Scale of River Difficulty and apply the scale to the stretch of river where you are practicing and demonstrating your whitewater skills. Identify the specific characteristics of the river that are factors in your classification according to the International Scale.
  6. Explain how to scout and read a river both while afloat and from ashore. Explain open and closed V's, shoals with broken or dancing water, boils, strainers, broken drops, haystacks, dams, falls and lowhead obstructions, eddies, whirlpools, crosscurrents, flat rocks, standing waves, sheer drops, and heavy water. Demonstrate your ability to read the river where you are practicing and demonstrating your whitewater skills.
  7. Explain the differences between flatwater and whitewater canoes; identify the advantages and special uses for kayaks and decked canoes in running water. Identify the different materials used in modern whitewater canoe construction and the advantages and disadvantages of each.
  8. Identify paddles designed for whitewater use and explain their special characteristics.
  9. Do ONE of the following:
    1. Demonstrate paddle strokes in the bow position of an open canoe on running water, for forward movement, sideways movement, and backward movement. Repeat in the stern position.
    2. Demonstrate forward, backward, and sideways movement on running water using a single- or double-bladed paddle in a kayak or decked canoe.
  10. While paddling aloud or with a partner in an open canoe, or while alone in a kayak, demonstrate forward and back ferry, eddy turn, peeling out of an eddy, and high and low braces.
  11. Explain and demonstrate:
    1. Self-rescue and procedures when capsized in running water
    2. Safe rescue of others in various whitewater situations
    3. Portaging -- when and how to do it
    4. The whitewater buddy system using at least three persons and three craft
  12. Discuss the use of inflatable boats on moving water. Explain how to safely outfit and use an inflatable boat in whitewater including the type of craft suited to certain water conditions, how to maneuver the craft on the water, and what special safety precautions should be taken when using an inflatable boat.
  13. Explain the risks of "tubing" on moving water.
  14. Participate in a 1-day whitewater trip for beginners. Help to prepare a written plan specifying route, schedule, equipment, safety precautions, and emergency procedures. Determine local rules and obtain permission from local property owners. Explain what steps you have taken to comply with the BSA Safety Afloat and the American Whitewater Affiliation Safety Code. Execute the plan with others.
 

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